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[351.10 --> 355.64] that influences us to do things that are destructive to ourselves and others as well. |
[355.64 --> 359.36] And some in the psychiatric community is like, who is this guy? |
[359.92 --> 368.36] But why he was writing about this and so interested in it was so that he could help the patients and people who came to his office seeking help. |
[368.96 --> 373.40] He realized early in his career that medication by itself, though a gift, is not always enough. |
[373.60 --> 377.06] Just talking about your personal story, important it is, is not just enough. |
[377.16 --> 383.60] There's deeper, profoundly spiritual realities that shape us and affect us and can harm us if we don't name them. |
[383.60 --> 389.64] Scott Peck was talking about what is actually blatantly clear in Ephesians 2. |
[390.84 --> 393.78] Ephesians 2, as we're going to see this morning, is naming reality. |
[394.12 --> 399.12] And it's a reality, if you grew up in Canada, you might not be familiar with, you might not be comfortable talking about, |
[399.20 --> 401.12] and it's going to sort of confront us a little bit. |
[401.90 --> 408.22] And there are three particular powers that we're going to talk about this morning that are all very present in Ephesians 2. |
[408.22 --> 411.80] One is the power of the flesh, human sinful nature. |
[412.46 --> 418.50] The second is the power of our world, and by that he means culture organized around something other than Jesus. |
[419.08 --> 422.88] And thirdly, the one we really don't like to talk about, the power of Satan. |
[423.68 --> 425.78] So we're going to get into it today. |
[426.58 --> 431.16] Let me read for us again the light and fluffy words of Ephesians 2, 1 and 3. |
[431.16 --> 441.72] As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world, hear it, |
[441.98 --> 446.88] the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. |
[447.46 --> 452.76] All of us lived among them at one time, following its thoughts, sorry, different page, |
[453.24 --> 454.82] following its desires and thoughts. |
[454.82 --> 461.50] It's a heavy passage, isn't it? |
[463.24 --> 468.60] So let's look at the first power that Paul names, the power of the flesh, the sinful nature, |
[469.06 --> 472.04] the sins and transgressions of our hearts. |
[472.58 --> 476.20] Now, we talked about this in Galatians when we preached through it, so I'm not going to belabor the point, |
[476.56 --> 477.62] but I'll just make it simply. |
[478.56 --> 483.80] There is something off about the way we live, and honest people know this. |
[483.80 --> 488.06] There is something off about the way we relate to each other, the way we speak to each other, |
[488.16 --> 490.46] the desires we have for our lives. |
[490.82 --> 492.14] There's something not right. |
[492.88 --> 494.94] And the Scriptures calls this the sinful nature. |
[496.00 --> 500.52] And if you have a toddler, you don't need to be taught this, because your toddler will teach it. |
[501.02 --> 504.02] Brittany and I raised four kids, and we can tell you that toddlers are most, |
[504.28 --> 509.08] they're the most beautiful little people in the world, and they will break your heart with cruelty and selfishness. |
[509.12 --> 509.76] Tell me I'm wrong. |
[509.76 --> 516.54] And if you want a good laugh this week, a sobering laugh, there is a mother who wrote a 10 list. |
[516.68 --> 518.74] It's called The Property Laws of Toddlers. |
[518.96 --> 519.88] Go home, Google it. |
[520.00 --> 520.82] It will not disappoint. |
[521.48 --> 524.42] But it basically opens up the cruelty and the selfishness of toddlers, |
[524.66 --> 528.44] and if we're honest, we'll realize that same cruelty and selfishness exists in all of us, |
[528.52 --> 531.80] but it just becomes more nuanced, more concealed as we get older. |
[531.80 --> 537.98] If you're a student, you know that you want to write a paper that is thorough, |
[538.32 --> 541.92] and you've done your work, and you will give a good account of the topic you're studying. |
[542.14 --> 547.44] But there you are the night before, really pulling lots of material from chat GTP, |
[547.82 --> 549.90] willing to plagiarize your way through this paper. |
[550.60 --> 551.08] Too soon? |
[551.50 --> 551.84] Too soon? |
[551.92 --> 552.86] Okay, I'll leave that one alone. |
[552.86 --> 558.06] If you're a friend, you know that you want to be honest and transparent with people that you know |
[558.06 --> 562.44] and love and want to be close to, and yet when things go sideways, you so quickly lie, |
[563.16 --> 567.18] twist the truth to save face and impress those you're trying to be close to. |
[568.30 --> 573.42] If you're a spouse, you want to be faithful to your marriage vows and love the person God brought into your life, |
[573.46 --> 578.86] but so quickly we yell, attack, and our internet history would suggest that we're not faithful |
[578.86 --> 582.52] in our hearts and minds to the person God gave us in marriage. |
[583.86 --> 586.04] With your money, you want to be generous, right? |
[586.08 --> 591.58] You want to give to the causes that matter, and yet somehow we continue to waste money frivolously |
[591.58 --> 594.08] on things that do not matter. |
[595.00 --> 599.48] There's something off about us, and Paul says that is the power of the flesh. |
[599.76 --> 602.56] That is the temptation that comes with sin and transgression, |
[603.30 --> 605.72] and we name that reality in our church this morning. |
[606.94 --> 609.92] But that's just the beginning of the bad news of Ephesians 2. |
[609.92 --> 612.84] In fact, I'm going to spend more time on the next two things Paul says. |
[613.34 --> 614.56] Listen to the passage again. |
[614.64 --> 614.88] He says, |
[615.08 --> 619.06] As for you, you were dead in your sins and transgressions in which you used to live when |
[619.06 --> 623.22] you followed the ways of the world. |
[624.74 --> 627.02] There's the second power, the power of the world. |
[627.10 --> 628.36] And I just want us to be clear again. |
[628.42 --> 630.56] That's not saying that the whole creation is evil. |
[630.98 --> 634.72] It's talking about the way culture is organized around something other than Jesus |
[634.72 --> 637.60] and some of the corruption that comes in that way. |
[637.60 --> 643.02] In fact, in some ways, the best way to translate world and understand it is just a normal way |
[643.02 --> 644.48] of society without Jesus. |
[645.12 --> 649.12] What you would consider an ordinary day in the life of school and work and community when |
[649.12 --> 650.36] Jesus is not at the center. |
[651.12 --> 655.84] And in Ephesus, the city that Paul's writing to, there's all sorts of normal things that |
[655.84 --> 657.72] were not normal for Jesus' followers. |
[658.40 --> 660.58] It was normal for men to treat women as property. |
[661.40 --> 664.90] It was normal for parents, if their child had a disability, to leave them out to die |
[664.90 --> 667.70] because they weren't quite good enough to keep alive in their homes. |
[668.10 --> 671.30] It was normal just to leave those who are in extreme poverty on their own. |
[671.36 --> 673.10] These things were all normal in Ephesus. |
[674.36 --> 676.22] But that's not God's design for his world. |
[676.96 --> 677.98] And the same is true of Canada. |
[678.06 --> 678.58] You grow up in Canada. |
[678.66 --> 680.28] There's all sorts of exploitation and corruption. |
[680.44 --> 681.94] I mean, there's so many good things about our city. |
[682.28 --> 686.82] But this normal that we live in, I'll tell you, is not God's design for the world. |
[686.82 --> 689.20] And there's things we need to wrestle with in our society. |
[689.32 --> 693.14] And I find when immigrants come into our city, believers from other countries, they've got |
[693.14 --> 699.08] a few thoughts for us about what might be normal to Canadians that is not normal in God's |
[699.08 --> 699.50] design. |
[700.74 --> 704.78] And it seems to me that conversion, when you follow Jesus and you start to want to follow |
[704.78 --> 709.74] his word, and you start to realize, oh man, the way I thought I should be spending my money |
[709.74 --> 714.26] and living out my sexual life and being a friend and using the time I have at work, the way |
[714.26 --> 717.94] I thought I was supposed to live is not God's design. |
[718.40 --> 720.72] And you start to step into the following of Jesus. |
[720.84 --> 723.06] You start to want to follow his ways. |
[723.42 --> 728.80] And that's when you realize, I bet you know what I'm going to say, how powerful the cultures |
[728.80 --> 731.02] around us are, right? |
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