Unintentional Spiritual Formation

In the second half of Acts 19, Paul starts a riot. After confronting the false idols and spiritual powers in Ephesus, some of the local businessmen revolt. While Paul escapes and the church in Ephesus grows, just a few years later Paul has to write to them reminding them to continue following the way of Jesus intentionally rather than being formed by the idols of Ephesus unintentionally.

Today, our temptation is much the same.

To avoid being formed and shaped by the idols of our city and culture, we must intentionally allow ourselves to be formed into the image of Jesus by examining the stories we hear, the habits we practice, and the relationships we surround ourselves with.

You can take interactive notes here. At the end of the message, you can email the notes to yourself.

Open your Bibles if you can to Acts chapter 19. I’m so excited for today. Uh, it’s really feels like a vision Sunday in many ways. We just didn’t title it that today. Open to Acts chapter 19 and all of 2024 we’ve been having a singular goal of making friends and loving other people.

Hope that’s going well for you. That is our desire at our church. That’s I think one of the main things Jesus says that we should do, but in our effort to make friends and love other people, glasses are killing us. In his book, Three Pieces of Glass, Eric Jacobson points to the three glasses that are shaping our souls and also our relationships, deforming us and hurting us more than we even know.

The first of the glasses are, of course, the smartphone. You can’t come to Passion Creek very long for me not to bring up the woes of technology, even though I’m on it every single day. Uh, the average user touches their phone, I just saw that this week, 2, 617 times. A day. Not a week, folks. A day. The younger generations can actually be on their phone up to eight hours a day.

There’s a reason they call you the user. It’s because it’s an addictive drug demanding our attention and consumption, and you’ll even feel it going off in your pocket, even though your phone’s not even there. The second piece of glass that is forming and deforming us is the TV screen. The average Netflix user spends 3.

2 hours Per day, consuming All sorts of shows. I was going to make a Gilmore Girls joke, but we’re moving on from that show. Uh, White West Wing, all sorts of things. That’s a lot of TV. That doesn’t include also consumers of Fox, CNN, and the like. They’re known, people are known for putting it on the TV for so long that their logo is stuck on the screen, even when you turn it off.

And some folks even leave it on while they’re out of the house. I guess to indoctrinate their dog while they’re away. I’m not sure. The third piece of glass that shapes us that we don’t think about. Is the windshield. Just this week I was talking to my neighbor, who was kind of down and out, and I learned that he actually commutes three hours a day.

That’s a lot of time being alone. Now, some of this is unavoidable, read your Bible, you need a job, so, some of us need to do that. But, are we considering what these pieces of glass are doing to our souls? I have seen it. It’s created a spirit of cynicism and hatred for the other. It seems to be draining us.

With all sorts of disinformation and distraction It’s killing our relationships It’s robbing us of being present in the moment And it’s taking our mind and attention away from the way of jesus into the way of the world Now as a pastor in this modern age I have to remind myself of the gandalf quote Is it of like you were born for this moment?

And I think am I like is this why did I have to be born in this era? But as a pastor of this era, it’s our job to Constantly bring your attention to how these glasses are killing us, and maybe, just maybe, we can begin to detach ourselves from these glasses. See, there’s so much theology to learn, there’s a lot of commands and practices to obey, but we can’t go very far because these addictions are drawing us back to the world, and we constantly have to face it.

And again, this is what every pastor does in every age. We find what’s deforming the church, we expose it, point it out, talk about all the negatives to this way of life, and then point, of course, to King Jesus. And Paul did the same thing. In every city he went, it was usually different. He was contextualizing the gospel.

He’d understand Athens versus Ephesus versus Thessalonica. He would see every single city, every people group, every generation had these different ways of falling away from King Jesus. And in Ephesus especially, I believe he spent most of his time there warning the people, these goddesses are killing us.

Specifically, the goddess Artemis. Artemis in Ephesus held a lot of power over this really powerful and prestigious city called Ephesus. They actually believe she came down in the form of a meteorite, uh, before this time. A few hundred years before we’re gonna read in Acts 19, and so as a result, they built a whole temple for her, and it was so beautiful, it’s actually one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, and, uh, sorry, seven wonders of the ancient world, there it is, and Artemis, uh, was their source for wealth, prosperity, fertility, and And protection.

They gave all the credit to Artemis and not God alone. And here’s what you’d have to do though. You’d have to engage in prostitution, in the temples. In order to be fertile, you would have to offer sacrifices and by statues in order to be wealthy. And so Paul enters into Ephesus, proclaims the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

And it has such a marked effect on the city of Ephesus that it starts a riot. Acts chapter 19. Let’s start in verse 23. About that time, there was a major disturbance. About the way I love the way of Jesus. I love Christianity being called the way this Greek word is hodos. Think of it as hodos means a path.

Now it’s not just a path to life. Maybe you grew up in a context like me. I thought Christianity was just about, are you going to heaven or not? Do you know about the path to everlasting life? And absolutely. That’s a huge part of it, but it’s also a path of life. Think of follow the yellow brick road, right?

It’s one thing to acknowledge this yellow path takes me to Oz. It’s another to stay on the path. And you keep going through all the different valleys, and lions, and tigers, and bears. Oh my, okay, right. So, it’s one thing to know it leads there, it’s another thing to walk it. And I think, man, at our church, if you’re here for any length of time, you realize we believe this is the way.

It’s the way that we live. Let’s keep reading. Verse 24. For a person named Demetrius, A silversmith who made the silver shrines of Artemis provided a great deal of business for the craftsmen. When he had assembled them as well as the other workers, sorry, when he assembled them as well as the workers engaged in this type of business, he said, men, you know that our prosperity is derived from this business.

Notice the God of Mammon here. Notice the greed. Notice they love Artemis because of what it gives them. helps with their bank account. Verse 26, you see in here that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this man, Paul has persuaded and misled. Of course, we wouldn’t use that word, but this is a pagan misled, a considerable number of people by saying that God’s made by hand are not.

God’s not a good marketing pitch for these people who make statues for a living. Verse 27 Not only do we run a risk that our business may be discredited But also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be despised and her magnificence come to the verge of ruin One commentator this week says he’s trying to make it it’s about doctrine.

Oh, no, it’s we got to protect Artemis But really it’s about dollars, isn’t it? It’s about protecting his money. You have to think oh, it’s it’s About this goddess. No, it’s about your greed. All the same, they wanted this type of idolatry to continue. The very one of all Asia and the world. Worship. We’ve addressed idolatry throughout the book of Acts, like a lot in a lot of different ways.

I just want to give you another definition because I think what we’ve been doing is we’ve been talking about what is idol, what do idols look like back then. But I want us to help contextualize, bring it relevant to today. What is an idol today? My definition is on the screen. Idolatry is when we take something pleasant and expect it to be perfect.

Something pleasant, the Proverbs says, how good it is to have a wife. And I have a good, good wife, very pleasant. We’ve lived long enough together to know she’s not perfect. All right, just close. Don’t worry, darling. But, uh, when I expect my wife, who’s pleasant to be perfect, what am I actually doing to my marriage?

I’m hurting our marriage. I’m actually hurting my own soul. When I expect Jordan to be Jesus, she will let me down. Jesus will never let me down, but she will. And so you see this in marriages time and time again. You idolize each other and eventually it leads to demonizing each other because you expect them to be God.

You learn that they’re not and now you’re angry because you wanted your God to give you everything you desired. This happens in many different ways. Idols can be made of anything. This is also true for money. We talked about that a lot in August. Achievement. Job, career success. None of these things are evil in and of themselves, but when you expect those things to be perfect, to give you all of your satisfaction, and you give everything to it, well now it leads to destruction.

In other words, if we take something that’s pleasant, a gift from God that he wants you to enjoy, and expect it to be perfect, it quickly becomes perverted. And this is what happens. We begin to worship these things and evil starts to come in. These spiritual forces begin to influence us. I love how Timothy Keller puts it.

He says, idols are empty and yet they’re incredibly powerful. They totally control you and yet they give you nothing. We’ve been talking about this a lot in Acts. I, I really can’t, I think you can’t be faithful in preaching the gospel without directly speaking against idols. It’s one thing, remember this a few weeks ago, Christ died for us.

That’s the essential of the gospel. But I believe also, and we now die with him is just as imperative. The call of the gospel is not just to hear that he died for our sins, but also we died to our sin. We died to our idols. Give them up for the purpose of Jesus. And what’s amazing about the church in Ephesus, they did it.

You read this last week, but I’m going to read it again. Verse, uh, 17 through 20 here in chapter 19, when this became known to everyone who lived in Ephesus, both the Jews and Greeks, they became afraid. And the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high esteem and many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices.

Remember these magical practices as Pastor Caleb referenced. Verse 19. While many of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in front Of everyone they were saying no to this idolatry and to all the people and youth groups in the 90s This meant you had to burn all your led zeppelin cds, right?

That was your way of applying this text. Praise the lord You’re still in the room Okay So they calculated their value and found it to be 50 000 pieces of silver in this way the word of the lord spread and burned Prevailed. The way of the Lord, the word of the Lord spreads when we say no to our idols and yes to King Jesus.

And what’s incredible about what happens here in 17 through 20, that has such a major mark on the economy of Ephesus that now the sellers of these statues are saying Christians can’t stay here anymore because they’re demanding us to even change our way of life because so many Christians are not buying what we are selling.

Can you imagine that type of gospel movement happening in our economy? Where people are no longer paying tribute to these idols, they’re no longer paying visit to Artemis, that we’re no longer buying statues for good luck as they would in Ephesus. Now here’s the thing, though, and here’s the next movement we have in this text.

It’s one thing to say, hey, we’re saying no to idols. We have to recognize idols don’t go down without a swing. They will go fighting. They want control of your life, and maybe you’ve seen this. You’ve said no to sin or an idolatry at one point in your life. It’s one thing to say no. We have to say no time and time again, because it will rear its ugly head.

Look at verse 28. When they had heard this, they were filled with rage and began to cry out, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. So the city was filled with confusion and they rushed altogether into the amphitheater. Now this amphitheater, if you’re like me, I think of when I read the Bible, sadly, sometimes I think of like those nineties Jesus movies.

So I’m thinking when people ran into an amphitheater, it was like a, you know, 20 seat auditorium and 10 people were in there and everybody was freaking out. Please know the amphitheater in Ephesus was filled with 25, 000 people. People if you’ve been to a Suns game, I think the max average is like 19, 000.

It’s even bigger than the Phoenix Suns Stadium So just imagine they’re gonna be chanting this phrase. It does something to you I grew up going to the Suns games and honestly, I really hate the Lakers because They’re the Lakers, but in my era, when I grew up, it was really the Spurs that would break our hearts, and I thought I hated the Spurs, but when you go to a game, and you’re just yelling at Tim Duncan, like, you just kind of, like, everybody’s doing that, you all of a sudden hate Tim Duncan, too.

It does something to you, right? These loud voices, it is incredible, the kind of force that it brings, and that’s what’s happening here, and so imagine 25, 000 people chanting about Artemis, and so they’re dragging along Gaius, And aristocrats, Macedonians who were Paul’s traveling companions. And although Paul wanted to go in before the people, the disciples did not let him.

Remember just a couple weeks ago, he was in Corinth, and he was so discouraged, he thought about not speaking. Now he’s like, Let’s bring it on. I’ll take on 25, 000 people at once. So I love the courage that was restored to Paul. Verse 31, Even some of the provincial officers of Asia, who were his friends, So notice Paul had friends in powerful places, sent word to him, pleading with him not to venture into the amphitheater.

And some were shouting one thing Some another because the assembly was in confusion. I love this line. I love Luke. And most of them did not know why they had come together. Have you seen that before? I don’t know why we’re yelling, but I’m mad. Right? Uh, Eugene Peterson, one of my favorite pastors, commentators, he said, the louder, the crowd, the dumber it gets, right.

And the bigger the crowd, like there is something about, I think it’s kind of funny when we boast about crowd sizes. Honestly, like you can go to. I didn’t share this in the first gathering and maybe I shouldn’t have but let’s just keep going. There’s a reason like you can go to a gathering of a church that’s not actually preaching the gospel But you might leave really encouraged Why it wasn’t because the truth was preached.

There’s just something about a vibe There’s something about people coming together and saying things in unison. It has a very powerful force. So bravo to you You’re like forget the crowds. We’re going here in a cafeteria. We want the truth. No, i’m just kidding Okay that edit that out future trey. All right now Back to this text.

What verse am I in? Verse thirty, uh, Three some jews in the crowd gave instructions to alexander after they pushed him to the front That’s like in junior high like the one guy like you start the dance. You’re like, why am I here poor alexander? He got pushed to the front to defend himself to 25 000 people.

And so motioning with his hand very good communications Let’s just do this first motioning with his hand alexander wanted to make his defense to the people But when they recognized that he was a jew they all shouted in unison for about two hours great as artemis You of the Ephesians. Can you imagine 25, 000 people for two hours shouting the same thing over and over?

All of that to say, I want you to notice idols get angry when we no longer serve them and they start a revolt and they love to enact tactics to pressure you back to the ways Of the world now if we were to keep reading I want us to actually go to Ephesians 4 but 35 through 41 It seems the church wins at this moment Uh, there’s a city clerk who comes in and says hey, it’s actually against the rules to riot Rome will be really mad at us.

So let’s go home and half of them are like we don’t know why we were here Anyway, so okay sounds good We’re going to go home and paul and his life and the christians were spared at least for the time being so this was a major victory but Is this the last time paul will have to confront these idols in ephesus?

If you know anything about idolatry And Christians, you know, the answer is of course not. So turn with me to Ephesians chapter four. I hope you’ve noticed what we’ve been trying to do time and time again as we’ve been preaching through Acts is pointing to the other letter in the new testament that speaking about that moment or at least about that place here in Ephesians It’s about four to seven years later from that theater moment While Paul was actually in prison in Rome, he gets reports about the church at Ephesus and writes a letter to encourage them, but also to rebuke them.

And the rebuke really turns up a notch in verse 17, Ephesians chapter 4. Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord, you should no longer walk as the Gentiles do. Now it’s helpful to know when you’re interpreting the New Testament, sometimes Gentiles just simply means anybody who is not of Jewish descent.

Other times Gentiles can be translated as pagan. It just means you don’t follow the way of the Lord. So you’re saying don’t walk as the unbelievers do in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God. Amen. Amen. Because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts.

I think this is so good to remember. When you were preaching the gospel to your non believing friend, you were fighting against ignorance, but also hardness, stubbornness of spirit. Verse 19, they became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with the desire for more and more.

But that is not how you came to know Christ. So, what are these verses implying? Were these Christians still impacting the Ephesian economy? Maybe. But at the very least, we can surmise they were at least drifting back into the idol worship of Ephesus. It may be they were starting to go back to Artemis, buying those statues for good luck, participating in prostitution for the sake of fertility.

And Paul has to call them back. See, this is what’s happening. It’s called unintentional spiritual formation. This is why this feels like a Vision Sunday. It’s the heartbeat behind everything we do. To be unintentionally formed means that we’re all becoming, being formed into someone or something. And the reality is, is that we’re never static.

Just because you were faithful a week ago, doesn’t mean you’re still faithful today. You got to wake up and choose This life every single day. It’s like those moving walkways. I call them conveyor belts for humans, you know, like at the airport where you want to speed by somebody and isn’t it the worst when somebody, maybe it’s you.

So we love you. But like, if you’re on the moving walkway, also walk, it doubles it up. Like it’s great. Don’t just stand there. Or at least if you do move to the side anyways. So I imagine the Christian life is like being put in the middle of a conveyor belt for humans, but you’re going the wrong direction.

Right? This is the way of Jesus, but now you’re placed in an environment and place where everything is going the opposite way. So if you just do nothing, you’re just going to be going backwards. If you just kind of slowly walk, you will stay stagnant. So you work, you do a little bit of your practices, you come to church maybe, you’re kind of, uh, But it really takes effort, like you’re going upstream, to walk with intention, to possibly jog, in order to get to the place you want to go.

That’s what it means to be human. And so the Ephesians, they burned all of those evil practices, and said no to Artemis seven years ago. But every day they still needed to get up, and keep walking in the way of Jesus, or they will be pulled back, unintentionally. That’s what I love about this, uh, uh, uh, imagery of the theater.

I think this theater is a visible sign of what’s happening to us every single day. The world, the flesh, and the devil, every day you wake up, is chanting about sin, about selfishness, about the way of the world, convincing you to follow their way and not the way. And slowly but surely, if we are not intentional, we will find ourselves in places we thought we would never go.

To be more specific, we are unintentionally formed by the stories we hear, the habits we practice, and the relationships we have. A quick word on each. If you look again in your Bibles in verse 17, it says, quote, In the futility of their thoughts. In other words, we are all communicating a worldview. I think one of the silliest things we say is people, the society is saying, Christians, don’t vote your morality.

Don’t impose your morality. We all have a morality. The question is, what is the morality? What is your worldview? Every story, every time we talk, we are communicating, and we are for, Something. One mantra that we’ve been fighting against the last couple months is more money equals more happiness. Come on, guys.

When I pause, that’s for you. Come on, Baptists. Alright, more money equals more happiness. I knew you’d learn, right? And so, we learned in August. No, that’s not true, right? We fought against that narrative. But if we don’t keep fighting against that narrative, what will we tend to believe again? Well, maybe a little more money equals a little more happiness.

This is what happens all the time. Paul is saying, watch out. Those thoughts are futile. Secondly, the habits. He says no longer walk as the Gentiles do. Here’s what’s great. The metaphor of walking. Paul loves to use time and time again. And so do the Proverbs. This idea of walking is actually doing something without thinking about it.

Now. I know not all of us have the grace of being able to walk. So please hear me there. But generally speaking, most of us, we walk and we don’t think unless you’re like me, I count. Pray for me. I count all my steps. I’m exhausted by the end of the day. Just being in this body. All right. So as I’m walking, I’m counting, but you should be thinking about wherever you’re going.

You’re not actually thinking about the walking. That’s what habits do. They put you on autopilot. So you do other things, but it leads you into these certain places and directions. I love to say this all the time. And maybe you’ve heard this illustration. But our habits really do shape our hearts. So I think in Proverbs 4, 23 says, guard your heart for it’s the wellspring of life.

I think what that is saying is therefore guard your habits because what you do does something to you. The illustration is for 10 years, I’m so happily married to my wife and for 12, that, that sounded okay. For 12 years, I’m still happily married to you. I don’t want to make that sound past tense. I want to have lunch today.

All right. So, but for the first 10 years of our marriage, I hated country music, loathed it entirely. Right? It’s just terrible. Sam Hunt ruined the whole industry with this rap stuff that he’s introducing in the country. Anybody else with me on that? Right? So, I just wouldn’t like it. And so, being your pastor, I’m just such a good godly person.

She turned on country music. I’d be reciting scripture within the depths of Not normally. But, um, sometimes we would just drive, right? And I just think, oh, because I love her. I’ll put up with it. Ten years of constantly playing these songs over and over and over. And I was on a walk one day and I began to hum a country song.

And I thought, what is happening to me? And when I get in the car, I think, babe, turn your phone on again. Let’s play some music. It can be country. You know, I was like, what, who am I? What happened? Ten years of her faithfulness and playing country music led to me. Finally, just the other day, I was all alone playing country music from Spotify.

People can change. For the worse or for the better it depends on the musical genre But what you do does something to you and also the relationships that we have notice how he says as the gentiles do They are darkened in their understanding who you hang out with forms who you become In business parlance, right?

Show me the five people you’re around and i’ll show you your success in the future or not That is true now as a christian Of course, we have to be with non believers, but hear me, let us not think we’re so strong. We need other mentors and counselors and coaches and just godly people around us, or we will be formed like the way of the world.

Look at verse 19 again. Look what was happening to the church of Ephesus. They became callous, he’s talking about the pagans here, and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with the desire for more and more. He’s saying about the threat of who these people are. Do you notice these things are the very same things that Paul fought against four to seven years ago in the temple?

Look, promiscuity, that’s Artemis. That’s sexuality. Desire for more and more, greed. Does, sexuality and greed were the two things that Artemis is all about in the temple seven years, er, in the theater seven years ago. And they’re still about it today. And just because Ephesus said no seven years ago, the church, doesn’t mean they’re still being tempted with it today.

And here’s the reality, our cities, our environments shape and form us without our consent. Just as the Ephesians, you and I, are unintentionally formed by the stories we hear, the habits we practice, and the relationships we have. In the East Valley in particular, I used to say Queen Creek, but by the grace of God, we have people from all these different cities, so I’m just going to say East Valley from now on.

In the East Valley, slowly but surely, it more sussed. To buy the lies of consumerism, busyness, and isolation. One thing I’m grateful for, we don’t live in the best neighborhood. It’s great, we’re, we’re content. I go to some of y’all’s houses, I’m there for 30 minutes, and I’m like, I need a better kitchen, right?

But in my house, I’m like, my kitchen’s fine, I just need to stop, stop being so hospitable. Um, no, but these form us, right? These environments. They begin to tell us these lies. By the way, I just, my person, in my head, just because you have a good kitchen, that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Please hear, understand the illustration.

Whenever I go off script, it’s always bad. So let me come back. But we’re convinced to spend money we don’t have, to buy comfort we don’t need, to impress people we don’t even like. That’s the East Valley. And that’s why I’m really grateful. When we were looking at all the practices a couple years ago, and the trajectory, the three year journey we’re in the middle of, and we looked at generosity, I thought, oh, I don’t know if we’re ready for this, because everything in our culture says consume and buy more, and, you know, you don’t need to be generous, especially, sure, give, but don’t be sacrificial with it.

And so we kind of challenged you in August, and it was so great, because I kind of showed you the budget, I said, man, and, And all the year, our budget’s about 20, 000 a month. We’ve been about at 19, 000. That’s fine. Economic, all of that, that’s great. We’re doing good. But let’s see what we can do. And it was incredible.

It has exceeded our expectations. I was just praying we’re at least a thousand over budget in August. If we went, you know, if it was like 10,000 that month and I was teaching on giving every week, I would just quit my job then and there. I’m just gonna be honest, I’m just very human. But it was great. We had 30,000 come in, you guys were sacrificial a lot to celebrate.

And I thought, okay, when is it gonna go back to reality? And then September came and it was 34,000. You guys even gave even more and sacrificed more. And what does that mean? You guys bought into the teachings and practices of Jesus. You saw this really is the better way. And so towards the end of the month, I always have to get these numbers in order for us to make the graphic to tell you guys how we’re doing at the beginning of every new month.

And I checked in on the 30th of October with my accountant and our accountant and said, Hey, how are we doing? She said, Well, you’re kind of back to reality. Oh no, that’s okay. I knew this would eventually happen. So I started to like go on prayer walks and like, okay, two months. That makes, that kind of makes sense.

And so I was thinking it through and I thought, man, that’s kind of sad. Like I want us to continue in our budget. Here’s some reasons why, just to be transparent with you. I would love to bless our staff more. I’d love to add to our staff. I’d love to continue to do great things. I’d love to be able to qualify, to be able to get land in a building.

And I think we’re on that way, but some of these things, like they’re not selfish motives. Like I really do think it’d be great to have, but even at a A deeper level. I think a lowered budget communicates lowered trust. What it means is, we were saying for a month, Hey, trust in the God of abundance. He will care for you.

And what does the world say? Just turn on the news. It’s all about the scarcity mentality, isn’t it? It’s all about this is it, it’s over, you’re never going to have enough, especially if this person gets elected or that. And so to hear, Oh, no, are we not making it? It’s like, are we falling into these lies again?

Are we unintentionally being formed by the world? And we were saying, man, we’re just stewards. We’re not owners. We’re just, all of this is a gift. But what does the world say? This isn’t a gift. You earned it. This is yours. You own it. So I thought maybe that’s where we’re at. So I was getting ready to do like a talk to talk with you guys Here’s the reality.

Here’s where we’re at. That’s okay. I always want to be a gentle pastor I hope that’s on my tombstone, but also rebuking one so I don’t know how to balance those things pray for me But then go on the next slide. We had a really good month Apparently you guys wanted to give on the last day. So the accountant came back said hey, you’re actually doing pretty well It’s 25 000 something dollars, which is incredible.

That’s like that’s so good Like look at how we did the rest of the year It really shows you guys are still leaning into those practices and that’s honestly me and pastor Caleb have been asking that hard question. How do we pastor us because Unintentionally, we’re being formed back to all these thoughts and teachings of the world We can talk about sabbath rest for four months till we’re blue in the face And then two years later, I’m scared to ask who’s still sabbathing, you know, like we just unintentionally the, the world has such a powerful force over our souls.

And so me and Caleb and the rest of our team are trying to do what we can. If you have ideas, come to me after don’t yell them right now. Don’t be. The Artemis amphitheater, but let’s talk about after, but I’m trying to figure out how do we make sure there’s so many ways the culture is forming us and we need to want to slowly but surely keep pushing those off and putting on these practices.

That’s what he says in verse 20, but that is not how you came to know Christ. Assuming you heard about him and were taught by him as the truth is in Jesus to take off your former way of life. The old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on, this is clothing language, literally think of put off this other clothes, put on this new one, to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness and righteousness and purity of the truth.

And this is the bread and butter of Passion Creek Church. Man, we’re obsessed. putting off our former way of life. Grace, patience, all of that. Man, there’s such good life on offer if we keep persistently putting it on. Write this down. What is intentional spiritual formation? It means we are intentionally formed by the teachings, practices, and community of Jesus.

Yes, the world has these narratives and stories. We put them off by putting on his teachings. Yes, there’s so many bad, destructive habits this world tells us to partake in. We put them off by putting on the practices of Jesus. Yes, there are some relationships that are pulling us the other direction. For some of us, go back to the peacemaking series, sometimes it means you actually cut them off, other times you, you redefine that relationship and you put on community.

You get in a together group and live this life together. And here’s what I’m convinced of. This only works if you work it. I love that St. Augustine line. What is it? Um, Without us, God won’t. But without God, we can’t. It’s this reciprocal relationship. It works if we work it. Uh, and a couple, uh, about a month ago, I just have been really, like, my body has been weird.

I’ve just been really nervous and anxious and, Depressed and I’m like, what’s happening? And so I finally figured out with my spiritual director a couple of years ago, the first thing I need to look at is my diet, my routines. It’s not always just this big thing. Sometimes it’s just how I’m living my life.

And so I just decided to put off some things and put on some things. And so I put off things like caffeine in the morning. It’s like, no, I can’t have that anymore because it just does something to me. And, uh, also I put off things like breakfast, which isn’t a sacrifice for me. I think breakfast is the worst meal of the day.

Judge me. I know. Um, and then I put off being on my phone. All right, like I just like with all things the news everything going on. I’m like, I want to see what’s going on I don’t need to know what’s going on. And so I put that off by putting on you know water instead of caffeine in the morning I instead of breakfast I started to run 5ks every single day and it’s been so good for my soul Not good for my legs, but then thirdly I, uh, what was I doing?

Oh, yeah. I, instead of, you know, being on my phone, I decided I’m just gonna go on walks to pray. I say all that to say, I’ve been doing well. Like, immediately, my disposition’s better. I’m not as stressed and burnt out. And sermons are easier to create. All this has been amazing. And then last Monday, I wake up, my wife got up early, and she made cinnamon rolls.

Cinnamon rolls! My favorite breakfast, if there is a good breakfast. So I thought well, she probably only made three because we have three girls. I go over there. She made eight I thought oh no, this is gonna be wasted. I’m a good steward not an owner, right? I’m I just need to do the work of the ministry. So I was like, babe.

Did you make one for me? She’s like, yeah, don’t you want one? I said, of course I want to and so I grabbed them and I enjoyed it and then Trinity She’s like, I don’t even want mine. I said, well, we can’t waste it. That’s not good for the dog handed over. And so all of a sudden, instead of being on my 5k, I’m on the couch having my third cinnamon roll.

I’m thinking coffee goes perfect with cinnamon rolls. So now I have some caffeine. And then I think, well, I’m kind of bored, so I turn on the news. I literally did everything. And all it took was just this one thing to fall way back, and it took like four days for me to run a 5K again. Because it’s hard to run when you have cinnamon rolls in your stomach.

Right? All that to say, like, that’s a silly example, but it’s really easy, isn’t it, to get pulled back to the way of the world. To all of a sudden and we want our community to be gracious and loving but also to serve as reminders. Hey, let’s get back on So that’s why we have a forum by jesus. com. I encourage you If you’ve missed any of the practices or if if you’re even brand new we encourage you to go there And read about these practices, because this is what we’re seeking to do, to put off the stories we hear, the habits the world tells us to practice, and the relationships the world tells us to have.

See, what we’re doing is we’re taking off hurry, but putting on Sabbath. Here at our church, we take off lies, but putting on Scripture. We take off consumption, but putting on simplicity. This year has been all about, we take off isolation, the world is making us. Arizona’s making us stay home and alone and unengaged with our neighbors.

No, no, we put that off. We’re putting on hospitality. We put off resentment. Man, the amount of times I’ve seen relationships destroyed because we just can’t let go of being right, of our bitterness. No, we’re going to take that off in peacemaking, right? We put on peacemaking and say, no, the way of Jesus is filled with humility.

And of course we put off greed, which is so invisible, but we put it on. We put on generosity. And here’s the warning from Paul to Ephesus and now to us. If we aren’t constantly reorienting to the way of Jesus, we are unintentionally reinforcing the way of the world. And I just wondered, do you feel that?

And it’s hard because I want us to be a place where you can come no matter what stage of life you’re in, whether you’re forward going or you’re backsliding, there’s so much grace. But we also want to be a place that constantly reminds you. Are you reorienting or reinforcing? Cause we’re not static and this truly is what’s best for you.

So in your groups this week, and I hope that you are in a group, if not, just go to our website on the next steps button, click the group guide, even just do this as a family. You’re going to be going through a habit audit. I think it’s gonna be so helpful of all weeks. I think it’d be so. Good for your soul because the first question you’re going to ask is what are the stories you’re listening to?

How are they forming you or deforming you and what is your plan of action? What should you turn off? Secondly, I hope that you wrestle with the question. What habits are you practicing? Is it forming or deforming you Is it reorienting your way to the to the way of jesus or reinforcing the way of the world?

Is it making you a negative person a consuming person or a disciple a contributor? And lastly, of course, what are the relationships you’re surrounding yourself with? And again, I think we should be around non believers. Absolutely. But you can’t fight this fight alone. We need each other, folks. Are you in a group?

Are you living life in community? We need each other. Desperately. Because this world is forming us and destroying us. Now let me end with a very gentle reminder that this is all an invitation. I believe more and more morality is a requirement. Like if you’re killing people, we might confront you, right?

Like this is not good, but maturity is a request. This stuff is maturing into his image. Read the beginning of Ephesians four. That’s what it’s all about Paul is saying man. Imagine if we as a body were matured and grew up into christ And that’s our call me and pastor. Caleb have no desire to just gently Like we kind of look like the world but we slap Jesus on it.

Like I have no desire to try to just Only focus on you attending on Sunday. That’s so lame. I want to do something better with my life But what if we reorient ourselves? What if we actually practice the way of Jesus together? What can happen in your family and what can happen in our community in our church and please just take our request To every day put off the world But putting on Christ.

I want us to respond just by standing.