Deadly Currents - Believing Big

So I'm um I'm out um mowing the lawn some years ago, and um one of my big motivational challenges, of course, was to get my sons to work.

And have you ever had that motivational challenge?

Okay, well, and uh and uh there I don't hear anybody objecting to that.

I didn't hear either of them going, oh no dad Oh, get out of here.

You have a short memory.

Um but the I'm out mowing the lawn and uh Doug's uh Doug's probably about five years old at that time and he has um uh he's following me around.

He's supposed to be sort of clipping around the rocks And um so he's it's a very hot day, uh August, and he's nicely, you know, being um, he's down over there and I'm I wave at him, I smiled, and I kept mowing And about five minutes later, he came over to me.

He's all sweat hot and sweaty.

And he looks at me with those big blue eyes.

And he says, Because I can't hear him because the mower's going, but I I see his lips moving and I have a feeling my son wants to say something to me.

So I turned down the mower.

I said, what'd you say, Doug?

He said, Daddy, would you please do it again?

I said do what again He said, Daddy, would you please smile at me again?

He said, it's your smile that keeps me going.

Let's all say it together.

Aww so give Dog your smile.

I thought isn't that something?

Daddy's smile.

That's all it took.

Didn't offer him any money.

Just his daddy's smile kept him going And I thought, isn't that what keeps us all going?

Isn't it daddy's smile that keeps us going?

Because when you got the blessing of God, you got it all.

And if your father isn't smiling, you can't work hard enough.

You can't think fast enough.

You can't run fast enough to make up for not having your father smile Tonight we come to a chapter in the life of the people in the book of Ezra.

And you know where we've been?

We are looking at six steps to supernatural outcomes.

How the things can happen that have never happened before, how the mission impossibles turn to miracles.

By the way, tomorrow morning After what we saw last night when you guys gave us your mission impossibles you're facing in your life, we're going to try to have those converted into just some cards that y'all can take and pray for one another and take one take somebody's burden with you And uh or or even all of them if you would like to pray for all of them.

Some of you are real prayer warriors, and so we really want to have those prayed for.

So those are going to be in a form that you can pick up and and just you won't have a name on it, but you'll know the burden and God knows the person But tonight we are gonna look at we look we looked at how they went back to the land and and uh we saw how the this all begins with the embracing God's plan and saying there's always something bigger going on than the thing we can see in front of us, not just the incident going on.

And then we talked about how You build your altar right before you begin the work.

And the very first thing they did with this huge job of rebuilding the temple was to build the altar.

Build your altar every day.

You begin with Jesus.

Or it ain't gonna be much of a day.

You begin with Jesus.

Take that walk with Jesus we described this morning.

Now, let's talk about the third.

Step to supernatural outcomes.

And in order to find that, here's what we're gonna look at tonight.

I wish it was all happy, but it's not.

Tonight we're gonna look at you see your notes?

This is sobering.

Tonight we're gonna talk about how the people of God lose the blessing of God.

We're going to talk about how the people of God forfeit the purpose of God, that great plan, how you can blow it.

We're going to talk about tonight how you invite the judgment of God.

And we'll find that in the book of Ezra.

We go to Ezra chapter 9.

And I am in search of what I call five heart-rending words out of the book of Ezra For some reason, I read these words months ago, and they have haunted me ever since.

Maybe they won't affect you the same way, but when I explain them to you, you'll see why.

The leaders came to me, me being Ezra, Ezra 's writing in the first person now.

The leaders came to me and said The people of Israel, now let me just before we go any farther, let me review for you where we are in the story.

You remember we had that first wave of people come back to the land?

That was under Zerabbabel, remember, and and and uh Jeshua the high priest This is now many years later.

Those guys are off the scene.

The temple got done.

These guys have come and their job is to get the people of God to wake up.

So here we go.

This report comes to Ezra, this holy man, this priest, that the the very the most powerful king on earth is trusted because of his relationship with God.

The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not, this is even the leaders, guys, even the even the the spiritual leaders have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices.

Now, they were like we are surrounded by a godless culture It's okay if your boat is in the water.

It's not okay if the water's in your boat.

Their boat was in the water, but the water was getting in the boat, and it was sinking it.

Here we go.

Like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, they have taken some of their daughters.

Those Canaanite chicks were hottis.

Hebrew, Hebrew.

And so they're like, check it out, mama.

Can I just go out with her one time?

I won't marry her.

I just want to see just see what she's like.

Yeah.

They've taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons.

Hunks.

Look at those Canaanite hunks.

And have mingled the holy race.

This is not about an ethnic group This is about a spiritual group who God calls the holy race.

Have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them.

And the leaders and the officials, the Bible guys, the Levites, the priests, have led the way.

In this unfaithfulness, the tragedy that we're going to address tonight is summed up in five heart-rending words.

Write it down.

They mingled the holy race.

We're going to focus on those words because I'm going to suggest to you that I am describing this generation of American Christians.

They have mingled the holy people of God.

What is happening is that these people were in there was in in in Israel as they went back there there was a current That was moving downstream, that inevitably will go over a waterfall that will kill you.

And they have gotten in that current of that river and are being carried along by the current of the culture.

Without even realizing it.

And they are headed for destruction.

And eventually Ezra will say, God, are we going to have to go through it again?

Are you going to have to take us away again?

We were taken out of this land.

We've done this before.

It started with these kinds of compromises.

God, is this going to happen again?

Are we gonna are we messing this thing up again?

You got us out of the land of captivity, you brought us back, we got our temple back, we got our land back, and we're about to mess this thing up again And Azure agonizes over this.

Because they're being carried away by a strong current and a deadly current.

And tonight I just ask you for the next few minutes to see, let's look in the mirror.

And see if we're in this story at all.

Here is a third step toward a supernatural outcome.

The first is to embrace that great plan of God.

The second is to begin with Jesus at your personal altar.

But the third one is holding the line.

Holding the line and saying, I will not move on the righteousness of God.

And the book of Ezra gives us three pictures. that show us how to get lost and how to get home.

I might also add how to diagnose whether we're getting lost Here's the first picture.

The most special people on earth.

The most special people on earth.

Go to Deuteronomy chapter 14 with me for just a minute.

You are, you are, the children of the Lord your God.

Do not cut yourself, shave the front of your heads.

This is all has to do with not copying the Canaanites, because you are the people holy to the Lord your God.

Now, let me just read to you a great explanation of God's holiness, because sometimes we think it's like a list of rules.

Andrew Murray, the great devotional writer, said, God's holiness is often spoken of as though it consisted in his hatred of and hostility towards sin.

But this gives no explanation of what holiness actually is.

It is merely a negative statement that God's holiness cannot bear sin.

Holiness is the attribute of God that causes him to always will and do what is supremely good.

God's against some stuff because he's for some stuff.

He's for what is supremely good.

So he's against anything that's going to spoil it.

Holiness is not just, you know.

Don't do that.

It's don't do it because you're going to mess up the good thing.

So when he says these are his holy people So , you are a people holy to the Lord your God.

Now there is a Hebrew word here that has to do with being kept separate, and many of you know that.

And the the Greek word in the New Testament is similar to that, that you're special, you're reserved for God Out of all the peoples, now today he says this to those of us who have chosen to follow Christ: out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession.

Tell me Does not every one of us want to be significant the one time we pass through this planet?

Don't we want to say, I was, I did something, I mattered the one time I was here.

How could you matter more?

Than to be the chosen treasured possession of the God of heaven.

Woo You are, you've got all the significance a humanity you could ever have.

There's nothing you could do, no degree you could get, no standing ovation you could get, no award you could get, no fortune you could build that could ever give you that significance.

So God says, this is you're my holy people.

Then in 2 Corinthians, in the New Testament version of the same, look at this.

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.

Now there's a do not, there's a negative, and there are reasons.

For what does righteousness and wickedness have in common?

Or what fellowship, see your light.

What fellowship can light have with darkness?

What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?

What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

Now let's go follow his logic.

What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?

Now, his appeal, Christians have always, you know, you're they would say, be separated from the world.

Listen to the logic for it.

Do you know who you are?

Do you know who you are?

You'll see why you cannot be part of this world system.

Because you're the temple of the living God.

As God has said, I'll live with them, I'll walk among them, I'll be their God.

They'll be my people.

You're my people.

You're my people.

Okay, let's go on.

Therefore, come out from therefore, because of who you are, when you realize who you are, it only makes sense.

You will come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.

Touch do you know who you are?

Well, don't touch any unclean thing.

I will receive you.

I'll be a father to you.

And you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

Oh, that's pretty, that's that's exciting stuff.

There was a homeless man several years ago.

I happened to see this on TV on the news.

There was a homeless man in Denver, found on the streets of Denver, and when the police brought him in and started to talk to him, they realized he not only was homeless, he had amnesia.

They're like, well, where are you from?

I don't know.

He didn't know anything.

He couldn't remember anything.

So it's pretty tragic.

He's not homeless, but he's had no clue where he's from, who he is.

Well, I happen to see it be watching the news when the police lieutenant had him on TV.

He said it was a last-ditch thing.

He said, I'm gonna put him on television, and this guy got on TV and he said, Can somebody Tell me who I am and where I belong.

There's a whole world of people asking that.

And a few minutes later a phone call came in from Seattle.

It was a girlfriend.

She said, I know where he is.

I know where he belongs.

And it got him home.

All of us, when we came to Christ, those profound questions were answered forever.

I know who I am.

I know where I belong.

So the whole thing begins with this is God's holy race of people, the most special people on earth.

The Holy Race set apart for the special purposes of God.

You are part of God's counterculture.

You God's counterculture Now, um Doug started to collect these cards and and uh he he really I started to say if he if he'd been an all Wall Street investor he'd be very rich today because he got to learning how to buy low, sell high, you know, buy them when they're when they're like this up and coming guy in college, get the cheap rookie, when the guy's a star, sell him.

He was really good.

He got paid his way through college.

Other guys gave him money to invest.

He kept 10%.

This is how he got helped back to college.

Started with baseball cards.

He didn't have much organized back then, but he had his baseball card collection organized And man, he kept these valuable rookies of these guy up and comers, man, he kept them in this plastic and he said, because he said, Dad, you don't want any dings in them, you don't want any dents in them, you don't want any creases in them, you don't want any marks in them.

Because and those of you who collect anything know that something is most valuable when it is in what?

Mint condition.

That's exactly right.

He said, Dad, I gotta keep these.

I'm not gonna let I'm not gonna mess with these.

No, you can't take them out and look at them.

No, we're gonna no fingerprints.

We're gonna keep these in mint condition because that's when they're most valuable God says to his people, stay in men condition.

Don't lose your value.

You couldn't have more value.

My treasured possession, my temple, my son, my daughter, my people.

What do you want?

What else could what else could anybody else give you?

So he says keep yourself in mint condition.

Now one thing I've learned about collectibles.

You know which cards were the most valuable?

Were the ones that weren't many of?

I think the baseball card companies have this all figured out I mean, I looked for my star when I was growing up on the south side of Chicago, and I was a White Sox fan.

There was a guy, most of you would be too young to remember him. but he's in a hall of fame a guy named Nelson Fox.

Nellie Fox was second baseman for the for the Chicago White Sox.

I could get the entire White Sox team.

I could get 50 of the right entire I couldn't.

I'd get Nelly Fox the whole time Because he was the star.

They wouldn't print one of him.

I don't know.

But the and there's a baseball card of Honus Wagner back from like 1910.

It's like half a million dollars.

To buy the harness for a piece of cardboard.

Why?

Because it's rare.

And the less there are of them, the more valuable it is.

I can tell you as a follower of Christ that you're going to feel lonelier and lonelier in the church If you hold a line to what God says is right and wrong, you're going to feel lonely around Christians.

But the less there are of you, the more valuable you become.

God says, do you know who you are?

You are the most special people on earth So I believe that we mess up when we forget who we are.

Because the entire argument God made in 2 Corinthians 6 for being righteous and holy and different from the people around us is who we are.

Well, who are we?

Let's just review what we read.

Number one, you're the temple of a holy God.

That is not your body.

Use not your body to decide what you do with it.

Now kids need to know.

That is not their body to decide what they do with it.

Everybody, I was in Athens, I saw the Temple of Athena.

Man, I'll tell you, if you got anywhere near the Temple of Athena, you messed that up in the least, you're dead.

Because pagan people know where your God lives, you don't mess with it.

You don't get it dirty.

You don't pollute where your God lives.

If pagans know that.

Who could have ever conceived that God would move into our bodies and make this a temple?

You don't pollute this.

You don't mess with this.

You don't devalue this.

This is the temple of the Most High God.

Do you know who you are?

The whole argument for holiness is based on knowing who you are, and Satan's whole way to get you to compromise is to get you forget who you are and think you're less than that Second thing is you're the royal child of the king of all kings.

He said, I'll call you my son, my daughter, the prince, the princess of God.

A princess in the king's family.

A prince in God's family.

Look at the royalty around you.

Look, forget, forget What's her uh William and then Kath what's her name?

Kate?

Kate and and Prince George.

You gotta you sitting next to royalty right now, eternal royalty Every one of us who belongs to Christ, a prince or a princess.

I called one day and Noelle, Doug's daughter, answered the phone.

She's probably six or seven.

I said, hi princess.

She said, I'm not a princess.

I said, yes, you are, and Noel.

She said, no, I'm not wearing my princess dress today.

I said, honey.

You are always a princess.

You don't need the dress.

It's not the dress that makes you a princess.

You're always my princess.

God says you're to every woman in this room, you're always my princess.

To every man in this room, you're always my royal prince.

Don't forget who you are.

There's a lot of junk you don't have to get mess with because you know who you are.

Thirdly, you are the blood purchase of God's Son.

Revelation chapter 1, verse 5 says Look at this last part.

He loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, paid for in blood.

Revelation 5. 9 says that to Jesus.

They sang a song to him.

You purchased men for God with your blood.

You don't mess up what costs God's son his blood.

And then you are the face of Jesus.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, see where you are, you're the closest some people who ever get to Jesus.

So they're checking out, they're sizing up Jesus by you.

You all moody, you all negative, you all pretty much falling in with the people around you, and they don't have any idea who Jesus is.

2 Corinthians 5.

20.

We are Christ's ambassador You know, when when uh Carolyn Kennedy was just named uh ambassador to Japan, well, most of the people in Japan will never see President Obama The face of of his administration, the face of America, will be the ambassador, Carolyn Kennedy.

That's people will judge America by the face they can see because the guy she represents isn't there.

They judge by her.

Well Jesus doesn't show up physically where you work, where you live, with the people you're associated with.

So you're it.

You're the ambassador.

So they're they're figuring out Jesus from you.

How are you doing?

Okay, now you know who you are?

God's most special people.

1 Peter 2, 9 and 10, Peter sums it up so well.

You're a chosen people.

You're a royal priesthood.

You're a holy nation.

You're a people belonging to God.

Why?

Because because if you are those kind of people, you are going to be my megaphone.

You are going to be declaring, you're going to be the proof, you're going to be declaring with your life the praises of him who called you out of darkness.

But what if you're letting the darkness in?

Now everybody's confused because the Jesus person they know is letting darkness leak in So you're the you're the one who's living proof.

You got to be that so they will know you've been called out of darkness and they could be too because they know somebody who has been into his wonderful light And once you were not a people, but now you're the people of God.

Once you'd not receive mercy, but now you got it.

Okay, you got there's the first picture.

God says, this is my holy race, my holy people, set apart for me.

But now comes the next part.

You have mingled.

You have messed with.

You have compromised, my holy people.

How dare you!

The seduction of the chosen ones.

The seduction of the chosen ones.

You see when the flood, you see these people, these floods that take place, different parts of the country.

Some of you may have been in the middle of all that.

And you see the flood rising around the house and people sandbagging and doing everything they can to protect their house.

And it's okay as long as the flood is around your house.

But the bad things happen when the flood gets in your house.

We are living in an increasingly ugly flood.

Where what we accept, because of just the times in which we live, is unacceptable to God.

And the flood is now in the house and will ultimately drown you and the people you love.

There is Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and you may know another city like this.

You drive in that city and you go, it stinks!

Yeah!

It does.

You ever been around a paper mill?

Oh for heaven's sake.

Not for long, I'll bet you weren't We had Belvedere, Illinois, where I lived for a while.

We had a green giant factory there.

And when I moved there, the stink was horrible.

I said, what's that?

They said pea vines.

I didn't I came from Chicago.

I didn't know peas came on vines.

I thought they grew in cans.

But they actually come on.

I did they grow on vines.

Did you know that?

And they had rotting pea vines out behind the green giant factory.

It was horrible.

People want, what smell?

Well you don't smell that?

It's everywhere.

What smell?

You go to Plane Blue Falcon, so you go, this is horrible.

What is that?

They go, what is what?

They don't smell it anymore.

They've been around it so long.

It's just let me tell you it's a stench.

They don't smell it.

This is exactly what Jesus said would happen to people who belong to him.

That they would be around the stench of sin so much that it would become our normal.

And we wouldn't know we wouldn't notice the stink anymore.

Oh, he does.

He chokes on it.

But we don't notice it anymore.

Jesus said in Matthew 24, this is right before he comes back, he said, there will be an increase of wickedness.

Greek word, rapid multiplication.

Going viral.

Sin will go viral.

And man, do we live in a generation that's got the technology to viralize things?

I mean, there used to be to get to pornography, you had to go out and sneak a Playboy and have the money to buy one and sneak at home.

Well shoot.

It's a click away.

It's no big deal.

You don't have to go looking for it.

It comes looking for you.

So the viralization of sin, explosion of sin across the planet, because of the increase of wickedness, the love, and this is most of most Christians, the love of most of my people.

Will grow cold.

Doesn't say they'll become terribly sinful.

They'll just go to sleep.

They'll become numb.

It won't bother them anymore.

If sin doesn't bother you anymore, you should be very bothered See, we don't run from God's path.

Remember, Isaiah 53 says, all of us have wandered away from God like sheep.

Sheep don't run away from God. from shepherd, they don't go, shepherd's not looking.

They don't do that.

You know what they do?

They're like, oh, look at the butterfly.

Oh, look at that grass.

Oh.

There's scientific studies of this, I'm demonstrating.

And like, oh, I wonder what's over that hill.

That looks interesting.

And one all of a sudden they look around and they're like.

Where's the shepherd?

They don't mean to get away.

They wander.

Prone, how many times have you sung it?

Prone to Wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love, but we don't even know we're getting away from him until we're so far away we can't find him.

And then it's too late.

Because sin only tells you we're going to take a three-hour tour.

We're not going far, we'll be right back.

How do God's people end up doing and accepting what a lost culture did and accepted only 10 years ago?

We would never things we would never thought of are strangely acceptable to us over a relatively short period of time See, a child of God ends up where he never thought he'd go, not by explosion, but by erosion.

Satan does not tell you where he's taking you.

A relatively innocent little friendship in the office With somebody who understands you.

I'm not interested in an affair.

I just , we just have some things in common.

That innocent flirtation, hey, I still got it.

One day becomes a horrible heartbreak.

And no one ever dreamed what it could become.

And he never thought he'd go there.

But he ended up on that island.

Because Satan knows he he if he told you the whole story, you'd never even begin to think of that little compromise of your integrity.

Oh, you'd never think of that little fudging a little bit to get that deal.

Oh, you'd never think of that.

He'd never tell you that where that's going to go.

He destroys you by erosion.

So you got to hold the line before it becomes major compromise.

The Old Testament tells the story of Lot.

It says this about Lot.

Lot decided when he had his choice of where he'd pitch his tent, he pitched his tent near Sodom.

He didn't go in.

He just said, I like the music.

See the billboards?

The people coming out of there look like they've had a really good time.

I just kind of want to be near the action.

I'll just pitch my tent near Sodom.

Next thing you know, next time you read about the Bible, he's in Sodom.

He's not out near.

He's moved in And when it comes time for people he loves, their only hope is if they will listen to Lot warning them to get out before the fire falls.

It says his his in -laws, his sons-in-law, laughed at him as one who mocked.

They're like, You're talking about God?

You lost?

Because Sodom was in him.

He goes from what being around it to being in it to it being in him.

And literally people go into damnation.

Because of the compromises he has made.

Psalm 111 tells us the story.

Here's how it works.

Blessed is the man who does not. walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.

This is a story of three postures.

He's just walking along with some people. who are going the wrong way.

I'm just hanging out with them.

Come on.

I'm not gonna do what they do.

Notice what he does next?

We stop.

We're gonna whoa whoa whoa.

Well I guess uh standing uh I think I will uh this is this where you guys hang out right here?

I'm not just walking with you now, I'm standing with you.

Next thing I've done is I'm really comfortable.

I've become a part of you.

I'm sitting down with you now.

And that's how it falls apart.

The slow seduction.

One of the areas that that happens, a man never has any idea what pornography is going to do to him.

And you we know this from all the surveys that huge percentages of Christian men have a problem with pornography.

It's sadly by the percentages a problem for some people in this room.

And sometimes for women.

We now know what pornography really does.

Um this is one study says this.

Pornography Deepens a grand canyon in a man's brain.

Like a gorge in the brain.

Where the images of a woman are destined now to flow.

Any image of a woman must now flow through that canyon.

It imprisons their ability, the man's ability to see women rightly as created in God's image.

It is a channel that will eventually develop into a canyon from which there is no escape.

Once again, it is the slow seduction to click and to check it out.

It's a go back.

It's a go back again.

I was just close to Sodom.

Now I'm in it.

And now it's in me, and it's corrupted my relationship with the woman I love and poisoned my relationship with her. by changing what I expect her to be unnaturally.

And I have seen and been a part of the counseling of too many Christian marriages in recent years. that had been destroyed when a woman finds out what is and can tell what has happened to her man.

He has been slowly seduced as the temperature was turned up by the culture around him.

And we have mingled the holy race.

Here's how we God's people get carried away by this deadly current.

And how we end up where godless people were just a short time ago.

Notice Ezra 9.

2.

Here's what happened in Ezra.

Says they've taken some of their daughters as wives and their sons and mingled the holy race.

Let's go down to verse 14.

Shall we again, this is where Ezra goes, God, are we going to do this again?

Shall we again break your commands?

Shall we again intermarry with the people who commit such detestable practices?

We've been down this road.

We know where this goes.

Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us the next time?

You left the remnant the last time.

You left the survivor last time.

You're gonna wipe us out the next time?

That's what we would deserve.

He's just in agony over this You see what happened?

Here's what you did.

They married themselves to something foreign.

Now, you see, well, I'm not marrying any Canaanite women.

Well, no.

But what happened when they married those women was they now had married the Canaanite culture. the Canaanite values, brought it into their home, now that would mother their children and grandmother their grandchildren, the cult the Canaanite way of life.

And now it was now part of the warp and move of their life You know, I think many times we don't even realize we're be being defined more by our culture than our Christ.

Do you have my white my white plastic bag back there?

There's a white plastic bag near Derek right there on the table.

And uh yeah, I have my I brought a toy with me And when he brings that up, let me do you see in your notes the drumbeat of a dying culture.

We are surrounded by the drumbeat of a dying culture.

Everywhere you look.

Now let me tell you what's in that dying culture.

Yeah.

Here's some of the ingress.

See if any of these, you see any of this developing in your life.

We live in a totally self-focused narcissistic culture.

It's all about me.

That's when you're being seduced by the culture, you find yourself more and more self-focused about you, you, your attention, whatever.

It is an image-driven culture.

How do I look?

It really matters how you look Superficial.

Things matter that don't matter.

Just really dumb superficial stuff becomes really important and how we live.

We live in a culture with flexible boundaries.

The boundaries keep moving.

Do yours?

The American churches does.

Our boundaries are moving constantly now.

That's a sign we have married the culture.

We have married something foreign.

It's a sexually obsessed culture.

And I wonder if you find yourself thinking more sexually than ever before.

The culture's taken over.

You've been seduced.

Loving earth stuff.

Parentally permissive.

Man.

Everybody's kids are seeing that movie, reading those books.

They're cool.

They're great fiction.

They're great writing.

I don't want to say no to my kids because everybody else is saying yes to theirs, and I want to be like my kid by my kids.

Welcome to Canaan.

You have moved the line because you moved with the culture.

Everybody sees that movie.

Everybody watches that show.

Yeah, zombies, vampires, no problem.

Oh?

God says those are detestable things to him in the Old Testament.

Those lines don't move.

But we do with our kids.

We can't hold the line.

American culture is compartmentalized.

Here are my beliefs and here's how I live I really believe my beliefs.

I believe my beliefs.

I don't behave my beliefs.

I just believe my beliefs.

And I visit them every week at the at the belief museum.

Every Sunday morning, I visit my beliefs at the Belief Museum.

And then I run my business the way I want, and I run my social life the way I want, and I run my family the way I want.

Look Here's everybody's it's just not a classic toy.

The best toys are classic toys, aren't they?

And Plato is great.

Yeah.

Here we go.

And you can do all kinds of things with Play-Doh, you know, you can you can do like a big long thing with it, you know, make your own hot dog, you know, you can make a ball out of it, you can make two or three things out of it.

And basically, this Plato has no really doesn't make any decisions about what shape it's going to be in.

It's whatever shape I want it to be in is what it's going to be.

We increasingly God's people.

In a persistently drumbeat culture where all the surveys say so nobody believes that anymore.

Nobody does that anymore.

I hardly know any Christians who are like that anymore Plato Christians squeezed into the shape of a poisoned, dying culture.

Or you don't have to be Plato It's time for somebody who's gonna be a rock.

You squeeze I don't know who's the strongest guy in the room, but you squeeze this all you want And it ain't moving.

It will never change shape.

Because it's solid all the way through.

Which is it, Plato or Rock?

Do we continue to slowly march more and more to the drumbeat and mingle the holy race, or are we rocks We make our lifestyle decisions, our entertainment choices.

You know how we make them?

Not on the basis of God's word.

You say, well, Ron, when you're in business today, Ron, you're not a businessman.

You don't understand.

When you're in business today, you just have to The integrity of the upright guides them, Proverbs says If you're the last businessman who does it God's way, you have a promise from God.

He that honors me, I will honor.

You don't have that promise if you're not honoring him.

It's not for you.

Well, you know, most people in our field believe such and such.

Oh?

If it doesn't go with what this book says, I don't care what everybody in your field says.

This is the true truth right here.

We make our our entertainment choices Based on the cultural consensus.

You know, this is the popular show.

This is the popular movie.

This is the book everybody is reading.

Or more than that, we do what other Christians do.

Well, Ron.

You know what?

I mean, we got I know tons of Christians that are divorced.

I know I know tons of Christians who watch that.

I know why, our pastor.

Stop it.

Jesus is our standard.

You don't decide what you're going to do based on comparing yourself with anybody but the Holy Son of God.

You are his son, daughter, prince.

Princess, temple, blood brought purchase, face of Jesus.

You make your decisions based on that.

Ezra 9. 12, a very sobering verse.

Says this.

You got that one?

Oh, we didn't get that one today.

Here, let me check it out for you.

I actually can open the Bible I actually read it.

We don't always have it on slides.

Here we go.

Ezra 9. 12 says this.

I just threw this at the guys at the last minute today.

Just second, that's where the glasses come in.

It magically appeared.

Isn't that amazing?

These guys.

Therefore do not give yourself don't don't play the game of the culture Don't give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons.

Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land, and that you may leave this place to your children. as an everlasting inheritance.

When you compromise the holiness of God, you jeopardize your children and your grandchildren.

Because they'll take it farther than you did You jeopardize giving them the inheritance of Christ by compromise.

It's just too high a price to pay.

Well, I have a name for this.

It's called Selective Lordship.

Selective Lordship.

Which, by the way, is an oxymoron.

What I will do is I will decide what I have the right to control And so I will not necessarily consult the Lord on this particular choice.

I will, I think I know what to do.

So I'll let him be Lord of a lot of stuff.

But in this area, I'll decide.

Do you understand what an oxymoron that is?

If you're deciding what you'll do God's way and what you won't do God's way, you're the Lord.

You're the Lord.

How dare you?

Luke 6.

46, Jesus said, haunting question.

Why do you call me?

Lord, Lord.

Notice they say it twice.

I like this.

They're very spiritual.

Lord.

Oh, Lord.

You got the oh you know what to call them, don't you?

You got the right words.

Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do Stop calling me, Lord.

You're running things.

Unless you're gonna do what I say.

Haunting question.

Reserving the right to decide what Christ can control.

And then as a result of that, you are usurping a throne to which you have no right.

You have no right to be on that throne.

And what happens is we unleash the flesh monster And we're not going to go into all these verses, but if you read Galatians 5, you will see that the war that never ends is between the Holy Spirit and your flesh.

And by the way, in our world today, Christians are making what I call two freedom mistakes.

Most Christians are making a mistake on one end of freedom or the other.

And they're both spelled out in the book of Galatians.

Galatians 5.

1.

Do we have that?

Galatians 5. 1, look at this.

It is for create freedom that Christ has set you free.

Stand firm them and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

There's a whole school of Christians who had the the dirt the filthy five you should never do and if you're really spiritual you don't do the naughty nine and if you're really spiritual well we don't do the dirty dozen oh so look at us So we have got the longer list than you do, and that is that is an abuse of the freedom Christ gave us, led by the Holy Spirit into what is righteous and what is not.

But there's another way to abuse freedom.

Look at this.

A little later in the chapter.

Do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature And there's people who go, you know what?

I've been down that road of legalism, baby.

And I can swear.

And I can smoke and I can drink and I can do all the cool stuff.

Because I'm free now.

See, I don't I I've lived that.

I know what that's like.

That's called the peril of the pendulum And over here the pendulum was taking, was, was abusing freedom by not letting God's people live under the leadership of the Holy Spirit and playing the Holy Spirit.

And now we got a whole generation of Christians over here who go, well, I'll show you I am free from that.

They're in bondage to their freedom.

Because they gotta prove they're free.

They're in bondage again.

It's bondage both ways And so we end up constantly making these mistakes that feed our flesh, give the flesh what it wants.

There's a question posed in Galatians 5, and we won't read the chapter now, but you see it in your notes.

Will you gratify what your flesh wants or crucify what your flesh wants?

I will now read to you, John Elliott, you may hear from the diary, the journal, of your distant cousin Jim Elliott, who descended from the original John Elliott as well.

I read the journals of Jim Elliott this summer, or this fall actually.

He that would go on to be martyred and helped launch a generation of Christian leaders around the world.

But while he was still a college student in Wheaton College, he wrote these words in his journal.

It quotes from David when he sinned with Bathsheba, and it says, David tarried at Jerusalem.

And in his journal, he's commenting on that scripture and what it meant to him.

David tarried at Jerusalem.

Remember he was supposed to be going to war.

Instead he hangs out back home.

Here's what Jim Elliott said.

I thought this was devastating.

How often is this the history of Christian failure The time comes for forward marching.

And Christians are lying on beds of self-interest.

And in such a context, Satan sees to it that a Bathsheba is not far away.

Just get lazy.

Just coast.

Just take a little day off.

And Satan will have his best sheep.

Or its equivalent.

Romans 16, would you see this verse with me?

This is how we don't mingle the holy race.

Be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil.

I don't need to see it.

I don't need to hear it.

I don't need to read it.

I don't need to watch it.

I don't need to get water in the boat.

Yes, I'm going to take my boat in the water where lost people are, but I don't need to let the water in the boat.

Be innocent.

I don't need to know about the bad stuff.

Be innocent about what is evil.

And look at the promise that follows this.

The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet.

You just gotta be innocent about what is evil and know a lot about what's good.

Be a goodologist.

Don't know the evil.

Look at Ephesians 5.

10.

This is no compromise.

I'm sorry.

I think it's the verse before.

But it says, find out what pleases the Lord.

Maybe it's verse 11, which says this. have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness.

Is that like, can you find a loophole there somewhere?

Nothing to do?

Don't touch it.

Look.

Take no part in it.

Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds and enterprises of darkness.

Stay as far away from it as you can.

You see what happens?

We scrap the scriptures.

We scrap the scriptures, something else becomes our deciding factor, the culture, the surveys, what other Christians are doing.

Do you know when we scrap when we put aside what the Bible says?

When the truth becomes inconvenient.

This is gonna cost me a deal.

This is gonna alienate me from my son or daughter.

They're not gonna like it if I hold the line on this.

This is going to cost me.

So it becomes expensive or it becomes inconvenient or get this when the verse gets a face.

Let me tell you what I mean by that.

I'm against it till it's my daughter.

Till it's my son.

Till it's somebody I love.

And suddenly I go back and see if I can do some biblical calisthenics to somehow change my view.

When the when the when when a verse gets a face, guess what you do?

You put the verse away and you go with the face.

That's why we say, am I am I gonna be Play-Doh?

Am I gonna be rock?

Will I hold the line?

I went out to uh Doug's uh trailer on the Hopi reservation some years ago and he said you guys have to check out my scale.

If you're a Hutchcraft you spend your whole life on a diet or should be on one.

It's my fault probably.

So I used to weigh 210 pounds, so you know I was like I worked for a good year.

I was the blimp and You see, you gotta check out the scale.

Get on this scale.

Get on this scale.

I did.

I had miraculously lost 15 pounds.

I was like, man, a week ago I was on a scale.

I just whoa, this is so good.

This is great.

I must be awesome now I'm a hunk now.

I lost 15 pounds.

Other members of the family said, well, I'm gonna check that out.

Woo!

Woo!

Can I take this home?

I wanted the weigh on this scale from now on.

Well, when we all got on it, we all found out that we'd miraculously lost 15 pounds.

Or 20, maybe.

Because the scale told us what we wanted to hear, but it was lying to us.

It just made, it suddenly was weighing 15 or 20 pounds light.

Let me weigh on that scale.

We can all find a scale to weigh on that makes us feel okay about what we're doing.

There's one scale that does not lie, and it is the unchanging word of the Most High God.

The only scale that doesn't lie And so you have in your body a hundred million cells.

Do you know what it takes for you to get cancer?

One cell.

One cell goes crazy.

One cell gets damaged.

And one cell starts obeying destructive orders And it's getting mixed, it's getting bad orders.

And it starts to turn into cancer, and it spreads and spreads, and one day metastasizes.

And that's all it takes for spiritual cancer to take you and your family and future generations down.

Is one damaged cell, one out of control cell.

That's why you have to stop it.

When it's little, when it's small, when it's just a small compromise.

For one day it will metastasize And it will be too late.

But you can fight it now, when it's small.

And you heard you heard the cry of Ezra.

Why do we keep doing what has caused so much pain?

Now, I want to leave you with this last part.

This is the most important part.

And I want you to get to the finish line with me I said there were three pictures.

The first one was happy, the most special people on earth.

The second one was very sad, the seduction of God's chosen ones.

Now here's the decisive one.

The heart that changes everything.

It changed it in Ezra 's day.

It is the heart that will change it today.

I now take you to how Ezra handled the mingling of God's holy race and how he didn't handle it.

We have a lot to learn from this holy man.

Let's go to Ezra chapter 9.

Ezra hears the news.

He sees the compromise.

Shall we again break your commands?

When I heard this, I began to picket.

I began to preach.

And I I nailed them for what they were doing.

Nope.

I tore my tunic, I tore my cloak, I pulled hair from my head.

I'm not going to do that part.

I pulled hair from my head and beard, and I sat down appalled.

Let's go on.

Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of the unfaithfulness of the exiles.

And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.

Then at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement with my tunic and cloak torn.

I fell on my knees.

Here he is in front of all these people.

I fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God.

And everybody's watching their leader go through this agony for hours, this spiritual agony.

And you know what happens?

Pretty soon they begin to gather around him.

Did we get to chapter 10 yet?

Verse 1.

While Ezra was praying and confessing And weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites, men, women, and children gathered around this man.

He didn't preach.

He didn't condemn.

But he's become a magnet.

And they too wept.

They hadn't been.

They all accepted this is how we all are now But they too suddenly are weeping bitterly.

What was it that woke up?

The compromised people of God A sermon?

An angry man?

No.

It was one man whose heart was in tune with the heart of a holy God.

And he had, and you've got it in your notes, a compelling broken heart.

It just broke his heart.

He wasn't mad.

He was sad.

Our world has seen enough angry Christians.

But you're mad at what's going on.

Not mad, but sad over what sin has done.

Our culture needs to see tears, not tantrums Have we let God break our heart?

Because that heart changed a generation.

Sad over the betrayal of God's amazing love.

Read Ezra 's prayer.

How could we do this to God the way you've loved us?

You delivered us from all this darkness and we just Keep flirting with what you delivered us from.

Sad over what it's doing to those who are caught in the current.

And he becomes a spark that starts a fire of repentance.

He's sad about his own sin He's sad about the sin around him.

The other thing that's contagious is he's got a commitment to God's word and he won't compromise it for anything Nehemiah chapter 8 is one example.

Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Look at all he does is read the Bible.

Just keeps reading the Bible, people.

Did you guys forget what it says?

Read from the book of the law of God, they celebrated the feast for seven days.

On the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly.

And those of the Israelite descendants separated themselves from all foreigners.

They stood in their places, confessed their sins, and the wickedness of their fathers.

A revival breaks out in Jerusalem.

They are not going to mingle the holy race now.

You know what happens?

It says they put away their pain and night wives.

They say we can't do this anymore.

Shakes up the entire culture.

How do you get back home when you've drifted?

A little farther than you should have gone Here's how.

First you have to agree with God's diagnosis.

I will call it what you call it, God.

This is a very powerful quote.

A child of the light will confess sin instantly and stand completely open before God.

But a child of the darkness will say, oh, I can explain that.

Agree with God's diagnosis.

When I was in Singapore, first international trip I ever took.

I couldn't get to sleep till about three in the morning because it was so hot and we had this stupid fan in the room.

And we got kff-boom, kiss-a-boom, kiss-a-boom, kiss -a-boom.

I didn't we hadn't know how to turn it off.

The guy was rooming with me.

I didn't know how there was no way to turn it off.

Just finally got to sleep about three in the morning.

About 3. 30 the rooster started.

We're in downtown Singapore for heaven's sake.

Like, oh goodness gracious.

So I slept for about a half an hour in the roosters.

Couldn't couldn't get rid of the roosters.

We're not a rooster crowed.

And Simon Peter, who hadn't really considered what he had done, went out and wept bitterly.

Because of the sound of a rooster.

I suspect that the rooster of God might be crowing in your heart.

Listen to that rooster.

Listen to that crow.

It is Jesus saying, do you know what you are doing?

Do you know what you're doing to me?

Mary Lola, come up here, please.

I asked Mary Lola if she would, and we'll come down toward a conclusion here, but Larry Lowe 's been through an incredible experience this year, a part of her hope story that she shared on reservations, and because of her love for Jesus, she's willing to share it with you.

Just open your heart to her.

I don't know where to begin.

But I know God prepared me to be here tonight to tell you my story.

Growing up, I never drank or partied just because my parents are strict and I I didn't stay out late and so it wasn't until college, two thousand and eight, that I started drinking and partying and I couldn't handle it, but I still drank anyways just because all my friends were doing it.

My biological sisters were doing it and so I didn't know how to say no, so it's just like okay, I'll do it, just because they're doing it too So for I don't know a year I drank every weekend Until my second year in college, I I went to a house party and I don't remember what happened at house party.

I don't remember my sister telling me stop drinking.

I probably blacked out like within half an hour.

But my sisters left me.

I w I wish they would have dragged me out of there Instead of keeping me at this house party with guys I don't even know.

But all I remember is these guys Using me.

There was like four or five guys in this room.

That's all I remember.

And that evening I finally sobered up that next evening and called my sister and She told me it was my fault.

I called my mom and I told her I wanted to commit suicide I didn't want to live with myself knowing that, you know, these guys used me.

I felt hopeless and if it wasn't for my reaching out to my mom and, you know, her doing the best she can in the village, she told my sisters to um Be with me, be close with me.

And I'm glad they were because I wouldn't have been here today.

And for the next three, four years I still drank and I partied I mean like that that Christmas break, I accepted Jesus into my life.

And so over those years I still drank, but nobody told me what a Christian should look like.

And I mean like I wish I had a mentor, but it was so hard living in the city when you have no friends that want to go to church.

So I had no ride and I had I hadn't I had no spiritual growth in Christ.

And so I was tired of it.

I mean I If I didn't have the Holy Spirit in me, I probably would have just drank my life away.

I would have been an alcoholic now.

But over those years Christ showed me what I was doing was wrong.

And so I wanted to get away from the city.

So beginning of two thousand Twelve.

I decided to leave college just so I could take a break and I told myself I was going to join the Air Force.

So I called my mom and dad and I told them I'm gonna come home for a few months.

They were happy.

They were happy that I was gonna be home because I've haven't been home in like five years for the longest time.

And so During those six months that I stayed home, I was going to church and was going to Bible studies and worship practice and Christ was really talking to me during those months that I was taking a break from school.

I even told myself that I would make a New Year's resolution to be sober.

And so I went on this trip to Warrior Leadership Summit and it took us two weeks to get there.

Two weeks.

And Then I traveled with Onegal's wings for a month.

That was a life-changing experience.

I never knew that there would be young people like myself telling the gospel.

And so I told myself I would still don't join the Air Force.

I told Papa Hutch and Brad, I'm joining the Air Force as as soon as I'm done with the trip.

They didn't disagree.

They just nodded their head.

And by the the last week of OED I did not feel comfortable joining the Air Force and so they asked me what I wanted to do and I said maybe attend a Bible college just because the people I met were going to a Bible college and I've been to Indian Bible College for going on two years now, and beginning of this year I kept praying to the Lord.

What broke your heart to send your own son to the cross?

I prayed that every morning and he showed it to me He answers prayers.

2010.

We were together for nine months and I got pregnant from him And God showed me why he sent his son to the cross.

It was something that I've been trying to avoid or just Not even deal with it but when I was with this guy I got pregnant from him and I didn't know what to do.

Cause I was still in school and w we weren't even married and I wanted to be married first before getting pregnant.

And so We decided to have an abortion.

Christ showed me God showed me why Jesus died on the cross and that it was for that That sin, that horrible sin that I committed.

He showed me, you know, if I was the only person, he would still have died for me.

Just so that I can feel free.

And So for a month I cried every night, even during the n day, for this baby that I would have had.

But during that month that I was crying for this baby, he he brought healing.

He was letting me know that he still loves me.

That he forgives me.

And so I just wanna thank God if he was here in person, which he is, for saving me.

Because I've been a year in Ten months sober I wouldn't be where I am now.

Like I can't believe um living in Arizona traveling to different places 'cause that's what I've always wanted to do and you know, he's using me and I'm grateful for that because I know I'm still loved and forgiven.

Whatever situation I'm gonna go through, God will bring me to it through it.

If he could do that with me, you know, he can do that with each and every one of you guys.

Thank you.

Mary Lola, who 's opened her heart on those reservations, which she has chosen to do.

The young women line up to talk to her, to find out about her Jesus But why why do I have her tell this tonight?

I would ask you to ask the question that she asked.

Jesus, what am I doing right now?

that you went to the cross to have to pay for.

What sin, what compromise, what leak?

Have I allowed in that killed your son?

And let God do for you what he did for a man of God many years ago.

Break your heart.

What broke is See, God is not interested in superficial repentance going through the motions.

I'm sorry for what I did.

I feel bad for it.

God forgive me.

There's a lot of superficial repentance.

We go through the motions of repentance.

The ancient prophet Joel said, now get this, rend your heart, not your garments.

Don't I don't want you to go through the superficial tearing your garments.

That's what you did to repent in those days.

See, I'm really sorry for my sin.

Look how sorry I am.

I'm tearing my my my tunic here He says, don't tear your clothes.

Let your heart be torn.

Rend your heart, not your garments.

Repentance is a change of heart and cut out all the cancer.

And each night make a visit to the cross and see what has come in that never should have been there.

John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace, wrote some beautiful words which I'm hoping to find.

Hold on one second.

He said, My conscience felt and owned the guilt and plunged me in despair.

I saw my sins.

His blood had spilt.

I helped to nail him there.

God gives this promise beyond repentance.

A new life to rebuild and repair.

I always had a hard time motivating my sons to clean their room There was one day a year they cleaned their rooms willingly.

I could motivate them.

It was Christmas Eve day For the rule was no gifts until you clean your room.

God might be saying that to somebody here.

I have so much I want to do for you.

But there will be no gifts.

Until you clean your room.

Would you let God search your heart?

And though a thousand Christians may be doing it, God isn't happy with any of them.

We've seen tonight how you can lose the blessing of God. forfeit the purposes of God and invite the judgment of God.

But we've seen the way home.

Broken heart.

Listen to him tonight.

Listen to him.

You pray with me.

Lord, I pray your spirit whose first name is holy Will show every one of us here where we have been less than that.

Seduced by the culture.

Watching what other Christians are doing.

Rebelling against the mistakes of other Christians.

We have mingled the holy race.

There is a cancerous cell in our soul.

And that cancer cell will not go away.

It will multiply into something deadly.

But tonight we have a cross where blood was spilt For an attitude, choices, that thing that's been in the dark, like Mary Lola talked about.

And tonight you're dragging it into the light, where it can lose its power, be cleansed, forgiven, and we can be free.

This is so personal, Lord, because this is between a man or a woman and his or her Savior And it is my belief that you've been trying to put your finger on things in somebody's life here.

We've tried to run from the light.

Excuse, rationalize, dodge.

But tonight we will face it.

And we will forsake it.

And we say, go ahead, God and Break my heart.

Break my heart.

For I have how I am have saddened yours.

For what I am doing, that you died to deliver me from.

Do we have to do this again, God?

I pray that not that there would be superficial repentance, but the real deal.

Bringing a heart to be changed.

Not behavior.

That'll come.

But a heart that is broken. for places we should have never gone, and things we should have never seen, and thoughts we should have never thought, and compromises we should have never made.

And you will welcome us home.

And so, Lord, I turn these moments over to you to be holy moments.

I'm not quite sure what you want.

I think I don't.

I just want to do what you want, Lord And so in that spirit, my brothers and sisters, um hadn't really planned this, but There was a day when the prophet Haggai said to those people, from this day on, I will bless you because they got it right.

They finally woke up.

And God has gifts he wants to pour into your life.

Maybe the reason for your mission impossible.

Isn't the situation or that person?

There's something that's got to be fixed in you.

When your room is clean, the gifts will come So should there be someone here who wants to mark a new beginning?

As you said, he's given us a new beginning to restore and rebuild.

If this is a new beginning night for you, I'd ask you to mark that.

We'll just call the front of this an altar here.

And I will simply extend his invitation for you to come and kneel here, not as if it's an altar, but as if it's a cross, really.

And say, Lord, I've got to get rid of this.

This is deep inside.

It's been in the dark.

I'm dragging it out in the light.

You might be the only one who comes.

You might be the only one who stays.

Just do what the Holy Spirit's saying.

If you can kneel, kneel, stand, whatever.

I'm going to sit down and we're not going to wait long.

But I just give you this opportunity to mark a turning point.

To say, God, my heart is broken, and if it isn't break it.

I know what I need to deal with, and I'm done as of tonight.

It's over.

I mark a new beginning tomorrow morning when the sun rises that will not be a part of me anymore.

I have left it at your cross.

So if you're going to come, this is your chance to come.

I'll sit down