1 00:00:00,367 --> 00:00:04,154 Welcome to the weekend here at Christ Community Chapel. 2 00:00:04,187 --> 00:00:05,071 My name is Zach. 3 00:00:05,071 --> 00:00:10,677 I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm so glad we get to be part of your weekend. 4 00:00:10,710 --> 00:00:16,399 You know, our theme as a church for 2026 is More Life. 5 00:00:16,433 --> 00:00:21,788 We take that from the Gospel of John, chapter ten, verse ten, where Jesus said, 6 00:00:21,838 --> 00:00:26,443 I have come so that you may have life and life more abundant. 7 00:00:26,443 --> 00:00:30,196 In other words, Jesus says his mission is to give us life, 8 00:00:30,196 --> 00:00:32,799 even more life as a church. 9 00:00:32,799 --> 00:00:34,401 We're saying to Jesus that you're, 10 00:00:34,401 --> 00:00:38,321 hey, if you have more life for us, that is what we want. 11 00:00:38,354 --> 00:00:40,123 We'll, we'll take it. 12 00:00:40,123 --> 00:00:42,842 One of the things I love about the summer sermon 13 00:00:42,842 --> 00:00:46,079 series through the book of Proverbs called More Wisdom, 14 00:00:46,162 --> 00:00:50,750 More Life, is realizing that when Jesus says more life, 15 00:00:50,750 --> 00:00:55,438 he doesn't just mean in the eternal sense or the theological sense. 16 00:00:55,438 --> 00:00:58,842 He means in the nooks and crannies of our lives, 17 00:00:58,842 --> 00:01:02,195 in the regular every day kinds of areas. 18 00:01:02,195 --> 00:01:06,516 And in fact, I think it is safe to say that 19 00:01:06,516 --> 00:01:10,270 there is no single area of our lives 20 00:01:10,270 --> 00:01:14,641 in which Jesus does not want to breathe more life. 21 00:01:14,641 --> 00:01:21,081 The Book of Proverbs contains over 350 one liners of God's 22 00:01:21,081 --> 00:01:26,152 wisdom on practical things, because God cares about our regular lives. 23 00:01:26,152 --> 00:01:29,472 So this summer, we're looking at one proverb every week 24 00:01:29,472 --> 00:01:34,277 and looking for more wisdom so that we can have more life. 25 00:01:34,277 --> 00:01:39,115 This week we're looking at Proverbs chapter 20, verse one. 26 00:01:39,115 --> 00:01:39,999 So if you have a Bible, 27 00:01:39,999 --> 00:01:43,403 you could take it out, open it to Proverbs chapter 20, verse one. 28 00:01:43,436 --> 00:01:43,720 Of course, 29 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:47,173 it will also be on the screen behind me, if that's your preference, no problem. 30 00:01:47,190 --> 00:01:50,994 If you want to hold a Bible in your hands, there are Bibles in the back of the pew 31 00:01:50,994 --> 00:01:51,995 in front of you. 32 00:01:51,995 --> 00:01:56,032 And here in the sanctuary and over in our East service in the back of the room. 33 00:01:56,082 --> 00:01:58,601 It's the same Bible that I use, so I can tell you. 34 00:01:58,601 --> 00:02:01,437 Proverbs 20 is on page 512. 35 00:02:01,437 --> 00:02:04,474 Let me read it to you, and then I'll introduce 36 00:02:04,474 --> 00:02:07,110 the outline I'm going to use to to guide our time together. 37 00:02:07,110 --> 00:02:08,194 Here's what it says. 38 00:02:09,195 --> 00:02:12,198 Wine is a mocker, 39 00:02:12,799 --> 00:02:15,802 strong drink, a brawler, 40 00:02:16,236 --> 00:02:21,591 and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. 41 00:02:22,108 --> 00:02:22,876 Three points 42 00:02:22,876 --> 00:02:26,362 I want to use to guide our time together as we look at this proverb. 43 00:02:26,362 --> 00:02:27,197 Here they are. 44 00:02:27,197 --> 00:02:31,034 I want to show you that control is the issue. 45 00:02:31,518 --> 00:02:36,523 Change is the sign and challenge is the path to freedom. 46 00:02:36,523 --> 00:02:38,441 Control is the issue. 47 00:02:38,441 --> 00:02:42,846 Change is the sign, and challenge is the path to freedom. 48 00:02:42,879 --> 00:02:43,163 All right. 49 00:02:43,163 --> 00:02:44,280 Let's start with the first one. 50 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:47,233 Control is the issue. 51 00:02:47,233 --> 00:02:49,152 Wine is a mocker. 52 00:02:49,152 --> 00:02:50,837 Strong drink, a brawler. 53 00:02:50,837 --> 00:02:53,990 I've heard this verse a lot growing up. 54 00:02:54,107 --> 00:02:55,508 Let me give you a little background for me. 55 00:02:55,508 --> 00:02:57,477 I've grown up in the church. 56 00:02:57,477 --> 00:03:00,680 I have been going to church my entire life. 57 00:03:00,830 --> 00:03:04,551 Up until high school, my family lived in rural North Carolina. 58 00:03:04,751 --> 00:03:07,921 That's where I grew up, and we were Southern Baptists. 59 00:03:07,921 --> 00:03:12,075 That's the tradition that I was raised in, and I actually am 60 00:03:12,075 --> 00:03:14,477 super appreciative for being raised Southern Baptist. 61 00:03:14,477 --> 00:03:19,799 I they taught me many, many wonderful things for which I am still benefiting. 62 00:03:19,799 --> 00:03:21,401 I'm very grateful to them. 63 00:03:21,401 --> 00:03:25,321 Of course, they also taught me some things that I now know are not true. 64 00:03:25,321 --> 00:03:29,242 In fact, it's ironic because all my theological degrees 65 00:03:29,242 --> 00:03:31,160 come from Southern Baptist schools. 66 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:36,833 So you might say they taught me just how wrong they were about some things. 67 00:03:36,883 --> 00:03:41,321 And one of those things is I was taught growing up that drinking 68 00:03:41,354 --> 00:03:44,591 alcohol was always wrong, 69 00:03:45,041 --> 00:03:48,161 that drinking alcohol was a sin. 70 00:03:48,428 --> 00:03:50,597 No one I knew drank alcohol. 71 00:03:50,597 --> 00:03:53,283 My parents didn't drink alcohol, their friends and drink alcohol. 72 00:03:53,283 --> 00:03:57,036 I can't even remember how old I was before I realized that drinking alcohol 73 00:03:57,036 --> 00:03:59,839 was something people did not in movies, 74 00:03:59,839 --> 00:04:02,242 because the only place I'd ever seen anyone do it. 75 00:04:02,242 --> 00:04:04,427 Nobody I knew drank alcohol. 76 00:04:04,427 --> 00:04:07,797 I was told that it was wrong, that it was a sin. 77 00:04:07,830 --> 00:04:11,351 Of course, the problem with that is, is when I went to school and studied 78 00:04:11,351 --> 00:04:15,638 the Bible, I realized the Bible just doesn't say that. 79 00:04:15,838 --> 00:04:16,673 In fact, 80 00:04:16,673 --> 00:04:20,910 there are many times the Bible actually has something nice to say about alcohol. 81 00:04:21,227 --> 00:04:24,881 The psalmist or Solomon who wrote Ecclesiastes. 82 00:04:24,914 --> 00:04:31,271 We'll talk about the gladness of the heart that a glass of wine can bring Jesus's 83 00:04:31,271 --> 00:04:34,557 first miracle, and the Gospel of John is turning water 84 00:04:34,557 --> 00:04:37,961 into wine to keep a wedding party going. 85 00:04:37,994 --> 00:04:42,131 Tough to reconcile that with the idea that drinking alcohol is a sin. 86 00:04:42,148 --> 00:04:43,316 Of course, when I was growing up, 87 00:04:43,316 --> 00:04:45,918 they said Jesus didn't turn the water into wine. 88 00:04:45,918 --> 00:04:48,721 He turned it into really, really strong juice. 89 00:04:50,323 --> 00:04:52,241 And when you're a kid, you'll believe anything. 90 00:04:52,241 --> 00:04:53,993 It's like, okay, got it. 91 00:04:53,993 --> 00:04:57,997 Except for the problem is, later in the Gospels, some of Jesus's enemies 92 00:04:58,031 --> 00:05:03,119 want to discredit him, so they go around calling him a drunk and a glutton. 93 00:05:03,119 --> 00:05:06,956 Now, he was neither of those things, but you can't really accuse a guy of 94 00:05:06,956 --> 00:05:11,828 being a drunk if the only thing he ever drinks is really, really strong juice. 95 00:05:12,395 --> 00:05:13,629 You see the point? 96 00:05:13,629 --> 00:05:15,832 The Apostle Paul will tell his protege 97 00:05:15,832 --> 00:05:18,201 Timothy in the book of Timothy to stop being stubborn. 98 00:05:18,201 --> 00:05:21,070 Drink a little wine. It'll be good for his stomach. 99 00:05:21,070 --> 00:05:24,640 My point is, you just can't make the case that the Bible says 100 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:28,878 that drinking alcohol is always wrong, or that drinking alcohol is a sin. 101 00:05:28,911 --> 00:05:33,199 However, the Bible many times 102 00:05:33,316 --> 00:05:37,587 aggressively, unapologetically, including here, 103 00:05:37,637 --> 00:05:40,873 says that drunkenness is a sin. 104 00:05:41,557 --> 00:05:44,310 That's what is being aimed at in this verse. 105 00:05:44,310 --> 00:05:47,714 Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, 106 00:05:47,714 --> 00:05:54,470 and whoever is listening to the language led astray by them is not wise. 107 00:05:54,470 --> 00:05:59,158 You see, drunkenness is overindulging in alcohol. 108 00:05:59,242 --> 00:06:02,995 You know, loving it so much, enjoying it so much, needing it 109 00:06:03,029 --> 00:06:08,234 so much that at some point you actually give it control. 110 00:06:08,868 --> 00:06:10,436 That's what it means to be drunk, right? 111 00:06:10,436 --> 00:06:13,589 I mean, you're at church at 915 on a Sunday, so 112 00:06:13,589 --> 00:06:16,793 you've never been drunk, but you know, people who have, 113 00:06:17,110 --> 00:06:19,679 they probably come to our Thursday night service, right? 114 00:06:19,679 --> 00:06:22,148 Yeah. Yeah, you know it and I know it. 115 00:06:22,148 --> 00:06:22,832 Right. So 116 00:06:24,267 --> 00:06:24,600 but if 117 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:28,671 you've ever been in the room around someone who has overindulged in alcohol, 118 00:06:28,671 --> 00:06:33,910 you know that one of the ways you know that is they are no longer in control. 119 00:06:34,794 --> 00:06:38,147 They say and do things they would never otherwise say and do. 120 00:06:38,147 --> 00:06:41,317 They might get sad, they might get mad, they might get silly. 121 00:06:41,317 --> 00:06:42,668 But they're not in control. 122 00:06:42,668 --> 00:06:45,872 By the way, behind many of the Southern Baptist theologians 123 00:06:45,872 --> 00:06:50,042 who taught me that drinking alcohol was wrong were alcoholic parents, 124 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:54,547 which you totally get right because they grew up with parents 125 00:06:54,547 --> 00:06:56,199 who were not in control. 126 00:06:56,199 --> 00:06:58,718 And certainly that was not okay. 127 00:06:58,718 --> 00:07:00,203 But why do you think it is? 128 00:07:00,203 --> 00:07:05,041 Growing up in the church that I was taught that that drinking alcohol was a sin, 129 00:07:05,041 --> 00:07:09,762 but no one ever taught me that this verse is really about control 130 00:07:11,230 --> 00:07:12,682 because you think about it. 131 00:07:12,682 --> 00:07:16,319 You can be drunk with alcohol, but you could be drunk with anything. 132 00:07:17,203 --> 00:07:20,990 If the definition of drunkenness is the love. 133 00:07:20,990 --> 00:07:25,561 Something so much to want, something so much to need, something so much. 134 00:07:25,561 --> 00:07:27,313 You give up control. 135 00:07:27,313 --> 00:07:31,200 You see, here's why I think they taught me that drinking alcohol was a sin. 136 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:36,672 It was easier for them because nobody in my subculture drink alcohol. 137 00:07:36,672 --> 00:07:40,193 So if Proverbs 20 verse one is about alcohol, we can just skip. 138 00:07:40,193 --> 00:07:41,627 It doesn't apply to us. 139 00:07:41,627 --> 00:07:43,996 We don't drink it. But here's the problem. 140 00:07:43,996 --> 00:07:47,917 I had a lot of Southern Baptist pastors who had control 141 00:07:47,917 --> 00:07:50,920 issues with food. 142 00:07:51,954 --> 00:07:52,955 Following the service. 143 00:07:52,955 --> 00:07:54,507 I grew up in North Carolina in the 90s. 144 00:07:54,507 --> 00:07:56,509 Following the service, the pastor and all the deacons 145 00:07:56,509 --> 00:08:00,513 would run to the front of the building so they could chain smoke outside. 146 00:08:00,513 --> 00:08:02,231 It was tobacco country. 147 00:08:02,231 --> 00:08:05,234 They had given up control to cigarettes. 148 00:08:05,468 --> 00:08:09,188 My first church that I went to in seminary, I volunteered teaching 149 00:08:09,238 --> 00:08:11,390 or coaching a kid's basketball team. 150 00:08:11,390 --> 00:08:13,709 The senior pastor son was on my team. 151 00:08:13,709 --> 00:08:15,878 He never came to a single game. 152 00:08:15,878 --> 00:08:18,281 The games were in the church building where his office was. 153 00:08:18,281 --> 00:08:19,599 He never came. Why? 154 00:08:19,599 --> 00:08:22,835 Because he had given up control to work. 155 00:08:23,436 --> 00:08:24,987 You see my point? 156 00:08:24,987 --> 00:08:28,357 This verse isn't about alcohol. 157 00:08:28,391 --> 00:08:30,276 I mean, it is. And it isn't. 158 00:08:30,276 --> 00:08:33,880 Alcohol to excess when it becomes 159 00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:36,883 in control of your life is wrong. 160 00:08:37,350 --> 00:08:41,587 But so is anything that becomes so important to you 161 00:08:41,587 --> 00:08:44,073 and I that it takes control. 162 00:08:44,073 --> 00:08:48,761 It's possible to be drunk with work, isn't it? 163 00:08:49,111 --> 00:08:50,313 You can be an alcoholic. 164 00:08:50,313 --> 00:08:52,081 You can be a workaholic. 165 00:08:52,081 --> 00:08:56,435 When everything is run through the filter of work, it's possible 166 00:08:56,435 --> 00:09:01,274 to be drunk with physical fitness, to be so preoccupied with being physically 167 00:09:01,274 --> 00:09:05,278 fit that every decision you make in life is driven through that lens. 168 00:09:05,278 --> 00:09:08,598 It's possible, I think, really to be a family of holic 169 00:09:08,598 --> 00:09:11,801 or a sexy or a money a holic. 170 00:09:11,834 --> 00:09:15,721 The point is that what this verse is really saying 171 00:09:15,721 --> 00:09:20,109 is that anytime we give anything control, 172 00:09:21,477 --> 00:09:23,963 we get less life, 173 00:09:23,963 --> 00:09:25,881 not more. 174 00:09:25,881 --> 00:09:28,868 I wonder if you and I are 175 00:09:29,035 --> 00:09:32,471 self-reflective enough, humble enough, honest enough 176 00:09:32,471 --> 00:09:35,474 to admit what we are tempted 177 00:09:35,791 --> 00:09:38,794 to get drunk with, 178 00:09:38,878 --> 00:09:42,114 what we are tempted to love so much, 179 00:09:42,198 --> 00:09:46,669 to want so much, to need so much 180 00:09:46,869 --> 00:09:50,122 that everything gets filtered through that. 181 00:09:50,990 --> 00:09:53,559 One of the things that's just true about being human 182 00:09:53,559 --> 00:09:57,396 is that it's easier to see in other people, you know what I mean? 183 00:09:57,597 --> 00:10:00,399 Like when you're around someone and the thing that they are tempted 184 00:10:00,399 --> 00:10:02,468 to get drunk with just doesn't appeal to you. 185 00:10:02,468 --> 00:10:06,155 And you look at them and you go, man, wow, they're so out of bounds. 186 00:10:06,155 --> 00:10:07,273 Their life is is. 187 00:10:07,273 --> 00:10:09,358 So why are they making those choices? 188 00:10:09,358 --> 00:10:11,160 Boy, they are going to live to regret that. 189 00:10:11,160 --> 00:10:12,912 Those kinds of things so easy to see. 190 00:10:12,912 --> 00:10:14,313 But of course you must realize it. 191 00:10:14,313 --> 00:10:17,199 Easy for them to see your thing that way. 192 00:10:17,199 --> 00:10:22,521 What is it that you love so much, need so much, want so much, have to have 193 00:10:23,639 --> 00:10:26,642 that you're drunk with it. 194 00:10:26,726 --> 00:10:30,630 Well, look, there's not a single person in this room who's immune to this. 195 00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:34,917 Which is why we all need Proverbs chapter 20, verse one. 196 00:10:34,950 --> 00:10:36,836 This is a proverb for all of us. 197 00:10:36,836 --> 00:10:38,788 Control is the issue. 198 00:10:38,788 --> 00:10:42,792 Now, if you're like me, you don't like the idea that you're 199 00:10:42,792 --> 00:10:45,277 controlled by anything. 200 00:10:45,277 --> 00:10:47,163 You probably can feel yourself pushing. 201 00:10:47,163 --> 00:10:47,913 Well, I wouldn't say. 202 00:10:47,913 --> 00:10:50,483 I mean, maybe, maybe I like it a little too much. 203 00:10:50,483 --> 00:10:53,519 Maybe I want it more, need it more than the average person. 204 00:10:53,519 --> 00:10:56,122 But I'm not. I'm not controlled by it. 205 00:10:56,122 --> 00:10:59,275 Well, if you don't mind, let me push a little bit on that. 206 00:10:59,308 --> 00:11:01,627 My first point is control is the issue of. 207 00:11:01,627 --> 00:11:06,115 My second point is that change is the sign. 208 00:11:06,198 --> 00:11:07,283 Here's what I mean. 209 00:11:07,283 --> 00:11:10,403 The writer says it this way wine is a mocker, 210 00:11:10,870 --> 00:11:13,789 strong drink, a brawler. 211 00:11:13,789 --> 00:11:14,590 In the Hebrew. 212 00:11:14,590 --> 00:11:18,594 What's being conveyed here is that a person who is drunk with 213 00:11:18,594 --> 00:11:23,599 wine will sneer at what is actually good. 214 00:11:24,467 --> 00:11:27,119 A person who is drunk with strong 215 00:11:27,119 --> 00:11:32,591 liquor will fight against what actually is not their enemy. 216 00:11:32,641 --> 00:11:36,762 The language here is is designed to convey that when you are 217 00:11:36,762 --> 00:11:41,667 under the control of alcohol, your values change 218 00:11:42,118 --> 00:11:46,839 so that you will start to say what you used to say is good is bad. 219 00:11:46,872 --> 00:11:48,507 What you used to say is bad is good. 220 00:11:48,507 --> 00:11:50,509 What's up is down, what's down is up. 221 00:11:50,509 --> 00:11:51,711 You get the idea. 222 00:11:51,711 --> 00:11:56,399 If you've ever been in relationship with someone who has an addiction 223 00:11:56,399 --> 00:12:01,520 to anything, when you try to talk to them, what do you get back from them? 224 00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:05,958 You get anger even though you love them, even though you're for them. 225 00:12:05,958 --> 00:12:11,797 And what is happening is their addiction has made it so that you, 226 00:12:11,831 --> 00:12:15,201 a family member, a friend who loved them, have become the enemy. 227 00:12:16,152 --> 00:12:16,919 Because when 228 00:12:16,919 --> 00:12:21,507 you give anything control, it will change you. 229 00:12:21,557 --> 00:12:23,793 It will change your values. 230 00:12:23,793 --> 00:12:26,912 It will change what you say is good or bad. 231 00:12:26,912 --> 00:12:31,150 Like like that guy whose son I coached in the kid basketball, like eight games. 232 00:12:31,150 --> 00:12:32,351 He never came. 233 00:12:32,351 --> 00:12:34,637 His son would look for him every game. It was crushing. 234 00:12:34,637 --> 00:12:36,355 I mean, that's why I remember it. 235 00:12:36,355 --> 00:12:39,391 Do you think he held his son in the hospital 236 00:12:39,442 --> 00:12:42,711 the day he was born and looked at him and said, oh, you're so beautiful. 237 00:12:42,711 --> 00:12:44,163 I love you so much. 238 00:12:44,163 --> 00:12:45,714 I'm so glad you're my son. 239 00:12:45,714 --> 00:12:47,716 But just so you know, I'm not going to come to 240 00:12:47,716 --> 00:12:50,719 any of your stupid basketball games. 241 00:12:51,771 --> 00:12:53,439 No, of course not. 242 00:12:53,439 --> 00:12:54,156 Of course not. 243 00:12:54,156 --> 00:12:58,477 In that moment, one of the things he probably fantasized about was 244 00:12:58,477 --> 00:13:01,630 when his son would grow up and love sports the way he loves sports 245 00:13:01,630 --> 00:13:02,631 and play basketball. 246 00:13:02,631 --> 00:13:04,033 And they said, well, what changed? 247 00:13:04,033 --> 00:13:05,801 Well, you know what changed? 248 00:13:05,801 --> 00:13:09,789 Little by little, he became drunk with work, to the point 249 00:13:09,789 --> 00:13:14,477 that what used to be good, watching his son play basketball became bad. 250 00:13:14,593 --> 00:13:17,363 And he justified it the way we all justify. 251 00:13:17,363 --> 00:13:18,147 I'm busy. 252 00:13:18,147 --> 00:13:19,915 It's just he's just nine. 253 00:13:19,915 --> 00:13:21,634 He won't even remember it. 254 00:13:21,634 --> 00:13:24,553 It doesn't really matter. That's what we do. 255 00:13:24,553 --> 00:13:26,322 That is drunkenness. 256 00:13:27,473 --> 00:13:28,757 When a person is drunk 257 00:13:28,757 --> 00:13:32,962 and they make the joke everybody knows you shouldn't make when they get aggressive 258 00:13:32,962 --> 00:13:35,714 in the way that we all know, you shouldn't be aggressive. 259 00:13:35,714 --> 00:13:39,351 What is weird in that moment is that all of us who are sober 260 00:13:39,351 --> 00:13:42,588 look at that person and say, you're out of bounds, 261 00:13:44,156 --> 00:13:46,192 but so am I. 262 00:13:46,192 --> 00:13:48,360 Let me give you just a simple, practical thing. 263 00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:52,398 Do you know, one of the things that threatens to control me is my phone? 264 00:13:55,267 --> 00:13:56,035 Let me put it this way. 265 00:13:56,035 --> 00:13:58,320 I have a nine year old son, Graham, who I love. 266 00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:02,441 We're very close and he is obsessed right now with playing ping pong 267 00:14:02,441 --> 00:14:03,876 and I love it. 268 00:14:03,876 --> 00:14:07,396 We're playing like eight, nine, ten games of ping pong a day. 269 00:14:07,479 --> 00:14:07,880 Okay. 270 00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:11,116 In the way the rules are, if you win, you get to stand on one side of the table. 271 00:14:11,116 --> 00:14:12,751 That's the winner's section, okay? 272 00:14:12,751 --> 00:14:14,720 And whoever most recently won, 273 00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:18,557 the other guy has to refer to him as champ in all conversations. 274 00:14:18,591 --> 00:14:19,158 Okay? 275 00:14:19,158 --> 00:14:22,161 It's a kind of toxic environment I'm building. 276 00:14:22,311 --> 00:14:22,795 Okay. 277 00:14:22,795 --> 00:14:27,032 And, you know, if we play 20 times, I'm going to win 19. 278 00:14:27,032 --> 00:14:31,470 But every every now and then, it's like the spirit of the Lord anoints him 279 00:14:31,470 --> 00:14:33,756 and it's like David and Goliath. He can't miss. 280 00:14:33,756 --> 00:14:37,393 I mean, I'm telling you, it's super human and he'll beat me. 281 00:14:37,393 --> 00:14:38,510 And then I have to hear about it. 282 00:14:38,510 --> 00:14:40,963 And he says he have to call him champ. 283 00:14:40,963 --> 00:14:41,947 And, you know, whatever. 284 00:14:41,947 --> 00:14:44,917 I love playing ping pong with my son when I get home from work. 285 00:14:44,917 --> 00:14:47,920 I know that my little seven year old daughter is going to hug me. 286 00:14:47,920 --> 00:14:48,520 My teenagers 287 00:14:48,520 --> 00:14:51,757 are going to kind of acknowledge me, and my son Graham is going to come 288 00:14:52,358 --> 00:14:54,994 rip it around the corner, and he's going to want to play ping pong. 289 00:14:54,994 --> 00:14:55,711 And I'm ready, man. 290 00:14:55,711 --> 00:14:58,914 I'm excited except for when I'm on my phone. 291 00:15:01,834 --> 00:15:03,919 You know, I'm 292 00:15:03,919 --> 00:15:06,755 the phone has so many rabbit holes for me. 293 00:15:06,755 --> 00:15:08,040 You know, I'm a huge Browns fan. 294 00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:11,043 And somehow, even though we're bad, we're always in the news, 295 00:15:12,912 --> 00:15:15,030 so there's always something to read. 296 00:15:15,030 --> 00:15:16,799 You know, I do a news podcast. 297 00:15:16,799 --> 00:15:19,068 I'm always reading about the news. Right? 298 00:15:19,068 --> 00:15:21,320 It's so easy to justify and and what will happen 299 00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:24,356 is I'll be on my phone and this nine year old kid will come around the corner 300 00:15:24,390 --> 00:15:27,393 shirt off, always to intimidate me. 301 00:15:28,193 --> 00:15:29,561 And he will say, 302 00:15:29,561 --> 00:15:33,632 dad, I challenge you to the game of kings, 303 00:15:33,632 --> 00:15:36,635 which somehow is ping pong. 304 00:15:38,387 --> 00:15:41,123 And I'll say, not right now, 305 00:15:41,123 --> 00:15:42,391 not right now. 306 00:15:42,391 --> 00:15:44,310 And for what? 307 00:15:44,310 --> 00:15:46,829 You know, for what? 308 00:15:46,829 --> 00:15:48,681 Some stupid article about the Browns. 309 00:15:48,681 --> 00:15:53,953 And in that moment, I know, I mean, I know a nine year old son is more important. 310 00:15:53,953 --> 00:15:56,639 I know I'll have more joy playing ping pong. 311 00:15:56,639 --> 00:15:58,107 I know there's a day coming. 312 00:15:58,107 --> 00:16:01,076 When I say to him, I challenge you to the game of Kings. 313 00:16:01,076 --> 00:16:04,196 And he goes, oh, dad, I'm not really into that anymore. 314 00:16:04,229 --> 00:16:06,148 You know, I know, I know, this is the moment. 315 00:16:06,148 --> 00:16:07,549 These are the moments. 316 00:16:07,549 --> 00:16:10,753 And I know that little boy is the most valuable thing in the world 317 00:16:10,753 --> 00:16:13,122 in that moment. 318 00:16:13,122 --> 00:16:15,307 Except for when I'm drunk with my phone. 319 00:16:18,077 --> 00:16:19,028 And I think when we 320 00:16:19,028 --> 00:16:22,031 wake up and we go, 321 00:16:23,148 --> 00:16:26,151 how did I become this kind of man? 322 00:16:27,553 --> 00:16:29,955 How did I become this kind of woman? 323 00:16:29,955 --> 00:16:33,359 This is not the dad I wanted to be, you know? 324 00:16:33,642 --> 00:16:35,394 It's not the father I wanted to be. 325 00:16:35,394 --> 00:16:36,478 It's not the mother I wanted to be. 326 00:16:36,478 --> 00:16:38,397 It's not the wife is not the marriage we wanted. 327 00:16:38,397 --> 00:16:41,633 You know, I've done so many marriages over 20 years of pastoral ministry. 328 00:16:41,667 --> 00:16:44,036 Nobody ever says, hey, pastor, can we put in the vows 329 00:16:44,036 --> 00:16:47,272 that we're going to give it a really hard go for five years and then divorce? 330 00:16:48,674 --> 00:16:50,159 How do we get there? 331 00:16:50,159 --> 00:16:51,360 How do we end up there? 332 00:16:51,360 --> 00:16:53,912 The answer is, according to the writer of Proverbs, 333 00:16:53,912 --> 00:17:00,002 is we give control to something or someone or something and it changes us. 334 00:17:00,002 --> 00:17:05,441 And what was good the spouse, the kid, the the, the job, the joy becomes bad. 335 00:17:05,441 --> 00:17:06,959 What was up becomes down. 336 00:17:06,959 --> 00:17:09,028 And all of a sudden we're not free. 337 00:17:09,028 --> 00:17:12,081 We're slaves, and we don't like who we are anymore. 338 00:17:12,114 --> 00:17:13,082 Is that you? 339 00:17:15,150 --> 00:17:17,803 It's all of us at some point, right? 340 00:17:17,803 --> 00:17:19,321 So, of course, that begs the question. 341 00:17:19,321 --> 00:17:22,307 Then how do we get free? 342 00:17:24,193 --> 00:17:26,228 Well, first let's just ask this. 343 00:17:26,228 --> 00:17:29,231 Do you see how freedom from this thing 344 00:17:29,598 --> 00:17:32,601 will lead to more life? 345 00:17:33,869 --> 00:17:34,536 So how do we get it? 346 00:17:34,536 --> 00:17:35,871 Well, that's my third point. 347 00:17:35,871 --> 00:17:37,990 Challenge is the path to freedom. 348 00:17:37,990 --> 00:17:40,075 I told you, I grew up in the church. 349 00:17:40,075 --> 00:17:44,596 I've heard a lot of sermons and talks and Bible studies about how to change. 350 00:17:44,663 --> 00:17:48,434 And I don't mean to be offensive, but I could boil them all down to 351 00:17:48,467 --> 00:17:49,835 this basic thing. 352 00:17:49,835 --> 00:17:53,355 Whatever it is you want to stop doing, just tell yourself, 353 00:17:53,355 --> 00:17:55,507 stop doing it, stop doing it, stop doing it. 354 00:17:55,507 --> 00:17:57,843 Stop doing it until you don't do it anymore. 355 00:17:57,843 --> 00:18:00,679 So if you're looking at a website you shouldn't be looking at, 356 00:18:00,679 --> 00:18:02,147 then you say to yourself, don't look at the website, 357 00:18:02,147 --> 00:18:04,116 don't look at the website, don't look the website, don't look the website. 358 00:18:04,116 --> 00:18:05,551 Of course, the problem with that, other 359 00:18:05,551 --> 00:18:10,155 than it doesn't work, is that you're you never stop thinking about what 360 00:18:11,123 --> 00:18:11,790 the website. 361 00:18:11,790 --> 00:18:13,041 It's like an alcoholic 362 00:18:13,041 --> 00:18:16,995 who has the glass of bourbon poured for them at the bar and sits there 363 00:18:16,995 --> 00:18:20,799 and looks at it and says, don't drink, don't drink, don't drink, don't drink. 364 00:18:20,799 --> 00:18:23,802 What's the inevitable thing that is going to happen? 365 00:18:23,836 --> 00:18:27,589 The one thing on their mind is the whiskey in front of them. 366 00:18:27,589 --> 00:18:30,275 No one changes that way. 367 00:18:30,275 --> 00:18:32,194 That is not a Christian way to change. 368 00:18:32,194 --> 00:18:33,629 Instead, here's what the Bible says. 369 00:18:33,629 --> 00:18:38,150 You don't change by saying no to the thing that has enslaved you. 370 00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:42,387 You change by saying yes to the God who loves you. 371 00:18:43,872 --> 00:18:46,308 In other words, you give him control. 372 00:18:46,308 --> 00:18:49,478 Here's what the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians five about this very topic. 373 00:18:49,511 --> 00:18:54,433 Listen to what he says, and do not get drunk with wine 374 00:18:55,751 --> 00:18:58,837 or anything, for that is debauchery. 375 00:18:58,871 --> 00:19:02,241 Listen, but be filled with the spirit. 376 00:19:02,274 --> 00:19:03,192 You see what he's saying? 377 00:19:03,192 --> 00:19:05,677 There's a whole theology behind being filled with the spirit. 378 00:19:05,677 --> 00:19:08,997 Here's what he's saying is God loves you so much that even though 379 00:19:09,031 --> 00:19:14,753 your relationship with him was broken and it was your fault, it was my fault. 380 00:19:14,786 --> 00:19:18,757 God sent his Son, Jesus, who lived a perfect, 381 00:19:18,757 --> 00:19:22,761 sinless life in our place, so that on the cross 382 00:19:22,761 --> 00:19:26,715 he could take on the sin of all of God's people and and God 383 00:19:26,715 --> 00:19:30,636 the Father could pour out his anger and wrath and judgment unto Jesus 384 00:19:30,669 --> 00:19:35,390 until there was no more left, and Jesus would die under the weight of that. 385 00:19:35,390 --> 00:19:38,794 And then three days later, raised from the dead, and say to us, 386 00:19:38,794 --> 00:19:41,797 if you will trust my life and my death 387 00:19:41,797 --> 00:19:45,834 and my resurrection for your forgiveness, you will be forgiven. 388 00:19:45,868 --> 00:19:47,669 You will be made clean. 389 00:19:47,669 --> 00:19:51,273 And because you're clean, the Spirit of God can live in you. 390 00:19:51,273 --> 00:19:56,428 See, what Paul is saying is, stop giving control to your phone, 391 00:19:56,478 --> 00:20:00,482 Zach, and start filling your heart and mind 392 00:20:00,482 --> 00:20:04,269 with the person and character and love of God. 393 00:20:04,269 --> 00:20:07,322 In other words, what he's saying is don't say no to the phone. 394 00:20:07,356 --> 00:20:09,241 Say no to God. Say yes. 395 00:20:09,241 --> 00:20:11,827 I mean say yes to God. Say yes to sorry about that. 396 00:20:11,827 --> 00:20:17,199 Say yes to say he has to to both of them, even for a little while if you have to. 397 00:20:17,232 --> 00:20:18,517 Because here's what he's saying. 398 00:20:18,517 --> 00:20:21,553 The more your heart just want to say that again. 399 00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:23,922 If you're trying to stop looking at the website, 400 00:20:23,922 --> 00:20:26,992 if you're trying to stop drinking, you're trying to stop overeating. 401 00:20:26,992 --> 00:20:28,710 You don't say no to that. 402 00:20:28,710 --> 00:20:32,481 You say yes to God, even for a little while, maybe saying yes to both. 403 00:20:32,481 --> 00:20:33,999 But here's what Paul is saying. 404 00:20:33,999 --> 00:20:38,153 Eventually, the experience of God 405 00:20:39,521 --> 00:20:41,757 will make you not want that thing anymore. 406 00:20:41,757 --> 00:20:46,361 So you don't have a problem with your phone. 407 00:20:46,361 --> 00:20:51,149 Zach, you have a deficiency of wonder 408 00:20:51,950 --> 00:20:54,953 over who God is. 409 00:20:55,187 --> 00:20:57,189 That's your problem. 410 00:20:57,189 --> 00:20:58,590 I told you, I grew up Southern Baptist. 411 00:20:58,590 --> 00:21:01,593 I'm so grateful for so many things, including many of the songs 412 00:21:01,593 --> 00:21:03,445 I grew up singing. 413 00:21:03,445 --> 00:21:06,081 But there's a hymn that captures this so well that I love so much. 414 00:21:06,081 --> 00:21:07,549 It says this. 415 00:21:07,549 --> 00:21:11,436 Turn your eyes upon Jesus. 416 00:21:12,638 --> 00:21:16,358 Look full in his wonderful face, 417 00:21:16,875 --> 00:21:19,878 and the things of this earth 418 00:21:20,362 --> 00:21:23,348 will grow strangely dem 419 00:21:23,348 --> 00:21:27,753 in the light of his glory and grace. 420 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:31,707 Friends, do you want to be free? 421 00:21:32,591 --> 00:21:34,910 Do you want to be the man you want to be? 422 00:21:34,910 --> 00:21:38,597 The woman you have, the marriage that you know God wants you to have? 423 00:21:38,630 --> 00:21:43,719 Have the family, the joy, the freedom, the the passion. 424 00:21:43,919 --> 00:21:45,871 The excitement that you were meant to have. 425 00:21:45,871 --> 00:21:46,989 Do you want that? 426 00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:51,443 Run to God. 427 00:21:51,677 --> 00:21:54,680 Let him control you. 428 00:21:55,230 --> 00:21:59,634 And the good news about his control is it leads to freedom. 429 00:22:00,235 --> 00:22:02,871 It leads to calling good. What is good? 430 00:22:02,871 --> 00:22:05,474 Bad? What is bad? Up. What is up? Down. 431 00:22:05,474 --> 00:22:06,641 What is down? 432 00:22:06,641 --> 00:22:08,076 See, we're created beings. 433 00:22:08,076 --> 00:22:11,163 We're designed to be led by something. 434 00:22:13,148 --> 00:22:15,751 The problem is, we've gone to all the wrong things 435 00:22:15,751 --> 00:22:21,073 and all the wrong places and all the wrong people. 436 00:22:21,873 --> 00:22:26,912 Freedom is found in the kingship of Jesus Christ. 437 00:22:27,362 --> 00:22:29,481 Let me pray for you, Father God. 438 00:22:29,481 --> 00:22:34,069 It is not an easy thing to admit we are drunk. 439 00:22:35,587 --> 00:22:37,956 It is not an easy thing to admit. 440 00:22:37,956 --> 00:22:42,110 We're under control of anything that we've changed, 441 00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:45,997 that we're the problem, that everything that everyone's been saying 442 00:22:46,031 --> 00:22:49,317 to us, that we have pushed back against and made excuses about 443 00:22:49,317 --> 00:22:52,521 and gotten angry over, is actually true. 444 00:22:56,391 --> 00:22:56,842 So we're 445 00:22:56,842 --> 00:22:59,828 going to need your help with that this weekend. 446 00:23:00,362 --> 00:23:03,348 I pray for the conviction that comes from the Holy Spirit 447 00:23:04,633 --> 00:23:06,918 for people to see, maybe for the first time, 448 00:23:06,918 --> 00:23:09,921 or to allow themselves to see 449 00:23:09,921 --> 00:23:12,908 how enslaved we really are. 450 00:23:13,959 --> 00:23:16,962 How changed we've really become, 451 00:23:16,995 --> 00:23:19,514 in the hopes that in that 452 00:23:19,514 --> 00:23:23,001 moment of desperation, the beauty 453 00:23:24,035 --> 00:23:27,038 of the person and work of Jesus Christ would shine. 454 00:23:27,472 --> 00:23:31,159 And that this weekend you would set people free 455 00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:34,763 on a trajectory of freedom 456 00:23:34,996 --> 00:23:38,433 with your wisdom and more life than Jesus name. 457 00:23:38,433 --> 00:23:40,318 We pray. Amen.