About 11 years ago, I received my formal call into ministry. It wasn’t a call from a church. It wasn’t a call from a bishop. It wasn’t even a call from the Pope but that would have been nice. I considered it a direct call from God. You see, I had been struggling with where I was at in life. I was working in the business world for a number of years and started to pursue ministry, but I was at the stage where I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do. Should I stay in business and pursue my MBA or should I go and pursue ministry and pursue my Master of Divinity? I was at the stage where I was very wishy-washy. I could not decide what I wanted to do. Consequently, I was making my life miserable and also the lives of the people around me were miserable because I could not make up my mind.
One Sunday, I was at my home church in Portland, Oregon and Pastor Clark was giving a message. I don’t even know what the topic was, but he did what he always did. At the end of the service, he had an altar call for people to come forward for prayer or decision and that sort of thing. I remember going forward and just praying. I wasn’t exactly sure of my prayer. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was asking for, but at the end of it, I knew that I had done something. I had placed what I would call a spiritual stake in the ground. In other words, I was at a place where I said I don’t know what is ahead and I don’t know what is behind and I don’t know what my future holds, but all I know is that I need to make this commitment to go into ministry full time and that is what I did. What I didn’t know is that just five months later I would lose my first wife, Dana, who had an operation on her brain to remove a tumor and never woke up from that surgery. I didn’t know that would happen five months after making that decision. I didn’t know that I would be a single parent for three years raising a 9-year-old and 11-year-old as I pursued my Master of Divinity in Johnson City, TN. I certainly did not know that I would end up in Bellevue, PA, a place I had never even heard of and never knew existed, but here I am 11 years later today.
As I look back on that period, I can just see God’s hand involved in the whole process. I can rejoice in knowing that when I put that spiritual stake in the ground God honored that commitment. But before I accepted that call into ministry, first I had to accept another call and that is the call out of darkness into light. What some people would call the salvation experience or the born-again experience where you accept Jesus Christ as Lord and don’t turn back.
I will be honest. I don’t want to give a lot of detail, but my pre-Christian life was not the model life. Basically, I was doing things that I shouldn’t have been doing. I was smoking things I shouldn’t be smoking. I was drinking things I shouldn’t be drinking. I was watching things I shouldn’t be watching and I was hanging around with people that should not have been hanging around with. In my pre-Christian life, I got in a lot of trouble. In fact, looking back, I would say that in the time span between 17 and about 25 that period contained most of the things that I did in my life that I regret the most. Can anybody relate to that? If you are a teenager, listen up because that is when you usually screw up, between about 17 and about 25. Isn’t that correct? That is what happens. I don’t know what it is. You just go out and sow your wild oats or whatever you call it, but that is the period that I regret the most. But I also know that I was living like that but at one point I received another call. In fact, we had a call from another one of our ministers who came over and made a visit one night to our house. He came in and presented the basic gospel message that man is here and God is up here and the thing that separates us is sin. God has provided the remedy because we can’t reach up to God so he has provided a remedy and that remedy is in Jesus Christ. He comes and he will forgive our sins and all we have to do is accept that free gift of eternal life, accept the forgiveness of sins, and we will have eternal life. The basic gospel message. We both accepted Jesus Christ at that time. I don’t know about my wife Dana at that time. I don’t know what she was feeling, but I wasn’t feeling a whole lot. I really didn’t have fireworks go off or whatever in my head. Really there wasn’t a lot of change.
As we see in today’s letters to the Colossians and the Ephesians, we see that Paul really believed that when you make that sort of commitment there is something very special happening up in the heavenlies. There is like a completion of a rescue mission. In fact, he writes in Colossians 1.13-14 “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” It as if God reached down into this dungeon and snatched us out of this dungeon and placed us into a new kingdom, a whole new domain. The kingdom of the Son. The kingdom of Jesus. I don’t know what you think of that. To be honest, I am not sure exactly that that is what is happening there. But I really do like that imagery. Especially if you had kind of a sordid past and you went from living this way to living that way that is really what it describes. It is a removal from a dark life to the life of the Son. As this passage makes clear, though, Paul is not simply talking about individuals. You see, what happened to me really happens to most believers or people that accept Jesus Christ. They know that something has happened. It has happened on an individual level but it also has happened at a collective level. The operative word here is us. Paul says “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness”. He is talking to a church so he is reminding the church that they have been collectively raised up from the dominion of darkness and placed into the kingdom of the Son. As we continue to consider our core values and especially the value of community that is important. Because individually we need to know about that transaction or that rescue, but collectively as a church we need to be reminded that God has reached out in all of us and picked us up from the dominion of darkness and placed us into that kingdom of the Son. Consequently, we are all called collectively to live differently; to live as children of the light.
I think if you have been a Christian long enough you know that a lot of Christians don’t live that way. When we are out in the world and we look at statistics and really when you look at like divorce statistics, the Christians don’t do much better than the non-Christians. You look at things like work ethic and things like how people behave at sporting events or how they behave at work and they are not that much different than the rest of the world. That is a shame because we are called to be different. The thing that every person deals with today or the things that the pastors deal with today were the same problems that the apostle Paul was dealing with 2000 years earlier. He was dealing with people that had forgotten their call. That had forgotten that they had been removed from the dominion of darkness and placed into the kingdom of the Son, so he would spend time reminding them about that. Paul had a unique view of the church. He didn’t think the church was going to someday be a place where you come in and sit at pews and stare at the heads in front of you, you listen to some music, you listen to a sermon, you eat some snacks, and you go home. That is not Paul’s view of the church. In Paul’s eyes, the church is the primary instrument that God is going to use to advance his kingdom-building agenda on earth. Paul believed that there was a spiritual realm. I know a lot of people don’t believe that is a spiritual realm. Paul is very clear that there is a spiritual realm and that there is a battle going on in this spiritual realm between darkness and light. In fact, in Ephesians he says “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” He believes there is a battle going on. He was serious about making sure that people understood this concept of being a child of the light, of being someone who was given the light, who has been removed from darkness into light so he expected them to behave differently. Paul’s method of operation was to go into these churches and to teach them. Then what he would do is he would write a letter and remind them. This is what I taught you and this is what you know and now I am going to remind you about it. If they still didn’t listen he would give them kind of a gentle kick in the behind in his own special way. That is what he would do.
You see that consistently in his letters. We see it in his letter to Colossians. We do see it in the letter to Ephesians. In fact, he says almost the same thing as he said in Colossians 1. In Ephesians 5:8 he says “For you were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth and find out what pleases the Lord.” He didn’t say you were in darkness. He says you were once darkness. He didn’t say that you are now in the light. He says you are light but the operative phrase after that is in the Lord. In other words, the only reason that you are in the light is because of the one who said “I am the light of the world. If anybody follows me, he will never walk in darkness but have the light of life.” I think that is John 9. When Jesus stood up and said I am the light. They are now the light because the one they follow is the light. What he does is he issues a command. He says live as children of the light. You don’t know that is a command but it is a command because the underlying grammar calls it an imperative. An imperative basically is a command. Paul is not saying, you know what, listen people in Ephesus, this is something I suggest you do. It might be a good idea if you live as a child of the light. He is not saying it is a good idea or a good suggestion or this is something to consider. He is issuing a command like he is a commander in the army. He is saying “Live as children of the light.” It is a direct command. It goes on to say “For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.” Paul was like that. Paul could be a little bit bossy because he knew the destructive nature of darkness. He had been around the church. He had been a Christian long enough. He had been trying to spread the gospel enough to know of the destructive power of the dominion of the darkness. It would destroy homes. It would destroy marriages. It would destroy businesses. It would destroy lives. He understood that concept so he issues this command: “Live as children of the light.” And not only that. Then he goes on to say “and find out what pleases the Lord”. Another bit of grammar is the underlying idea of these words “find out”. It is the idea of examining very closely as if you are examining some sort of a precious metal to determine its quality. That is what he is saying. He is saying find out what pleases the Lord. Look at your actions and your behaviors and try to find out if the things you do whether or not they are pleasing to the Lord or not. He isn’t giving all the answers. He says figure it out. Figure out how to do it. Because he knew that the people carried a lot of bad habits into this new thing called Christianity. He wanted them to get into the word and figure it out within the context of community and try to figure out what is going on here and how should I act and how should I behave. Then he goes on to say “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness but rather expose them. Everything exposed by the light becomes visible for it is light that makes everything visible.” He says “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness.” He says get those deeds out of your life.
As a side note, he is not saying have nothing to do with the people that aren’t Christian. I hope I made that clear last week. We are supposed to be out in the world. We have to be out in the world. We are just not supposed to be one with the world. We are supposed to maintain our separateness from the world. He is telling these people you have come into this new community and now you need to get away from the things you used to enjoy doing. You are supposed to have nothing to do with those deeds of darkness because they bear no fruit whatsoever. You are all about fruit bearing, about bearing good fruit. He is saying be in the world but don’t get sucked into behaving like the world. Get away from the things that you used to enjoy. I know some people here might struggle with that because they become a Christian and they still want to hang out with their old friends, which I said is a good thing, but they allow the friends to influence them rather than them influencing their friends. So they get sucked back in to doing the old things, the things they should have left behind. As I said last week, if you can’t change behavior around your friends, then you better change your friends because they are going to pull you back down. You say well, Chuck, what type of things are you talking about? I don’t know. It could be anything. It is really individualistic. Maybe you spend a little bit too much time on the computer. Maybe it is video games where you get into this whole other world out there. Maybe it is video gambling. Playing poker online or whatever. Maybe it is pornography. It could be something like that. Those things really don’t bear much fruit. Those are fruitless deeds of darkness. It is pretty clear. Maybe it is excessive partying. Maybe you like to go to Carson Street a little bit too much and stay out too late and you get home and you spend too much time over the porcelain throne puking your guts out all night. The only fruit of that is puke. You laugh because you have been there. That is what I am saying. Those are fruitless deeds of darkness. It doesn’t even have to be something that extreme. It could just be maybe you get caught up in gossip. Maybe you like to chat with somebody and try to constantly be putting somebody down whether it is on Facebook or work or at home or wherever it is. Maybe you are very good at sarcasm. Some people seem to have the gift of sarcasm, which is nothing to be proud of because sarcasm comes from the word sarx which is flesh. Sarcasm is actually a cutting of the flesh. When you are being sarcastic to somebody, you are cutting into their flesh. That is a fruitless deed of darkness. Maybe you just like to get caught up in coarse or foul joking or just profane words. Those are fruitless deeds of darkness. I can give you a lot more examples, but I think you understand that. He says stop it. Get away from it. Have nothing to do with those deeds because they are fruitless. They have actually no benefit whatsoever.
He goes on to say expose them. Keep in mind, when he says expose them, he is not saying you go out there and you go to that world wherever you are going on Carson Street or in your office or wherever, and if somebody uses a bad word or somebody does a bad thing, you point it out and say you shouldn’t be doing that because God said you shouldn’t be doing that. They are just going to laugh it off. Who are you to tell me that? Really, we have no business telling the world how to act. They don’t know any different. They really don’t. Before I got saved, I had quite a bad mouth. In fact, I had a mouth like a sailor. It probably has to do with because I was a sailor at one time. I would make the sailor’s blush. That is what kind of mouth I had on me. But as soon as I got saved, God took that away from me just like that. Of course, I had the need to tell everybody else. I don’t cuss so you shouldn’t cuss. Unfortunately, I tried to do it in a restaurant environment where that is all they do is cuss. Anybody see Hell’s Kitchen? I worked for a guy that was very much like Chef Ramsey. They would just cuss. That is what they would do. I created this combative thing where I am getting mad at him every time he used a profane word and that is the only vocabulary he knows so it was no benefit. He says expose them and what he means is shed your light on them. Kind of like light exposes dark film. When you put the light on there, you are exposing the film. When you put the light on people who are engaging in certain activities or when you refuse to engage in those certain activities, you are shining the light on them. You don’t have to say anything. You are saying something by your actions or your inactions. You are saying something by you not participating. You are making a statement that you are trying to be different. They don’t like that. Some people get mad. Some people get angry. Some people start calling you names.
In fact, the apostle Peter sums it up pretty well in his letter. He is speaking to this group and he is talking to his people. This is in the message translation. He says “You’ve already put in your time in that God-ignorant way of life, partying night after night, a drunken, shamelessly immoral life. Now it’s time to be done with it for good.” It goes on to say “Your old friends don’t understand why you don’t join in with the old gang anymore. But you don’t have to give an account to them. They’re the ones who will be called on the carpet—and before God himself.” You don’t have to worry about what they say, but you are convicting them by your refusal to engage in those old ways and those old habits. And it’s uncomfortable. But join the club. That is persecution and that is a good thing. Even though they may be mocking you and making fun of you or whatever, some people are watching you and saying I admire this person because they are willing to stand their ground and not just be like everybody else and join in with all this fruitless behavior that they used to do in the past.
I guess what I am saying is that, individually and collectively, we have been rescued out, we have been called out from the dominion of darkness and placed in the kingdom of the Son. Consequently, we should act differently. Not only that, we should open up the word and try to find out what it means to do things that please God. We should distance ourselves from old habits and old ways and old fruitless deeds. We would begin to be the people of the light that would expose the light to the dark deeds.
Simple as pie, right? Wrong. It is very hard. It is extremely hard to practice this in life isn’t it? I think all of you know this. It is very difficult. But that emphasizes and underscores the need for community. When we are all these people together who have been called out of darkness into the light it is kind of like we have this built-in support system. We have this phenomenal support system. People that are relating to the same thing. Trying to figure out how do you work this out in school? How do you work it out at home? How do you work it out in the business world? How do you do this in life? You have this built-in group of people that are able to look at this dark world and all the situations and work them out together in the context of community. Some of you people might say that is nice Chuck but really I’m not into this community thing. Really all I need is Jesus, my Bible, and me. That is all we need and we’ll do just fine. I think there are some people out there that possibly can do that and can live that way just with themselves and God and their Bible and figure it out but there aren’t that many. If there is anybody in here that can do that, I invite you to come up here and lead the next sermon because you are a better person than I am because I can’t do that. I need my own personal support system. I need my own community of friends. I need this community. I have several communities that help keep me accountable. The reality is you can’t be objective enough about your circumstances. You think you can but not when your heart gets involved or your emotions.
One of the commandments that I think probably a third grader would know is the idea that we shouldn’t steal. I think most Christians know that means it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to go rob the bank down the street. Many don’t know what you should or shouldn’t do in the work environment. Some of you work in situations where you are developing contracts. You are creating invoices. You are billing people for hours worked and that sort of thing. Sometimes you get tempted to kind of fudge the numbers a little bit, especially if it is a big deal and your job is on the line and the company is on the line, you may fudge the numbers just a little bit. You may get into the rationalization game. If you have no community of support to ask them then you are making that decision on your own and you are not always thinking right about that. Maybe in your workplace it is the end of the month and you are filling out your time sheet. You know it’s the end of the month and you need an extra $100 to pay the rent or pay a utility bill. If I just tweak it a little bit and add a couple extra hours here or there then I could pay my bills. That is stealing. You can’t figure that out on your own because you are too tied up into the whole thing.
Another example is the idea of adultery. Do not commit adultery. I think most people know that it is not a good idea to commit adultery. They do it anyway but it’s not generally a good idea to do it. But what does that mean? Some people can’t figure out when they are beginning to cross the line. When they are beginning to proceed from what would almost be seen as a deed of light over to a deed of darkness. For instance, is it okay for a married man to have lunch with an attractive lady from the office? I do it all the time with Debbie but I am talking about somebody besides your spouse. Is that okay to have lunch with an unmarried person from your office and he or she is very attractive? Some would say as long as it is done in the light. As long as it is done in the day at McDonald’s or somewhere like that then it is perfectly fine. Let’s say it wasn’t done at McDonald’s. It was done at your favorite little restaurant over in Shadyside a few miles away from here where nobody can see you. What if it wasn’t a lunch but it was a dinner date and out in Monroeville or even out of town? Is that okay? What if it wasn’t a dinner but a late-night drink with someone from the opposite sex? When you are caught up and especially if you have marital issues going on in your life, you can easily make the transition or do the slow fade from light into darkness. Many of you know what I am talking about. It is very easy to do especially if you have no community of support to run it by. It is so easy to mess up like that unless you have people that can come alongside you and help you make those decisions and help you figure out what it is that pleases the Lord. You can’t be objective enough.
It is a dark, dark world out there. It is a crazy mixed-up world. If you don’t believe it, read the newspaper, walk down the street, talk to people. You know that everybody’s morals have flip-flopped. Everything is crazy going on out there. There is a dark entity or whatever you want to call it, but there is something out there that is trying to destroy your family, destroy your home, destroy your finances, and destroy your life. I did a funeral for a man several weeks ago. He was 50 years old and drank himself to death. Somebody is out there trying to destroy you. There really is. Call it evil. Call it whatever you want, but there is a destructive force out there. We have to be the church. God has given us, ordained, or called the church to be the instrument to go out there as the light of life, as the light of Christ and go out there with our penetrating light and penetrate those dark areas to expose those dark areas.
As a pastor who has been called, what I do, just like what Paul had to do, I remind each of you of your call. I remind each of you that you have been called out of darkness. You have been called into light. You have been called into the church. Consequently, you have the authority and the responsibility to be as a child of light. You would partner with God as he goes out there into the world and He begins to penetrate that darkness and you get to come alongside Him. You are actually the vehicle that he is going to do it through individually and collectively. You are the one that is going to bring light to that dark world because you are the light because you follow the one who said that “I am the light of this world. If anybody follows me, he will never walk in darkness but have the light of life.” So I remind you of your special call. I would appeal to you like Paul to live according to that call. To remember who you are. To put away those sinful, dumb, fruitless deeds of your past. To have nothing to do with them. To open up God’s words in the context of a collective community and figure it out. If you don’t know, figure out how you should respond and how you should act in certain circumstances and that you would then be the one who would go into the world and then expose the dark. People, you are a people with a special call. You are the people who have been called out from darkness into light so what I ask and I pray of you is that you would live as children of the light. Let us pray.
