The Intentional Church: Living Spirit Filled (Session 2) - Beacon Summer Retreat: August 23, 2025

Today, the message, just to kind of tie it in, the message this morning is from Ephesians 5, and you can start turning there. And we'll look at verses 15 through 21. And the title of the message is The Intentional Church, the Intentional Church. I use the term intentional because it means that you are thoughtful and purposeful about what you do and why you do it. I could have used there's there's a couple other titles that we could have used, but as a single word, it may not convey exactly what we want. Like I could have used the word thoughtful, because there's a lot here about like looking carefully at your walk, thinking carefully about how you do stuff. In fact, if you think about the book of Ephesians, if you divide it up into two parts, uh chapters one through three is just about the gospel and how the gospel is applied to sinners like you and me.

How hope comes to us. Then from chapter four through six, it's kind of the implications of it. It's like the application of the gospel, how that's lived out. And when it speaks in chapter four about not walking like the Gentiles, it speaks first about how they walk. Like, if I said that phrase to you, right? And I said, hey, don't walk like the Gentiles, what's the next thing that you think I'm gonna say? Stuff about their sexual sin, about their wanton is like them living wickedly, them living as idolaters, etc. But the next phrase that Paul says in chapter four is that don't walk as the Gentiles, right? No longer as the Gentiles, in the futility of their minds. It begins with how they think and the futile nature of their thought process that leads them, right, to a lack of wisdom, lack of knowledge, and then to foolishness, which leads them to hardened hearts, which leads them to a life of debauchery and sin, etc.

So by the time we get to chapter five, we're on the heels of getting to that portion that speaks of a wife living in submission to her husband, a husband living in sacrificial love like Christ loved his church with his bride, but children living in honoring mom and dad, and all of those, the difference between that and uh what is often expressed amongst the Romans, right, and the philosophers of the day that suggested that we should all live by these household codes, similar to what is expressed in chapter five. The difference is that each one of those are in the Lord. Be subject to your own husbands as unto the Lord. Love your wives as Christ loved the church. Children obey your parents, right?

Because they are your parents in the Lord. You you honor them, right? You honor the Lord by your honoring of them. Even masters and servants treat one another rightly because you are actually servants of the Lord, right? It is the Lord that's behind it all. And so we could have used the term thoughtful, but then, right? Like colloquially, the way that we use the word thoughtful, you would have thought it's just kind of like, oh, how kind of you, right? Like, like that's how we usually use thoughtful. But what we mean by that is to be actually intentionally, thoughtfully, like we're engaging our minds to think a certain way so that we might live a certain way, so we might honor the Lord in a certain way.

And so, my my story, that's all to lead up to a story, right? Is how um uh well, I think the general characteristic of my life, uh, even before Christ, and even even maybe now sometimes, right, is that I'm not always thoughtful. I'm not always intentional. I told you about our church plan, is that certainly wasn't very intentional. I was intentional in the sense that we wanted to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but then we did not know what we were doing. But that kind of characterized most of my life. And so this is uh this is a story that uh I often tell to groups that just to get to know me, you know, just to kind of bring down like the expectation so that they kind of know, like, you know, this guy's dumb, and that I appreciate that.

Like I'd love to start there, right? Uh that way, you know, I can overdeliver, right? You guys think, oh, this guy's like super godly, then it's like, oh man, everything I say is gonna be joked, right? But um, this is uh I was a junior in college, and a bunch of us went to Magic Mountain, right? A bunch of us collegians, our friends, we we took a trip, we went to Magic Mountain. That's not that's not weird, right? So we go to Magic Mountain, and you know how that works. Like, as you're at an amusement park, right? Um, a poor student, I told you I was paying my way through college, and so as I'm at uh at Magic Mountain, you realize like like a hamburger costs like 50 bucks, right? I'm exaggerating, but it might as well be because everything that you want to eat, everything you want to do is super expensive.

So I'm like, you know, I'm not gonna spend any money on food here because it's way too expensive. I'm gonna wait until we until we're done and we head out. So we do, we head out, we leave a little early, like it's like early evening, and we decide to stop for a late dinner on our way back to to you know to UCLA to you see all the into dorms and stuff. So we stop off in the valley, the San Fernando Valley, because that's kind of straight down the four or five, and we stop at a scissors. You guys familiar with scissors, right? Um scissors are alright. I mean, well, let me tell you the story. So we go to scissors, and if you know how scissors works, you walk in and you order at the counter, then I'm gonna give you a number or something, but then you go and sit down, right?

And then they bring you your food. And uh, you know, um, and I am I'm starving. I didn't buy anything all day, you know. You just ah, you know, screaming on railroad uh on on the roller coasters having a good time. And so then I I go in front and I go, like, hey, I'm gonna order for some over first. So I go in front of all my friends and I order my stuff, and then I go sit down. And then so I look to the back of the room, there's a long table, so there's like 10 or 11 of us. So I sit at one end here, so that we could all just kind of fill in at the big table to kind of reserve that one since I was the first one there, and I sit down. And as I'm sitting down, if this is the table, I'm sitting here, there's a small table just for two people over here, or four four people, but there's these two senior citizen ladies, right?

These two grandmas, and they're sitting there, and then you know, they're getting up to leave as I go sit down. So I'm like, okay, that's perfect. And so as they leave, I look over and I realize, oh, like they didn't eat their cheese toast. You know, scissors, they give you a little appetizer cheese toast. That's pretty good, right? And so I look over and I'm like, alright, you know, grab their cheese toast, and I'm crunching it down. I'm like, oh good, because I'm starving, you know, so I'm so glad I got some free cheese toast on top of the cheese toast. I'm gonna get right, so I'm looking forward to my meal, etc. And as I'm sitting there, and my friends start kind of rolling in, and everyone starts saying, We're just talking about stuff.

I look up, and those grandmas are coming back. And I realize they had gotten up for like the salad bar or something, and then they're coming back to sit down. And then you know, like how your face flushes red and you're not sure what to do, and I have that like that that feeling like like you know, my heart is beating because like, oh my goodness, this is so embarrassing, right? I just literally ate their cheese toast. And I think, but you know, I'm a Christian person, I should at least confess this to them. It's like, all right, I gotta see. So they sit down and you could hear them talking, go, oh hey, my toast is gone. You know, and you're like, oh man. So I turn around and I go, hey, hi, how are you doing?

Hey, you know what? Um, I ate your cheese toast. So embarrassing. And they're kind of like, uh, what? Why would you eat my toast? Uh hey, you know, don't worry about it. And I'm trying to keep it down low because I don't want my friends to know what's going on. They just think I'm just talking to these strangers, and I go, hey, let me get, I'm gonna get you some more, I'm gonna get you some more. So, like, like this embarrassing moment gets worse and worse. So I go back up to the counter and I say, hey, listen, can I get two extra cheese toasts? And they're like, uh, oh sir, that'll come with your meal. I said, no, I ate these other people. You know what I mean? Like, it's like you can't just confess it to them.

It's like it just keeps spreading. So then they're like, oh, what? Um, okay, okay, we get it. So they gave me cheese dust. I take it to the I'm like, and so my friends are like, hey, what happened? Oh, no, I just been cool to them, you know, like being a good good good person and stuff. And so, so you know, it's awkward because they're literally to my back, I could hear some of their conversation, they're talking about random stuff or whatever, but I'm not talking much as I would normally do at a dinner table because I'm so conscientious of them being there, right? And then finally they get up and they leave, and I look over and they're gone, and stuff. And I'm like, oh, thank goodness, you know, they left like their dirty plates of whatever they ate and their cups and stuff, and then one of them left the cheese toast behind.

She didn't even eat it. I was like, man, you know, those guys are sweating me. And then I even replaced the cheese, and then they didn't even eat that cheese stuff. On principle, I should eat that cheese toast too, right? So I reached back to grab that cheese toast, and then I eat that cheese toast and stuff. And my friends like, no, you can't be there. Ah, don't worry about it. You know, they're gone. And so we're just talking, and I feel normal on myself, we're laughing, we're having a good time, and I look over, they're coming back. Because if you get the salad bar, you could also go to the dessert ice cream thing or whatever. So they're coming back with dessert, and I'm just feeling like this this night will not end.

Right. And then they sit down, and then I could hear them giggling, and one of the ladies going, I think he ate our toast. One of the most embarrassing moments. And it's kind of like, you know, like you just kind of want to leave. Um but what it shows you, right, is on my part, just a lack of thoughtfulness, a lack of um of of understanding what's going on around me, and a lack of uh of me kind of um, you know, being able to think of myself rightly in that moment. Like at least the second time, right? I probably should have just left it all be, right? Like it's not like I was hungry at that point. It was just one of those, like in pride, me thinking, like, dude, like you know, like, and they weren't even making me feel bad, but that's on me.

That's me saying they're making me feel bad. Oh, all of a sudden, the booming voice came in. But they're making, I I'm putting it on them like they're making me feel bad, but they're not. They're not doing anything bad to me, right? But I'm putting that on them so much that when they left one, I'm like, I'm gonna just eat that on principle because they're making me feel so guilty this whole time. And then it's like shame on me, like a second, a third, fourth time, right? Thoughtfulness. Um what is happening around you. That's one of the more most difficult but challenging things that the Christian faces in the course of their lives. Um I give you, I give you a phrase I like to tell people that are younger than me, right?

No, I am I'm 56, so you know, like in a short amount of time, I'm looking at 60s and retiring and going to be with the Lord, right? Like, like I just think about that. I'm thinking about that side of life, you know, trying to finish well and then go be with the Lord. That's that's that's my joy. I'm thankful for my kids. My kids are almost all grown up. When Micah, my youngest, in a couple years he'll go off to college, I'm an empty nester. Like I'm I'm looking forward to all of that, but not because I'm looking forward to like some retirement or this or that. But I just am thankful for all that the Lord has given me to experience in this life, and I'm looking forward to whatever the Lord has for me in the life to come and in the rest of this life, like everything, right?

Um, but I want you to know something. Something I I like to tell people that are younger than me, especially particularly young people, young adults, right? And that's a time will not make you more godly. This is what I mean by that. There, there is, I think, in us, I I like I said, I got saved in college, I was gung-ho for the things of the Lord. I was involved in Bible study, discipline. I loved it, I love the study of scripture. I I was all in, right? And even in all my excitement, um, my lack of of understanding life myself and being thoughtful about everything around me, led me to assume, and I don't know if I would have said it out loud, but I assume that in like 20 years and stuff, right?

Back then, if you're like, you know, 19, 20 years old, 20 years, you're like a 40-year-old. When I'm a 40-year-old old man, that's the way I would think about it back then, right? Like, I'll be like this godly, super kind, you know, gracious, wise man that people look up to, etc. I just assumed godliness just comes to you over the course of time. Why would I assume that? Because that's how we are in terms of just physical stuff, right? If you're if you're 12 years old, then you can rightly assume, Lord willing, that you will kind of grow. You'll grow taller, you grow bigger, you'll get a little bit more athletic, you know, like you physically naturally grow. Spiritually speaking, though, time in itself won't make you more godly.

Momentum, maybe that's a better way to say it. Momentum will not make you more godly. Right? If you just if you just go with the flow of your life, you don't increase in godliness. You increase in discontentment. You become that neighbor, that old man across the street that yelling at the kids for getting on his lawn. Get off my lawn, you still make it. That's that's what we're prone to. The small things, right? And again, Christian, grow in your self-awareness. The small things that you struggle with, the small things that kind of slightly bother you, but you don't say anything to your spouse or to your friend or to your coworker or or to that other person, that other member in the church, those small things that kind of irk you a little bit that you hang on to, that will grow.

And over time, if you let just momentum take you along, you'll realize at some point you're gonna say something, and you're gonna say something that's not kind. You're gonna realize that you'll hold bitterness against some things because you can't, because that's how you're thinking about it. See, the lack of thoughtfulness in your spiritual life will lead you a path not to godliness and graciousness, but embitterment, pain, and living in all the past failures and all the past sins that have been committed against you. That's when I say the intentional church and the intention of Christian life. Thoughtful would be a good, another good title for this. But the idea is that we are intentional, thoughtful, and careful about the way we conduct ourselves individually, and then you'll see that Paul constantly in the scriptures, I think, constantly ties this to how we conduct ourselves with one another.

So this is Ephesians 5. Let me read it to you, and then we'll begin to unpack it after we pray. Ephesians 5, starting verse 15. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, 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. This prayer.

But there's parts of us that don't really desire that. Lord, if we're honest and we self-assess, Lord, we will recognize that there's parts of us that just kind of are just kind of willing to go with the momentum of life. So busy, so captive to the busyness of the things around us that we're just kind of hoping that everything else, all those spiritual things just fall into place. Would you teach us as you would desire us to understand? That when the scriptures talk about walking, it means that we begin from one point, and the point is to get to that other destination. That we are intended by the design of your justifying work and giving us salvation at our conversion. We're designed to be sanctified and to grow in the experience of walking with the Lord in this life until you call us home and then our struggles are all put aside.

Give us that full perspective, the thoughtful life, the intentional life. So that as a church, Lord, we might be a blessing one to another, and then all those that come and visit in with this church with this body might see the thoughtfulness, the intentionality of the gospel lived out well. We pray these things, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. So here in Ephesians chapter 5, like I said, the context we already built, but there's a lot of talk about walking. And so verse 15 begins by saying, look carefully then how you walk. He had already talked about not walking as the Gentiles in chapter 4. In the early part of chapter 5, we are to walk in love as Christ loved us, right? So there is all these terms of walking.

And that's a term, that's one of those Christian kind of jargon terms, right? That if you grew up in the church and people come up to you and go, hey, how's your walk? You don't go like, well, mostly it's good, I think, right? Like you're not, you're not worried about like your physical walk or gait. You understand that metaphorically, as the scriptures often do in the New Testament, we're talking about how's your life? How's the direction of your life? But think about that. Why is the metaphor walk? It's not how's your stance. It's not how's your Christian life at this moment, in this in this at this retreat, in this singular slice of your life. It is how's your walk? How is your journey might be another way of saying that?

And when 1 Peter talks about the pilgrimage of this life, the whole idea, the metaphor itself baked into it, is the idea that you go from point A, and spiritually speaking, where's point A? Well, that's at your conversion. When the Lord revealed his grace to you and rescued you from your sins. From that point to the point that you go home and be with him. When every earthly struggle, all your sin struggles, all the pains of everything that you've had to endure, when that is all laid aside and you're glorified and you're with the Lord in perfection. So from point A to point B, what's lived in between right now, this is your walk. This is how you're getting someplace. And the word itself speaks of some intentionality or direction.

We need to be getting somewhere. Your spiritual life should be taking you somewhere, should be informing you somehow, should be causing you to be more self-aware and growing in your self-awareness. When we began, we were like you guys, like we're all about the same age. A bunch of the guys that started our church, um, IBC were you know, we're 20, late 20s, you know, like me, like mid-20s to late 20. I was like 27 when we started church. Don't don't join the church if the pastor's 27. Thankfully, Peter's older, so that's a good thing, right? But I I mean, I look back, and if my one of my kids said, hey, we're gonna join this church plan. Oh, really? Tell me about the pastor. I was like 26, like, oh man, like let me have a conversation with this guy, right?

Like, like he's gonna do what we did, like not be thoughtful. But when I look at a lot of these guys that have grown older with me and stuff like that, we have guys that are even older than us. We have uh people in their 60s and 70s, right? And we have obviously newborns and young people and all ages in between. The the thing that we need more than anything else, right, as you're growing older, is ability to know yourself, to understand your own quirkiness. Like if you kind of have that tendency to kind of feel like you need to fix everybody's everything, you need to understand that in yourself so that you don't unintentionally become kind of kind of a sore spot to your Christian brother or sister.

Like you could be so helpful if you think about that and utilize that well. You know, like the Lord might be pushing you towards like counseling and and like you know, thinking about how to take the scripture and apply it to life and stuff, but you need to be careful not to step into places without being invited, like you know what I mean? You need to be self-aware. I needed to be self-aware. I was like, like I said, like you know, that that is a good example, my example of eating people's cheese sauces. That was me. I was a little bit wild, I was a little bit crazy, and and I needed the self-aware, and I didn't have it, but I had good friends, good brothers that would honestly, and not not all of them, particularly spiritually mature, would say, Hey ma'am, you gotta you gotta tone this down, you gotta dial this back.

You're you're like crazy, you're like a wild man, you know? You're like the loudest guy in the room, you do this, you do that. Like it could be a little too much for some people. And I'm like, what? What is the matter? I'm gonna body slam you, right? Like that's that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, right? Like, and I would grab them and do DDP on him and stuff, like you know, and but it was true, and it's not until I recognized that I needed to realize, hey, there are certain, especially some of my sisters, so in the in the church and the Bible study that were part of at ACLA, after a while, towards the end, I got this reputation. I made like five or six sisters cry, right? Like, and it's because I just so blunt.

This is one, uh, she's like older sister to me. I never had a older sister, I had an older brother and you know older brothers, we were typical brothers. It's like, how do you express your love to each other? Hey, what's up? All right, yeah, that's that's the equivalent of hey, I love you, I haven't seen you in a while, hope everything's going okay, right? Like that's that was our relationship. So there's this older sister, she was so sweet to me. Her name was Sue, and um, she would like cook meals for you, you know, in college, I was a big deal, right? She kind of, you know, she kind of like have her like sisterly, like telling me, hey, don't do this, and hey, how come you do that? Kind of nagged me sometimes, right?

Like that, like the big sister. And at some point in that relationship, uh, I remember just being annoyed, and I said, Hey, look, Sue, like if I bug you like that, like I you have so much stuff you feel like you need to fix in my life, maybe we just should not be hanging out so much. You know what I mean? Because like I'm not, I'm not down with just having like like you nagging me all the time. It just literally have it, right? And it was like that Thursday or that Wednesday, I forget when we did Bible study, and then so you know, that was like earlier in the day at the tree house, and then and then I go, you know, go do my stuff, go to class, and they show up at Bible study, and all the other like older sisters are all like that, and you're like, I'm like, oh, dude, what is all their problems, right?

And then they come up to me and they go, dude, what did you say to Sue? I said, What are you talking about? Right? Because I it's alright, it's already passed for me. It's not that big of a deal. It wasn't that deep, right? And they're like, Um, yeah, yeah, she went back to the apartment, she was crying and stuff. And I said, Oh. And at my first reaction was, why would she be crying? Right? Because I'm so unself-aware. Like, it's because, well, you basically blasted off and told her that maybe we shouldn't be friends anymore. And that didn't bother you at all. Should be a problem, right? And it's stuff like that where we need moments of clarity. This is the scriptures calling you to that thoughtful life.

And the first command, live carefully. It's this entire section is packed with just imperatives. Command here, command there, command. But but look at the commands that are given to us. Things like look carefully, walk this way, right? Um, uh commit yourself to this, make the best use of your time. Don't be foolish, know the will of the Lord, right? Don't be drunk, right? Be filled with the Spirit. Like it is filled with command after command after command. And the first category of them is to live carefully. Specifically, walk in wisdom, live carefully in terms of how you might utilize your life, your redeemed life. The first phrase is about walking in wisdom, verse 15. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise.

We talked about the walk already, right? A metaphor that is about direction, starting somewhere and trying to head towards something, right? When we leave tomorrow, you guys aren't just gonna wander and take whatever street and do the best you can and hope that eventually you get to a big enough freeway that you start to hit home. You're gonna take a direction, you're gonna go a certain way. You're gonna be thoughtful or intentional about how you're gonna get from point A to point B. This is the spiritual command. Look carefully. The combination of the command to look at something, and then to do that with carefulness, according to Peter T. O'Brien, one of the greatest commentary writers ever, if you guys, if you guys care about that, right?

He says that that the combination of the command to look at something and to do it with carefulness, suggests that it is both important and urgent. This is significant. This is not just a passing thing like look carefully then how you walk. Okay, all right, so what do you want me to do, Lord? It's like think about this, not with a lack of wisdom, but with wisdom. There's a lot we can say about wisdom, the word Sophia in in the New Testament. And um, if I can express it in a in a singular definition for you, wisdom is intellectual skill. In the Hebrew Old Testament, the person that is wise in like his craft, like this guy's good at I don't, I don't know what they'd be good at working with metal.

That would be a wise metaler. What is that guy? You know? Metal worker? Black blacksmith. Thank you, right? Like you'd be a wise blacksmith, right? It means that that he has a skill to that. And you guys have certain skills, right? Um, the brother was making uh pour over for us. Like uh, I make pour over, uh, I use uh other things or I make espresso in the morning, and as I do that, I still like I still weigh everything, you know what I mean? Like that way, and um, and he was just doing it. I was like, hey, you don't you don't like weighing like that? I just got the it's that that's a skill over the course of time, you kind of get a feel for something, right? And you guys do that with all kinds of stuff.

You saw that develop in the little kids when they're babies, like they're crawling, and then they're like like I'm convinced every toddler when they first start to walk, they're gonna fall down. They gotta, because they like walk like this, like like you know, you're like, what in the world? Like, how are you even keeping your balance? It's like you're doing you're doing that on purpose because you can't be that like off balance, but they figure it out, and the skill set becomes so easy that you could walk and talk, you can do other stuff, you can listen to stuff, you could be swiping stuff on your mind and walking. That's a skill that's developed. It's it comes from the mind, but from the repetition of a thing over and over.

And if you just study that through all the scripture, you might be surprised at how much the scriptures emphasize the repetition of a thing, the memorization of a thing, the skillfulness of a thing, the getting better of a thing. I I hope that I pray better than I did when I was uh a first a believer. Because when I was first a believer, right? When I first came to faith, I thought prayer was pretty much like it's how you ask God for stuff. So ask God for this, ask God for that, etc. And then as you kind of think about that and understand, like, well, what's the point of that? If God actually knows what we need, you realize that a lot of that is to tune my own soul to the things of the Lord and to submit to his will.

And to recognize who God is, to spend time with my heavenly Father, to acknowledge his love for me. It's it's like there is, and in the repetition of that, there becomes this wisdom, this skillfulness, this purposefulness, this thoughtfulness about how to pray. Well, that's applied to everything. I I think I'm a better evangelist than I was when I was when I was first a believer. Like we'd go out and we just evangelize people, you know, on campus and stuff. And if uh, you know, if they they said this thing or that thing, then I'd be like, dude, I alright, I'll see you later. I don't know what else to say to that, right? Like I'd be nervous about everything and stuff, and I still get nervous about stuff, but it's like it's like I don't mind not being able to know something.

And like I get weird stuff, like people say, you know the shroud of Turin Turin, Turin? The shroud of Turin, right? It's supposed to have Jesus' face pitched into it or whatever, right? You know, that's probably faith. And I'm like, oh yeah, that's great. Like that doesn't, that doesn't really matter, right? Whereas if I was a young believer, I might have been like, oh, what are you talking about, man? That's the face of Jesus, bro. Like you're offending me, right? Like I could be upset about something that's a side issue. The whole point is that we are to walk in wisdom, not with a lack of wisdom. And so that is kind of the kind of kind way of saying, grow in the skillfulness of what it looks like for you to live this life for the Lord.

Grow in that. Don't just settle into that. Don't just think, okay, I go to church and you know on Sundays and I participated in this and I'm set. I've doubted my part. The way that most of us compartmentalize our lives, we think of uh church and our participation in church kind of as one of those things that I'm supposed to do. So if you only think of church as what you're supposed to do, at some point you may not like it. This is your church family. This is the place that God has placed you in his sovereign will for you. He has drawn you here intentionally. God is very intentional about everything he does. You know, we just we did a one sermon overview of Genesis, and the story of Joseph always amazes me.

Every twist and turn in his life, and that's a long life. Or if you look at Exodus and every twist and turn in the life of Moses, Moses is a good example. 40 years he lived in Pharaoh's household. Then 40 years he was a goat herder in Midian. That's that's 80, if you're counting, right? And then in a burning bush, God tells him, Hey, you need to deliver my people. And he's like, whoa, you know, this is kind of great. And he does 40 years in the wilderness because that nation sins against the Lord. 120 years, 40, 40. That's a lot of years. Abraham waited till he was a hundred years old before he could have a child of promise when the Lord had promised him that from you I'm gonna make nations, kings.

He was waiting for one kid.

The Lord is intentional about his use of time and the wisdom that it takes to walk out and to trust him. And I think that's where this is going. Live carefully. This is the how of life. Live thoughtfully. Analyze why the Lord does what he does and what the Lord would have you to do in this moment. Don't be unwise, but act in wisdom, because look at verse 16, the second part of living uh carefully, is to make the best use of this time of this moment. Verse 16 says, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. You know, the kids they don't say it anymore, but they like a few years ago they used to say YOLO. YOLO. That's like, what's a YOLO, right? You only live once. That seems that's not super hedonistic.

It probably is, right? That's probably where it comes from, right? But it's just like you only live once. But there's a truth to that, there's an axiom to that, but that shouldn't lead us to go, you only live once, so I'm gonna jump off this cliff. You know? You could if that's kind of like what you want to do, I guess, right? But the whole point is if you only live once, you only have this redeemed life. And I know. Look, without even knowing all of your stories, I know right now some of you guys are probably going through some mess, and you're thinking, like, man, this life is rough. That's normal. In any gathering, I come to church, and before I preach, I recognize and I remind myself that one in four people here are struggling with something that that is making them either fearful or sad or struggle in this life.

That's just normal. Welcome to the difficulty of living in a broken world, right? So as we gather, we want to point them to the hope that is the gospel. But we also, like scripture would direct us to use wisdom, skillfulness in the way that we think about life so that we are making the best use of our time. A couple things to kind of refine this thinking. One, the term make the best use of, that's the ESV trying to make this a good and easy translation. But it's a singular term, and it's the word that means to ransom something, or in in other theological context to redeem something. So some of your some of your other translations, if you're looking like, I think NASB might, right? So it's redeeming the time.

If it's not NASP, it's New King James, right? One of the older translations would say redeeming the time. In other words, buying it up. If it's a marketplace term, it's like buying it up because it's on sale. He's like saying, take take advantage of whatever that life is given to you at this moment. And it's not time, chronological time, it's not chronos, it's the seasons of time. It's the care on. It's it's in this life stage or in these moments. Some of you guys are parents. Redeem this moment. Because the kids aren't always going to be home. Think of how to shape their understanding of the things of the Lord. I had one commitment when it came to my kids and to the gospel. I wanted them to know the gospel.

I want them to love the church, right? But the underlying single commitment was I wanted them to love Jesus themselves. Because especially as young kids, I realized they will all of them like Jesus because dad loves Jesus. You know what I mean? If dad loves that guy so much, now I'm gonna like him. I don't need them to like Jesus. I'm glad if they do. I am begging the Lord that he would open their hearts to love him independently. So far, so good, right? But that has nothing to do with me. That has everything to do with the Lord. And I want to be intentional. See, my part is to be intentional about the conversations we have to talk about sin and how sin is difficult for us to overcome, how dad sins against them.

That's that's some of the most significant things that I've given my kids is I seek their forgiveness. And I see again, momentum doesn't make you more godly. I find it more difficult to seek their forgiveness today than I did when I was a young father. Because when I sin against them and they're cute and they're little, and and then you know, they they say something. I'll tell you this story. Like I remember Becca, my oldest, um, she's like maybe nine, ten years old, and we're going to some birthday party, and we're kind of late, so I'm like, uh, I'm all rushing to the car. And I go, Becca, like, hey, hey, grab the present, I'll meet you at the car. So she goes outside, you know, goes through the garage, and she's standing by the car like this, you know, just waiting to get in.

And so I get my keys and I'm kind of rushing. I was like, oh, we're late. Or come on, hey, get in. And I look at her, and she doesn't have the present in her hands, as far as I could see, right? And I was like, Bats, I told you to get the friend. And as I'm saying that, she goes like this, and it's in her hand, right? And then I'm I'm trying to play it off, like in mid in mid-tone. Bex, I told you to get the oh, you got the present. Good, let's get in. Let's let's get going and stuff. We get in the car, start the car, and we start driving and stuff. And as I'm driving, Becca, like this nine-year-old Becca, she looks at me and goes, Daddy, I go, yeah. She goes, uh, you are mad at me, huh? And I said, No.

So, yeah, I was, and that was wrong of me, because I I thought that you didn't obey me, but even if you didn't, I probably shouldn't snap at you like that. That's not right, you know, and I'm sorry, would you forgive me? Yeah, I forgive you, Dad. But yeah, I heard your voice. I could tell you were mad at me, right? So she's she's like telling me my business, and I'm like, Because there is in my pride, there's moments where I don't respond graciously because I feel like, are you kidding? Like, I brought you into this world. Like, you know, like what do I owe you? Do you pay for rent? Like, like, what do I owe you? Why should I apologize to you? That's the flesh speaking. The making the best use of that time in that moment is to teach them something that leads them to believe that graciousness and forgiveness and love is so much greater than just kind of getting your own way.

That's a hard lesson for kids to learn, and it needs to be exemplified in mom and dad. I'm thankful for all those wonderful kind of car driving moments. That's making the best use of that season of life, and he tells us why, because the days are evil. Evil refers to both moral evil, because there's a lot of sin in this world. And that would suggest that there's temptation to sin and people will sin against you, right? There's some bad stuff that is coming. But it also speaks of circumstantial evil, meaning things that you wish would not take place. Tragedies. You know, we lose one another. The statistic still holds true that one in three of us will get cancer in our lives. So that's like as you're sitting, if you look to your left, person on your left, person on your right, like if statistics hold, then one of you will have cancer, right?

And you know, you guys are all like, I think most of you guys are like in your late 20s, early 30s, right? So that means that'll probably show itself in another 20 years, right? That's just gonna happen. You will say goodbye to church family members that you love. You can say goodbye to mom and dad, both my mom and dad are with the Lord, right? And um that that was a difficult and uh and um and wisdom forming season of my life, right? But like you will go through so circumstantial tragedy and wickedness, you know, moral evil surrounds this life, and because of that, we need to redeem the time that we have. You don't know how long you have, right? I uh I was 40 years old and I was diagnosed with liver cancer.

This is like 16 years ago, and um uh I was born in South Korea, like I said, and uh um I was exposed to hepatitis B. My generation, that's not weird, and there was no vaccination for that, right? So, my whole family, my mom, dad, my older brother and me, we're all exposed to hepatitis B, right? Um, and uh, and so um the three of them, like most like 90% of Asians that are exposed to hepatitis B, their bodies built up at the fine, they had no issues. Me in college, there was a season where you know my eyes are jounded and I could not stay awake. Like I take the shuttle to class and I'd be asleep, and then the shuttle would stop and I get out, I go to class, I immediately fall asleep, and I'm like, dude, what is wrong with me?

I couldn't like I couldn't get enough sleep because I'm so like tired. So I go get checked out, and they said, hey, listen, like there's something's not right with your liver, and uh, you have hepatitis B. And then that phase kind of, you know, it kind of phased out a little bit, and that was mostly okay because your liver's crazy strong. And um, but eventually, when I was 40, and we had just, you know, Kathy just gave it to birth to Mike, so Michael was like, I don't know, six, seven months old or something like that. I got diagnosed with liver cancer. That's not unusual for someone struggling with hepatitis B. And so I had to have a surgery, etc. And um I wish I could say like that transformed everything.

It didn't, but it did transform one thing, and that's that you live with the assumption that the Lord's gonna give you that idyllic life. 80 something years, right? I'm gonna have kids and grandkids, everyone's gonna love the Lord, like we're gonna, we're gonna all be at the same church all of our life. Like we have certain ideas about how long and how how much time the Lord gives us. And I think the command here is literally don't be unwise, but utilize the time that he gives you well, because you are not guaranteed anything. The Lord could call any of us home. He didn't owe me an extension of life, right? He could have called me home, and that wouldn't be that wouldn't be his wickedness, that would be a sovereign grace.

He would take care of everything else, but but that's the point. To live carefully is about how we conduct ourselves in this time, because the days around us are evil. If you can live forever, but in this world as you presently are, I would never take that. Why? Because listen, if I could live like 2,000 years as I am now in this world presently, you and I know it's just a matter of time, right? Before other sinfulness invades into your life, right? Or tragedies upon tragedies are experienced in the course of this life. I just want whatever season that the Lord gives me. That segment of time, you are in that utilize that. Utilize that. And he's gonna build on this. It's not one of these, like do this, do this separately.

It's like he's building on this as he careen's down. So the second main point, if the first one is to live carefully, the second one is to live purposefully. So it kind of mirrors the first. And as good Jewish minds do, they often speak of one thing and they parallel it with something else. That's what you find in the Psalms and the Proverbs often. In poetry, they literally, this is parallel to this, is parallel to this, right? Like they like to build on stuff, and he's building on this, the same idea of living thoughtfully, living carefully, and here living purposefully. If so, if verse 15 and 16 live carefully is kind of the the how we should conduct ourselves, the second part, verse uh 17 and 18, is the why.

Because there is a will that the Lord has for us. Verse 17, therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Don't be foolish, but instead be purposeful. Earlier, right, the previous verses, Paul had said, don't be unwise, but be wise. Unwise is not sinful. That's just a lack of wisdom and skill, right? Foolishness is sinful. It's kind of like that. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. You guys know that old phrase, right? It's kind of like that, in that in that if you don't know better, and you are trying to gain wisdom in terms of doing this better, then you're intentional about it, you're thoughtful about it, and that's good. That's not wickedness.

Foolishness is when you just kind of go, ah, whatever, and you just kind of decide I don't need that. I'm fine exactly as I am. And foolishness in scripture is not just a lack of wisdom, it's moral corruption. Think of the two places in the Psalms that that sound exactly the same. Psalm 141 and Psalm 53, one says this. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds. There is none. Speaking of them, there's none of them who does good. See, their foolishness is a moral, is morally culpable. In other words, they're fools because they live as if God does not matter. They're speaking in their heart like God doesn't exist. There is no God, so that's why I could do this stuff that's corrupt.

That's like an approach these things that are abominable. Because I don't need to do what is right, because there's no God in my eyes. And instead of that kind of foolishness, so here, if we're building on the first point to walk in wisdom, then by the time we're saying don't walk as a fool, right? But instead, seek the Lord, it's saying, don't settle in until you're so hardened that you don't care what the Lord wants. This is a danger of sin. At first, sin feels like our freedom. We get to do it. I get to enjoy it. But any sin that has captivated you, whether it's lust or or or a quick temper or any of those kind of things, if you are bound to it a little bit, you realize in short order, in a matter of a short amount of time and repeated cycles, that you are no longer the one that's free to commit those acts of passion.

It's the other way around. You're in bondage to those acts of passion. That's when you go from a lack of wisdom to the hardness of foolishness. And the remedy for that is to understand what the will of the Lord is, to understand that God has He has rescued you for a purpose. The question is, what would God have you to do with this redeemed life with your redeemed life? And it's gonna be different, and it should be different. Like, like my purpose is not to convince you to live a life that is similar to mine. I don't do that to the kids, right? I I would have loved it if one of my boys said, Lord, you know, I think the Lord wants me to go into ministry, etc. I'd walk him through, I'd help them out.

But if that's not his cause, I'm fine with that. They need to live whatever their particular gifting personality, however the Lord has created them, right? And they need to do their thing. And to do it in a way that is guided towards this is God's will for me. I'm glad this is what God has for me. This is how I'm gonna serve the Lord all the days of my life in this moment, this season of life. Like that would, that's what brings me pleasure and gladness, because that is purposeful living. The way that we break ourselves, right? From the trap and the bondage of acting like God doesn't care or doesn't exist. Is to remember to remind ourselves to dig into the wisdom and understanding of what is it that the Lord have me to do?

And I'm not talking so much about what personal decisions. Where should I live? Who should I date, right? Like, you know, how many kids should we have? Uh, should we buy a dog or a cat? Like, I'm not talking about those kind of decisions in terms of the will of the Lord. I'm saying, like, what would the Lord have you to be? That has He created you to where you kind of have pretty good insight about people when they're when they're hurting or what they sense it, then how can you leverage that in a way that could serve the body? If you're like, dude, I'm not good at a lot of stuff. I could just serve like a, you know, with my hands, I could just then how can you leverage that to serve other people on the body?

That's the whole idea. Don't don't just fall into this pattern of saying this is all I am, that's too bad, too bad the Lord's not that good to me. Instead, figure out what is the Lord's will. Why is He made you the way that He's made? Why is He giving you the experiences that He's given you? Look, if you want to get deep into this, it's like, why is it that the Lord in His sovereign purposes has allowed you to experience certain sinfulness that you had a difficult time with, whether it's people sinning against you or you sinning yourself? Could that not be leveraged at some point? And maybe not right now, maybe there's a lot to unpack than that. But could that not be utilized in a way that helps others?

One of the things about being self-aware and living purposefully, carefully and intentionally this life, is to examine like why is it that we fall into sin? Like I used to ask myself, like, why do I get so mad about something that's so dumb? And I realize for me, it's a whole bunch of other stuff, and it's all packed together and stuff that I'm grumbling in my heart, but I don't say out loud, and by by not really thinking and dealing with that, confessing that and thinking and recognizing how deeply sinful I am, I think I'm okay. I'm a normal person, I'm probably more patient than most people. And in that, in that position of foolishness, then the kids do something dumb, and I just get mad and I yell at them, right?

It's like, well, why do I do that? That's an excellent exploration for me. And my reasons for why I I respond that way, and the reason why you might respond in a similar way in another circumstance might be totally different. We are individual, and the Lord has made us in an individual and wondrously creative way. And the whole idea is to figure out what is it that is unique about us and how do I leverage this for the things of the Lord. Verse 18, and do not be drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. I'll say a few things about this. I'll say what the emphasis is not, it's not just about whether or not you drink wine, right? I I can say, I think I could say this because it literally says, do not get drunk with wine.

If you're getting drunk at any point, that's sin, right? We could just say that that's sin. I think there's liberty. If you have a little wine with your meal and stuff, I'm not mad at you. I'm a total, I'm a teetotaler. You guys know what that is? That's a reference to someone who doesn't drink any alcohol, and that's just just my personal preference. And I think it would take like I love coffee. It took me a while to even enjoy coffee, and I used it for caffeine purposes first, and then after a while, you're like, oh man, this coffee, this folder's is terrible, right? Like, there's gotta be better coffee. And so, and so you kind of get deep in that rabbit. I feel like I don't need that. I don't need to become a connoisseur of wine, or I have no idea what some of these brothers that are into that might be talking about, and I have no interest in that, and that's fine.

If they like that, that's okay. I can say this though, scripture makes it clear that you are not to be drunk, right? But that's not the main statement here. Do not be drunk with wine. Why? That's debauchery, or some translations, that's dissipation. It's wasteful. The the term translated debauchery or dissipation is uh is a word that means to preserve something, and then with uh with the alpha privative, which is kind of like putting an un in front of it, it. It's it's to do the opposite of preserving something, it's wastefully destructive, right? Senseless. And so the term, whatever, if it's dissipation, debauchery, something like that, the term means to show an absolute lack of concern for the consequences of a thing.

And he's saying, see, that's exactly what drunkenness is. That's what, and he's equating that, if you parallel that to foolishness, he's saying, you know what foolishness looks like? It looks like someone in a state, right? Of wasteful drunkenness. That's what it looks like, spiritually speaking. This is the same term, debauchery is the same term describing the life of the prodigal son in Luke 15, 13. He he spent, right? His fortune on riotous living. As if nothing, there's no consequence, and if it doesn't it doesn't really matter. That's the opposite, right? Don't be wasteful, but instead be filled with the spirit. There's a lot of stuff we could say about being filled with the spirit. One, um, it's not just exuberance.

Like I said, when I came to faith, I prayed to the Lord, Lord, forgive my sins, I'll do anything, I'll go anywhere. I was, I was like, Lord, send me some jungle somewhere, you know. I wasn't dating anybody. I was like, I'm a single man. There was a guy from Nepal who was sharing his testimony. I was like, Lord, send me to Nepal. I want to go to Nepal, I want to hike Everest to share the gospel with people. Like I was like, I was like down for anything anywhere. Like the Lord, if you would rescue me, I'd do anything. And I expected this Shazam moment, something to be like, oh, you know, and none of that happened. And why was that expectation? Because I think that's our natural expectation that if something supernatural happens, we must feel it.

Now, listen, we he God has made us to feel. And so if you're singing songs or you're praying, or you're reading a portion of scripture, you're hearing someone's testimony, and you're moved emotionally, praise the Lord, right? That's a good thing. And we should praise the Lord for that. So I'm not saying there is a lack of feeling. I'm saying being filled with the spirit cannot be merely a spiritual, exuberant, right? Ecstatic experience. Because that sounds more like being drunk spiritually. It is the opposite of that. There has to come from being filled with the spirit, a sense of clarity, a sense of purpose, intentionality, everything we talked about to this point, walking in wisdom, right?

Making the best use of this season of life, being purposeful, seeking what the will of the Lord is. All of that is tied with the idea and with the foundation of being filled with the spirit. Filled with the spirit. If you're like me, you you think about that phrase and you think, okay, what does that mean? Like, Lord, fill me with your spirit. Ooh, you know, like, ah, I'm powered up. I'm powered up, you know. Watch out, Satan. Here I come, right? Like it feels that's the way I'm thinking of it. But the idea of being filled, like my cup is filled and it overflows, it's about satisfaction, satiation, having our physically speaking, is about having our tummies filled and getting the natural energy that comes from being nourished.

Being filled with the spirit, if we we think about it in that terminology, like with that wording, I think it's meant to be tied more to contentment and the satisfaction of need, then it has to do with some kind of experience. Being filled with the spirit looks like knowing God and knowing something about what God wants from our lives, which is exactly the context we've been talking about, right? Knowing his will, seeking what he wants us to do with our lives. Here's an interesting parallel, right? Because we're about to get to this point right after being filled with the spirit of telling us in point three what that looks like. It looks like addressing one another in Psalms, himself, spiritual songs, singing, making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God, right?

Submitting to one another in reverence for Christ, all that it looks like that. A parallel passage to that, being filled with the spirit, and then addressing one of the psalms, spiritual songs, etc., is Colossians 3 16. If you're taking notes, you should write that down because it's an interesting one to parallel. Because listen to Colossians 3.16, and tell me that it doesn't sound like this, but with one very different beginning. There it says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and abonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thanksgiving or thankfulness in your hearts to God. That sounds exactly like we're about to look at in Ephesians 5, right?

Where's the big difference? Well, if you were to line that up, the big difference is here it says, be filled with the spirit, and there it says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. I think we can make a case that whatever it looks like to be filled with the spirit, looks like being letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly. In other words, if it's true, what I'm what I'm suggesting, that the metaphor of being filled with the Spirit has everything to do with knowing who God is and what the Spirit is doing and how it works in us, like we are we are we are satiated, we are filled up, like our spiritual bellies are full with the concept of who God is and what the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives and in other people's lives and how he ministers the scriptures to us, then it looks like we are fed by Christ's word, and the dwelling of that infuses the Holy Spirit's work in us and through us, etc.

So if that's the case, then this is what being filled with the Spirit looks like. So live carefully, live purposefully, and then this is like again, these flow together more than they are separate notions, but we flow from be filled with the Spirit, right? That's a command, right? Passive command, by the way, which is weird, right? Like be filled, like put yourself in a position of the spirit kind of settle, settling in in your belly, right? How do we do that? By letting the word of God richly dwell in us, right? The word of Christ richly dwell in us. Well, having said that, now point three, then we are to live spiritually. Capital S, like in the power and in the influence of the Holy Spirit.

The reason why I'm saying that and why it's connected is you have a command, be filled with the Spirit, and then you have all these participles addressing one another, singing and making melody to the Lord, giving thanks, submitting those participles, those ing words, right? Those verbal nouns, they tell us how the filling of the spirit is actually enacted, how it works itself out. It expands for us what it means this command to be filled with the spirit. I'll walk through these kind of quickly. Um, because I think we only have a few minutes. But live spiritually, as if the Holy Spirit is indwelling and filling you, that you are satiated by the Holy Spirit's work in your life. And the way that that'll work out is are these things.

One, praising horizontally or corporately. It says addressing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual psalms. And if you read that and you're like me, you're like, okay, these are one of those, like, what are we talking about? Like, am I supposed to come up to you and go, hey, I haven't seen you, my feet? It's good to see you. Praise God for whom all like is that like we greet each other just in song? Is that what we're talking about? I think it's talking about the talking, the speaking. The word addressing is that word to speak, but it's the word to speak, and it and it emphasizes just the verboseness of something. That this is like this is the stuff you talk about. And if that's the stuff that you talk about, then the idea is that psalms, that would be the Old Testament Psalms, hymns would be Christological hymns, especially in the early church.

Uh hymn referred to those songs that specifically spoke about Christ, our Messiah and Savior and Lord, right? And the spiritual songs would be just kind of the dimension of all kinds of things that bring God glory. So whether it's Old Testament Psalms, songs about Christ, songs about the Christian life and our God in general, like all of those things, we are just be speaking to one another. I think it'd be there's a couple of applications to that. I think one, it means that that the praise of God is flavored in our language as we talk to each other. It matters how you talk to each other. In your home, in your private discussions, whether it's like to your siblings or to you your spouse or to your kids, it matters how you talk to them.

Because the things that you bring up or the things that you want to talk about, they are the overflow of our hearts according to Jesus, right? This is this is Matthew 12, right? That the that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And in Matthew 15, 19, Jesus says, you know what defiles you is the stuff that's in your heart. That's where evil thoughts, murder, adulteries, sexual immorality, theft, false witness line. That all comes out of the heart. So if that's the case, then the idea of what you speak out is very significant. So I think one application is how we speak to each other. Are we talking about things that are significant and that praise the Lord? See, if you're like me, my thought of am I talking about significant things feels like I need to confront you with something.

There needs to be something intense that I could discuss with you, right? That might be my first instinct. And that's a bad instinct. I'm not the Holy Spirit. And I remind myself constantly that that's not my ministry. I I can't transform you. I can't make you better. And that's not my goal, right? My goal is to expose you to the Holy Spirit, to the word, to what God would have you to do, and to think more carefully about what your life could be in service and in worship of Him. So what I shouldn't be speaking are things that honor Christ. When I was a young believer, I thought it was too corny, so I would never say, like, praise the Lord. You know what I mean? Not not in conversation. I could sing that, right?

And stuff like that. But I just thought it's just so corny. Like, you know, there's always that brother, that sister in Christ that would just be like, everything, oh, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. And I'd be like, yeah, yeah, I guess so. Yeah. I try to, I try to praise the Lord, right? But as you get older, it's like, dude, that's exactly the stuff that is in my heart in my on my on my tongue. I want to praise. So people tell me, hey, so this and this happened, and it was a real hard time. I'd be like, oh man, but the Lord is in it, man. Praise the Lord, right? He was like, hey, I appreciate your sermon. Oh, good. Praise the Lord, because I didn't particularly like that. It was an okay serving, but praise the Lord that He did something in your heart because of what the Word said, right?

Like, like you know what I mean? Like, it is like, are we directing things to the Lord and reminding ourselves of all the other stuff that just came? That we live in this season of time. How do we redeem it well? We we live with purposeful intention to seek the Lord's will, and are we dwelling in the things of the Spirit, knowing the word of the Lord and what the Lord would have us to know? Are we speaking psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to each other? Here's the other application. I think it might be addressing like the value of corporate worship. If you're so used to kind of showing it to church or Bible study, and you sing a song, right? Because that's kind of our that's kind of our Christian methodology, right?

We're all gathered together, so what do we do? Well, we gotta pray, right? Now sing some songs, then we gotta hear some scripture, then we sing some songs and pray again, right? And we finish things off. Like that's what we do. And it's easy for us to kind of get into that mode, like, oh yeah, it was a good song because it got me in the mood, got me in the mood to hear from the word. And it's like, do you need to be in the mood to hear from the word? You know what I mean? Like that's weird, right? Like, yeah, it does that emotionally, it drives us to the thinking of the gospel and the goodness of God, it should do that naturally. But that is a moment for you to sing corporately, to pray corporately, to hear the scriptures corporately with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

That is so valuable. You don't recognize how valuable that is until you are going through a difficult moment and you feel isolated and alone. I'm reading this great book, Digital Liturgies. I encourage you to read that. Um, I forget the author's name, but it's his old exploration into how the internet is reshaping the way we think. And um, um, like physiologically, they've they've shown that that you know, like we talk about wisdom. Well wisdom looks like like neurologically is that you do the same thing over and over, like driving your car, right? And when you first drive, you're like nervous about everything, you're like, you know, you're like anxious. Oh, why is that car getting so close?

It's like, no, it's just it's the night next, there's a dividing line. And yeah, I get it. Like in a two-lane highway, it's outrageous when you think about it out loud. Like, I'm going like 60 something miles an hour, he's going 60 something miles an hour, and we're divided by about three feet because someone painted lines in the middle, right? And we just like obey that. Whoop, right? We don't crash into each other and kill each other. It's outrageous. And so, what might be nerve-wracking initially becomes so common to us that we're not so we're talking, and I'm not even looking at all that much, and I'm talking to you, and I'm looking, oh, yeah, okay. And then we're just driving along, and it feels so comfortable and natural because we made neurological pathways that teach us how to do something through repetition over and over.

That's literally, there's a neuro neurological pattern to the way that we think and the way that we grow in wisdom, to the to the habits that we formulate, etc. Um, and if you didn't think about that way, you how you worship when you're with the community is so valuable because I was talking about digital liturgy. Sorry, I got away from that. But digital liturgy is one of the things, and what he means by that is that the the inner internet has its own form of liturgy, its form of worship, the things that it emphasizes for the sake of worshiping that, and it's forming pathways, and part of the things that it does, and you'll notice that if you think about it, one of one of the takeaways is it isolates you.

It naturally does. We sit at a table, and all of our kids pull out their phones and they're looking through stuff, and like I'm by myself. That's one of the reasons why people so go so crazy online. Because in isolation, as I'm just wanting to vent or say whatever, and no one really can push back on me, and there's no eyes I have to look into, another human being that might judge me for how strongly I'm gonna state this. I can say whatever I want. The isolation of it leads us not to sanctification and to the glory of Christ, but again, the momentum of that will take us into self-idolatry, of the godness of myself. Corporate worship helps against that. See, and I like digital allergies because the guy is not arguing, hey, you need to you need to you know get rid of all your smartphones and never go online again.

I don't have any online things, you know what I mean? I mean, I have email, and then I think I have Facebook, but I never check it ever, right? And then I don't do TikTok or I don't can't even name them all, whatever they are, right? Super snuff face, whatever, you know, whatever things that are out there now, whatever you could do and stuff. I don't do any of that, and I'm thankful for that, but I'm not telling you you need to stop that. I'm saying what you need to do though is emphasize the value of this. There is something so wondrous about you guys being so unique and different from each other, but worshiping the same Lord and having the same experience of salvation, and singing that out to and with each other.

You know what I mean? Yeah, I probably can't put enough of a stamp on how valuable that is, but that's why that is here. The first mark of being filled with the spirit of being satisfied in who God is as the Spirit is ministering that into your minds unto wisdom and to seeking his will. Looks like me joining the rest of the congregation in worship. That's something wonderful. Praising corporately, that horizontal dimension. And then singing and making this a second participles, or they're two parcibles, but they mean the same. Singing, making melody to the Lord with your heart, and I think there the emphasis is on is on wholeheartedness and worship well. If there's something that you want to capture in terms of this season of life, it's to worship well with your heart.

Like if you're gonna pray and you're trying to spend some time with the Lord because you got some time alone, etc., then spend time with the Lord until you're satisfied that you spend time with the Lord. And for you, it might look as simple as I'm just gonna read a few passages, think about the gospel and how good God is to me, and give him thanks, and that's enough, and that's great. I have no problem with that. For me, it might look like I'm praying and I'm saying, Lord, I'm concerned about this, I'm stressed about this, these things are not going well, and uh I just don't feel like I'm in a good place or whatever, and I'm pouring that out to the Lord, and I'm reminding myself, like, hey, Lord, I'm not here just to kind of complain, and it sounds like I'm complaining.

I just want you to know that I'm so thankful, I'm so thankful that you rescued me from this. Lord, I remember before Christ how my life was this. I'm thankful that people at church are getting saved and rescued out of the and the thankfulness of that kind of starts to feed my soul and kind of feels like what it feels like to be filled and satisfied with God, right? Worship wholeheartedly, don't walk away from a corporate gathering without having felt like you got to sing and make melody from my heart to the Lord. If you just go fake in the funk, man, that doesn't feed you. Every Sunday, every gathering is an opportunity for your heart to be fed on the worship making of the Lord. Third, giving thanks, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This verse is probably the reason why we end all of our prayers with in Jesus' name. If it's not this verse, there's a few other places that speak of doing things in the Lord's name. But this one particular is giving thanks always and in everything to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. That's a great expression, and notice the frequency, always and for everything. Giving thanks is a serious matter. It's been a long time since I taught on just being thankful. But that is one of the most significant like traits of spiritual maturity that I could place my finger on. In fact, if you think about the opposite, remember in Romans 1, the whole, you know, the um the wrath of God is being poured out presently upon the sins of men because they suppress the truth and unrighteousness, right?

Like all of that. How deep and desperate the sinful condition of fallen humanity is. And then it says there that they suppress the truth and unrighteousness because even though they know God, they do not acknowledge him or honor him as God. And do you know the next phrase? Or give him thanks. The culpability of every sinner, including your children, including us, lies in the fact that we do not honor God or give thanks. We think of Thanksgiving as an optional thing. There's a particular Thursday where we eat lots of food, right? We think of Thanksgiving as a thing that we do because it's polite to do. Hey Lord, thanks for this. You know? My prayers, like, especially over the meal, could sound like rubber dub dub, thanks for the grub, right?

It just sounds like a thing that we do. Because we do it out of politeness. Japanese people, when you know, we we have we support a couple of churches in Japan, we have a good relationship with them, and I've been in Japan several times, and they do this thing where they go, Ikadaki Ma. So they do that, and then they start eating, right? And when they first did that, I was like, whoa, whoa. Like, like who are we giving thanks to? What's going on stuff? And then they explain that it doesn't give thanks to anyone particular, but it is an expression of thanks for the food or oh, good food. Like it's it's just an expression to appreciate the meal that you receive, right? It's not directed towards anyone.

And on the one hand, I was relieved because I was like, dude, I can't say like Igadaki Mas Buddha, right? Thank you, Buddha or something. Like I want to be careful about who I'm acknowledging. And so even the good Christians will say that because it's a it's an expression of just being thankful generally, but they also say grace. So, in other words, they want to be more particular in that they will praise the Lord to give thanks for the meal, and then they'll say ikidagimas, and then they'll eat, right? Giving thanks always and for everything. If you could just grow in this, the depth of your spiritual life and your satisfaction in the things of the Lord, oh man, it would increase tremendously.

Your fight for contentment in this world, right? Hovers near this space of being able to thank God because it begins to change your mindset. It fights against that discontentment that says I don't have enough when you realize you have more than you ever deserve, right? And if your life is characterized by things that that are that you are thankful for, that you give thanks constantly for, try this. Um there's a season of life uh uh most recently uh earlier this year where I just felt like man, I'm not, I'm like struggling with discontentment. I'm feeling like, oh, we need to do this, we do this, Lord. We don't have enough for this, you know. Like, and I realized that, and so I did as a practice at the suggestion of a friend.

Like, I every time I get up in the morning, as soon as I get up, I think of five things that I say, I praise the Lord for, I thank the Lord for, right? Five things that are real things, not like Lord, thank you that the wood floor is here, you know, like you know, I'm not just thanking him for gonna thank you, Lord, that the lights work and that Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light, right? Like, like I'm thanking him for a particular things. Thank you, Lord, because if you hadn't rescued me, what would my life look like now, right? Like almost 40 years later. Um, thank you, Lord, that I have a wife that loves me, right? Despite you know how I can be sometimes, and my children honor the things of the Lord, even though their dad's not the best example of stuff, right?

Like, thank you. Like you thank the Lord for like real things like that. Thank you, Lord, that this difficult counseling situation um is a challenge to me, but I could trust you, and I can see how only you could work this out, and so I'm gonna trust you with it. Like the thankfulness of that kind of recalibrates your mindset and makes you glad for the life that the Lord has given you and for this season of life. See how all of this is kind of permanent, it's like all mixed together. It's not do this and then do this and then do this. It's like do this because it kind of blends to this and it blends into this, right? This is what it means to live spiritually, and this is what it means to live spiritually as a church, capital S spiritually, as in the Holy Spirit is filling you, and you are here to encourage others towards the filling of the Holy Spirit as well.

The last thing, the last participle is submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ, submitting reverently. See, again, this suggests something of the corporate gathering. Like these aren't things that are just given to individuals. Hey, just sing melodies to yourself, be wholeheartedly in worship by yourself, give thanks all by yourself, right? Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ suggests that there's an orderly array to the church that he's given to you, and to submit to its leadership and to be glad to submit to its leadership, not because they're perfect, but because they love the Lord and you honor the Lord's sovereign purpose in their lives as they lead you, you do that for reverence, out of reverence for Christ.

See, what an appropriate thing to say as he leads into the household codes about wives, husbands, children, masters, slaves, right? Because he's saying there's an orderly array to what God has done, and we have the capacity to grow in these things. Let me read you one one quote from JC Raw, because I love me, some JC Rye. All right. He says, when I speak of growth and grace, I mean an increase in the degree, the size, the strength, the vigor, and power of the graces that the spirit plants in our hearts. When I speak of a person growing in grace, I mean simply this that his sense of sin becomes deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, and his spiritual mindedness more marked.

He feels more of the power of godliness in his heart. He manifests more of it in his life. He goes on from strength to strength, from faith to faith, and from grace to grace. That's what we mean by living an intentional Christian life and being an intentional Christian church, right? We are growing intentionally because momentum by itself won't take us there. Momentum would take us to someplace completely different. I give you all these stories, and my wife is always chastising me. He's like, she's like, Yeah, I'm like, all these illustrations, and I just grab illustrations out of the air. You can probably tell, right? But she'll say, you know, the illustration she give, like you're getting mad and this and that.

You know that almost never happens. People are gonna think you're that something is wrong with you, right? That you are yelling at the kids all the time that you do this, and I give I said, Well, I'm just giving it as she says, Yeah, but you need to caveat that because it just sounds like like you know, like you are one thing in the pulpit and you're out of control the rest of your life because all these are our bad illustrations and stuff, and even if they're not totally accurate of you or regular in you, like you express it that way, okay, okay. I get that, right? But the reason why I bring that up is I I love the fact, and as I've grown self-aware, I love the fact that I'm not the godliest person you're gonna be.

I know that, right? I know that I know that in my own kids. The kids know I love Jesus, they know I'm a follower of Christ, and I think they see some consistency in that. But I'm hoping I'm not the godliest person they ever know. I hope they know godlier people than me, because there's gotta be godli people than me. Because I'm just okay. You know what I mean? And I'm not saying that because I'm I'm I I don't know, I'm I have some some need to act, you know, more humble than I am. That's that's me, genuinely and honestly and self-aware, kind of letting you know, like, like, yeah, I'm a pretty normal Christian, except I'm deep in terms of my convictions and who I love, right? And so is there godliness?

I hope so. I hope there's even godly people. I knew guys that would tell me about their dad. Is there seminary professor that loved his dad was a dairy farmer? And he said he understood how godly that man was, even though he didn't have more than a high school degree education, because um, they were pretty wealthy as dairy farmers. Dairy farmers apparently did pretty good at some point in time. And he said, uh, he said, his dad told him, Hey, um, I want you to come into a season of prayer with me. I'm trying to decide whether or not we should buy a new tractor. And then he says he is like a 12-year old boy, 13 year old boy. And he understood something about how the family finances were. He said, Dad, like, don't you have enough money to just buy one, like, or buy two or three right now?

And he says, son, it's not about whether or not I can do it. The question is, does the Lord want me to do it? Right? And he said that struck him, and then in his teen years, you know, he would wake up in the middle of the night, and then he would realize that his dad would get up like at four in the morning and be on his knees in prayer in another room. And he said, My dad, uneducated as he was, loved the Lord, and he was the most godliest man I ever met. And so I think of that. And I think like, that's not me. Like four in the morning, I have to call. You know, I'm just thinking. I'm like, I'm not all that, and I I'm okay with that. You know what I mean? I'm not trying to be that guy's dad.

I'm just trying to be me. And the best version of the Christian me that loves the Lord and loves the gospel of Jesus Christ, that's what I'm trying to do. That's what I'm conveying to you. Don't be me, don't be Pastor Peter. Be the best version of what you can be for the Lord yourself. And who knows what that looks like. I pray that you guys grow in godliness way beyond your pastors, way beyond me. And you impact the church in the next generation in ways that I may never be able to do, that Peter may never be able to do. That would bring the Lord glory. And it would validate his sovereign grace and what he's done in your life. Right? Let's pray. But thank you for this time in the word. Bless the rest of our of our day together, may encourage and build us up as a church to be intentional, purposeful, and wise in following you.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.