Message Recap – 3/25/2011 – Purity: Part 1

We are just beginning level two of the three level series within a series. These series are about the hardest battles that we face as Christians. Some of the battles are with the world, but most of them are within ourselves, against our own temptations, our own wants. We just finished “Tongue Tied” last week. And this new series is about... sex!

The battle for purity is one of the most hotly contested battles. You can see all around you the carnage of those who have lost the battle. Pastors, presidents, movie stars, world leaders, governors, etc. This is an extremely important battle that we need to be determined to win, determined to hold our ground.

Sex may not be the most comfortable subject to talk about in church, but the world is talking about it 24/7, you are hearing on TV, in music, in movies and from your friends. It's time for someone to stand up and say what's true when it comes to purity.

It should be noted that Pastor Dan is not preaching this because he knows of a purity compromise in Revolution Church. On the contrary, he is preaching because now is the time to decide how you will face this battle. This is not aimed at one person, it's for all of us, young and old.

Why is purity important? Why do we care? Why is it a big deal? Why do we even bother with these old-fashioned ideas? They do it on TV all the time with no consequences! Why stand in the way of nature?

We're not even going to cover the many physical consequences of sex in this series. We are just going to cover the spiritual and emotional consequences. Let's dig into 1 Corinthians 6:15-20 to start off: Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.” But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

This is a revolutionary idea, not only in our culture, but in modern Christianity: You do not belong to yourself; Jesus Christ bought you with His life!

1. God created sex. He created it for us, to be fulfilling and fun. It's a good thing! It's not something that was first invented in the '60s along with LSD and protest songs. But it was created to be used in one specific context, which is marriage. It was not made to be used outside of that context.

God has commanded us to run from sexual sin. A fire in a fireplace or woodstove is a good, useful thing. It brings warmth to heat your home and roast marshmallows. Fire on your carpet, on the other hand, is not good. Fire is good when contained and in the right place, but destructive outside of that place.

In the same way, sex is good in the right place. In any other place, it is destructive and you need to run away from it like you would run from a fire!

2. “Purity leads to intimacy.” (–Andy Stanley) This is something that TV, music, movies and your friends won't tell you.

Sex is relational. Sex is never “just sex.” It always has relational consequences both now and in the future. Paul said, "The two are united into one." Every time you engage in sex outside of marriage you leave a piece of yourself behind. You are joined to that person. The only place where sex will not leave you broken, and empty is within the committed, intimate relationship of marriage. Any place outside of that causes your future marriage to suffer. You rob your future self and your future spouse!

Girls: What you really want is not sex. You want to fall in love. You want to get married, to trust someone, to be able to tell them everything and not have them betray you.

Guys: You don't really want sex. You want to find a hot girl and marry her. You're afraid that you will lose the attraction for the girl, and be stuck in misery with her forever. Because the world says that great sex involves a hot girl.

The truth is that attractive people get divorced everyday. Attractiveness is not the secret. Great sex comes with complete intimacy. What you are really looking for is not sex, it's intimacy. And your ability to find real, lasting, true intimacy is only found through purity.

Maximum intimacy leads to great sex, and maximum intimacy is only found in marriage. Sex outside of this leaves you feeling rejected, betrayed, empty and lonely.

People like to tell you that "sex is just sex," That there are no emotions attached. Nothing could be further from the truth. Would you marry every attractive person you meet? Of course not! Yet if you have sex with someone, you become united to them (whether you marry them or not).

All of the negative connotations people have about marriage are actually true about sex just as much as about marriage. It carries commitment, consequences and baggage.

Which story would you rather have to tell your future spouse someday?

#1: I got carried away when I was young and had sex with my boyfriend. Once I started I figured I might as well keep going, so I've slept with about 12 people. But... now I really love you, so it's all OK, right?

#2: I got carried away when I was young and had sex with my boyfriend. But then I heard this message about how sex is important, and since that day I have been saving myself for you!

#3: I've known the importance of purity since I was young, and I have been saving myself for you my whole life!

It's not too late. If you've made mistakes, your life is not over. There is forgiveness for you! You can start over! Purity keeps you whole - no matter what you've done before, choose to walk in it today.

Message Recap – 3/18/11 – Tongue Tied: How Your Life is Linked to Your Words: Part 3

If you missed parts one and two, be sure to check out the recaps here:

Part 1

Part 2

Christianity is a war. Some battles in the war are fought just once, some are constantly re-fought. The battle for the tongue and for what we say is one that must be won over and over again. You should probably already know by now that the theme verse for this series is found in 1 Timothy 6:11-12:

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Also, James 3:2-6 says:

Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.

We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches.

But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.

Also check out Proverbs 18:21: Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Tonight we are covering the subject of speaking by faith. What does it mean to speak life?

Ephesian 4:29 says: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Is what you say building others up? What does speaking life sound like? How do we create good things through our words?

2 Corinthians 4:8-13 covers this: We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak.

Instead of negativity, complaining about how tough it is or predicting doom and gloom, what if we spoke by faith? What if we spoke the words that God is speaking?

It's easy, fun and popular to criticize. People like to listen to criticism – there is always an audience for negativity.

But there is another option - speak faith and life in the midst of those difficult circumstances! Believe and therefore speak!

Our lives are steered by our words. Sometimes you can change your heart by changing what you say. By practicing saying the right things instead of the wrong things, you can change your perspective, change your attitude, and change your heart!

How does faith work? It starts at salvation.

Romans 10:8-10 says, But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: f you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

You first step into faith was when you first believed that God sent His Son to save you, and spoke it out by praying the sinners prayer. The way we receive salvation is the same way we receive every other Spiritual gift. You believed and you spoke. Faith always follows that same pattern. It's not good enough to merely believe. We believe with our heart, but we also use our words!

Two important things to remember about faith:

1. Faith faces facts. You don't have to life in a state of denial to be in faith. Paul and Abraham both faced the facts about their situations, but didn't let them define who they were or dictate the future. Faith speaks in spite of the facts of the circumstances you find yourself in.

Romans 4:18-21 says, Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

2. Faith starts with obedience. Before God even made a promise to Abraham about his descendants, He gave him instructions. And Abraham followed them. Abraham didn't just randomly start believing for whatever he happened to want at that moment. He didn't just start speaking whatever he wanted over and over again and expect God to appease Him. We speak in obedience to what God has promised us. You need to fill your heart with the word God has spoken to you until it overflows out of your mouth.

Philippians 4:13 promises that God will supply all of your needs. But if you are not being obedient to God, you can confess that verse all you want and it won't mean anything.

For instance, if you're not tithing, God has said that you are under a curse. So if you are not tithing yet you're praying to God for blessing, it's pointless; it goes against His word. Similarly, if you are praying for healing from your lung cancer while smoking 4 packs a day, it's probably not gonna work. God has called us to be smart, to take good care of ourselves and to obey the commandments He's already given.

We speak the words God has spoken to us.

Reinhardt Bonke said, “God's word in your mouth is just as powerful as God's word in God's mouth.” Woah. That is saying that if you were somehow present when God created light, and he leaned over and said to you, “Hey, why don't you try this one,” and you said, “Let there be light,” it would be. Get it? When you put God's word in your mouth, it carries just as much power as it does in His own mouth!

Find out what God is saying about you, about your future, about your destiny and get it into you. Make it a part of you. Speak it, repeat it! Speak what God says about you!

Jeremiah 29:11 and Philippians 4:13 are good places to start. When you read the Bible regularly you will find that God speaks to you through other verses that pop out at you. Take the time to find out what God's word is, speak it, and you will see it come to pass!

Message Recap – 3/11/11 – Tongue Tied: How Your Life is Linked to Your Words: Part 2

If you missed part one, be sure to check out the recap here: Part 1

The theme verse for this series is found in 1 Timothy 6:11-12:

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Being a Christian is a battle. Being someone who lives a moral life, a life for Jesus Christ, is hard. Society doesn't help... in fact, they push against you all the time. And this isn't something new. It's been that way since the beginning of Christianity. Faith is a fight. Our faith needs constant attention and constant stoking, just like a fire does. Those of you who have a woodstove in your house or have ever started a campfire know that if you don't tend the fire, it goes out. The same is true of faith.

If you try to just slide by without doing anything, you will find that your faith has died because you have not fanned it into flame.

Some battles in this fight of faith are harder than others. Many great people have had their lives limited due to an inability to fight certain battles (which we are covering over the next three series). One critical battle is the battle over what you say.

This is a battle that you never grow out of. It's not like learning to share your Barbies or learning how to use a fork - something that you don't have to worry about past age 5. No, it's always a battle. It's always something you have to be careful about.

You have to fight this battle strategically and win it repeatedly.

James 3:2-6 says:

Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.

We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches.

But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.

Also check out Proverbs 18:21: Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

So, is the tongue itself the real problem? You know the verse where Jesus says, "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off."? He didn't mean that you literally have to go through life limbless and tongueless. The core problem would still be there, and we'd have a hard time eating, talking, walking, etc. Jesus was saying that you need to take sin seriously. Our tongue is not the root cause of the problem, just spouting off on its own without our control.

Take a look at Luke 6:43-45: A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.

Sin is a heart issue; what you say comes from your heart. Your heart is overflowing, and the overflow comes out your mouth. Those words that slip out when you're angry are coming from your heart. If anger is coming out of your mouth, guess what your heart is full of? You can't hide what's in your heart for very long, because eventually it comes out your mouth in the form of words.

To fix the problem of your tongue and your words you can't just cut out your tongue. To solve the problem you have to go to the source – your heart.

What is coming out of you? Negativity, anger, curses, insults? That's what is in your heart.

Sometimes, like a backed up septic tank, you have to empty your heart out in order to figure out what is causing the problem. Fortunately, you don't have to do it alone. The reason Jesus came and died for you was to empty all that junk out of your heart for you. We need forgiveness! We need the cleansing power of the Cross, of Jesus! You have to clean out the junk and refill your heart with something better.

What's in your heart often didn't come from you but from someone or something else. This is why we need to be careful what is going into us, about what we listen to, what we watch, what we read, and who we hang out with. All of those things are contributing to the content of your heart. Your heart is filled with what is put into you. You may need to change what you are putting into you in order to change what is coming out of you.

Keep the garbage out (some garbage is unavoidable, but do your best to keep as much out as you can). Put the Word of God in – read the Bible, listen to it on CD or podcast and spend time in prayer and worship.

When you are filled with the Word of God, what comes out of you is wisdom, peace, grace, joy, forgiveness. When you are putting good things in, good things come out.

What's coming out of you is what's in you! If you're fighting the battle of your tongue, be careful about what is going into you and make an effort to put less garbage and more of God in every day.

Message Recap – 3/4/11 – Tongue Tied: How Your Life is Linked to Your Words

This is a series within a series – like Inception only without Leonardo DiCaprio. There will be three three-part series as part of an overall series. Whoa.

Tonight, we will start in 1 Timothy 6:11-12: But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Being a Christian is a battle. If it's not a battle for you yet, just wait; it will be. Christianity is at odds with the world, carrying an opposing message. Conflict surrounds it. Some battles are harder than others. You may have seen great people of God suddenly taken down by some of the things we will cover in the next three series. We have to fight these battles repeatedly over our Christian lives, and win them. Tonight we will talk about the battle of controlling the tongue.

Why does what we say matter? We're not talking about just calling your little brother or sister names or swearing. The Bible says not to let unwholesome talk come out of your mouth. That means insults, swearing, gossip and a host of other stuff that comes out of our mouths everyday. But this message is not about what to stop saying about others – though there are surely things to work on there. This message is about what we say to ourselves and about ourselves. Do those words affect anything? Yes!

Take a look at James 3:2-12: Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.

We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches.

But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.

People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.

According to James, the battle to control our tongues is the hardest battle we will face. In that moment when you are angry at your parents or your siblings, or when someone is taunting you, it is an epic battle for what will come out of your mouth. A careless word can bring huge changes. What we say carries weight.

With our words, we can light a fire in our lives that will destroy or a fire that will transform.

Proverbs 18:21 says, Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Our words are creative. How do we know? God created the heavens and the earth. Remember Sunday School 101? He spoke it into being. Whatever He said was so.

Then God created man in His image. We are created in the image of God, therefore our words carry weight and power because God's words carry weight and power. What we say has creative power and we shape our world by our words.

Angels, demons and the devil all lack creative power. They just do what they are told (angels) or rip off what God has already done (demons). There are only two creative entities in the universe: God and man.

The creative power we have starts with our words. Something powerful happens when we speak over our lives.

What are you building with your words? What are your words shaping and creating in your life? Are your words negative, predicting gloom and doom? Those words will shape your life. Or are you speaking faith, life and destiny? Those words will also shape your life.

Sometimes the words that we speak don't originate with us. In fact, most of the time they came from someone else. Whose words are you repeating?

This is why we stress the importance of what TV and movies you watch, what music you listen to and who you hang out with. Because all those words are having an impact on you. Are you repeating the words of this world, or are you repeating God's words for you?

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and death and life are being build as you speak over your life. Speak life, speak what God says!