Ephesians Week 8

Welcome to the North Iron Church Podcast.

Our mission is to take the gospel from the Upper Peninsula to the ends of the earth.

We pray this message will inspire and encourage you in your faith journey.

Enjoy our Ephesians series where we break down Paul's letter to Ephesus.

Welcome everyone.

Glad that you're here.

Would you greet all of our North Iron family across all of our campuses online?

Lon tockinand.

We have people watching all over the United States and find themselves a part of God's movement here in the North.

So glad that you're here with us.

We're going to dive right into our series that we've been in uh this summer.

It's the book of Ephesians.

You're going to find that in the latter part of your Bible.

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We're going to be in the book of Ephesians.

It's in the latter part of your Bible.

It's a very important book for followers of Jesus, as Paul writes to new new Christians in the city of Ephesus.

A new work, a new church that started up, really in a hostile, demonic, pagan atmosphere.

Jesus has come in and turned the world upside down.

People are finding life in Jesus, and it pushes against maybe the culture of this world, the culture that they receive from their parents, a pagan culture, a demonic culture, and there's some tension in that.

And you need to understand, and I've said this week after week after week, when you come to know Jesus, it's an incredible gift from God to you, but you need to understand the hard work of your life being turned upside down and you acclimating to the culture of the kingdom of God in your life.

That's where you're going to find uh rest.

That's where you're going to find life.

And we talked about that last week.

We're into the practice of Ephesians, and we're going to be in chapter 5 this morning.

Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

You're going to find that after the book of Romans, first, second chronicle Corinthians, thank you.

There's so many C books.

And we're going to be in chapter 5, and we're going from chapter to chapter to chapter.

And last week I positioned you to ask this question when it comes to all the world religions, especially Christianity, what makes Christianity different?

Because the first couple chapters, Paul talks about this incredible thing called salvation and how God orchestrates that in your life.

How can I say the Trinity orchestrates that in your life?

That God draws you, God the Father draws you, Jesus the Son comes and accomplishes it on the cross with his life, paying for your sin penalty or your sin curse in your life.

And then when you become a child, as scripture says, a child of light, then the Holy Spirit comes in in his power and he transforms your life, walks with you.

That's the Trinity making that come about in your life.

Paul lays that doctrine down.

It's important for you to understand that.

Because the world will wrestle with that idea.

The world will come at that idea, and you need that as a sure foundation in your life, because then Paul says, and this is what it's like to walk with God in chapters four and five, and that's where we're at.

We're in the practice of what it looks like.

And and you gotta ask the question what makes Christianity different?

What is the why?

And I talked about that last week, that we're not robots, we're not, we're not, we're not brain dead, we we we we just don't do things because, but we do things because, and listen, we don't do things because we're moral people.

If there's anything you need to know about you, I know that moralism is a powerful force in your life, but moralism is not God.

And some of you treat moralism like God, some of you are about self-help and discipline, like you've bought all the books in the self-help area of Barnes and Noble, and you still can't get it together.

And so, why is it that that Christians change?

Because really, in chapter five, where Paul is talking about these practices or these lists of behaviors, you need to understand there's nothing too special about them.

He talks about good things like, you know, work hard, uh, treat your family well, be honest, be generous, don't lie.

All these things are really great, great examples of those things should happen in our lives, and they do happen in our lives, but what's remarkable is the why it happens.

It's not that we get ourselves together or that we're we're moralistic people or or disciplined people.

It's it's more that our our hearts have changed.

There's a why to the what.

Our desires change.

That's the work of the Holy Spirit.

Scripture again and again and again says when you surrender your life to Jesus, he'll come in as a in a supernatural way, and it says, He'll transform your mind, he'll change the way you think, he'll take the scales of sin off your eyes.

You've heard me say it throughout scripture, it says that when you sin, you get stupid.

Welcome to North Iron.

You get stupid because sin blinds you and it eats at you like a disease, and your heart becomes dead, your mind becomes dead, your spirit becomes dead, and you kind of exist in this rotting sense.

You can slap all kinds of cologne on you, but you stink.

And what you need is a new heart with new desires.

And that's what happens when the Holy Spirit comes into your life.

We find this throughout God's Word.

Here's just one example uh in Hebrews where he says, I will put my laws into their minds, I'll transform their minds, I'll transform the way that they view the world, I'll transform the way they should live their lives.

I'm gonna inject my wisdom and knowledge and understanding into their lives.

I'm gonna open up the spiritual world where they see the world in a new per perspective.

Why?

Because ultimately he's putting his laws, his righteousness into your mind, and he writes them on your heart, and he gives you new desires, and this is why we just naturally do the things that God loves because God loves them and we love God, and our desires towards God have changed.

This is how the world would lie to you.

They would say, Oh, you got a good heart.

He's got a He's got a good, oh bless his heart.

You know what they're saying.

That boy is spiritually stupid.

We say that kind of stuff all the time.

It comes out of this idea.

If I hear one more Disney princess sing about following your heart, I might kick a chipmunk.

Anyway, they need to be kicked.

Matthew 15 says, for out of the heart, is Jesus saying this?

For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

You can go on and on and on.

Your your heart produces that because you've received this sin nature from your father Adam and your mother Eve as they partook.

So when you're when you're born as a child, you receive a sin nature, and that sin grows in your your spirit and in your heart, and then it your your behaviors reflect that.

Are you with me?

Your behaviors reflect that.

That's why the very famous movie director Woody Allen says this very interestingly.

There's no truer statement.

Of course, Woody's heart wanted to molest his children and marry his daughter, and so he did.

And ultimately that's true.

That the heart, let me say this statement, the heart wants what it wants, and so if you force the heart to do what it doesn't want to do, like moralism, it's going to feel like it's in captivity or it's work.

That's a perfect example of what religion is.

That's why people hate it.

I gotta do all these sets, I don't feel it in my heart.

These things are contrary to the way I all these things.

I gotta do, do, do, do, do.

And some of you have all grown up in churches like that.

I call them like they have a whole list of you gotta do this, do this, they're all external, right?

We call that, or I guess I call it the do-do church.

What you need is new desires.

What you need is a new heart that reflects the heart of God, and with it comes what we would consider gospel change.

We talked about that last week.

Really, what I'm talking about is biblical change in your life, where the Holy Spirit comes in and transforms your heart, and then the byproducts of your behaviors change for no other reason, other than you're pursuing Jesus.

And I get one of the greatest privileges of being your pastor, which is me hearing all the incredible life change or power.

I hate to even use the word life change, but let me say gospel change in your life.

That the gospel's working on your heart and your life and your circumstances begin to change.

You're pursuing Jesus, and it's just a byproduct.

I love to hear those kind of stories.

Just for the last couple months, I've had people come up to me and say this, and man, I'm listening, I just want you to know that sometimes I get grumpy because there's so many of you, but I'm in love with y'all.

It's a great privilege to hear your stories of redemption and healing and forgiveness.

Someone the other day came up to me and says, Man, Mark, I have never had this much fun in church.

It used to be boring when I was a kid, but now I'm living a life of adventure.

I love that.

Or a lady came to me and said, Pastor Mark, I just want you to tell you, I went to the doctor's and I got, I had cancer, and I went to the I came up to get prayed for, and I went to the doctors for a screening, and I'm cancer free.

The Lord heals her.

Or I love this when when my when my kids, when we drive past uh church, I I just had this the other day.

When when someone when we drive by with my kids and they see the campus uh of North Iron, they see they throw a fit in the car because I'm not driving into the parking lot.

It's like Tuesday morning.

That just I love that.

I love that.

That's that's called gospel change.

Or God provided a house, Pastor Mark.

We we we we listened to you, we looked at scriptures, we started tithing and and not just not just financially, but our time, our treasure, and talent.

We were in need of a house, and God we prayed, Lord, we want this kind of house in this kind of neighborhood, and God just orchestrated it all.

It was a complete and utter miracle.

Man, I I just love that.

I love that.

Or just recently someone said, Man, Pastor Mark, we our our family has been completely healed of hepatitis C.

That's a powerful healing in that person's life.

Gospel change happens through this supernatural transformation brought about by the Holy Spirit, resulting, everyone, in a new heart, a new purpose, new desires, the heart of God.

And ultimately, that's what you're all looking for: a transformation in your life.

And so we see that Paul links these Christian behaviors that we talked about last week in chapter five.

We're gonna do that again in just a moment.

But he links the salvation in your life that is orchestrated by the Trinity, by Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father, and the practice that you should live your life by.

They should naturally just flow out of your life because you're you're not dead, you're living.

And he links those up with this word we see again and again and again throughout the first couple chapters, therefore.

Therefore.

The gospel changes us internally, and then our behavior changes externally.

Now, the opposite is something we find within the church oftentimes, and in society, it's called moralism, and I've already touched on that.

Pastor Mark, I just gotta try harder.

You're a moralist.

I'm gonna focus more.

That's moralism, everyone.

What you need is a a new heart.

Your behavior changes because your heart has changed.

You are made alive.

Now, scripture says that sin makes your heart like a stone, it's dead.

But the Spirit of God comes in and it transforms your heart into a heart of flesh.

You become actually alive again.

You're made alive so that you can act alive.

It's important for you to understand that that is just a natural occurrence with you walking with Jesus.

If you're in sync with Jesus and you're in his presence and you're pursuing him, and you're opening your hands, your heart, your spirit to him, it's just the natural byproduct are all the beautiful things that God wants for you in your life.

The tree doesn't just produce fruit because it's commanded.

It's just organic.

It just happens.

Living people don't need to be commanded to breathe.

It's just a byproduct of who you are.

And you need to understand that these are all powerful examples that we find throughout scripture.

You you remember I think I mentioned this last week.

I I don't preach everything that's in my notes, but oftentimes, like I just want plants to grow in my yard.

I'm not, I don't have a a lot of time.

Uh Jennifer don't have and I don't have a lot of time to like have a garden.

We have a garden.

You should see it, the most pitiful thing in the world.

We try to plant flowers, and I want these things to be beautiful.

I like beautiful things, but there's weeds everywhere, you know, and things are dying.

Thank goodness for warranties, or I wouldn't have any flowers in my flower bed.

And yet I want the look of that, and if I if I have something dying and I just go take a bunch of flowers and I staple it to that tree or that flower and it's dead, that's that's we giggle at that.

But man, that's what we do, don't we?

We we take we try to take the the beautifulness that we want to portray, and we we we we staple it onto a dead organism.

You need something organic in your life, you need an organic spiritual new heart to come in, and you naturally will just have these incredible byproducts that start showing up in your life.

It'll change you, it'll change your family, it'll change your street and your neighborhood and your peers, and that's how the world changes everyone.

So let me show you five things that we find in, I'm sorry, six things that we find in the chapters five of why we why we do righteous things, righteous acts, righteous, righteous deeds, and we find them throughout here.

We're gonna kind of unpack those a little bit.

The first one we find in right at the beginning of chapter five, verse one.

If you remember, Paul says this be imitators, be imitators of the father, because you're his beloved children.

So that's the first one.

We're we're we're beloved children of God, so we imitate our father.

One of the things I'm recognizing now, when I was a a child, one of my desires was to be like my father.

I I loved my father, I wanted to be like my father.

I would try to walk like my dad, I would try to talk with my dad.

If I could just get in the circle of my dad's friends as they're talking, I love to listen to them and imitate the way that they would talk and the way that they would tell stories.

Well, come come now that my dad is gone.

Um and and the other day I was walking through my dining room, and Jen has this big mirror in there, and I walked through it, and I I thought, I thought I saw my dad.

And I I backed right back up and I said, Oh, Lord Jesus.

I mean, I'm better looking than my dad, and I have hair, but I look like my dad.

Like some things I can't run away from.

No amount of makeup is gonna make me look anything other than my father.

But we we naturally we imitate.

But really, here's the thing that I the reason I wanted to be like my father is because I wanted to have my father's heart, not just his actions.

So when I say I want to be like my father, I want my father's heart, and that's what Paul is saying here.

You want the heart of God.

Now, you don't imitate God to get acceptance.

You're already accepted at his child.

You just have to sit at his feet.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

You want to be like someone, you sit at their feet.

You're in their presence, you're riding in their car with them.

And ultimately, what you're saying is, I want the same kind of heart that you heart.

Show me how to acquire that.

Show me how to be that.

And God, God creates that kind of righteousness in us because ultimately he makes us his children.

Look at that.

And he puts his spirit, the spirit of God inside of us that's so powerful in your life.

Sometimes I don't think you understand the power of the resurrection, power of the Holy Spirit, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

That that same power lives inside of you.

And that transforms who you are, and it gives us these new desires where we just want the same thing that God wants.

And we love the same thing that God loves, and we hate the same thing that God hates.

It's a desire that just naturally comes out of our hearts.

He helps us to see who he is and what he's done for us.

And when you understand through God's word the sacrifice of what God did for us, and how he pursued us, and how he set us up to receive this incredible gift of righteousness that we didn't deserve.

When you understand that story that I talked about, that that God's word or this relationship with God is not this prescription, but it's a story.

A story of beauty and sacrifice and adventure and drama.

And at its core, it should seep into your soul and literally change who you are.

It should change.

It should pivot you.

It should project you on the same kind of adventurous living with God.

And because of it, we live a life of love.

That's number two.

We live this life of love and sacrifice for others because it's exactly what we've received.

We recognize that.

And so this desire to love people and have grace on people and have mercy on people, wherever you're at, in whatever situation you're in, Paul says it this way I want you to walk in love.

I want you to walk as Jesus walks.

In his sacrifice, Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, and it becomes this fragrant smelling offering and sacrifice to God.

Everyone loves good smells?

Or you walk in and you smell that dead mouse, but you got 35 traps out and it takes you two hours to find that thing.

When you love, check this out, when you walk in love, as Christ did for us, it in serving people and loving people, it's like this sweet smell that comes up to the Lord, and it's just beautiful.

Sin makes you, and I've told you this, say it again, you stinketh.

You're rotting.

You haven't till you've been overseas.

African people said to me one time, Mark, you smell like the dead.

Meaning I had so much deodorant on me.

Like when you wash a body when it's dead, you smell, you don't smell alive, Pastor Mark.

You smell like the dead.

Clone and all kinds of stuff on.

Or even worse, like there was this old custom in the Russian church when we first got that.

When I go out to like Siberia into really rural places, they they believe in that the men should greet each other with a holy kiss, as it says in Scripture.

So these old men would come up toothless, bad breath, and give me a big old smooch on the lips.

That's when the love of Jesus is very displayed in the life.

It's a sweet smell to the Lord.

A life marked by acts of mercy and grace and service is a sign that someone has received God's grace.

It's a changed life.

Like if you just come into North Iron, man, hang out with us for six months.

Pastor Mark, I don't even know what's going on.

I don't even know if Jesus is real.

I just, my life is a mess, and I need some kind of hope.

Just hang with us for six months.

Do everything that I ask you to do.

Dive into the culture of God's word and his presence.

Come up for prayer.

Start reading his, I don't understand it, I don't care.

Just start reading it.

There's a power, you won't be the same person six months from now.

Why?

Because the Holy Spirit's doing a work in your life even when you don't understand what's going on.

You come into the presence of Jesus and you're consistent with you and your family.

I'm not telling you it takes away every problem and situation because the world will come at you.

You're either coming out of a storm, going into a storm, or in between storms.

And I don't know how people do it without Jesus.

It's mind-boggling to me.

It's like a superpower.

That's what's available to you.

So that sweet fragrance that Paul is talking about, he's gonna go into some acts that are not sweet to the Lord.

That, as he would say, are disobedience.

He calls us sons of disobedience.

And he's pretty clean, he's pretty clear in what those things are attestable to God.

A bad smell.

And he says this, but sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness, I have a problem saying that, must not even be named amongst you as is proper amongst saints.

The word proper there ultimately means it doesn't fit into the character of God, these things.

All come in as a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and yet they all have this kind of pagan sexual thing going on in their lives.

They're coming to church, they're walking with Jesus, and yet they're still involved with sexual impurities in their lives.

And Paul's saying, listen, you can't have, you can't have both.

You can't in one sentence say, Well, Pastor Mark, I'm I'm serving Jesus and and I've brought him into my life, and yet, you know, I'm I'm I'm I'm still living with my boyfriend or I'm still sleeping with my girlfriend.

There is a a understanding when it comes to God that sex is a beautiful, beautiful thing that God has created, and He wants you to engage in that, but it has to be in the realm of marriage and no other.

I don't know how clear I can be about that because again and again, and well, what's the big deal, Pastor Mark?

It's just physical, it's not God has created as a spiritual thing.

What happens there spiritually and physically together is a a oneness.

Not only is it very a very vulnerable time, but you come together uh as one body and one spirit.

There is a a fusing together spiritually and physically and mentally.

And when you when you do that with a young lady or a young man, you're to share all the other onenesses in your life, may it be finances or or or purpose in life, or or or or or staying together, living together and developing and having children together.

That's all oneness, it's not just sexual.

And one of the most selfish, damaging, destructive things you can do is have sexual relations with a lady and then walk away.

That stinks to the Lord because it's the opposite of what he has created.

Pastor Mark, how far is too far?

Just you asking me that question means you've gone too far.

And you need to honor God in the way that He's created us.

There's a reason that He's done this.

Number one, He's smarter than you.

Number two, it brings significant pain into your life when you engage this way.

And number three, well, Pastor Mark, we love each other.

Then get married.

May I marry you today?

I'm not joking.

We will have a covenant before the Lord.

Bring yourself into the light, leave the darkness, leave your old ways, everyone.

Don't don't go back to the vomit as I talked about years ago a couple Sundays ago.

Follow Jesus and follow him true.

You should know, I think everyone has a sense of how to how far is too far.

Listen, I get it.

If you're in a relationship with a young lady, and obviously there's gonna be signs of affection.

I don't want to see them, but I know that there's signs of affection.

It's a part of our culture, and yet, how far is too far?

I always say it this way if you can't do it with your grandma, don't do it.

Think about that.

Some of you are wondering, of course.

Let me spell it out for you.

Can you hold hands with your grandma?

Yes, you can hold hands with your grandma.

Can you make out with your grandma?

No, you cannot make out with your grandma.

I don't care where you live in the UP, you cannot make out with your grandma.

So sorry.

I'm so sorry.

But y'all are foolish sometime.

I gotta say it.

I'm trying to paint a picture here for y'all.

You guys force me to say things.

I don't want to say.

I gotta take a bleach shower after church today.

And when it all right, let's go on.

Paul says, he goes on, let there be no filthiness or foolish talk or crude joking, which is out of place, but instead, let there be thanksgiving in your life.

That's important for you to understand.

We should not tolerate.

This is what my father used to say to me when I was a young pastor when he was still alive.

He would say, Mark, when it comes to perversion and immorality, the world will get you to laugh at it first.

And then it's accepted.

That's what Satan does.

He'll get you to laugh, you'll make fun of it, you'll make fun of sexual immorality or adultery.

Listen, men hang out and talk differently than than ladies do.

I think you girls need to understand this.

But when it comes to the sin of the world and sexual impurity or just impurity, listen, it's not a joking matter.

People are going to hell.

This is what Paul is saying.

But he goes on and he says, there's this other thing that you need to understand.

I don't want this in your life.

This is dangerous.

Paul, in in I believe verse 5, calls covenant-ness idolatry.

This is what covenantness is.

It means desiring intensely something you you don't have to the point that you couldn't imagine being happy without it.

I need this one thing.

I need to be successful in my life to be happy.

I need to be in a relationship with my life to be happy.

I have to have this amount of money in my life to be happy.

I have to be healthy in my life to be happy.

I have to be 20 pounds lighter in my life to be happy.

And when you look at someone else's life and say, Man, I live, I wish I could live that person's life.

This doesn't happen, I just I'm making this up.

Just and you know, a beautiful girl walked by, and I said to Jen, Woo, man, I wonder what it would be like to go home to that beautiful woman.

That's that's me coveting.

Not only does that dishonor my wife, but that covets someone else.

And what that ultimately is saying to God is, God, I'm not satisfied with what you have given me.

I'm using Jennifer and I in a relationship as an example, but it's across the board.

That's why Paul says, instead, let there be thanksgiving, whatever circumstance.

I got cancer, I'm thankful.

I'm poor, I'm thankful.

I lost my job, I'm thankful.

I'm not in the position I need to be in, I'm thankful.

I got a bad health report, I'm thankful.

Because here's the thing: it if all you have is God and Jesus, you're all trillionaires.

You're in a win-win, you understand.

That this world comes in.

Sometimes He doesn't heal every situation in our lives, but I I am I am in a relationship, I'm the son of light with God the Father, so I can look at even the circumstances I have in my life, I can be okay with them, and I can be with, I can have great joy in my life because ultimately you can't take me out of the hand of Jesus, as Romans says.

So he goes on and he wants to make clear that if you're involved in sexual immorality or impure things, there is no inheritance in the kingdom of God for you.

So, number four, and I'll move quickly for these, if we have haven't given up the idols for God, we are not saved, everyone.

Paul goes on and says in verse six let no one deceive you because there's deceivers out there, everyone, today as there was 2,000 years ago.

Deceivers.

They even look like pastors now.

And they preach with empty words.

And because of this, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience, empty words.

Paul references twisted words that wolves will preach to the church to distract you for what God wants to do in your life.

Matthew, Matthew, Matthew 19, Jesus is out teaching and preaching.

And there's a story there of a young man, he's a rich young man.

It's called the we don't know his name, he's called the rich young ruler, and he comes to Jesus, and Jesus says, Jesus, he comes and he calls him teacher.

So we know that he believes Jesus to be who he says he is at that point.

He says, Teacher, what must I do?

How how can I become a follower of you?

I want to, I want to follow you.

And Jesus says, Well, you need to keep the commandments, you need to do this.

And he, like Paul, Jesus lists off all those things.

And the the rich the rich dude says, Listen, Jesus, I already do those things.

I'm a good guy.

I'm at church all the time, I'm serving people, I'm loving people just like you laid out for me.

I'm doing all these things.

And then it doesn't say that Jesus does this, but Jesus more than likely looks into his heart and sees that there's a barrier to the obedience.

And he looks at the young rich man and he says, Then renounce all that you have and give it away to the poor.

And the rich young ruler gets sad and he gets up and he walks away from Jesus.

Jesus is basically saying, Listen, if I can't be Lord of all, I won't be Lord of all.

There's only one thing that you can do when it comes to Jesus, and that's complete surrender.

All things.

So when the Lord comes and says, I want you to give it all up, you give it all up.

I'm not saying that he tells everyone to sell everything that they have, but if he tells you to sell everything you have, you sell everything that you have.

There's no half measure.

Jennifer and I have sold everything we've had twice to follow Jesus, and it's the greatest feeling in the world.

If he comes to you and says, I want you to tithe your time, treasure, and talent, you tithe your time, treasure, and talent, and you give that honor to God.

If he says, Man, I want you to move, move to Africa or Scannee, you move to Scannee or Africa.

There's no half measure, everyone.

In these empty words, there's kind of this idea, even from pastors, where we get to choose the kind of life we want to live and still be in relationship with Jesus.

That's not true.

There's even this idea that you'll even hear me, man.

You need to accept Jesus into your heart.

Listen, the Lord is not interested in you accepting him.

He's not waiting around thinking, man, I just hope Oliver at Ishwiming checks, I've recommitted my life to Jesus.

He's up there, uh just do it, do it.

Take the pen, take the pen, take the pen.

He's not doing that.

He's not looking at Nancy over in Lon saying, I wish Nancy would just pray the prayer and accept me.

He's not doing that because listen, everyone, he's Lord.

He doesn't need to be accepted by you.

You need his forgiveness, and that only comes by receiving this gift righteousness of what he did on the cross.

You can't add anything to that.

You come and it is complete surrender in your life.

That's why Jesus says to his disciples, take take heed and note here.

He says, I want you to take up your cross.

He doesn't mean, hey, I want you to go to Walmart and buy a little cute silver cross to or to buy a Christian bumper sticker.

No, this was a a form of torture at the time that he said it.

Even before he went to the cross, he says, I want you're gonna be my disciple.

There's gonna be suffering.

And listen, there's going to be a dying to yourself.

He also said things like, Renance, all that you have, and even this man, look at this hate your father and father and mother.

Meaning, if even the precious relationships that you have in this world, if they get between you and Jesus, they're wrong.

That's much different than if you just pray this little prayer.

So if you if you're not repented, now I you need to know this you're you're not saved.

We do righteousness number five because we understand, man, this world is doomed.

Paul says it this way, therefore, do not become partners with them.

For at one time you were darkness, but now you're light.

Walk as children of light, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead you need to expose them.

That unfruitful work of darkness.

Listen, everyone, those are the pointless things of this world.

Jesus lays out some insider information for all you stock brokers out there.

In Matthew chapter 13, he tells what it's like to invest in the kingdom of God.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

He tells a story of a man who's taken a short short.

Shortcut across a farm field, and in the process of him walking across the farm field, he kicks up a gold coin and he grabs it, he's like, a gold coin.

This is not his property.

As it was in years past, uh, you know, people didn't have banks, and so they buried their wealth, and so he finds this incredible treasure trove of wealth, like nothing he's ever seen.

He he he he he digs it up and this massive, massive amount of treasure, and so in a giddy way, he covers it up, and then scripture says, Jesus says, He says, with all joy, he goes and sells everything he has, and he takes that money and he goes to the farmer and says, Man, I just have a hanker in to become a farmer, and uh, and and the owner's like, This is a really worthless piece of property.

I don't think he really, really want it.

He's like, No, I love this piece of property, I've had my eye on it for a long, long time, and I want this baby.

And so Jesus says that finally the owner says, Okay, here's the price, and he gives them this crazy price, and the guy says, Yeah, man, I'm here, here's everything I have, and he sells it all to gain the field where the treasure is, and he says, That's what it's like in the kingdom of heaven.

You buy the field, you buy the field, you invest in what lasts.

This world is going to hell in a handbag, it's going down, and if you're consumed in the structure of this world, you're investing in the wrong way.

Jesus says you need to buy the field.

Invest in what is eternal.

So, what what is a a disciple?

Nate, can you go to that last slide?

We walk worthy of the Lord.

We love what God loves.

We're a sweet fragrance to God in our actions and our love for people.

We are obedient to his kingdom.

Listen, man, we buy the field.

We buy the field.

Life change happens when your heart changes.

It has all kinds of effects in your life.

It really does.

It changes everyone around you.

Some people aren't really excited about that, by the way.

On Thursday nights in Ishbaming, they have this, I don't know what they call it.

They call it a farmer's market.

There are no farmers, but they call it a farmer's market.

They have a band come in, it's down by Congress.

It's packed with people, packed with people.

So it's it's fun to go down there.

I see some of you down there buying garbage from China.

I'm down there to eat.

That's what I'm down there for, baby.

Yeah.

Some of you down there for trinkets.

But anyway, it's a good thing.

It's it's great because it brings the community together.

I get to see everyone.

And I I bumped into a friend of one of your all, one of you guys.

And we kind of, I know him and I don't know him, but he started talking about you.

And he said this to me.

He says, He he's just not the same person.

He said it in a negative way.

I said, Well, what do you mean?

Yeah, he doesn't like to hang out with us and get high anymore.

He doesn't like to get drunk anymore.

Honestly, we don't have anything in common.

He's just different.

And I said, And he was high or drunk.

I don't even know which one.

I'm not well versed in this stuff, but he was sad because he had kind of lost his friend.

Not because his friend was being mean, but the desires of his friends changed.

And so he, in a sense, kind of lost this guy that would get high and drunk and do stupid things together.

And he said kind of at the end of our conversation, he said, I wish I could just have my party friend back.

And I said to him, I said, Man, no, you don't.

But what I can promise you is you can have the same healing that his heart has had.

He doesn't love the same things you love anymore because his heart's changed.

Because Jesus changed his heart.

And that can be true for you.

He has the power, the resurrection power readily available at Ishbaming, Antonogdan, Lantz, Marquette, across the United States.

Doesn't matter if you're here in the room or at one of our campuses or watching us on TV.

He has the power of transformation.

No one else in the world can do that.

But it takes one thing to surrender.

And are you surrendering all of your idols to him?

So in a moment, I'm gonna have you stand.

Would you just stand with me anyway?

I'm gonna close out this service with some worship.

We have prayer partners every single Sunday.

Here's what grieves me as your pastor, everyone.

Listen up.

Know you're moving.

I'm gonna pray for you in a minute.

What grieves me is you would come in the same way that you leave.

The Lord has a new heart for you, a new mind, a new situation, a new family, a new job, new residencies, new purpose, new mission.

And that happens when you surrender to him all, not a portion.

Lord, you get all you can't.

I want you to keep your hands off this, Lord.

No, all of it.

That's what a disciple looks like.

That North Iron would walk worthy of him.

That's my call to you this morning, because I love you.

So I want you to pray with me.

Lord, as heads are bowed, you're already in work.

You have been.

Your word has been spoken.

Lord, I believe it's been spoken clearly.

The Holy Spirit has been speaking, Father.

And Lord, we come to you with open arms, open hearts, open spirits, Father, open hands.

Lord, just desiring whatever you have for us.

So that's our that's our question.

Lord, that you would bring heaven's will into my life.

Not my will, but heaven's will.

So Lord, I move towards you and worship and surrender, Father.

Lord, that you would speak to my heart, that you would transform who I am, change my personality, change my circumstances, change my health, change my finances, Lord.

Father, I come to you, Jesus, because you're mighty, you're powerful, you're loving, and we do all of this in your Son's holy and precious name, Father.

We honor you this morning with our lives, and we ask it in the mighty name of Jesus as we move forward and everyone says, Amen.