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The Simplicity of Authenticity (Ephesians 5:19-21)
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The Simplicity of Authenticity (Ephesians 5:19-21)
Ephesians: Growing in Christ
Sunday Message recorded 30 April 2023
by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Ephesians and Simplicity
00:00:06
Speaker
Good morning. It's nice to see you this morning.
00:00:10
Speaker
Thank you for gathering in God's house. I want to invite you to turn with me in the New Testament to the letter of Ephesians. We've been going through the book of Ephesians and we're now in chapter five. I want us to read verses 18 down through 21. So it's not gonna be a long passage because I want to focus on something that I think is very important and that is simplicity. Simplicity, I think sometimes our lives just get so complex.
00:00:39
Speaker
And God's saying, come back, come back to the place of the purity and simplicity of devotion to Christ.
Simple Church and Following Christ
00:00:48
Speaker
A few years ago, I enjoyed reading a book that was entitled Simple Church. Simple Church in the subtitle read returning to God's process for making disciples.
00:01:00
Speaker
And this book was written in 2006, and it was like a call to come back from, you know, too much going on in our lives to simplify things. And it was actually based upon a case study by Lifeway of 400 different churches.
00:01:18
Speaker
And they were all experiencing and saying the same thing. We need to simplify. You know, when Jesus called his disciples, he spoke two words. He said, follow me. That's it. Follow me. That was the sum total of what he was wanting them to focus on as they went through their lives. What are you focusing on?
00:01:39
Speaker
You know, follow me is mentioned 13 times in the Gospels. A great place to read about the Lord saying, follow me, would be Matthew 4, 18 to 22, or Matthew chapter 9 and verse 9. He would say to those men, he wanted to extend the invitation to become a disciple, just follow me.
Dependence on the Holy Spirit
00:02:02
Speaker
As we follow Him, we realize, you know what? I can't do all that He's asking me to do. It's impossible for me in the energy of my flesh to follow Him. And that's why in this letter to the Ephesians, the Lord wanted us to know, you're going to have to come back to me every single day.
00:02:21
Speaker
and say, Lord, I don't have the power. I don't have the strength. I don't have the motivation. I can't follow through. And so that's why we have to depend upon God's spirit. So I thought about how simple it is whenever we think, OK, simple discipleship produces, I think, authentic Christianity. And simple discipleship could be summarized like this. Follow Christ.
00:02:49
Speaker
and stay filled with the Holy Spirit, stay surrendered, stay in that place of openness to the Lord's Spirit, to where you'd say, whatever the Lord tells me to do, that's what I'm going to do.
00:03:02
Speaker
When my girls were younger, we were given some tickets, some tickets to the Houston Livestock Show
Authenticity in Discipleship
00:03:08
Speaker
and Rodeo. We had a great time. We put on our best Western gear and we went over there to have a good time. I mean, we were dressed up like we were true cowboys and cowgirls, whatever.
00:03:19
Speaker
But anyway, we actually in the bundle of tickets that we were given, we were given this opportunity to sit in the chute seats. I mean, right there is the chute gate where the Cowboys come out and so forth. And we were just having a great time. And I'll never forget one time one of those Bronco riders or bull rider something came out of there. And at least I said, Dad, some mud.
00:03:45
Speaker
splattered on my cheek and I looked and I said, that's not mud. Let me get that off. So we're not going to go into what it was. But anyway, my point is there we were. We were at the rodeo. I mean, we weren't out there riding on horses or anything like that, but man, we looked the part and we were having a great time. And there's nothing wrong with dressing in Western gear. Let me say that for sure.
00:04:10
Speaker
But when I served in the rural area of Alberta, Canada, when I was up in the Peace River country, for six years we were there and Jody and I saw some real genuine cowboys. There's real genuine cowboys in Texas, of course, but I saw them up close and I worked beside them.
00:04:30
Speaker
And I thought, you know, these guys are not just wanting to look like cowboys. These guys are living like a real cowboy, like every single day, it's their work. It's the way they lived. You know, Jesus has called us to live for the Lord, not to merely sit in shoot seats, dressing and looking like disciples, let's say on a Sunday, but not living like a disciple every other day of the week.
00:04:57
Speaker
We need to say, God, help me to live this out because it's real and it's life changing. And as we let the Lord empower our lives, those around us, they're going to be impacted. They're going to be influenced. So this morning we move forward from the admonition in Ephesians 5, 18 to depend upon the Holy Spirit
00:05:23
Speaker
to a description of a disciple being directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. So I want us to look at these verses together. I'm going to
Being Filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18-21)
00:05:33
Speaker
back up. I'm going to focus on verses 19 to 21, but I'm going to go ahead and include 18 because I'll explain in a moment
00:05:42
Speaker
All of these verses are tied to verse 18. So would you stand in honor and reverence for God's holy word? And let me read through here. You follow along in your copy of God's word. There are Bibles in the pews. There's also on the screen the translation that I'm reading from. But it's Ephesians 5, 18. And do not get drunk with wine, for that's debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.
00:06:11
Speaker
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual psalms, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Let's go to him in prayer.
00:06:34
Speaker
Lord, I thank You that not only did You call us to follow You, You also empower us if we'll simply stay dependent upon You, if we'll simply stay filled up and surrendered to the Holy Spirit each day. You'll give us the strength that we need.
00:06:52
Speaker
And as a matter of fact, you're going to change our lives as we follow you. So Lord, we wanted to give you this service right now. We pray that you would have to complete control over the service and over the message. Please give me the spiritual strength that I need to deliver this message faithfully that you placed on my heart this week. So help us to understand.
00:07:14
Speaker
I think your Holy Spirit can give us understanding. You can apply it like I could never dream of making it that clear. And so please do that for us this morning. We'll give you all the glory in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you, you may be seated.
00:07:33
Speaker
Well, Ephesians 5, 18 through 21 contains one lone sentence. It's like a long sentence that goes all the way from 18 all the way down through verse 21. And it's amazing how verses 19 through 21, they're all dependent on that one command, that one imperative, be filled with the spirit. And right after that, he just takes off running.
00:08:01
Speaker
He said, be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord in your heart, and so forth. And so I got to thinking, wow, you know, all of these things are called participles.
00:08:18
Speaker
I remember when I was in Japan as a missionary, they wanted to learn English. So I started teaching English and I came back and I told my home church, and there were two of my former English teachers. And I told the church, I'm teaching the people of Japan how to speak English, how to write English. And I saw those two former English teachers faint in the pew. They were like, oh no, he's going to mess up a whole generation of Japanese.
00:08:45
Speaker
But anyway, we made it through there. Pray for Jacob. He's probably doing the same thing. But those five are called participles that I wanted to focus on. There's these words in there that end in I-N-G and they're called participles. I put them in italics, bold print, so that you could see what they are and they'll stand out to you.
00:09:07
Speaker
But you can see them there addressing some translations. Perhaps most translations say speaking to one another. Then there's singing. That's the second one. Then there's making melody. That's a third one. Giving thanks. That's a fourth one. And submitting. That's a fifth one.
00:09:24
Speaker
All of those things take place whenever we are daily saying to the Lord, I can't do this.
Spirit-Controlled Speech and Grace
00:09:32
Speaker
I can't live the Christian life in my own strength, Lord. Would you help me? Would you really help me to do it? So I want you to notice what happens whenever Christ is on the throne, whenever the Holy Spirit is empowering us and directing us on a daily basis. This is what our lives will look like.
00:09:51
Speaker
The first thing impacts our communication, your speech, the way that we talk to one another and to other people. That's why he starts out here beginning addressing one another, speaking to one another.
00:10:07
Speaker
The word there is la luntus. And you know, it means just what it says, just to talk, just to use your mouth and to say something. You know, sometimes people go quiet and they don't say anything, but I think God wants us to speak. He wants us to use our words. The first evidence of the Spirit-filled life
00:10:29
Speaker
is the Holy Spirit is gonna change the way you talk to other people. Our speech is a good barometer if we really have a Christ controlled life. I want you to go back, I'm not asking you to go far, but go back to Ephesians chapter four.
00:10:47
Speaker
We're in chapter five, right? Go back to chapter four to verse 29. I want to show you something about the way our speech is impacted by the Holy Spirit. And if we don't let him impact our speech, guess what happens? It grieves the Holy Spirit. Listen to Ephesians 4 29 and 30. Let know
00:11:12
Speaker
corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear and do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
00:11:33
Speaker
You see what's right after? If we don't control our speech, if we don't allow the Holy Spirit to control our speech, then what could happen? We're gonna grieve the Holy Spirit living within us because He's saying, the Father doesn't want you to talk like that. When you're following Jesus, you don't talk like that. And so God will slowly, I'm not saying this happens instantly, but God will slowly begin to change the way that we speak to one another.
00:12:03
Speaker
Did you know that there's an incredible opportunity waiting in the way that you interface with other students at school, the way you talk to other men or women at work, the way that you relate to people in your neighborhood, the way that you talk to the people in our church. There's something very unusual that can happen, usually grace,
00:12:24
Speaker
comes from God to us, right? Comes directly from God to us. But did you catch what can come through your mouth and be imparted to other people? Let me read verse 29 again. Listen to this. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as it fits the occasion, get this, that it may give grace to those who hear.
00:12:54
Speaker
That's the only place that I know of that something we can do.
00:12:59
Speaker
as a human would actually be like a vehicle that God could use to bless other people. It's your words. Your words can bless other people. They have tremendous potential. Look with me at Colossians. It's the next letter over, and then we'll move on to the second thing that's here in the participle that's found in Ephesians chapter five. But in Colossians chapter four,
00:13:25
Speaker
Verse five and six, we need to especially be on guard of how we talk around the people that don't come to church. The people who, let's say, don't know Christ at all. The people who don't know what the Bible says, but they're listening to the what you say. Here's what it says in Colossians four, five and six. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time,
00:13:51
Speaker
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person." Well, I think the Lord is trying to tell us it's very, very important that I allow the Holy Spirit to be in control of the words that I use whenever I'm talking to other people, especially those who do not know the Lord.
00:14:19
Speaker
When the Holy Spirit is daily given control of a life, He will manage the type of words and the tone of words that you use in your life. Because you know what you did? You allowed the Lord to be in the driver's seat of your life.
00:14:36
Speaker
And the Lord is not gonna have you out there spewing things that should never come from the mouth of a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want us to look at a second participle that is mentioned here in Ephesians chapter five and verse 19. He goes on to say, addressing one another. And then he mentions three different kinds of songs in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing. Let's just pause it right there.
00:15:07
Speaker
in Psalms
Joy and Singing as Worship
00:15:08
Speaker
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing. I got to thinking about how the Lord also will give us a song in our heart. There are verses in the Bible that says he gives us a new song and we just wanna sing for him. Once again, the Greek word for that participle, singing, is adantes. And it means exactly what it says. You're gonna be singing, you're gonna be singing a song.
00:15:34
Speaker
If you were to look once again at Colossians chapter 3, just getting in a lot of cross references today, but you won't believe how similar Colossians 3.16 is to what we're reading in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 19. You know, Colossians 3.16 says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
00:15:56
Speaker
teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. You see, you get the feeling that someone is really overflowing with joy and they can't hold it back. And that the Lord's doing so much on the inside that it just bubbles out on the outside. And that's what our time of singing is all about.
00:16:23
Speaker
We're not gathered here and we don't sing because all of us are professional singers. Some of you would say, yeah, I can hear some of those non-professionals around me. You know, if you were up here on the front view, I don't know if you ever noticed Josh wears an ear plug in his right ear. No, I'm kidding, he does it. But anyway, it can be rough up there with me on the front. But here's the thing, I sing because of joy, because of what God's done.
00:16:48
Speaker
I'm so excited and I just wanna sing to him. I wanna praise him because he's worthy. As a matter of fact, in heaven, Revelation five verses nine and 10 says that the hosts of heaven, you know what they're doing? They're just singing. They're all out full throttle singing and they're singing about the worthiness of Jesus Christ. You ever just cut loose and sing about the worthiness of Jesus Christ?
00:17:13
Speaker
If you think it's bad with me singing in here, you should hear me when I'm in my car, listening to KSBJ by myself. Boy, maybe the Lord's saying, okay, son, thank you so much for that one. But anyway, Christian songs, you know what they are? Christian songs are not a thermometer that just reflects what's going on on the outside. No, Christian songs that are motivated by joy
00:17:40
Speaker
Joy is something that's not like a thermometer gonna tell you what's happening in your life. Things may be falling apart in your life, but you know when God gives you joy through the Holy Spirit, you know what it's like? It's like a thermostat and it'll set the temperature in your life. Maybe you say, man, it's really cold in my household. Well, you know what? The Holy Spirit can set that thermostat in your life where as far as it's from you,
00:18:06
Speaker
It's warm and cozy. And you're thinking, Lord, I have so much joy that I want to share with other people. You see, joy results when the Holy Spirit is not just a resident, but when the Holy Spirit is like president. The Holy Spirit is putting the focus on Jesus and exalting Jesus over our lives. You see, Christ is not just present in our lives.
00:18:33
Speaker
Christ should be preeminent in our lives. And we certainly don't use the Holy Spirit so that we can accomplish our will. We submit ourselves and subject ourselves to His will. We submit our will to His will. And so that's when His power flows through us. And that's when we begin to sing. I thought, what's the difference in these three words? Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs.
00:19:02
Speaker
Well, I think Psalms, of course, would be Psalms that are written in God's Word, especially the Psalms. There's 150 Psalms that are in the Old Testament. But I think it means when you want to sing a scripture, there's more than Psalms that are sang in scripture songs. But I think it represents singing scriptural songs from God's Word.
00:19:26
Speaker
There's a lot of songs that have implanted in them some scripture verses. But hymns, on the other hand, are more songs that are designed for us to sing together. It's when we sing congregational songs with God's people. And those songs teach us things that are written in God's word as well. And then spiritual songs would be singing spiritual songs for God's glory.
00:19:53
Speaker
Maybe you would say, I don't even understand why singing is so important.
00:19:56
Speaker
Well, there's a great article I wanna recommend to you written by a man named Tom Olson. He wrote this article in 2017 called Seven Biblical Reasons Why Singing Matters. And he's a student, Pastor Josh. And so I thought, this guy's got a lot of good things on the ball, but it's seven biblical reasons why singing matters. And here's the things he lists and he gives the verses. You can find it on the internet, but he says, obeying God,
00:20:26
Speaker
Why should you sing? Because God says sing.
00:20:30
Speaker
Why are you not singing if God says I should sing? So I'm gonna sing because God told me to sing. He told me to praise him, so I'm going to obey. But the other thing is when we sing together, you know what it does? It builds others up. It builds others up. When we sing scripture verses, the third thing, it digs deep our roots in God's word. The fourth thing, when we sing, get this one.
00:20:58
Speaker
We wage war. We wage war. And you're saying, war, wait a minute, what's going on? No, we wage war against sin. We wage war against evil. When we sing, we're saying, God, we stand with you. We stand on your side. And you know what God does? It's pretty hard to sing and then go and live a different way. It recalibrates us to where the drumbeat in our heart is to honor the Lord
00:21:24
Speaker
just like we sang about. But then it also strengthens us not for good times, strengthens us not for Sunday mornings when we worship, strengthens us for trials and difficult times. Those words come back to your mind and you begin to say, yes, I can make it through this hard time. I think it also helps us walk in the direction toward joy.
00:21:47
Speaker
I believe Tom Olsen's right when he says the sixth reason why singing matters is because we're walking in the direction of joy in the Lord. You know, have you ever come to church and you came in feeling down? You came in feeling empty.
00:22:03
Speaker
And then suddenly it's like you get in here singing with God's people and suddenly you're saying, you know what? The joy is coming back. The joy is coming back. I think that can only be God. And when we sing, of course, he said, we glorify God. But all of those are so critical because what it says is I'm just simply lining up with what God's word says. Whenever I allow Jesus to sit on the throne of my life,
00:22:29
Speaker
Whenever I allow the Holy Spirit to direct my life, there's something that's going to overflow and that something is singing. There's a third participle we need to look at that says, making melody, making melody. I believe we're making melody with worshipfulness. You know, making melody is, it's like the Psalms. It starts with PS.
00:22:52
Speaker
Salantes, salantes, it comes from sal. You know what sal means? It's like if I were to stand up here and finger pick a guitar and I pluck the strings, that's what sal means. It means to pluck or to strum. It's something along that line to strike the strings. I remember in years gone by when Rachel Thomas was still with us and she would play on the harp, she would be,
00:23:20
Speaker
plucking that harp like crazy. And I thought, I don't ever want to arm wrestle that lady. I believe she might could put me down. But anyway, what a powerful thing to say, you know, I'm going to use my hands like I'm so thankful for the pianist. I'm thankful for Sheri because when she plays that piano, we know, don't we?
00:23:40
Speaker
We know God gave her that talent. She's developed it across the years, no doubt. But that's the first thing that stands out to me about making melody to the Lord. I believe that one reason God wants us to make melody is He gave you the talent and the ability.
00:23:57
Speaker
Why should we only sing for Nashville? Why should we only sing for, you know, L.A. and New York and all these different places? Why can't we sing for Jesus? I believe they were to play and sing for Him, use the gifts and the abilities that He's given. So the first thing that stood out to me with making melody is I thought, well, that involves talent.
00:24:19
Speaker
But notice the tuning that is involved in making melody. It says to the Lord, making melody to the Lord. Now I had to do some research on this and I'm way over my head, even stepping out there. But do you know that orchestras, they all tune to one pitch, to one frequency. It's like 440 Hertz. It's like the number of vibrations per second.
00:24:47
Speaker
And it's like on the musical scale, it would be the tune to A, to that note called A. And so I'm thinking, wow, what is the one place that all of us in this room, we weren't doing the same thing this weekend. We weren't doing the same thing through the past week.
00:25:05
Speaker
But you know what we do? When we sing about the Lord, we come together. And everything tunes on that one frequency where we're saying, we're in this for you, Lord. We're going to praise your name and honor you today together. And so I thought, thank you for the tuning that is involved in making melody. But also, I see transposing, transposing the melody. Because the melody doesn't begin in your mind and in your fingers.
00:25:35
Speaker
The melody begins deep down within the heart. He says, making melody to the Lord with your heart. You know, I'm not saying that you can't be talented and do it, not do it for the Lord, you know, do it for something else, for money or whatever. But you can tell a difference when somebody plays for the Lord. You can just sense it, that God's presence, His anointing is all over them when they're using it. And it started in their heart.
00:26:04
Speaker
You know, David was quite the musician. He wrote in Psalm 40 verses one through four, how he was so down, he was like in a miry pit. And the Lord brought him up out of the pit and set him on a rock. And you know what he said he did? He said, God, put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
00:26:30
Speaker
I don't know if you've heard of this man, but there's kind of a famous musician named Johann Sebastian Bach. And here's what he said. Bach said, the aim of all music is the glory of God. I thought that was well put. The aim of all music is the glory of God. It's just that sometimes we distort it and we turn it toward other purposes, but that's the aim. That's why we have music.
00:26:55
Speaker
The fourth thing is we should say, Lord, only by your spirit can I live with gratefulness, because there's a lot of things that don't make me grateful these days.
Gratitude in All Circumstances
00:27:04
Speaker
So if we don't watch it, we can say, I'm not going to be grateful. No matter what people say in the Bible, I'm not going to be grateful. So what we'll be is we'll be grumpy if we're not grateful. And so what I'm saying is if we're going to let the Holy Spirit
00:27:19
Speaker
be in charge of our lives, He's gonna produce thankfulness and gratefulness. It says in verse 20, giving thanks sometimes when everything's going right. No, that's not what it says. Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wow, I thought that was so powerful to think, you mean all the time I'm supposed to live my whole life that way?
00:27:46
Speaker
Well, you're going to need power to do that because the flesh is not going to want to thank God. So you have to say, OK, Lord, that's where I need your Holy Spirit again. I need you to give me the power so that I can say thanks to you no matter what's going on in my life.
00:28:01
Speaker
You know, there's one really cloudy day in Scotland. You know, I'm told they have a lot of cloudy days there, but there was a Scottish pastor named Alexander White, and it was a gloomy Sunday. And some were out there in the pew and they said, you know, the pastor's always giving thanks for this and giving thanks for that. He said, there is no way he's gonna give thanks for a messy day like this one. So the pastor comes up to the pulpit and says, would you pray with me? And he starts out with these words.
00:28:31
Speaker
We thank the old God that it is not always like this today. How did he do that? He spun that thing around. Well, listen, you can and I can give thanks if we are filled with the Holy Spirit. I want to share with you an illustration that I read I never forgot. It's a pastor in Germany in 1636.
00:28:55
Speaker
The Thirty Years' War was coming to a close, and this pastor's name was Martin Rinkhart. This pastor buried 5,000 church members in one year because it started out with a battle. It turned into a pandemic for all kind of different reasons why he was burying. It was like 15 people passing away in his congregation every single day.
00:29:18
Speaker
So his kids were beginning to be affected by all these people that they loved and knew passing away. So Pastor Rinkhart said, you know what? I'm going to write a song to teach my kids to give thanks. And here's just the first verse. Now, now, today, now.
00:29:39
Speaker
thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices, who wondrous things has done in whom his world rejoices, who from our mother's arms has blessed us on our way with countless gifts of love and still is ours today.
00:29:58
Speaker
If he can do that in that setting, what's the problem with me? What's the problem with us? Why can't we overflow with thanksgiving? I believe it's the well that's stopped up. The well needs to be released. So the Holy Spirit, that inner well, that inner fountain can overflow in our lives. Well, let me close with one last word from verse 21.
Submission and Respect in Christ
00:30:22
Speaker
Verse 21 says, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. I believe it's relating to others with respectfulness. I believe that's the idea. Submitting is the word hoopotasso. Hoopo means to come under, and tasso means to arrange in order. And maybe you would say, I'm not gonna arrange myself under other people and submit to other people, and I'm not gonna do all of that. Well, let me give you four words that may help you.
00:30:52
Speaker
The first word is, why would he say that? I think you could put harmony right there. If you don't like the word harmony, you could put cooperation right there. You could put unity right there. Because what if everybody decides, you know what? I'm going to do what's right in my eyes. You know what happens? We're back in the book of Judges. It's chaos. It's anarchy, where every man does what's right in his own eyes.
00:31:14
Speaker
But there ought to be sometimes that we say, you know what, there are places that I can come together with other people and agree that we're going to exalt Christ. But I think there's a second reason why God would call us to this, and that's humility. There's something about us that human nature, we want to promote ourselves.
00:31:34
Speaker
But something about that is challenged whenever the Lord calls us to surrender to the lordship of Christ. And when he calls us to surrender to the lordship of Christ, part of that means I need to get along with other people that are in God's family, that are in a church, let's say. And so there's this humility that I think is a part of the submitting. But then when he says, submitting to one another,
00:32:02
Speaker
I think a third word that we need to remember is a word, humanity. Do you know, remember everybody that you meet in your world, in your life, in your daily routine, they're all created just like you in the image of God, in the image of God. And so is there no place for any measure of respect for that other human being that's created in God's image?
00:32:29
Speaker
But then I would say probably the real tipping point for me is this last one. Submitting to one another, why? Out of reverence for Christ. See, the fourth word I'd give you, why should we want to relate? Why should we want to cooperate with other people?
00:32:50
Speaker
I'll tell you why. Out of reverence for Christ, the fourth word is holy. Holy. Out of my reverence for Christ, I'm going to say I can work together with this person. Now, of course, James 3 17 says that the wisdom that is from above is first pure. It's first pure.
00:33:11
Speaker
Then it's peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." Wow. Remember how the disciples got all bent out of shape and they knew Jesus wasn't gonna be with them long. And so they started saying, who's gonna be number one? Who's gonna be the greatest after he's gone? So they started arguing among themselves.
00:33:41
Speaker
And Jesus said, you know what? I'm calling you to be a servant. I'm calling you to do like me. And He removes this robe and all the things and He takes a towel. And at that supper, He washes their feet. Remember? And He said, I want you to do the same thing. Well, let me wrap it up by just reminding you that there are 1,500
00:34:06
Speaker
Let me say it again, 1,500 imperatives in the New Testament.
Simplifying Life with Gratitude and Joy
00:34:12
Speaker
So it's pretty hard to keep them all, right? You may have this one down, that cluster there. It's pretty hard to keep them all down. So how are we going to simplify that?
00:34:21
Speaker
Well, I would say, if you'll say, Lord, I'm just gonna follow Jesus and Lord, I'm gonna depend on your Holy Spirit to help me, direct me as I go through life. Paul affirmed a young disciple named Timothy and he used something that I wanted to close on. He said, I'm reminded of your sincere faith. Where did he get that sincere faith?
00:34:44
Speaker
He got it, Paul says, from his grandmother, Loyce, from his mother, Eunice. I think that ought to be a goal in our families, in our parenting. Mother's Day isn't far away. We ought to be saying, Lord, help me if I don't do anything else in this life.
00:35:01
Speaker
Rather than making a whole lot of money, rather than being the head of everything out there, if I don't do anything else right, help me to love my kids. Help my kids to see that I'm sincere when I put my faith and my trust in you, Lord. And that's exactly what he says.
00:35:19
Speaker
He says, you know what, that first dwelt in your grandmother and your mother, and now I see the same thing in your life. The Holy Spirit will produce a genuine Christian life. Nobody in this church is asking you to be a fake. Nobody in this church is asking you to pretend anything. What we're saying is go back to the Lord every single day and say, God, I can't do this Christian life by myself. You have to empower me, you have to lead me, you have to help me.
00:35:48
Speaker
Where was this guy sitting anyway? Oh, that's right. Ephesians 4 verse 1 says that when he's writing these words about being thankful, about singing, about making melody and all that, he's sitting in a prison.
00:36:05
Speaker
And Acts 1625 is another little glimpse of what kind of person he was when he was arrested for his faith. Acts 1625 says the Apostle Paul and a coworker named Silas, it says in 1625, Acts 1625, about midnight.
00:36:22
Speaker
Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Can't you just see Paul saying, okay, let's sing the next hymn. How about, I surrender all. You guys know that? And the prisoners are like, nope, never heard that before in my life. How about, let's sing about greatest thy faithfulness. You know that one? Nope. How about amazing great? Nope. So, okay, well you boys listen to us. So it doesn't say anybody else was singing, but then.
00:36:51
Speaker
Maybe in your life, nobody else is singing but you. Maybe in your life, everybody else is so upset and critical and grumpy and all that, and you're the only one trying to keep your focus on Christ and say, there's so much that is going on in the Lord that's good. If you're sincere, I believe that'll make a big difference. That simplicity
00:37:15
Speaker
will produce the authenticity that you're looking for of simply every day saying, Lord, I want to follow Christ and I want to stay full of the Holy Spirit. I close with this final illustration that I think underscores what I'm trying to say.
00:37:31
Speaker
You know, Ephesians was written during the Roman Empire and the Romans were fond of the Greek culture. So the Romans were always wanting to import marble sculptures. Hundreds of years old, they would import them into Rome. And so the traders, what they would do is they'd say, well, this one's missing a nose, that one's missing an ear. And so what they would do is they would patch it up with wax.
00:37:57
Speaker
But the problem was, given enough time, all that patchwork, all the filling and all the covering up, it always has a way of catching up with you, doesn't it? It would with them. So after a while, those marble sculptures would begin to have this yellowish tint everywhere that wax was used. And so the vendors, they knew this were happening. So people were saying, I'm not going to buy anything from you anymore. So the vendors were very careful.
00:38:27
Speaker
And they said, no, we're going to put a label on this sculpture so that you know the original sculptor that he did this. This is his genuine work. And so they put a Latin phrase on there, cine cara. Cine cara. It means without wax. Cine is without and cara means wax. What about you? Are you genuine? Are you authentic?
00:38:56
Speaker
I think that simplicity of saying, Lord, help me just be real. Help me not try to be anything I'm not. Help me be so real, so full of your spirit, so focused on Jesus, that that's what people see. That's what's in your life, I guarantee it. It's gonna be impactful, but if it's not,
00:39:14
Speaker
then just know that just like those Romans and just like those traders that would patch something up, pretty soon it's gonna get a yellowish tint. And you're gonna say, it doesn't look very nice. It's not the real thing. We thought this was real and this isn't real.
00:39:30
Speaker
That's all I'm calling you to. I'm calling you to the simplicity and the purity of devotion to Christ. Let's pray. Lord, I have no idea of how you might wanted to have used this message, but I feel that I laid out there everything that you have placed in my heart. So Lord, you be in charge of this time of response and invitation. Pray that you would bless your people. It could be, Lord, that the main place we need to put this into practice
00:39:59
Speaker
To apply it, it's not here. It's not here this morning. It'll be tomorrow. It'll be next Friday night. It'll be the next Saturday during the day. But help us, O Lord, to daily. Follow Christ to daily.
00:40:14
Speaker
Go back to you and say, I need the Holy Spirit to once again empower me and strengthen me so that I'm not trying to do this in my flesh. So Lord, help us to depend on you in all things. Bless this time of invitation and response. May you receive glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
00:40:38
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.