This Is War Series

THIS IS WAR!

Ephesians 6:10-18

S: Sin

Th: Seeing the Unseen Christ: How His Presence Transforms Life

Pr: WE ARE TO EMBRACE RIGHTEOUSNESS AND RENOUNCE EVIL

?: How? How do we do this?

KW: Ventures

TS: We will find in our study three ventures we need to make in order to embrace righteousness and renounce evil.

The ____ venture we must make is to…

I. POWER UP

II. PUT ON

III. PRAY OUT

RMBC 3/11/01 AM

INTRODUCTION:

ILL Mains message intro…

Tolerance is a production concept that helped make this country famous.

In the mid-1800s, Europeans criticized American craftsmanship for being second-rate.

We had come to realize, however, that what we manufactured only had to be good enough to work.

We thought the extra touches that went into European products to make them perfect were really superfluous.

For example, a clock, a gun, or a lock only needed to function well.

It didn’t matter if it had curlicues or if all the rough edges were smoothed down.

Did the clock keep time?

Did the gun shoot straight?

Did the lock keep out unwanted intruders?

Tolerance prompted us to ask, “If the ball bearings don’t have to be perfect, how much error can be tolerated? How much variance can we get by with?”

The truth of the matter is that back in the 1800s, American-manufactured products were made just good enough for their purpose.

And by the 20th century, with increased automation, manufacturers were tolerating even larger variances—as long as products met mini-mum standards.

By then, we had become com-fortable with tolerance, and it obviously worked.

Even today, a lack of tolerance is not a virtue admired in America.

But I must ask you…

How much are you willing to tolerate?

Drama: “The Eye, The Eye”

TRANSITION:

1. God lacks tolerance (I John 1:5-6).

I have found God to be politically incorrect—terribly so.

Note what John writes:

(5) This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. (6) If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.

This is some pretty absolute writing.

We can’t walk in darkness and say we belong to the faith.

We walk in the light.

If we don’t walk in the light, we don’t belong.

Yet, what is often our tendency is that we try to walk in a little of both light and darkness.

For…

2. We tend to feel a little sin ought to be tolerated.

We like to think that if a person is doing well 85-90 percent of the time, certainly God can be tolerant of the other 10-15 percent that isn’t right.

That only seems fair, right?

After all, we can never achieve perfection.

God can certainly gracefully overlook some of this stuff.

But this is not a very realistic view of sin.

It has been said:

“Sin will always take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”

Let me repeat that…

“Sin will always take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”

We need to realize that…

3. Sin is not our friend!

Over time, it will extract a great toll.

It means to drag us down and make us less functional.

It keeps us from fulfilling our God-given mission.

This is why we must take it seriously and why targeting a self-destructive pattern is a part of our 50-day adventure.

So, what have you targeted to reverse during these 50 days?

Could it be…

…a critical spirit

…materialism

…greed

…arrogance

…a short temper

…perfectionism

…profanity

…workaholism

…pornography

…infidelity

…gossip

…self-promotion

…deceit

…laziness

…self-indulgence?

There are many sins to pick from.

But here is what we must be tuned in to…

It is these and many other evils that resulted in the scars on the hands, feet and side of our Lord

So, we must pray for conviction of our unrighteousness.

For…

4. Living like Christ is to be our standard.

It is to be no less that that.

Sin is to become intolerable.

While we may attempt to lower the standard, God does not.

Therefore…

5. WE ARE TO EMBRACE RIGHTEOUSNESS AND RENOUNCE EVIL.

But how do we do this?

How do we embrace the kingdom of light and stay away from the kingdom of darkness?

Well…

6. We will find in our study three ventures we need to make in order to embrace righteousness and renounce evil.

OUR STUDY:

I. The first venture we must make is to POWER UP (10).

Paul writes in Ephesians…

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.