Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,
with dozens of nationalities worshipping together. We invite you to connect with us from wherever
you are through our website, ecb.asia, or our mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed
by this week's sermon. On the fifth day of Christmas. It is the fifth day of Christmas.
In some church traditions, Christmas doesn't end after Christmas Day, it's just getting started.
Twelve days of feasting from the birth of Christ to the remembrance of Epiphany when the wise men
showed up. Beautiful celebration. And this is our fifth and final sermon in the series of Christmas
Unwrapped. In that series, the pastors have unpacked for us the four themes of the Advent
season leading up to Christmas. They unpacked for us the idea of hope. Not wishful thinking,
but the assurance that God keeps his promises, Christmas being the biggest promise he ever kept.
They unpacked for us, I realize I'm not clicking. They unpacked for us peace. Not the absence of
disagreement, but the ability to handle it appropriately and be healthier and stronger
as a community for it. They unpacked for us joy. Not the achievement of your own effort,
but a gift from God. Not dependent on circumstances, but dependent on God putting into you an eternal,
lasting assurance that he will work things out. And they unpacked for us love. Not the feeling
you get from a good piece of chocolate cake. Thank you Pastor Phil last week. But what we
give to others for their benefit. And so as we saw these unpacked, every week we got to the center
of that gift and found that each of those things wasn't the actual gift. Those are just results.
The gift was Jesus every time. Because what he does in coming to earth, in wrapping God in skin,
in growing up as a human being, living in a family, in a culture, in a nation, we can never point
the finger in God and say, you don't know what it's like. He does. And in offering himself to us,
in offering his best, and in submitting to the worst we could give him, in nailing him to a cross,
and he didn't fight back. His body like a clay jar was broken open. And as well as taking care
of our sin, he released his life for us. I like to think of it as Jesus gene therapy. The DNA of
God released to enter us, to get inside us, and rewrite the code that runs your habits. It takes
a while for the whole code to be rewritten. It's a lifetime process, but there is that moment when
God enters. For some of you maybe that's today. So I want to ask this question. If we've unwrapped
Christmas, now what? Happy New Year, let's party. Put the Christmas tree away, turn off the Christmas
playlist, let's not ever hear that song again. Last Christmas you gave me your heart. That's not a
Christmas song. My daughter picks on me every time I hear it and I get mad. Go on with life as normal
now that the playlist has turned off? I would suggest no, because even if you've unwrapped
Christmas and Jesus has gotten into you and the Jesus gene therapy has started, if you try to go
back to life as normal, you will be unsatisfied. Like a situation right here. Now don't be fooled
by the picture, I am not a runner. But my daughters got into cross country, every one of them ran with
a team at least some point in their life, two of them kept on into university. And we're standing
there with my son-in-law Joel, because a moment of temporary insanity overcame me and for a few
weeks I ran and then on July 4th I joined our small town local fun run 5k. And there in Montrose,
Pennsylvania we all lined up and I knew I was not gonna keep up with long-legged Joel or my
daughters. So I just stepped to the back of the crowd at the line and when they started off I just
set my 53 year old pace and I got going and I waved bye-bye to my children. And we left the
town and went through the beautiful hills of Northeast Pennsylvania where I grew up, out into
the dirt roads, up hills I chugged slowly and down hills I let gravity help. And we got back
into town and I look ahead a few blocks and there's Joel and he's walking. I thought oh maybe I can
catch this guy. So I pick it up a little bit and then he starts running like well and then he walked
again. Okay got up alongside of him and he wasn't walking anymore. Not when he saw me come up. His
normal pace wasn't satisfying anymore. You can guess the end. When the old man showed up the
young man changed his behavior. There was an older man named Paul who saw the Jesus gene therapy in
a younger man named Timothy and he saw that growth of the god life in Timothy so strong that Paul
took Timothy under his wing and trained him to eventually take over when Paul's race was finished.
Actually Timothy started taking over before Paul's race was finished and Paul put Timothy in charge
of the church in Ephesus. Might make an interesting study sometime. Read the books of Timothy next to
Ephesus. One is to or to the pastors. One is to the congregation. And Paul in helping Timothy get
ready gave him letters of advice and one of the verses from 2nd Timothy became my life verse
probably somewhere in my 20s and it's easy to remember the reference 2t222. 2nd Timothy 2 22.
Got it? You won't forget now. Alright. Now when I look at verses I like to mark them so let me read
this and then I'll share some Bible study stuff I do. Now flee from youthful lusts and follow after
righteousness, faith, love and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Let's pray.
Father as I open your word let it be an open window from heaven. Jesus shine through today. Amen.
When I want to dig into a Bible verse I like to mark them. I like to mark action words with little
underlined brackets like flee and follow and when I see phrases or words that are about location or
direction I like to put wavy lines like from youthful lusts and after righteousness, faith and
love and then that whole final phrase with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart is talking
about people and I like to circle people in my Bible marking and when I do these things then I
start realizing oh so Paul is answering some questions he's telling us how we run because
fleeing and following are like running actions right and he's telling us where we run those are
the directional phrases and and the final phrase is talking about with whom we run. There's our
sermon outline how we run where we run and with whom we run but another thing I like to do is I
like to look at the thought structure and then rearrange the words to represent what it's saying
so I see flee and follow they're like equal the opposite actions so I've placed them on opposite
sides of the screen and then each of them is followed by a direction so I got those lined up
underneath but then that final phrase seems to apply to both the fleeing and the following so
we got it lined up all together read it out loud with me if you can make out the structure here now
flee from youthful lusts and follow after righteousness faith love peace with those called the Lord. Let's
break it down how do we run now I don't know Greek but I have some tools that let me get down
to that language once in a while and I found that behind that word flee is a Greek word that you
know from English words fugue is the base word of refugee fugitive refuge and what Paul is telling
us right away is that there is an intensity to our run there is a seriousness about it because a
refugee leaves home leaves the familiar because their life or their livelihood is threatened
and some of you know that from firsthand experience and Paul uses that picture to give us a seriousness
about the Christian run and as if that's not enough the word he puts opposite is an equal
intensity because that word elsewhere in the New Testament is translated as persecute or persecutor
so we're told to flee one direction with the intensity of a refugee and follow after with
the intensity of the person chasing the refugee and so what he's telling us about how we run is
that we run passionately if you have unwrapped Christmas and God's DNA has gotten into you if
the Jesus gene therapy is doing its work you have a mandatory quest the Christian life is not casual
are you with me how do we run passionately now let's look at where we run because there were some
phrases about direction in there flee from youthful lusts oh great mr. Scott mr. Scott is how I'm
known at school you're one of those old people that say a problem with the world these days as
young people no we all struggle with lust so why is Paul kind of tagging lust with the youthful
phrase here well it's because youth have the blessing of high energy bursting out the seams
and they don't yet know the lifestyle it takes to control all that new energy a blessing not yet
channeled so that it blesses others and young people have awakening brain powers they can see
they can think they can question they can logic stuff like they never could before and they're
not sure what to do with it that's why sometimes us older people get inappropriately offended by
young people's questions they're just learning how to think okay there's centers too and sometimes
they go off the wall but they are asking questions because they have a new power to do it they haven't
yet learned how to channel all that new brain power in ways to benefit others so don't be too
hard on them Paul's not saying these are lusts that only youth have he's seeing these are lusts
that are more obvious in youth because they have high energy awakening brains that are not yet
trained so therefore youth I'm talking to the older people now youth don't need our complaining
about them they don't need us to go off and read the news or watch our TV show so they don't bother
us they need multi-generational community they need mentors and teachers they need instructions
about God's design because God's design is what makes the difference between a desire and lusts
a lust is a desire that is out of line with God's design let me say it again and then you're gonna
say it lust is a desire that is out of line with God's design now you say it lust is a desire that
is out of line with God's desire I didn't even put it on the screen and you got it all right you
see desire is good God has desires and he's good and he made us like himself with desires and for
every single human desire God has designed a proper way to fulfill it for every I will insist on this
and if you like to argue I'm academic I like arguing friendly there is an appropriate way to
fulfill every human desire there's a right place a right time with the right people in the right
manner for the right purpose could go on for human desires to be met but a lust is when we get one of
those rights wrong and our desire is out of line with design kind of like this situation this is
the large blue butterfly it's found in Europe and the United Kingdom you see the adult form on the
upper right you see the caterpillar form on the lower left you see the pupa form with a couple of
ants in the middle and the large blue butterfly it's very interesting because when it's a caterpillar
it goes looking for ants it'll find the flowers or places the ants like to hang out certain types
of ants and when the ants come around instead of attacking and eating it though that happens to
some of them the large blue butterfly caterpillar has learned to put a little drop of liquid on its
backside that the ants like to eat that makes the ants feel good and then the caterpillar will put
off a chemical that smells like ants because ants do not have good eyesight they operate by smell
and sound and touch so now they're feeling good from the sweet liquid they're smelling oh ant and
some of these caterpillars can make a sound like a queen ant in trouble and then they're like oh we
got to take care of our queen and they'll pick up the caterpillar and carry it back to their nest
where it eats their young I never heard of carnivorous caterpillar before but there is one
and the thing will grow to five times its own size as it feasts on the banquet where the ants
have brought it you see the ants desire to care for other ants to rescue the queen to feed its
young those desires are good but that caterpillar is not in line with ant colony design that is a
picture of lust when your desire is out of line with God's design and you follow it out of line
it will eat you alive from the inside flee now usually whenever we hear the word lust we think
about sex it's never mentioned in this passage Paul talks about it elsewhere he focuses on a
different kind of lust so I'm gonna spend my time where the text spends its time in all of
chapter 2 Paul has so much to say about quarreling the youthful lust of wanting to win the argument
prove you wrong show you I'm right and Paul has some really colorful phrases about this kind of
lust he calls it one place wrangling about words wrangling is what cowboys do to cows heard them
control them flip them on their back tie them up put a hot iron to their bottom so they're marked
as belonging to the cowboys wrangling is for cows people are not cows don't do it to people but we
do it with words right try to control for us brand Paul uses another colorful phrase worldly
empty chatter worldly is just the idea that all of us are born sinful with a compass in our hearts
and the compass doesn't point the right way it points to self we're all born with a dark side
and when you get a bunch of us sinners together whose compasses are all pointing to self you get
a society that feeds selfishness that's what the Bible means by worldly and worldliness at best
worldly chatter just leaves God out of the picture like the way most of the world treats
Christmas talking about Santa Claus and reindeer and kind of leaving Jesus out of the picture
empty no nourishment no profit so worldly empty chatter just think of verbal junk food lots of
talk no benefit just taste good or how about this colorful phrase foolish ignorant questions now in
education we like to encourage the students ask anything there's no such thing as a stupid question
because we need to uncover student thinking so we can find out what's missing what do they need to
know what kind of ideas and understanding can we build together no such thing as a stupid question
but sometimes we weaponized questions to expose somebody else to make them look bad to make
ourselves look good or to just set up the fight for a fun of it okay so Paul would probably say
yeah there is such a thing as a stupid question it's the question that has no point except to
start a fight quarreling Paul sums up all this kind of lustful talk behavior with another colorful
image gangrene gangrene is the disease where because of an injury or something part of the
flesh starts to die and it rots and it stinks and it spreads and the only solution for gangrene
is to cut out the rotten part and sometimes that may take a whole finger or hand or limb Paul says
this kind of lust uncontrolled talk unchannel the undisciplined tongues teeth and lips will rot the
body of Christ flee and then he contrasts that we're fleeing from one thing we're following after
another this follow is equal in intensity like a persecutor we're running after righteousness oh
yeah righteousness yeah it's how it often strikes us right and all those Christian virtue words
until we meet somebody that doesn't have it and they irritate us some of the translations will
package the verse like this righteousness colon faith love and peace as if righteousness is the
whole package and the others are pieces of it and you can look at other passages like Galatians 5
and James chapter 3 where there's other lists and they might use different words in a different
number of words the point is not the exact words the point is this these are the original design
elements for the human being this is what we were made to run on this is the code that Jesus is
restoring in us by his Holy Spirit so let's apply these things to that lust problem Paul was talking
about the lust of winning the war of words what if before I let the words come out of my mouth I
run them through this filter are these words right am I being honest will I be treating my brother
or sister right when these words come out of my mouth how about faith the faith filter are these
words I want to say coming from a place of faith in my heart this is what I believe God needs me
to say and will it be words that build faith in the person who hears them how about a love
filter am I saying this to make myself feel good or am I saying it for their good how about the
peace filter am I saying this to get them off my back so we don't have to talk about this or am I
going to choose my words to invite the right kind of talk about tense topics so we can resolve it
and come out as a stronger relationship stronger community you see how these work these are benefits
the original God DNA that he put in us that we've lost because our compass points the wrong way that
he is restoring it takes practice but it's worth it so where do we run well let's review how do we
run passionately thank you where do we run we flee youthful us we follow after hate this you realize
these two directions are actually a biblical concept that Paul does not mean name in the passage this
is the biblical concept of repentance when Jesus began his ministry and said repent he was saying
turn away from evil and turn toward good turn away from self and turn toward God you have to put both
because if you only say turn away from evil our habit is find another evil like a revolving door
but we need to turn away from self toward God so let's just say it this way we run God word and if
we're running God word the evil will be left behind how do we run passionately where do we run God
word because the Christian life is not about trying harder be careful with that it's about running with
confidence that the DNA God put in you equips you to reach the destination God puts in front of you
let me say that again it's not about trying harder it's about the confidence that the DNA God put in
you through his Holy Spirit equips you to reach the destination he puts in front of you God's
giving us a total package people let's have confidence all right I'm gonna pause I didn't do
this for service this is the moment science says that after 17 minutes of being physically still
the brain gets the message it's time to go to sleep so turn to your neighbor and tell them
something new you heard so far and if you don't know them you might need an introduction to good
thank you finish your conversation in five four three two one how do we run where do we run now
with whom do we run now this is important some of you are already offended that I have suggested
you need other people self-made man well I make no apologies you need other people okay we run
with others because there is something chasing us trying to catch us and it's hard to escape
because that monster comes from inside we run together because we're trying to catch something
that's really big and hard to catch because our habits of selfishness don't really go that
direction righteousness is big kind of like this situation you know among dogs wolves are big but
next to a moose a wolf is small wolves eat moose among other things they eat mice too and mice is
not the plural of moose but anyway wolves eat moose how does something that small catch something
that big they don't hunt alone they hunt in packs we are following after righteousness something
honestly too big for us to catch something we're not used to but as the Jesus gene therapy continues
to work through your life and recode your habits some of those habits will often involve other
people and only with those other people will you make the catch Christians flee youthful us and
follow virtues the same way together in other words the Christian life is not not not the DIY
project you with me I love mr. DIY but Christianity will not be found on the shelves there now this is
blank on purpose and I want to talk to the young people it's blank because the illustration is
right here when I was a teen I did not understand this I was content in high school to be a loner I
was content with my books I was content with my piano I had friends and we did fun stuff together
I attended church I attended youth group I was involved in the music ministry but I had nobody
who knew me my heart was not open I didn't even know it wasn't even part of that particular church
culture to get with other people and say hey I'm struggling with this hey I think God wants me we
didn't have that kind of God talk we just attended and so my moral compass was untested my fleeing
was casual and my following was academic and then I went to university and I continued the Christian
life like it's a solo performance I had Christian classes Christian professors I had a Christian
roommate had Christian classmates I was involved in ministry but nobody knew me and so the lust
that I struggled with slowly ate me alive until I had to spend a year away from university
with older Christian mentors and pastors and I'm thankful for pastor Roy Allison and pastor
Drew Corbett later brother David Yohe who were my Paul and I got back in line with design so
young people wherever you're sitting in the first service they're all right there wherever you're
sitting I'm sharing my mistake with you so you don't have to repeat it I'll take the pain you
take the game all right and if you're caught if that lust is catching up with you it's not too late
get others alongside of you so we run with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart calling on
the Lord has two senses help and put me in use me help I'm in trouble we have a God who has declared
himself our father who comes to our aid and put me in that's the kid on the bench who has attended
the practices faithfully and he's watching the game and he's ready to go in come on coach use
me and God loves answering both those calls so you're wondering what the end of the story is
because when I caught up with Joel and we only had about 200 meters left in the race hi Joel he
wasn't walking anymore he looked at me and he picked up the pace guess what I did I picked up
the pace he picked up the pace I pushed my 53 year old body as hard as I could in the last hundred
meters finishes uphill and it ended like this he was ahead I was behind but I was okay with that
it was just as satisfying to see my young man cross ahead of me as it would have been for me to do it
myself we run faster when we run together when you call on the Lord he calls others alongside now the
last phrase could discourage some people what run with those who calling the Lord out of a pure heart
nobody's gonna want to run with me I've been in a Bible study on this verse and that is exactly
what people said I don't have a pure heart well if you interpret it as you must be perfect you
have to have the perfect record then you're not understanding what Paul is saying he's not looking
for squeaky clean Christians there aren't any he's talking about not perfection he's talking about
motivation we stumble we stray but with Jesus DNA working itself through our system we respond to
correction and we get up and we keep going so with whom do we run read it out loud with those who
call on the Lord from a pure heart we run together how do we run where do we run with whom do we run
not the greatest grammar talk to me later read the whole thing with me now flee youthful lusts and
follow after righteousness faith love and peace with those on the Lord pure hearts I'll tell a
story of a couple that attended ECB for like 20 years Bob and Laurie Johnson worked at school with
me and Bob in his university years oh by the way he says hi those of you that know him he knows I'm
sharing his story today he was on the soccer team at Moody Bible Institute he did not know it but
one of their best seasons was in front of them it was gonna be a tremendous winning season but early
in the season not knowing the future he was just going through the practices and as part of the
practice they had to run a warm-up through the streets of Chicago and Bob had a friend on the
team in every single warm-up his friend was watching Bob and his friend was faster than Bob
but his friend wouldn't run as fastest until Bob came alongside and then his friend would take off
and Bob could never win until Bob had an idea he thought I'm gonna use different streets no shortcuts
I'm not cheating I'll go the same distance but my friend will not see me pulling ahead and he did
and it worked and finally beat his friend problem the coach saw him coming on a different street
and what did the coach think shortcut so the coach called him out Bob tried to explain the
coach would not listen Bob tried to defend himself the coach was not hearing it coach
said run it again Bob was getting mad tried to say no no it's just a friendly thing coach wouldn't
hear it run again Bob was so mad he was ready to quit the team right there walk away and not
knowing he would miss a really great season as he is boiling and churning inside and about to make
his decision he was making his decision known enough that a couple friends caught on they stepped
up said Bob we'll run the extra mile with you that's what we do for each other when we call
on God he calls his people alongside we run how where with whom
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