Remove the Rivals - Ben Stuart

Well, when I was in elementary school, we used to play this game called Octopus in PE. And the way Octopus worked was it would line all the kids up on one wall, and when the coach blew the whistle, you'd have to run from that wall to the other wall. Not real complicated. But then they would pick one kid and designate them as it. And it, as the coach blew the whistle, would attempt to tag you. And if he did, you did not just go out of the game, you had to sit where you were, and though you couldn't move like it, you became a stationary part of its evil posse, right? Tagging other kids, and they would have to sit down near where they were tagged. And so every time you crossed the room, there was an increasingly complex labyrinth of threatening children, right? That's how the game progressed. And I remember my first game, one particular day, I did pretty good. Made it more than halfway through the game, got almost to the end, got a little sloppy, got tagged, had to sit down, very frustrating. And I gotta be honest with you, family, I hadn't wiped the L out of my mind. I was still kind of in my head about it. So the second game was not on my game. I got out way too early. I mean, like, I think I was the second kid tagged,

just like, what, what? And he was as surprised as I was. McDaryl, how could you? So in third and last game came around, I was like, man, I wanna be focused, I wanna do my best, I wanna show up. And so I am pulling out all of my moves, all right? Kind of dodging all these kids, making my way across the gym and back, across the gym and back. It's getting closer and closer. The floor is getting more crowded with danger. And I remember there was one particular pass where I just barely made it. I mean, I'm pulling it all out, right? Jumping over kids, make it to the end. And I realized I barely survived that. I don't know if I can do this again. And so I looked down the line to assess my competition. And there was two girls all the way down at the wall that had been doing that thing where they were like, pretending like they weren't playing because they were injured, and then they would run across the wall. But everyone had figured out their game, they're toast. All right, you're not gonna make it. And then right next to me was Josh Murmus. Josh at this point was maybe 70 pounds, soaking wet. And I could see the fear in his eyes. He was trembling a little bit.

And I'm like, Josh is toast. I don't see good things for him. And then I turned to my right, and there next to me is Brett Billick, which even in fifth grade, he was a strapping young man. Head and shoulders taller than the rest. Went on to play football at Harvard. And I'll never forget Brett looking over at Josh and I and saying, follow me. I know the way. And we were like, okay. And so they blew the whistle, and in went Brett to the chaos. Josh behind him, me behind him, and we began to move. And the craziest thing happened. Even amidst this labyrinth of danger, we're making progress. And we make it halfway across the gym, and I'm like, I can't believe we're actually doing this. I started to feel pretty good about this. Like, I'm about to win Octopus. And so we're trailing Brett, and then all of a sudden he hits a critical juncture, and Brett cuts right, Josh goes with him, and I'm like, I got this. And I pull like a spin move left, and get tagged. And I hit the floor, and as soon as I sit down, the whistle blows. Game over. And at the very end, there's only two people standing.

Brett Billick and little Josh Mermis tucked right behind him. Now, why do I tell you this? Because in many ways, this is the Christian life. That as we've been looking through the book of Acts, we know that your strength and your happiness and your peace and your purpose in life comes from finding the way God is going and going that way too. And if Jesus Christ, the son of God, is on the move, we've said you and I who are made by God for him, our most satisfying life is found when we tuck in behind the king and say, if God's on the move, I wanna move with him. And not just move with him, I wanna move like him. How he moves, I move. Where he goes, I go. That is the way you make a difference in the world. That's the way you join a community that ultimately matters. Your greatest satisfaction and achievement in life comes from following in the wake of the king who made it all, right? And so we've seen Jesus on the move in this book, and he's picked us up, and we're moving with him. But today, I wanna show you one of the greatest threats to your spiritual vibrancy, something that can get in the way of your intimacy with God and the impact on the world you were made for, something that is tempting to grab you and to pull you down away from all that God has for you, you as an individual and us as a church.

God is blessing us, but there's a fragility, and there's a danger, and we're gonna see it in this passage. And we're gonna see it as the gospel moves into one of the most prominent cities in the ancient world, the city of Ephesus. Ephesus was a major city at the time, the largest and most powerful in Asia, one of the top three most influential cities. in all of the Roman Empire. All the Roman milestones in Asia were calculated in their number of miles from Ephesus. It was a harbor city where a river met the sea and where every major trade route in the area converged. And so it was a major commercial city and so therefore a major cultural city, very diverse, very influential. It had major stadiums, universities, marketplaces, a medical school, a theater that sat 25,000. And in the center of it all, the main attraction was the temple to Artemis. And Artemis of the Ephesians was like an amalgam of the Greek goddess Artemis and an ancient fertility goddess that they had kind of mixed together. But the temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was larger than a football stadium. That there in the center of the city was the worship of this fertility goddess mixed with Artemis. And that so much money was made in that temple, the temple essentially functioned as a bank for the region. And so here you have a city that has power in the region, and we're going to see the gospel of Jesus Christ break into a diverse, influential, wealthy coastal city. Can it happen? Yes, it can. And we're going to see it happen right here. And Ephesus was not just a major city. It's a major church that got established in Ephesus. God crowds the box with saints. And we saw it as the gospel broke in. It was through Priscilla and Aquila, who we looked at last week. The apostle Paul will show up there. And in our passage, he'll minister there for three years, preaching. Apollos preached there. And then later, Timothy, Paul's protege, will become the pastor of the church of Ephesus. And the apostle John will write to Ephesus. This is a heavy-hitting church. First Corinthians was written from there. Colossians will be written as a result of the ministry that flowed out of this church, that it's written about and acts. It has a book to it, the book of Ephesians. The Timothys,

first and second Timothy, are written to the pastor of this church. So are first, second, and third John, right? That this was a major church. And we're going to see how the gospel moves into this city and how the people of Jesus move to make a difference in a city like this. But before we looked at how it happens, we got to race all the way to the end. Because the truth is that the letter to the Ephesians is not the first, or excuse me, not the last letter we get to this church. Paul wrote to them. The apostle John wrote to them. But in the book of Revelation, this church gets a letter from Jesus Christ himself. The apostle John is banished to the island of Patmos. And there he has a revelation of the exalted, resurrected Lord Jesus shining like the sun. And Jesus tells John, write this down. And he tells him to write down a note to the church in Ephesus. Revelation chapter two, verse one. To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. How you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not. And you found them to be false. I know you're enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake and you have not grown weary. So here at the end of the Bible, we see Jesus commending the church of Ephesus on two things. He commends their doctrine. You guys know what you believe. You have the right information. And you know enough of truth that when itinerant preachers come in and say something false, you can identify it and deny it. He says, as a church, your doctrine is on point and not just your doctrine. He says your discipline. He mentions it twice. I know your work. I know your perseverance. I know your endurance, that you are doing good things and you're persistent in it. You're smart and you're tough. That's what he says to him. Sounds good. But then he goes on in verse four to say, but I have this against you that you've abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you've fallen, repent, do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. This is the resurrected Jesus saying to the Ephesians, I have this against you. And if you don't get it right, the lampstand is removed. Your place as a sort of illumination and the heat of affections in the midst of the city, you're burning and shining will go out. You won't be the light in the world you're made to be. I don't want you to miss what Jesus is saying to them. Good teaching plus endurance equals failure. That's what he just said. Right information, good actions.

Enough, not only not enough, you can know the right things and do the right things. And not only is Jesus saying, that's not enough. He's saying, I'll remove the lamp stand. Your influence will be removed because you'll be a husk. You'll be like the taxidermist model of an animal. Looks like the real thing, but it's hollowed out inside. And he says, you got good teaching, you got good discipline, but you're missing heart. You've lost your first love. And you go, what's the answer to that? He says, the answer is, go back, do the things you did at first. What did they do at first? It's what's recorded in Acts 19, right? And there's a lot of memorable moments in Acts 19. We won't get to cover a lot of them in detail. We're gonna fly over a few and then zoom in on a moment of what they did that really matters. But we read it in the first seven verses that in this opening scene, there were guys who called themselves disciples, but when Jesus came to them and talked to them, he was like, have you guys received the Holy Spirit? And they're like, we don't even know what that is. He's like, have you put your faith in Jesus? And they're like, not familiar. And he's like, wow, okay, you are missing some critical data. And so the gospel starts with good information.

It starts with, hey, you need to know the truth. And so Paul explains to them the truth of who Jesus Christ was and that by faith in him, the very spirit of God can fill you. Your sins removed and intimacy with God restored. That's the hope of the gospel presented through the Bible. So Christianity starts with right information. It's not less than that. Paul preaches to them the truth and they believe with powerful results. He preaches in the synagogue in verse eight. He entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. Then when he meets resistance there, literally they hardened their hearts against him. He didn't fight with those in the synagogue. He moved to the hall of Tyrannus. That's a rented venue. And for years, Paul rented a venue in Ephesus and would teach there. And notice what it says in verse nine. When they became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with them, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. Reasoning, persuading that Jesus, or excuse me, Paul shows up in these arenas and says, let me present to you information. Christianity is not less than good information. He reasons with them because Christianity is reasonable.

It has a worldview that fits the world you live in because it's the worldview of the one who made it all. And so Christianity starts with good information and Paul reasons with them, argues with them, presents proofs to them. And from there, it says all residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, that that good information radiated out regionally. And so you've got good information, but it's not just that. You also have a demonstration of God's power. It's not just word, but it's deed. And that's what you see in verse 11. It says, God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hand of Paul so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that touched his skin were carried away to the sick and their diseases left them and evil spirits came out of them. Luke calls this, did you notice, extraordinary. He says, God started doing stuff in Ephesus that was not normal. This was not our regular operating procedure. Why was God doing these miraculous, crazy things through Paul? I think two reasons. One, to show that Paul is his official emissary. Peter was doing stuff like this in Jerusalem and God kept wanting to show as with Peter, so with Paul. These are both people who are preaching my word. And let me show you by putting my power behind the word. Two, it's because Ephesus was famous

as the epicenter of magic, dark spiritual power, dominated over by this big temple to the fertility goddess. And so here in the midst of a city that would have felt the oppression of a spiritual darkness, what God does is say, your goddess can have her stadiums. My guy can cast out spirits with a handkerchief. Me plus handkerchief beats you plus stadium. There's no contest here. Jesus is not scared of what scares you. That's the idea. And as he does it, you get this moment where some of the exorcists, those who would call out evil spirits, see that. And did you notice, they want the power and benefit of spirituality without a commitment to Jesus. So they see that Paul's effective, and so they go to an evil spirit and say, by the Jesus that Paul talks about, come out, right? I don't wanna commit to Jesus, but I wanna use a little information to use the benefits of your community for me. And the evil spirit says to them, yeah, Jesus I know. Paul I respect. Who are you guys? And it says he beat him up and they ran out of the house naked. I don't know if you've ever been in a fight, but if you have, if it ends with you running out of the house naked,

you lost. You lost that fight. What you have here is people that say, hey, I want the right information, I want the right action, I want the benefits of Christianity without the submission to your Christ. And what happens there? This is pervasive in the West right now. I want the structure and social stability of Christianity, but I don't wanna bow my knee to the Savior. Try that and you will go running out of the house, stripped and beaten by spiritual forces you do not understand. Because this is a bigger game here. We're not playing church. You realize that there's some spiritual darkness in the world and it's encountering Jesus Christ and it's powerful. It's not a game here. And in the midst of that, these people realize dark and dominating sick things are being overpowered by this Lord Jesus Christ Paul keeps talking about. And so something happens in verse 17. It says, this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and fear fell upon them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. That means held in high honor. He is not normal.

He's not just a prophet. He's not just one in the line of many. There is something else about him. The name, the renown of the Lord Jesus was held in honor, valued by people. And now we get to the heart of the matter. Verse 18, and many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. What did they do at the beginning? What did they do at the first? What did they do that's a return to your first love? What did they do that in verse 20, did you see the word sow? They did something and sow the result was the word of the Lord continued and prevailed mightily. What did this church do that was in the beginning that allowed for an unleashing of the power of God in their city? The believers, notice that, those who had a faith in Jesus, they came forward confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together

and burned them in the sight of all. What is going on here? He says, you lost your first love. What happened here is they came to him at the beginning and his name was extolled, valued. I prefer you, I honor you, I care about you. How did they express that love? By removing the rivals. That Christianity is not less than information. It's not less than doctrine. It's not less than action. It's not less than duty or devotion. It is devotion in the heart. I want you to prefer me. I want you to love me. And the way to show that is I remove all rivals. So what was happening here? Confessing and divulging. It means that these believers were still playing with some very sad and very dark and very broken things in their home. And they had a real faith in Jesus, but they were still clinging to these things in the dark. Magic in those days was believed to have its power in the darkness. And there's a truth to that. Why magic books? Some of you go, I don't understand. Is this an anti-magic talk? Like it was supposed to burn our Harry Potter books?

What are you talking about? Magic back then, little spell books, little trinkets, little crystals. These were all attempts at comfort and control. I feel like the world is out of control and I'm scared. And so let me give you a thing that comforts me a little and gives me a sense of control in the world. And its power is in the darkness. And yet here were some people that had a faith in Jesus, but when it came to their fears in their heart, they would step into the dark of their home and they looked to some really sad and really dark and really broken things to find comfort and control. And here in this moment, as they see the Lord Jesus high and lifted up, they see his value and they say, I don't want these things in my life anymore. And the power of God is unleashed in a person's life and in a church when they say there are rivals to my affections for you. And I don't want the rivals anymore. And some of us look, it's not magic, but you got to some things that you go to, to comfort you, to help you. Patrick Carnes said about addiction, it's an intimate. disorder. I feel unloved and I feel unlovable. So do I go to a substance, a drink, a pill, a screen, pornography to manipulate my chemicals to crush the bad feelings, obliterate that which hurts me so I can enjoy. It just gives me some comfort and control. A lot of us have some really dark places we go to and

it's time to get rid of them. Others of you, and this is the thing that makes me sad when I see this in the lives of kids, we talked about this some at camp, that the devil loves to manipulate a natural curiosity. That sin's a parasite. The devil doesn't make anything. He takes good and he distorts it. It takes a natural and healthy interest in sex and turns it into something dark through porn. It takes a natural and good interest in connection and then we say we'll connect to our phones. And some of you did that. Oh, this is how I see what my friends are up to. Maybe it started with something good and yet if we're honest when you're alone in bed at night, all of this has not served you well. It's put anxiety and fear into your world and the things you went to to comfort you are now killing you. For me when I was a kid, it was anger. I remember my family doctor telling us once as we were processing our parents' divorce, he says, all this anger will burn you up inside. And then he looked at me and he says, and you'll hate the most because you hold it all in. And I remember thinking, finally, something I'm the best at. That was my first thought. It's kind of sad, but anger and feeling like you're a victim has a comfort and a power to it. And we're addicted to it in America today. Because if I can prove you hurt me, then I can do or be anything and get a free path. But you don't get to control where anger stays in your heart. And so you nurse it to comfort you. I remember in Red Dawn, Robert saying that. All that hate will burn you alive, son. He says, it keeps me warm. But what happens? You don't get to control where it goes. And when I realized I was incapable of really loving people, and that a lack of love makes you a clanging gong or a resounding cymbal, you're just a noise, I realized the thing I went to for comfort and control is costing me what I want most than anything else, a life that matters. And here in Ephesus, you see these people realizing we were going to some things in the dark for comfort and control. And they were actually not giving that to us, but keeping us from the true and better thing. And so what happened that unleashed the power of God in the city? The believers came forward and said, Jesus, I prefer you. I choose you. I extol you. I love you. It's not just information or action. It's affections. You reign in my heart. And the way it's seen is I remove all rivals to those affections. It's not wrong for Jesus

to want this. Some people look at that and say, so God just, I'll read the Bible. I'll be a good person. You want me to love you with all my heart too? Yes. It's not wrong for him to want that. We've heard it before. One of our late 20th century poets, we've talked about this. As she wrote any other day, I would call and you would say, baby, how's your day? But today it ain't the same. Every other word is, uh-huh. Yeah. Okay. Could it be that you're at the crib with another lady? Say my name. Say my name. No one is around you. Say, baby, I love you. If you ain't running game, say my name, say my name. You acting kind of shady. Ain't calling me baby. Why the sudden change? It's not wrong for Beyonce to want fidelity from the one who promised to love her, right? It's a healthy love that says we made a covenant, remove the rivals. When you get married, your intimacy is for your spouse, not for people on a screen. And so the reality is true love is expressed in the removal of the rivals. And Jesus says, you were made by me for me. I'm not trying to rob you. I'm trying to give to you all the gifts of a healthy covenantal relationship. The one I poured out my blood for. And so when they see the Lord Jesus extolled, they say, I don't want the rivals anymore. I don't want the weeds that will choke out the word anymore. And true spirituality, one that breaks forth mightily in your life, in mine, and in our church, is one that says, I will confess I did it, and I will divulge, and I don't want it in me anymore. Sometimes the best thing that can happen is you get it out. I preached this message, a version of it, at camp, just because I was studying it as a heart for you, and then realized, hey, this really fits for the kids. And as we were at camp, the night before I was gonna preach, I felt like, God, I got this, but I need an illustration these kids will understand. If sometimes you have something in you that's making you sick, and you need to get it out, and I was praying, Lord, would you give me a sense

of what that is, while Pastor Lou was talking, and so then the sermon was over, and I was walking to the car, and on the way to the car, suddenly my stomach just cramped up. And I started sweating so much, it soaked my shirt, and was dripping from my forehead, all within less than 100 yards of walking. And suddenly I was freezing cold, and so I darted into a bathroom, and was like, something's wrong with my body. And I don't know about you, I think of my body like a factory sometimes, led by some blue-collar workers. And I was like, these guys were freaking out. You know, like all the lights are lighting up, and one guy's like, hey, the bowels have shut down, they're cramped down, hey, we've lost control of the sweat glands. And so whoever's in charge just goes, that's it, I'm calling it. Empty the bowels, empty it, move them out, move it. And so suddenly, my whole body just started expelling everything inside. And even there, in the throes of it, I was like, God, this is not what I meant, right? But I think he did it to me for the sake of the middle school boys. Because I shared that illustration, and they were like, I feel seen. Nobody likes throwing up, that doesn't feel good.

You dread it when it's coming. But you feel good afterwards. Because something that's making you sick, you get it out. And some of you, some of you've been playing church for years, you sing songs you kind of mean, but then you go in the real intimacy, the real love, the real affection is to something in the dark. And I'm just telling you, you want the power of God unleashed in your life, this is how it happens. You return to your first love, and you remove the rivals, not because he's threatening you, but because you see he's better. And yet we're scared to confess something, because confession's scary, confession makes you feel sick, I don't wanna tell someone what I did, I don't wanna tell them what I'm looking at, I don't wanna tell these people what I'm doing in the dark, I don't wanna say that here. And so you keep it inside and you're still sick. And you're trying to smile and play a game, but you realize you're sweating and you're cramped over, you need to get it out. Those who confess and forsake find mercy. And so they're called to confess, and they just say, I don't want the rivals anymore. And they confess and forsake and find mercy. And so when they do that, the word of God prevails mightily. When I was in high school, I led a Bible study, and I remember as we got to senior year,

a couple of the guys quit coming, and found out they quit coming because it's senior year, and so they wanted to party and do whatever. And to be honest, I took it personal, thought it was about me, hurt my feelings, and so they blew me off and I just never reached out to them. And then there was one school night, I was at my house, and my friend Mark came over. He said, Ben, I'm worried about Matt and Kevin, I can't stop thinking about them. They said, no, I opened my Bible and he said, I read in Matthew, Jesus said, if a brother's caught in sin, you go to them in private to win them over. He's like, I think we need to go to them. And I said, yeah, I'll pray about that, you're probably right. They're like, I don't even think you need to pray about it, like we have a verse. Jesus is saying, if they're caught in sin, and they are, you go to them, see if you can win them over. He's like, I think it's right there. And I was like, yeah, well, let's think about that. He's like, I think we already know. I was like, yeah, we should maybe consider that. And he was like, no, like, let's go, let's get in the car. I was like, tonight? School night. He's like, we have a verse. So we drove to Kevin's house.

And the whole time I was like, this feels so crazy, but Mark wants to do this, and so we show up at Kevin's house, and ring the doorbell, and we can see through the window, Kevin coming up. Right when Kevin goes to open the door, Mark just goes, you got this, Ben. I was like, what, this looks good. Hey, man. Probably wondering what we're doing here. Mark came over, and we were reading this verse. Matthew, that says, if a brother's caught in sin, you go to him in private, and if he repents, you want a brother over. So, it's about as far as we got. What do you think about that? And he shut the door. He walked back in the house and he came back a few seconds later with a shoebox. And he said, here, take this, I don't want it anymore. I didn't ask him to do that, but he just knew there's some things I let into my life that are rivals. He said, I don't want these anymore. He said, take it. And he handed it to us. Then he shut the door behind him and said, let's go get Matt. And so we drive over to Matt's house. Show up, ring the doorbell, see Matt coming. Right as he does, Kevin and Mark go like,

you got this, Ben, run the same, run it back. I'm like, I thought we were gonna take turns. Hey. Three of us were talking, read this verse. And I read it to him. And I'll never forget, Matt stared at me for a long time. And then he started crying. And he said, what took you so long? What took you so long? That he felt trapped and didn't know how to get out. And one of God's greatest gifts to us isn't us. And we said, let us confess our sins one to another and pray for one another that you might be healed. And something powerful is unleashed when we say, hey, there's some dark things in me, but Jesus isn't shaming me. He wants to liberate me. And when I see him extolled, the things of this earth grow strangely dim. I don't want these anymore. I grew up in Houston. And if you grew up in Houston, you know the word muck. It's a noun, but it's also a verb. And last year they had to muck a lot of houses. What does that mean? It means when it floods, all this dirt and slime and grossness gets in your house. And if you don't muck it out, it turns toxic in your walls and it will kill you. And so for the sake of your health, you have to muck it out.

No one lives in Ephesus anymore. One of the greatest ancient cities in civilization in human history is now vacant. Why? People still live in Rome. What happened to Ephesus? It was not burned to the ground. There was no volcano. There was no army who raised it. Do you know what killed Ephesus? Silt. Sand that would come down from the river, little pebbles of sediment that would slowly settle. And over time, it choked the whole river, cut off their supply of life, and they abandoned the city. What is going to wreck your life spiritually? For some of you, it's not gonna be some powerful argument. It's not gonna be some big tragedy. It's going to be the slow sediment of unconfessed sin choking off the life of God in your heart. And so Paul looks at the, or excuse me, Jesus looks at the Ephesians in Revelation and say, go back to what you were doing at first. There's a rhythm of confession and repentance to muck out what's in your heart so you can roll with me. And when you do that, confession and repentance leads to a powerful advancing of the gospel. I saw this when I was a youth pastor. I would disciple a lot of young men, and it got to the point

where towards the end of my youth ministry, I just didn't play games anymore. Like if a young man wanted to be discipled by me, I would meet him once a week for coffee. Session one was always, let me explain the gospel. And a lot of them were, I've already put my faith in Jesus. I was like, yeah, but I want you to be able to explain it. And so let me explain it to you again. And I would give him verses to memorize, and we would talk through the gospel. Session two, we'd sit down and I'd say, let's talk about your porn problem. And they all went, how did you know? Like, I'm not a prophet, bro. I read stats and I know high school boys. And Paul writes about sexual immorality to the Thessalonians and Corinthians and Ephesians and Romans and pretty much everybody. So sex is a good gift that the devil loves to distort. And that may not be where your issues lie, but for a lot of guys, they realize that shame was choking them off in the dark. And there was one young man where he didn't know how he was gonna get free of some of the dark things he got into online. But as he got free from it, we put some accountability in place, he confessed it and divulged it, just got it out. He shared it with a few of his friends. They began to pray for each other,

hold each other accountable, call each other. And over about the course of a year, the largest, second largest constituency of high school kids at our ministry was from their high school, which was not the closest one to our church at all. Why? It wasn't because they were running around with their Bibles, hitting people going, repent. It's because their friends saw them. There's something different about you. There's a peace in you, there's a vibrancy to you that wasn't here six months ago. What's going on with you? And they'd say, it's Christ. I know that sounds hokey, but it's real. I'm really forgiven. I'm really loved. He's really changing me and their friends saw something is different about you and I gotta tell you something family Nobody cares what God you worship nobody cares But when you stop bowing to the gods of the culture they take notice When you're free from what holds them captive When you're free of the love of money when you're free of the fears and the addictions that they hold them captive They will take you seriously And when the believers in Ephesus confessed and divulged and said I don't want this anymore. I cast it out I want it away from me. Finally. I don't care what it cost me for them That was about a hundred and thirty seven years worth of wages that they threw to the flames. I don't want this in my life anymore the Ephesians said we have to take this seriously and We'll see later that it affected the entire economy of Ephesus this outbreak of belief. But where does it start? I

Confess I did this and I divulge it's true and I don't want it anymore I don't want it anymore. I found something better Augustine was is widely regarded as the greatest Theologian ever to exist in human history second only to the Apostle Paul Gustin who wrote City of God wrote confessions in In his confessions he recounts his story he was successful orator very gifted and so he moved to the big city to see how gifted he really is and showed up and realized I Can play and he became famous and he got addicted to the fame the money the power and most importantly for him the sex And in the midst of that he got all the things he wanted but realized I feel thin and shallow and empty And as he became interested in the things of Jesus because of the preaching of Ambrose, he realized I need to make a change But it scared him to let go of the comforts he had in his life So he recounts and confessions you can read it going into a garden Pulling at his hair weeping saying how long? will I vacillate back and forth and Then finally he read in Romans to put on the Lord Jesus Christ make no more provision for lust And he wrote this in his confessions How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of all those fruitless joys, which I had once feared to lose You drove them from me You who are the true sovereign joy? You drove them from me and you took their place You who are sweeter than all pleasure God's not trying to remove your comforts. It's time to give you a better one He's not trying to take away from you that which you rely on he's trying to give you a firmer foundation to stand on We're going to broken and sad things When a beautiful Savior is standing in front of us in Revelation 1 right before this letter to Ephesus Jesus is described as

Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood That's who we're talking about here someone who loves you and wants to set you free and The things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of his glory in his grace