Sunday, May 12, 2024 - A Heavenly Perspective of Reality - Pastor Mark Stevenson

[00:00:01] Amen. Well, I preached on Mother's Day about two years ago, and I don't have a Mother's Day message. [00:00:09] Well, today I don't have a Mother's Day message, but I want to wish you all a happy Mother's Day. You know, I don't know if there is at times a more thankless feeling job than a mother, but yet, you know, I don't know if there's one that is more impacting in the lives of people than the life of a mother. [00:00:33] You know, I have heard that on the battlefield in the world wars that when young men were dying, they asked for their mothers. You know, a mother is a person who seems to have a real, genuine, unconditional love. [00:00:55] A dad is a little bit more like, you know, like, shape it up. A mother just seems to be able to see past some stuff that us guys can't. And they offer grace. Like they're just a great picture of the mercy that Jesus offers us. And so, happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers. And, Lord, we pray for the mothers, pray for all of the mothers represented here and in our city, Lord God, the mothers, Lord, that are going through a very difficult time where they feel like it's just about too much for them. Everything that they've got to do when it goes on and on, and it just never seems to end, Lord, especially when the kids are little and there's just so much responsibility. [00:01:37] It's one of the busiest times of their life. And, Lord, and enduring and persevering and these little lives, Lord, that we have around us, Father God, I just pray that you would just pour out your spirit of blessing and grace on the mothers, Lord of the city, I pray that the kids, Lord, would experience just the love and the unconditional love and grace from their mother, Lord God. And I pray for every grandma, great grandma, mother and daughter. And I pray, Lord, for those that can't have kids or at this time can't have kids. I just pray, Lord, your grace in their lives. We thank you, Lord, that you are in control of all things. And I just pray that you hear the cry of the hearts of these women in this church this morning. In Jesus name, amen. I want to share one testimony here before I start. [00:02:31] I wasn't planning on doing this, but it just come to my mind. Karen and I were up here at the altar praying one morning, probably about ten years ago or maybe more, and this young lady come up to us and she was in tears. She says the doctor told her her and her husband come up, and the doctor told her that she wasn't going to have kids, she wasn't going to be able to have kids. And so she was just broken. And so we prayed with her, and we anointed her with oil, and we spoke fertility into her life. She come back about maybe a little less than a year later, and she was excited because she was pregnant. [00:03:10] And then so we rejoiced with her. And then she came back shortly after that in tears. Her and her husband had said that. The doctor said there's gonna be complications. [00:03:18] So we agreed with her in prayer, anointed her with oil, and then she went out. She had the baby. The baby was perfectly healthy. [00:03:27] And then she come back in a while later, and she was in tears, and she was saying, the doctor said that this is all the kids that she's gonna be able to have. We prayed for her. She had two more, and they're healthy kids. And it's just. It's amazing. He never say never to the Lord, you know, just never say never to the Lord. You don't know what he's up to. We just don't know what he's up to. [00:03:56] And then I've got a story here to start this sermon here. This sermon. I title Sermon a heavenly perspective of reality. And I titled it this because I just finished doing a course on Ephesians. And in this course, I read a book called the Drama of Ephesians by a guy named Timothy Gombus. And the drama of Ephesians. You read the letter from the point of a drama, and it's quite an interesting take on it. And he just built in my imagination of the cosmos, and then Satan falling to the earth, and then man being tempted and man falling, and then how Satan had taken mankind hostage, and then how that as time went on, scripture says, in the fullness of time, God sent Jesus to break that curse. Jesus suffered, died, conquered death, and he was risen from the dead. He broke the powers of the enemy. And yet the world is still in this bondage. But the people that God reaches, the believer, have been set free from the bondage of sin and death. And romans eight two says that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. And so. And then in the book, he goes on to talk about that God has done this. Jesus has broken this curse. And now he wants to draw a picture in our mind of our role at working with God to redeem this world, because it's God's world. It's not the devil's world. It's God's world. And we just. It was just a great course. I really enjoyed it. And so that's where this title comes from, having a heavenly perspective. And I think, you know, I've got this little illustration of a mom who's at Regent Bible College working on her doctorate and all the pressure she's under and she has kids and it's causing more pressure on her. But when you think about this story here, you think, okay, God wants us to have a heavenly mindset, a heavenly perspective of what's right in our lives. You know, there's so much noise and so much going on that can pull us away from the truth of the gospel and from the peace that passes understanding. It says that the cares and the concerns of this world can choke out the things of the spirit. And so with this little story here, we got a graduate. She's an intergraduate, studies at Regent College, which is out in Vancouver, pretty prestigious college, well respected college. She's working on her PhD. [00:06:31] And she's come to Eugene Peterson, and he's the one that wrote the message Bible. And she's come to him asking for advice. And she says, this PhD that I'm taking has turned into. [00:06:45] Turned the word of God into a great big research project. [00:06:50] And I was trying to read my lifeless Bible, but I was interrupted a thousand times by children needing to be fed, they needing to be changed, and they need to be read to. And on and on it went. And I begged Eugene to give me a spiritual discipline, some rope to haul me out of this hole that I was in. You know, it's amazing. [00:07:11] I think too, in our minds, we always think it's tomorrow. Later, we're going to do what we want to do later. You know, once we get the kids raised up, when we're younger, it's. Once we get kids, it's going to be great. Once we have kids, it's going to be. Once the kids are gone, it's going to be great. We were always thinking, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. And she says, I was trying to read my lifeless Bible and interrupted by these kids, and she was asking Eugene to help her to get out of this. [00:07:38] And he says, well, julie, he said, is there anything you are doing in a disciplined manner already? [00:07:47] And I thought about my newborn daughter, Iona, and the hours I spent nailed to this couch, feeding her. She had reflux. And so most of what in. Most of what went in went out immediately, which meant that I had to repeat the feed all over again. And nursing Iona is the only thing I can count on, I said, and she makes sure of that. [00:08:10] He patted my hand like a parent consoling a dissatisfied child who was not content with their lot in life. Julie, that is your spiritual discipline. Now start paying attention to what you are already doing. [00:08:26] That is something I think we could all take heed. Start paying attention to what you are already doing. God is in that. [00:08:35] Be present, he said. In that moment, so many others like it. I was weakened by the very common and assiduous temptation I wanted to be for Christ instead of being in Christ. I saw my familial responsibilities as obstacles to a godly life, when in fact they were the very place that he wanted me to meet me. He meets us in our wilderness. [00:09:01] I had to radically revise my view of obedience to include a simple act of abiding in Christ. That's a good little word for all of us. But for mothers, as you're doing your menial tasks, abide in Christ as you're going day by day being present in the moment. [00:09:22] Today is the day that we live, and if we can learn, this life can be so much more enjoyable. And this is what it means to have a heavenly perspective. [00:09:33] You know, the battle is for the mind in all of us. That's where all the battle takes place. [00:09:40] And so, Lord, we pray that you would help us to hear what you're saying this morning. Give us discerning hearts so that we can have an honest view, Lord God, of what this world is and our responsibilities in it, here and now. And may we be like the sons of Issachar, Lord God, who said that they are the ones that could discern the times. [00:10:03] May we be like that and discern the times in which we're living. Give us a heavenly view of reality and cause us to have ears, Lord God, to hear what you want to say to each one of us this morning. In Jesus name, amen. [00:10:22] Well, scientists know that ducks tend to imprint soon after they hatch. And to imprint means to attach themselves to the first thing that they see. And as soon as they see it, they think that's what they are. And this is supposed to work with the ducks and it generally does. But, you know, in our world it's an imperfect world and nothing works perfectly. And so one time there was a duckling that was hatched under the watchful eye of a, a motherly collie dog. And this baby duck took one look at the collie dog and decided that the dog was its mother duck. And so it followed the collie around. It ran for protection, and it slept with it at night. It spent the hot part of the day under the porch sleeping with the collie, and it spent. [00:11:12] And when a car would pull into the driveway, along with the dog, the duck would run out from under the porch, quacking viciously and pecking at the tires. [00:11:21] But, you know, some things you couldn't change. The duck was a duck. It liked to be in the water. It liked to flap its wings, and it quacked like a duck, but sometimes it acted like a dog. And, you know, like in ephesians here, it's all about our identity in Christ. Who are we in Christ? And we Christians can often experience similar confusion in our identities. [00:11:46] We have been born into. And we've grown up into this fallen world, born into sin. And naturally, we've learned the ways of the world and how this world works. [00:11:59] We're born into it, and our thinking and actions have become like it. And when we are born again, we're born of the spirit, we're born from above, and as we were born, born again, and we start to discover we can have a relationship with Jesus. And as we grow in our relationship with Jesus, we're communicating with him, we're talking with him, walking with him. At least that's what we should be doing. [00:12:26] Because Jesus is alive. He's living within us. We can have conversations with the Lord relating to him. That's what it means to be in Christ. [00:12:37] We discover how alive Jesus really is, and we begin to change because we spend time with him, and it affects us. [00:12:46] We're born again, born from above. And as we mature in this new life, we learn we are to die to our old nature and take on a new nature. [00:12:58] And two corinthians says this. It says that this means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. [00:13:06] The old life is gone, and a new life has begun. [00:13:10] The problem is that too often we don't see ourselves the way that Christ sees us. [00:13:18] We act like, you know, the thing that we think we are. We don't see ourselves correctly. [00:13:25] We believe, and we try to do the right things. I remember as a young believer, you know, I don't know. It's a funny thing when you're like, maybe it's my personality. I kind of had a legalistic kind of a personality figure. You do this, and this will take place. [00:13:39] Somehow in my head, I actually thought I could arrive somewhere, I don't know where I thought I was going to arrive to. But, you know, you work so hard to try to do everything just right, but you can never do it. It never works. You're always failing somewhere. And as a young guy, trying to do everything right and continually not being able to measure up to that, it was the most frustrating thing to me. And I think that that's a good thing. In our young walk, at least we're trying to walk this walk out, but that it brings us to who Jesus is and what Jesus is all about, that we can never do good enough. You never come to perfection in our lives here on this planet, but in Christ, we can walk just as if we've never sinned. And that's an amazing thing. It's by keeping those short accounts, you know, when we least expect it in our world of frustrations here, a car pulls into the driveway of our life, and we explode from underneath the porch, quacking viciously and pecking at the tires. You know, like, who are we? Are we supposed to do that? We're supposed to be swimming around in a little pond, bobbing and preening our feathers and not quacking at cars or chasing the cat. In this letter to the Ephesians, Paul is wanting the Ephesians and us to understand better who we are in Christ. [00:15:00] You know, and I know there's more things that influence our inconsistent behavior in this world than just negative imprinting, because we are members of the fallen race hindered with an internal power of sin. [00:15:15] And you can see a great example of this in romans chapter seven, where Paul's talking about, I want to. I don't do the things I want to do. I do the things I don't want to do. And he just comes to the point, how wretched man am I? What hope is there? And then he goes into chapter eight where he talks about that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set him free from the law of sin and death. And it's the great conclusion to his frustration there. Still, if we could see ourselves more clearly in who we are in Christ, we would be able to live out this life more consistently because we start to learn how to walk out in grace. [00:15:55] That is why the Bible spends so much time telling us who we are. [00:16:00] If we can get this understanding settled in our hearts and our minds, we are so much more able to experience God's grace and what he has provided for us to live out this life in victory. [00:16:14] So Paul is telling ephesians who they have become in this new relationship with Jesus. He's praying that a spiritual awakening would take place in their lives so that they would be able to grasp who they have now become in Christ. [00:16:29] The old self is gone and the new self is there. Our identity and our actions seem to be inseparably coming together. You know, like, who we see ourselves as produces actions in our life, responses in our lives. If we don't have a proper perspective of who we are in Christ, our reactions are probably not going to be as christian or godly as they could be. If we have this good understanding of who we are in Christ and all that Christ has done for us. There's a power and authority that comes from the spirit of God that lives within us to cause us to do the right things when we need to do them. Psalm one says that we'll be like that tree that planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season. [00:17:14] You're going to have the fruit you need when you need to have it, which is a great thing. God has done that for us, and it's like abiding in the vine. You know, if you abide in me, I'll abide in me. Apart from me, you can do nothing. [00:17:29] So our actions and our identity, they go inseparably together. And from the earliest days of our childhood, our actions are linked to our identity. Now, Princess Anne, a young girl, sits beside her mother, Queen Elizabeth. And at the princess's first presentation to the british public, she's called upon to walk to the microphone and say a few words to the gathered dignitaries. And as she prepares to stand, her mother leans over to her and she says, you are a princess. Walk like one. So who she is a princess, it should affect how she walks. She should be walking with dignity. [00:18:08] 18 year old Chuck, he's gone through twelve of the toughest weeks that anyone can go through in the life of the marine boot camp in coastal southern Carolina. During these last week, these last week, they are forced to crawl under rolls of barbed wire where they're firing live machine gun ammunition blazing over inches over their head. And Chuck freezes and he begins to sweat. His hands dig into the red clay beneath him and his panic sweeps his soul. [00:18:41] A friend crawls up beside him and he says, get a hold of yourself, Chuck. You're a marine. Act like one. [00:18:48] You know who he is. [00:18:51] He's a marine and he's gone through all of this training, and this should affect how he acts under pressure. He should act with courage. He had to learn this. [00:19:01] And I thought as I was doing this message here, I thought of myself when I became a business contractor. [00:19:09] All of a sudden, I noticed that people talked to me differently, they spoke to me differently, they sort of treated me differently. [00:19:16] They saw me as a businessman. Well, that affected me, and I felt like I needed to act like a businessman. Who we see we are in our minds affects how we act. [00:19:28] If we have been victimized, this is one that when we've been hurt and we have been victimized in some way or another, this has an impact on us. And we can carry this into our salvation. We put on this new self, but we've never dealt properly with this being victimized. And a great thing that we have in the church here is there's two ministries that deal with this kind of thing, and it really helps us to process, okay, what I've gone through, and we need to face these things, and then we figure out, okay, why do I respond in life to crisis, to pressures the way that I respond? [00:20:06] We have a ministry that we started up here about three years ago, and last year it really took hold. Is freedom sessions. We have a celebration for that. We have a commissioning on the 26th of this month, we're going to be commissioning 24 people that went through freedom sessions. And you hear them talk and it really hit home with them. It gets to the root of stuff in our lives. And so we're going to commission them. Commissioning them as in praying, blessing on their lives, praying that God will help them to find their area of ministry in the church where they're going to serve. And then the following Thursday, they're doing a barbecue that you're all invited to where they're going to share some testimony and a little bit about what's going on with freedom sessions. We might put a table up at the back. I'm not sure. There's that ministry that deals with our stuff in life like that. And there's celebrate recovery, the hurts, the habits and the hang ups, the things we're stuck. And these ministries help us to deal with why we do what we do, why we react. Why am I like I am to start with? And it just really works into us. And they're great ministries, and you don't have to belong to the church to be taking part in these ministries. And so if you know, loved ones, you know, that have had problems in their lives where they can't seem to get past, bring them to something like celebrate recovery or go to freedom sessions. Freedom sessions will be starting in the fall. You'll hear more about that in the days ahead. [00:21:30] Celebrate recoveries every Monday night. But those two really are great ministries for dealing with these kinds of things. And so we can put on our new self. But unless we face this stuff, deal with this stuff, and get to the root of it, it will just keep us in bondage as long as we don't allow the Lord to bring that out and heal us, because he has come to set the captive free. [00:21:52] And so, Paul, he understands the challenges that these people need to rise above and to rise above what a worldly mindset would say about them in their new selves. [00:22:08] He sees them and see themselves. They need to see themselves the way that God sees them in Christ, healed, set free and victorious. And, you know, it's so important that we can get ahold of that and live that, how our lives can be victorious. [00:22:26] Therefore, I, a prisoner serving for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling. For you have been called by God. Can there be a better calling in life? You hear that? Now, like I've heard people talk about calling, you know, oh, I'm not called, but it looks like you are called. It says, worthy of your calling. Live a life worthy of your calling. For we're all called. Every one of us are called here. And we're asked, Paul, challenging them to live out a life worthy of their calling, because they are called of God. You know, how can be going from darkness to light, going from brokenness to wholeness, not have an effect on how we act in life and how we just present ourselves? Come across. In first three chapters of Ephesians, Paul is praying that they would understand that they have. They already are the children of God. And he says, in Ephesians five one, imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. In the last three chapters, he's challenging them to act like the children of God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit, binding yourselves together in peace. [00:23:48] Throughout the rest of the book of Paul, Paul spells out specific details, detail how the children of light are to act. So if you're wondering how you should be reacting and acting in life, the last three chapters of Ephesians, he draws it out how the children of light are to walk. Our problem is that we hear that there is a mindset pressing in on us, that this world is all there is, and that reality is fully and completely established by what I see from this earthly perspective. See, that's the difference between having a worldly perspective and a biblical perspective. This world isn't all there is, given all that. This book, in Ephesians, it functions to jerk us out of that mindset and to expand the horizons of our imagination so that we can envision reality from the perspective that Jesus rules this world. [00:24:45] It functions to radically alter and reorientate our vision of reality in the most complete sense. And God is working towards developing in us a heavenly perspective of what's real. [00:25:01] And Paul wants. He's wanting these churches and us to see that we have a new story. This world needs to hear this story that we have, and we need to take on a new and renewed set of practices in this new story. And he's challenging them to see themselves as a part of a radically different and outrageously life giving story that God is redeeming this world. [00:25:28] In order for us to participate in this today, we, like the Ephesians, need to have a radical reorientation of our vision of the world. [00:25:39] We must see the world the way that Jesus sees it, are relating to, you know, and I think we can see that. And I've really been, you know, I think we're always convicted, but you're out in the community, and whatever you're doing when you see people, do you think of eternity? When you're out at Home Depot buying plants and you're talking to somebody beside you, you know, do you give a thought eternity? And maybe they're ones that are searching for the truth, because there's, you know, there may be a lot of mockery going on and a lot of stuff saying, oh, the Bible's not true, and all that stuff, but there are a lot of people out there that are searching for truth, and we may be standing beside them when we're in Costco or wherever we're at. And I think that we need to, you know, we're to be fishers of men. And that means just sort of throw something out about life, about your life, ask something about their life, get a conversation going with them. It's just good to be aware of. And I think that we always need to be present in that as believers, because we have what people are looking for, you know, according to the corrupt human logic of a worldview of how this world works. We get things done by winning or by dominating over others. We win by winning and we succeed by succeeding. And if it means that there's casualties along the way, well, so be it. [00:27:02] I've seen over the years, I've seen churches function like that. If there's casualties along the way, well, so be it. We're on a mission. That's just not how God does things. [00:27:14] This Timothy Gombus, who wrote this book, the drama of Ephesians, he says that the worldly mindset sees it, that we win in personal encounters through power moves and intimidation. [00:27:30] We see it as if we have to dominate others, grab for power and exploit people, exploit the weak. And as we grow in our faith, we grow in our understanding of who God is. We come to a very obvious understanding that God doesn't do things in this way. God comes in weakness. You know, Jesus defeat on the cross was his victory, and the enemy's victory at crucifying Jesus was his defeat. And God comes in weakness. And his logic is very contrary to the logic of human nature. Jesus shows this when he says that if you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the good news, you'll find it. You'll figure out, you'll see what life is really all about. [00:28:19] All of a sudden, life has a purpose to it. You'll run like a. You'll just run like Cain, refuse to do what God was asking him to do. And it says that he was sent to the kicked out of the garden and into the land of nod, which means the land of wandering. And apart from the Lord, we wander aimlessly. [00:28:42] Ephesians helps us to understand how our imaginations have been taken hostage at the fall. And the captive imagination works to manipulate and pervert us from being able to blossom the way that God intends for us to blossom. It happens in all kinds of ways with the very fiber of creation being perverted and corrupted. And we see this in Romans chapter eight, verse 21 22, where Paul says, the creation looks forward to the day when God will join God's children, or the day when it will. [00:29:15] Okay. The creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. [00:29:24] For we know that all creation has been groaning as if in pains of childbirth, right from the present time. [00:29:32] God's desire is to free people from oppression, transform their lives. He wants to unite humanity and build his church as a monument to his victory over the powers of evil. [00:29:45] And God is wanting to give us a heavenly perspective of who we are in this world. [00:29:53] He has defeated the powers that have taken God's world hostage and that are holding it captive in its enslaving grip. He's defeated those powers. And in this finished work on Calvary, Jesus is freeing people from death transforming their lives and building his church. That's where I come from, you know, that's where I come from. I was bound, I was lost. He set me free, and he's building his church, and I'm so thankful for it. And we must understand that we all play a central role in what God is doing here to recapture and redeem his world that he has, that the enemy has taken, taken hostage. With a heavenly perspective of reality, it becomes very obvious that this world is not a neutral setting. That becomes very clear. Ngamba says that it doesn't take great spiritual insight to see that there are fallen powers that constantly are salting this world. [00:31:02] Okay, let's go this way. [00:31:09] Okay. [00:31:11] It doesn't take great spiritual insight to see that there are fallen powers that are constantly assaulting this world, to manipulate it into idolatrous and destructive ways. Because we inhabit such a highly contested space, it is imperative that we become discerning people. Now, this, our discernment, you know, comes from meditating on the word, comes from spending time in the word. It becomes. It matters what we think about, because if we're spending time, all of our time in the ways of the world, in the media and all the activities, if that's where all of our attention is at, it's going to be pretty hard for us to have a discerning spirit because we inhabit such a highly contested space. And it's imperative that we become these people of discernment. We need to cultivate the skill of discernment so that we perceive how the world subtly manipulates people into thinking that cause oppression and enslavement in their lives. [00:32:15] Paul says, don't copy the behaviors and customs of the world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way that you think. Our thinking should be changing. As we're growing and maturing in our relationship with Jesus, are you discovering that you have changed? Like when you think back five years into where you're at today, do you feel that you have grown, you've matured? Does your thinking changing? Are you taking the scripture and meditating on them and allowing them to change who you are? This is Paul's desire for the Ephesians, and it's ardent for all of us when he says, I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope that he has given to those he called his holy people, who are his rich and glorious inheritance. That's us in the last days. We must pray for this spiritual discernment. You're going to need it. God says in the last days he's going to send a deceiving spirit that's so powerful that if it was possible, even the elect would be deceived. If we don't have this discerning spirit within us, you know, I would really question the wisdom in that we can work this like we can learn this discerning spirit. And in these last days, we've got to pray for that, pray that we have a discerning spirit, a healthy, discerning discernment that comes from having a heavenly perspective of what's really real and matters in this world where we put our attention. If we don't have a biblical mindset, so much of what God requires seems like foolishness. And Paul brings that out in Corinthians when he says, when I tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the spirit, using the spirit's words to explain spiritual truths. And he says, but people who aren't spiritual can't receive the truths from God's spirit. [00:34:09] It all sounds foolish to them, and they can't understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the spirit means. [00:34:19] That should give us pause. [00:34:22] Paul is writing to the Ephesians Christians. He's praying that they'll have a spiritual wisdom, that they'll have spiritual insight so that they can grow in God. He's praying that their hearts will be flooded with light so that they can understand the confident hope that he has given them. He's praying that they will see how rich they are in what is in store for them. And he's praying that they would understand the incredible greatness of God's power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him at the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms. This is what Paul was praying for these Ephesians people. [00:34:58] He says, God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body. It is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere for himself. [00:35:16] And so I'm saying all of this in order for us to live out what God is destined for us to live out on this planet, here and now. It's imperative that we get on God's page in the way that we think and how we see ourselves in this world. [00:35:33] Do you see yourself as victorious? Are you living a victorious life? [00:35:39] The image that we have of ourselves affects how we act it affects how we respond to the pressures in life that come upon us. It affects how we process things that happen to us, both good and bad. [00:35:53] The image we have of ourself, it affects everything about our lives, and our image affects our kids. [00:36:02] In chapter four through six, Paul is explaining how they should act as if they had a proper perspective of the heavenly reality. He's saying, with the Lord's authority, I say this, live no longer as the gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. [00:36:21] You can take that to the bank. [00:36:23] And, you know, when they see somebody that is not hopelessly confused, it's clear to them. They see that. They say, what is it about that person? [00:36:33] They're searching. There are many people searching. Their minds are full of darkness. They wander from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and have hardened their hearts against them. They have no sense of shame. They live out their lustful pleasures and eagerly practice every kind of impurity. The Ephesians are being challenged to no longer live and do the evil things that they did before they became Christians. The background to Ephesians, it was a very, very sinful place. [00:37:03] They had these temples, and one of the seven wonders of the ancient world was the temple of. [00:37:10] What was her name? Diana. [00:37:13] And it was a sexual thing, and the temple, prostitutes and all kinds of stuff. It was about as bad as it could get. And Paul was reaching out to these Ephesians people and challenging them. Don't live like you used to live. This not the way that a believer lives, he says, but that isn't what you learned about Christ. And since you heard about Christ and have learned the truth that comes from him. [00:37:38] He says, instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God, truly righteous and holy. It's up to us to do with what God has given us, to put on our new nature. That's our responsibility, and we have to be intentional about that, or it won't happen. [00:37:59] We cannot and will not do this if we have a worldly mindset. It just. It's too much work for our more worldly mindset, and it's foolishness to a worldly mindset. We want to have a heavenly perspective of what is really real. Our minds need to be set on things above. [00:38:21] We must have a heavenly perspective of reality. Joshua one eight shows us how to do this. One verse in the Old Testament, study the book of the law, the book of instruction. Continually meditate on it day and night so that you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. You know, when we're striving like Jesus says, if you lose your life for my sake and the gospel, you'll find it. [00:38:48] When we're doing that, we're finding what we want. Like he says, meditate on it day and night. So you be sure to obey everything that's written in it. Only then will you prosper and be successful. Like, okay, there it is. And what Jesus said. So surrender your life to Christ. Do his will be about his business. Get attached to the vine, and you'll do great things for the Lord, you know, and you'll do great things just naturally in your grandchildren's lives, your children's lives. Praise God for that. And I want to close with this illustration. It says signposts that point toward home. [00:39:24] There's a signpost forest just outside of Watson Lake, Yukon. It was started in 1942 when a soldier named Carl Lindley, he was injured while working on a highway project. And so then he was taken to an army station in Watson Lake to recuperate. And in those days, all they had for signposts was just a simple signpost saying this town and the distance and an arrow pointing in a direction. And so one of the signposts were damaged by a bulldozer while he was working on that, told him, ordered him to go and fix that sign. So while he was fixing that sign, he figured he would personalize this sign. And so he decided to put on another sign to it, pointing towards his own home, Danville, Illinois, and giving the distance to it. Well, several other people started to do this. They started to add their directions to their hometowns. The idea had begun to snowball ever since. And this is like, what did I say? 1940? 219 42. And as of 2021, there are 80,000 signs in that area that takes up two acres of land, and it's a forest of signs. And these street signs, there are welcome signs, street signs and signatures on dinner plates and license plates and things from all over the world. And you know, one thing it shows they're all pointing towards home. Of all these places, we all desire to be home. You know, we all have that longing and especially our heavenly home. [00:41:03] Throughout life, we encounter signposts that point us to our heavenly home. And that's where we need to be present. [00:41:11] You know, the blessings given to us by our heavenly father, such as family, friends, worship, music, laughter of children. You know, they're all signposts that are pointing us to home. And we need to be present in all of that. And if we have our heavenly perspective on reality, you know, we will live the most satisfying, most content lives that we can live in the midst of chaos in this world. [00:41:40] The reality is that the world and the way it's thinking, it's going to obviously cause much grief. And thank goodness that that's not our end and that's not our story. And it doesn't have to be our story. We have a choice. We can ask the Lord to come into our lives. Jesus, be Lord of my life. The night that I asked the Lord to come into my life, I had. I shared it not long ago about the young guy getting thrown out of the car and it scaring me and thinking, man, it could have ended so differently. I smashed up my car. I owed everybody money. And I remember crying out, saying in a dark room and just into the dark ceiling, crying and say, God, change my life. And he took my life from there to probably, well, I don't know how long it was after that that I started to chase down my wife. [00:42:34] We had previous engagements that I wasn't such a good boy at. And she told me to get lost. [00:42:40] But I was determined to not give up. [00:42:43] And praise God, I prayed that night. He changed my life. You know, it was a life that was going down the wrong highway. And I knew that if I didn't change, if something didn't happen, it was not going to be a good end for me. And so, praise God, he hears our cry. You know, Jesus wants to be Lord of our lives. He doesn't want to lord it over our lives. He says, I am gentle, gentle at heart. [00:43:10] And so, Lord, I pray that you would help us to hear what you're saying to us this morning, Lord, that we just need to have our minds fixed on things above, not on the things of this earth. We need to have our hearts fixed on you taking your word that you've used to guide us, to encourage us, to convict us, to challenge us, Lord, to build us up, to make us more like you. You've given us all of that. And, Lord, all these signposts that we have in our lives that point towards our heavenly home, Father, help us not to neglect that. Help us to pay attention to all the blessings that are around us. Help us to screen out, Lord God, all the stuff that we don't need to have going through our minds and in our minds. I pray for the young people, Lord of our church and of the church of Red Deer, Lord, from the kids, that they would discern Lord God, this social media and all the pressures that come with that, I pray that you would help them, Lord God, to be strong and wise and make good choices and would choose, Lord God, to be people of God. [00:44:17] So help us, Lord, to be the people that you have called us to be. We're all called to live a life worthy of your gospel. In Jesus name, amen. God bless.