In the World: Not of It | Pastor Charles Ross

I am so excited, so honored, so expectant to be here in the

House of God with each and every one of us.

Next level church family. We're one house with many rooms,

so I want to welcome every single room in to our worship

service today. Maybe you're with us in Cape

Coral. I hear Cape Coral's on fire

right now. Come on, East location downtown,

right here in this room in Fort Myers.

Maybe you're an additional seating or maybe you're one of

our online family. Hey, come on.

Can we give God praise for everyone who's worshiping with

us today? What incredible day to be here

in the House of the Lord. And my name is Pastor Charles

Ross. If I haven't had the opportunity

to meet you and I get the pleasure to serve under the

leadership and guidance of our pastors, Pastors Matt and Sarah

Keller, we have now known them for I think about 15 years on

staff for the last 10. And can I just tell you as they

are leading us this year to prioritize God, this hunger and

thirst series, The thing that I love about our pastors is that

they truly live and breathe what they teach.

So not just words that come from a platform, but it is truly how

they live. And I'm grateful for pastors

like that. Aren't you?

Come on, aren't you grateful for our pastors?

I'm grateful for our pastors. Well, we we've been in a series

called hunger and thirst, hunger and thirst.

And I want to end this series where we started in Matthew

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5. These are the words of Jesus.

He said blessed are those who hunger and thirst for

righteousness. The promise of God is that they

will be filled. Jesus is a saying, in the midst

of everything that you could hunger for, I want you to choose

to hunger and thirst. Direct that hunger towards

righteousness. And Speaking of hunger, I've

been fasting for the last couple of weeks and I've had a few

hungry cravings. Anyone else?

Right. Anyone else have some hungry

cravings that, that sometimes these hungry cravings are, are

distracting? I'm fasting right now from some

of my favorite things in over the holidays.

I, I, I fell in love with cinnamon rolls.

OK, don't tell my wife. We went to one of our favorite

breakfast restaurants in Fort Myers Beach and, and had a plan

as I was in the back of the line.

I'm going to order 1 cinnamon roll and when I got up to the

front my, my stomach grabbed my mouth and said five please 5

cinnamon rolls. One for now and many for later.

And a few pounds later I found myself in the kitchen and I was

talking to my wife and I said, honey, how am I ever going to

stick to my diet with so many cinnamon rolls in the kitchen?

You ever feel like maybe the world is like that?

If God wanted us to stick to a diet of righteousness, then why

did he leave us in the kitchen of this world with so many sweet

temptations all around us? So many sweet things like the

pursuit of money or or the pursuit of pleasure, so many

sweet things that we can snack on.

But yet Jesus speaks to this tension of of us being here with

all these temptations as he prayed for us and as he prayed

for his disciples. In John chapter 17, he said

John 17 · chapter mention

this. He said, God, I don't pray that

you should take these followers out of the world, but I pray

that you should keep them from the evil one.

In other words, keep the world out of them.

He goes on to say they're not of the world, just as I'm not of

the world. And and that's what God wants

us. He wants us right there where we

are in the world, but not of the world.

That's what I want to talk about for the rest of the day.

Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, I thank you

that our ears are open, our hearts are open.

Would you move in us now in Jesus name let everyone say

Amen. What did Jesus say or what was

he referring to when he said he doesn't want us of the world?

And who is the world anyway? What is Jesus referring to?

Well, we know that Jesus referred to the world as having

the evil 1 and the world in fact is a place where there is an

evil one who rules and a culture of evil.

In Romans chapter 12 verse 2, the apostle Paul said this do

Romans 12:2

not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by

the renewing of your mind. And if we can do that, then we

would be able to test and approve what God's will is.

So the world is not only a place where the evil 1 exists, but the

world also has a pattern, a pattern, a patternistic way of

living, a a patternistic way of thinking.

And if we live that way and if we conform to that pattern, then

we find ourselves out of God's will.

What is the world and will? In first John chapter 2, verse

1 John 2:16

16, the Bible teaches us that everything in the world, the

lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of

life, well, that doesn't come from my Heavenly Father, but it

comes from where the world, the world in, in verse 17, he says

in this world and its desires, they're perishing, they're

passing away. Yet whoever does the will of God

will will live forever. The world is a perishing place

with values opposing God's will. And if that's the world, if, if

the world is filled with these temptations of the evil 1 if the

world is a place where, where it's perishing, and if the world

has all of these things and these patterns, then why, oh why

has God placed us in the world? In John chapter 3 verse 16, we

John 3:16

we find the answer for God so loved this world that he gave he

gave his one and only son Jesus Christ and and whoever believes

in him will not perish with the rest of the world, but will have

eternal life And Jesus that same Jesus died for our sins and he

was raised in power from the dead and he looked at his

followers and he looks at us today and he said I want you to

go where Jesus in to the world and preach the good news, preach

my gospel to all creation. Why pursue?

Whosoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but

whoever doesn't will be condemned.

God loves this world and he, he wants us to be on mission in

this world to to seek and save the lost.

It is as though God himself has taken us from a raging ocean

that we were drowning in a raging ocean of sin.

And he's plucked us out of the water and he's placed us onto a

boat, a rescue boat. And now we're in, we're in

safety and, and he wants us to take that boat and to find

others who are drowning in the same sin to rescue them.

But here's the problem. When our boat in the ocean gets

more ocean in the boat, well, all of a sudden that boat isn't

really useful to be on rescue. So what's the answer?

Should I I take my boat and and put it in a boat yard and never

put it in the water? No, a boat that's in a boatyard

can't be on mission to seek and save the lost.

The idea is that we not get water into our boats.

So how oh how can we be in the world but not of the world?

I want to talk about four ways we can be in the world and not

of the world. The 1st is that we must position

our yoke. We must position our yoke in, in

Second Corinthians chapter 6, verse 14, the Bible says we're

2 Corinthians 6:14

encouraged to not be yoked together with unbelievers.

Come on, who? Who read this the first time?

And they were like, OK, this is an egg Mcmuffin.

We're talking about eggs right here.

Egg yolk. That's not the kind of yolk that

the apostle Paul is talking about this, this yolk I've got a

picture of, of two oxen that are bound together by yolk.

A yolk is a, a wooden device that binds 2 animals together.

And here's the the wonderful thing, when you have oxen that

are of equal stature and size and they're bound together,

well, these two can do more together than they can do on

their own. They can plow more of the field

and produce more harvest together.

This is what God desires for us, that we would be in partnership

and being bonded together with someone who believes like us.

And but the warning is against being unequally yoked.

And I've got a picture of, of unequal yoke and that poor

little oxen. As you can see, the, the work

here of those bound together will be unproductive.

They'll end up just being going in circles.

And in fact, the, the small one will eventually fall and, and

hurt its neck and then it would break the neck of the large one

as well. That is unequally yoked.

But the Bible is not saying that we should never associate with

the unbeliever or be unloving to the unbeliever.

Paul's not warning against basic associations and relationships.

He is warning US against a shared direction, a a spiritual

entanglement with those who do not believe like us.

And I know many of us are probably wondering, OK, I've got

some friendships, people in the neighborhood that I hang out

with, some maybe people that I go golfing with.

Am I unequally yoked? What I love is that Paul breaks

this down. I want to break this down for

us. He goes on to say, for what do

righteousness and wickedness have in common?

Would you look at your neighbor and say in common, what are the

things we have in common with people?

Maybe you like to golf. I like to fish.

I don't know how to golf, but I like to fish like and, and So

what what happens is this is a different kind of in common.

It's not where we just share hobbies in common.

It's been when we begin to share values in common with

unbelievers, where we begin to share priorities and goals in

life with, with unbelievers. This was me when I was coming

back to the Lord and, and I first moved to Fort Myers.

I, I, I had some unbelieving friends and we shared some

things in common. We like to work out together and

we had similar jobs, but but yet their values began to become my

values and their priorities began to be my values.

I was unequally yoked and I was off of alignment with God.

He goes on to say what fellowship can light have with

darkness? Look to your neighbor and tell

him fellowship, right? Fellowship is beyond just casual

interactions with an unbeliever. This is where those casual

interactions turn into a mutual submission, a a, a mutual

dependence and shared rhythms. What this looks like is when

we're unequally yoked in fellowship, that their rhythms

become our rhythms. And we used to have a rhythm

where we prioritize the things of God, but now those rhythms

make coming to church an inconvenience.

We've been unequally yoked in fellowship.

It he, he says, what harmony is there between Christ and Bella?

That's another word for the enemy.

And harmony we know is the sound.

It's a sound when we sing together, we're in, we're in

harmony. And, and what ends up happening

is when we're yoked together, maybe following a, an influencer

on social media who is not a believer, we begin to sound like

them and our sound becomes in tune with the unbelieving

generation as opposed to being in tune with God.

Finally, this is the deepest part of of being unequally yoked

together is agreement, he says. What agreement is there between

the temple of God and idols and and this is a, a, a sad and and

and harsh place for us to be when we're unequally yoked

because an unbeliever's influence begins to take over

our obedience to God. We begin to agree on things and

we offer approval and those convictions that we once had for

God. We begin to compromise those in

order to prioritize the agreement for peace.

This passage isn't about avoiding unbelievers.

It is about being in alignment with Jesus.

And in fact, He wants us yoked together with those who are

following Jesus like us. That's what we get to do this

weekend. It is Better Together weekend.

We get to be yoked together with other men of God.

Come on, brothers, we need to be around other men of God who are

pursuing God like we are. I need to be around men of God

who love their wives and who aren't always looking around to

see what else is on the menu. Sisters, we need to be around

other women of God who are going to hold us accountable to the

things of God's remaining pure. We are Better Together.

What can we do to get ourselves equally yoked?

If yoke is about alignment with God, then we also need this next

thing. We need to be the salt of the

world around us. Come on, look to your neighbor

and say, do you have any salt? Oh, you do.

You do have salt, right? I'm looking at a lot of salt.

Why? Because Jesus said this in

Matthew chapter 5. He said you are the salt of the

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

earth. I love it.

It's not just that we have salt, we are salt.

But here's the warning. If the salt loses its saltiness,

how can it be made salty? Again, Jesus's words, not mine.

If we lose that saltiness, it's therefore good for nothing

except to be thrown out. And Jesus is saying we're salt.

And what I love about salt is salt influences flavor.

Here's a picture of my favorite food group, French fries.

OK, All right, French fries. This is this is one of the food

groups. OK.

And here's the thing about French fries.

I'm going to help. I'm going to help many of us

today. This is why you came to church.

French fries, plain by themselves, without salt,

they're boring. They're plain.

It's just a potato that's cut up.

But when you add a little bit of heat oil and some salt, come on,

somebody. That is the taste the Lord

implied for us, right? It is just something about salt.

When it's salty, when it has that distinct flavor, it brings

out the flavor. And here's the thing, the the

world around us, they're used to the same old French fries

situations. And it and if the salt that the

believer has to to bring it doesn't taste like salt, but it

tastes like the French fry, then why do we sprinkle it?

Here's what I mean. Here's a French fry situation.

You're our homeowners association.

OK, All right, altars are open. Let's say you've got an HOA and

they make a decision to use up a bunch of the budget on something

that many people in the neighborhood disagree with.

I know it's not a real situation, but maybe.

And people in the neighborhood are beginning to gossip and

they're they're angry and, and they're posting, 'cause I know

y'all have a Facebook page, right?

They're posting things on the Facebook page and they're

looking at the HOA president and they're calling him names that

his mom did not give him. If we end up jumping in the

anger, if we end up jumping in the gossip, we lose our salt

taste, we lose our saltiness, and all of a sudden the

influence that God intended for us is gone.

But in the midst of disagreement, salt of an of a

believer offers gentleness. The salt of a follower of Jesus

offers truth and offers grace. And that just tastes different

in that scenario. Here's another French fries

situation that that maybe hit a little home a little more.

And that's maybe a political figure makes a decision that we

don't agree with. Maybe it's locally or, or, or

somewhere internationally. And, and what ends up happening

as we've seen in the world today, that the rest of the

world just begins to be in disunity and they're disparaging

one another or disparaging the political figure.

And, and there's bullying towards one another and bullying

online and there's anger and there's words of dishonor, but

not the follower of Jesus, not the one who has that salt taste.

They're going to come in to that French fry situation and they're

going to offer a little sprinkle of love, a sprinkle of

gentleness as Jesus would. These are the characteristics of

Jesus. He is the salt that that causes

us to be salty and offer a different taste to the culture

of this world. My, my, we need to remember that

we're foreigners in this world. As believers, as followers of

Christ, we are foreigners in this world, and Jesus Christ

defines our culture, not our country of origin.

What do we taste like? Do we taste like the rest of the

world around us or do we challenge the rest of the world

around us to taste more like Jesus?

If if yoke aligns us with God in the world and salt offers us

influence in the world for Jesus, then we also need this

third thing. We need to be light.

We need to be light. Come on.

Can you turn to your neighbor and tell them turn the lights

on? We got to turn the lights on.

The Bible teaches us in John chapter one that Jesus is the

light, that Jesus was the light that came into the world and he

shined in the world and the darkness was dispelled when he

was shined into the world. And I love what the Bible says.

It says that Jesus was the light and he was the life, the life.

The life was the light. The life was the light.

The life of Jesus is the light. Then later on Matthew chapter 5,

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Jesus would say in the same way, let your light shine before

others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your

Father in heaven. So what are we saying?

We're saying that the life that we live that models and reflects

our Savior, our Lord, our Messiah, that brings light into

the World of Darkness around us. Light does something

interesting. It reveals things, it reveals

what's in the dark and the darkness dissipates.

In fact, church, family, darkness is all around us.

And when I say darkness, the darkness that he's referring to

of Jesus life, the darkness is death.

Darkness is separation from a God who loves us.

Darkness separates those around us, not just in the world.

When we say the World of Darkness, we're not just talking

about some other continent, but we're talking about the World of

Darkness in our neighborhoods, the World of Darkness on our

jobs, the World of Darkness in the stores that we shop in, and

even in our own families. And those who are in darkness

stand to be eternally separated from God unless the light

shines. So here's the good news.

We can allow our light to shine. We can allow the truth of God's

ways to shine. Jesus would would have us walk

in truth to dispel the lies around us.

He would have us walk in purity even in the midst of a sinful

world that is light. And yet there's a warning that

we see in Scripture 2 warnings. The first is that our light can

become dim, it can become dark and our light becomes dim or

dark when we begin to take on the ways and the things of this

world. If we begin to post like the

rest of this world, our our light that once shined bright

begins to dim a little bit. If we begin to excuse sin, if we

begin to have sex before marriage, then we're allowing

some of that darkness things that are against the word of

God. We're we're allowing that light

to become dim and a dim or dark light cannot reveal things that

those in darkness need revealed. The revelation is that there is

a God who loves us and there is a savior of the world whose name

is Jesus. The second warning is that not

only can our lights become dim, but often if we are afraid, we

can hide our light. And Jesus said, don't take your

light and put it under a basket or under a bushel.

No, no, no, shine that light boldly.

And I believe God wants us to be brave and to be bold and to

shine our lights. Lights don't have to argue.

You turn on the light in A room, the darkness just gets goes

away. So church family, here's the

good news is we live in truth. We don't have to argue with

anyone about the life that we live.

We just get to declare it with our lives.

How is our light shining today? If yoke aligns us with God in a

fallen world and salt influences the world for Jesus around us

will light brings revelation, the revelation that so many that

are suffering and darkness need to the end that they don't have

to perish with this world. Well then we also need this one

final thing. We need to be rooted in the

vine. We need to be rooted in the

vine. John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

Jesus is speaking to his disciples and in this very

important message he says remain in me as I also remain in you.

Some versions would say abide, live, dwell, be with me.

And then he says I want to be with you.

I want to remain in you. In other words, there's a

relationship, he says. He says no branch can bear fruit

by itself. It must remain, remain in the

vine. Neither can we bear fruit unless

we remain in me. Jesus said to clarify this,

Jesus said, just in case you were wondering, I, he said, I'm

the vine and you, you are the branches.

And, and if you remain in me, Jesus would say, and I in you,

here's the good news, you'll bear much fruit.

Jesus is asking his followers to simply remain, don't go be with

me, remain rooted in me. And when I think about a tree

that's, that's rooted, you know, this tree is vibrant and it's,

it's, it's rooted. Well, why?

Because it's staying in the ground.

It's not being plucked up and moved around by everything

that's happening in the world. It's, it's rooted.

And this is the picture of a vibrant spiritual life that God

desires for us. And here's what I know.

I know in the, the midst of remaining, we can remain in so

many ways. We can pray, we can make a, a, a

point to open our eyes and, and open our Bibles and and begin to

study. We can prioritize time with

Jesus. That's what it looks like to

remain. We can be constant in prayer and

think about Jesus throughout the day.

And when we have different interactions, we can ask

ourselves, how would my Lord desire me to respond?

That's remaining. We can worship, we can

prioritize the things of God like coming to church,

prioritize groups that's remaining rooted.

And as long as we remain rooted, the promise of God is that we'll

be vibrant like this and bear much fruit.

You know what I love about fruit trees?

And I'm not a botanist, but here's what I know.

I I don't need to look at the roots or dissect this tree to

know what kind of tree it is. Why?

Because the fruit says what type of tree it is, Church, family.

What does our fruit say about our roots?

Would someone look at us and say that is so clear that that

person is rooted in Jesus? Or would they look at our fruit

and say they're rooted in a political party, or they're

rooted in the modern generational culture, or they're

rooted with this influencer, or they're rooted with their

family? I don't know about you, but I, I

want the world around me to see my fruit and, and to say

clearly, this person must have been with Jesus because our

fruit defines what type of tree it is.

Fruit is not needed by the tree. The tree doesn't need to eat its

own fruit. No, this, this fruit is actually

for others. It's for you and for me.

It's for the world around us to enjoy.

And, and so it is with our fruit as we're rooted in Jesus, the

fruit that we produce in our lives.

It's not for us, it's for others to taste and see that the Lord

is good. What is the fruit that we're

referring to? Galatians 522 speaks to the

fruit of the Spirit. My little girls can can name all

of the fruit of the spirit 'cause they sing it in songs.

What is the fruit is love. It's joy, it's peace, it's

patience, it's kindness, it's goodness, it's faithfulness,

it's gentleness, it's self-control.

It's not anger, it's not hot temperedness.

It's not a cancel culture. It it it's not anger and

division and separation. It's none of those.

This is the fruit of the spirit. When we're rooted.

What I love is that this fruit, others tell me it's healthy to

eat fruit. I know I like French fries, but

but when you eat fruit, it's healthy.

And our fruit, that fruit of love and joy and peace actually

offers health and healing to those around us.

That fruit is not just designed that kindness is not just

designed for those who are kind to us, but when we're kind to

the person who offended us, when we're loving and we're patient

for the to the person who gossiped about us.

Do you know that that type of fruit, the fruit that only comes

from being rooted in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, That

fruit can actually bring healing to even our enemies.

Wow fruit, fruit of the spirit is amazing in this fruit.

The last thing I love about this fruit is that when you receive

the fruit, when you take the fruit in, the fruit bears seeds,

seeds that when planted will multiply into a harvest.

The fruit that we bear as believers and as followers of

Christ can bear fruit full harvest of those who do not yet

know Jesus, Church family. Our lives can bear fruit that

evangelizes the world around us to the end that they no longer

have to be in darkness, separated from a God who loves

it, that loves them so much. We can offer salt to them.

We can influence them with the taste of God in normal, plain,

or harmful situations. We can be light.

We can bring revelation that there's a better way.

There's a a better way of life. And his name is Jesus.

We can offer all of these things for our lives.

Bear fruit. John 15 verse 8 Jesus concludes

John 15:8

by saying this is to my Father's glory, that you what bear much

fruit and that fruit will show yourselves to be my disciples

church family. Jesus wants us in this world.

He wants us present right here. He prayed, he prayed for us to

be present in this world, but he doesn't want the world in us.

He wants us to align our yoke and and keep the saltiness in

our walk and he wants us to shine our light in darkness and

he wants us to bear fruit by being rooted in him to the end

that there might be a great harvest.

John 1723 He concludes I and them and you and me so that they

may be brought complete unity and then the world, the world

that's perishing, the world around us, the world that's

struggling. They'll know they will know that

you sent me and that you've loved them even as you've loved

me with every head bowed and every eye closed.

They're three groups of, of people that God has been

burdening my heart for and, and our hearts for.

And I want to pray for each one of those groups.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for those of us here who are saved.

We know you, God. Maybe we've been saved recently.

And yet in the midst of our walk, we have allowed ourselves

to be equally yoked with unbelievers.

We've crossed the line from association to participation,

and we're bringing people not only onto our boat, but we're

bringing their buckets of water onto our boat and we're

beginning to sink. God, I pray that you would

embolden us, make us brave right now.

Help us to break the yoke to find ourselves a way to be yoked

together with those who believe like us, not to stop loving the

unbeliever, but help us to get that water out of our boat.

God, I pray for that person who has been saved for a while.

God in the midst of their salvation, they've made their

faith walk all about themselves. Those of us where it's so

tempting to to keep our boat in the boatyard to to not step out

in faith and and be a part of serving another.

Those of us maybe because of shame or because of fear, we've,

we've hidden the light that we have.

God, today I believe you desire us to be bold and and to be

brave to share with that person in the neighborhood that we have

a hope and we have a faith that is beyond ourselves and beyond

the things in this natural world.

God, would you give them strength and boldness to let

their light shine? Would you encourage them, God,

to take a step today to be a part of a serve team to to sign

up to serve the city, to be bold for you to get that boat in the

water? God, I pray for this last group

of people, those of us who are actually in the water, we're

drowning right now. Maybe that's you with every head

bowed and every eye closed in the the same atmosphere of

prayer as I described that sense of darkness, something left in

your heart and you said, that's me.

And can I tell you this? That was me, the age of 18,

found myself in a church where my life was was being led by my

own temptations and by my own desires.

And I found myself filled with my own mistakes and my own

shame. And I kept trying to fix it on

my own. And I realized I didn't have the

power in enough myself to fix it.

In fact, none of us do. The Bible declares that we have

all sinned. We we've all fallen short of the

glory of God. In other words, we've done

things to violate what our Creator has asked us to do and

not do. Because of that, there are wages

that need to be paid, and the wages of that sin is death.

Eternal death, eternal separation from the God who

loves us. When we couldn't pay our way

back to God, God decided to step in.

He stepped in by coming close to us and drawing close in the form

of his Son Jesus. And Jesus came to not only walk

this earth, but he came to take every single sin and every pain

on the cross. He died for our sins.

He allowed himself to be persecuted and killed on the

cross, but because of his love for us, because the the grave

could not hold him, He was raised in power.

And those who confess Jesus as Lord and as Savior, the Bible

says they will be saved, plucked out of the ocean, placed in a

boat. They'll walk from darkness into

the light. Maybe that's you.

If you want to say yes to a relationship with Jesus, I'd be

honored to pray with you right now.

Every location downtown E Cape Coral, right here in Fort Myers.

If that's you, every head bowed, every eye closed, would you

simply slip your hand up? I want to pray with you.

One 2-3. Come on.

Hands are going up all around the room.

If that's you see, I want to be saved.

I don't want to be separated from my Heavenly Father any

longer. I want to be saved.

In the privacy of this moment, we will pray.

You can put your hands down. Come on.

Would you pray with me? God, I thank you so much for

bringing me here. Thank you, God, for loving me so

much that you would save me from my sins.

I confess that I have sinned, I have fallen short of your best.

I believe that you sent Jesus, the Son of God, to live for me,

to die for my sins, and that you raised him from the dead.

And right now you are raising me to new life.

I am born again, I am saved in Jesus name, Amen.

Come on church family, will you celebrate across every single

room because God has rescued more and he is sending us all on

mission together. Heavenly Father, I thank you for

your word. Seal it in our hearts now.

Jesus name, Amen. Let's give God break.