In his sermon, Douglas Campbell discusses Ephesians 4:17-24, warning against living as the Gentiles do, highlighting the futility of minds separated from God. He compares the historical Greek-Roman culture, characterized by polytheism, pantheism, and atheism, to modern American society, noting similar ideologies. Campbell emphasizes the need for Christians to reject cultural pressures and fear, advocating for a life rooted in Scripture and a personal relationship with God. He stresses the necessity of putting off the old self, renewing the mind through the Holy Spirit, and embracing a life of true righteousness. The sermon calls for a shift from worldly distractions to a focus on Christ, urging believers to find joy in serving God and aligning their lives with His purposes.

Good morning. If you would turn with me this morning to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. This morning I'd like to look at verses 17 through 24. That's Ephesians 4, 17 through 24.

The Apostle Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God's Word, as the Apostle Paul records for us as he is in prison, his letter to the Ephesians. We find in verse 17 through 24, it says, Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus.

To put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning in need of your grace, in need of your forgiveness, in need of your Holy Spirit to give us understanding. Father, just a few minutes ago we were reminded a few times as the cry from David that He has hidden His Word in His heart that He might not sin against you. Father, this morning we pray that You would hide Your words in our hearts, that You would give us understanding and application, that God, this morning, as we hear your word, as we are changed by your word, that Father, we might leave this place not sinning against you, but glorifying you.

So Father, this morning we pray that you would help us, help give us understanding, help us overcome the flesh that might stand in our way, that would object, that would justify itself. But God, that we would stand before you without defense. Hearts open to be changed by your Word. Father, it's that what we need this morning. Father, we need you above all.

Father, we ask that you would help us today in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Again, this morning as we look at a little section of Paul's letter to the Ephesians. This morning I would like first to sort of go through this text a little bit at a time, and then look at how we might first of all look at what is the attributes of those who are not in Christ, what are the attributes of the Gentiles, and then after that look at what are the attributes of those who are in Christ, who do know Him.

What do we strive to be like? How do we strive that we might live our temporary lives in this world? So let's look first again at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17. This is really the cry of the remaining verse, or the point of the remaining verse. The Word of God says, Now this I say in testifying the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.

At this time in history, this would have been very close to the fall of Rome, or actually it would be just a little bit before the fall of Rome, the Greek or the Roman lifestyle, the way of doing things was surprisingly much like it is for us today. I would say that the Greek slash Roman lifestyle was much of what you and I live in. The ideologies and the things that we live inside of in America are these same ideas, these same sayings that were going on at this time. In fact, they had three major divisions in their religion or their religiosity in this time. The first would have been polytheism, which means they believed in multiple gods, lots and lots of gods.

In fact, if you remember in one of Paul's letter, he addresses even that they had a statue to the God whom they don't know. I think that was Paul. I could be wrong. I think that might be... Is that Paul?

Okay. So they were very concerned with serving the right God, and in fact they used the grenade approach. If we worship every God that we can possibly think of, then maybe we will get the right one. And on that day that we die, we will successfully have played the lottery enough times that we will get lucky and get the right God. And in fact, that is much of, or that is part of what we find in America today.

One of the interesting things that my brother and friend Scott Brown shared as he was here just a couple of nights ago that most often throughout history It's not what you stand for That that causes people or it's not what you do that causes the most persecution For the Christian that's not so much what you do that upsets people, that upsets the world. But he said it's what you will not do that upsets people. And in fact, that is the real crux of what will anger many in our culture today. It's not saying Jesus is God. That's not offensive to our culture.

What is offensive to our culture is, is when Jesus's own words, when he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by me." The cry of Christianity is there is only one way to heaven, and that, in fact, is what is deeply offensive to a polytheistic culture. Now you say, well this isn't like the Greek where we have different gods and Zeus and all these things, but we may not call them that, but we very quickly understand that we're polytheistic when we talk to someone on the street and they say, well, to me, God is this or that or this or that. And if you talk to a thousand to-me's on the streets, you will have a description of a thousand different gods. They may call their God Jesus, they may call him whatever they call him, but it's not the same. If you believe that God is only a God of love and he would never send anyone to hell because he is just a loving God.

It doesn't matter if you call him Jesus It doesn't matter if you call him Whatever you call him. He is not the same God that I serve Why? God is a God of love. But the only way that can make sense is in light of all of his other attributes. All of his other attributes are also perfect.

A perfectly loving God must be a perfectly just God. A perfectly just God must not only be a perfect rewarder of those whom deserve reward, but he also must be a perfect punisher of those who deserve punishment. To say that God is a God of love, and as long as you're a good person according to human standards and not God's standards, is what gets you to heaven, is a very polytheistic view. You believe in the validity of lots of gods because that mindset results in millions and millions and probably billions of gods because every god is just like themselves, because that's the god they like. The god they like, in fact, is themselves.

Next would be the pantheistic thought process that was in the Greek Roman culture. That thought process I found many years ago to be very alive and well in America, and that process is, well, God is just in everything. God is in me, he's in my dog, he's in... God is just everywhere. He's just a God that's holding the whole universe together.

That ideology, while it doesn't make any sense, is in my opinion very strong in the public universities of today. It's very much proclaimed, very much pushed. It's very alive and well in America. And third of all is the atheistic mindset. And you often found in this culture that depending on what social class you were in, it usually had a lot to do with which of these three ideologies that you mostly subscribe to.

But there were those who didn't mind the people having lots of gods because they oftentimes were the academic people. And they would say, well, it doesn't matter that they have all these statues and gods and different things, because we don't believe any of them are true. And in fact, what you find in atheists is oftentimes they cling to religion, because they find it an easy way to manipulate you to do what they want. In fact, it's those in this time period, and which spread to most of this culture, was the human mind was the chief end to what we need. The human mind is the answer to all of our problems.

The smart people are the ones whom we are to listen to. The university graduates, the philosophers, the Greek in this area at this time was just indwelled with people wanting to sound smart. Because the smarter you sounded, the smarter you were, the more people respected you. And we find that through the New Testament that people are shocked to hear Paul preach. Because Paul was raised as this supreme academic scholar in Scripture.

And Paul would go preach, and they would say, what's with this Paul? He's not using big words. We can't trust him. He doesn't sound smart. He's using plain language.

And Paul even in his defense said several times, I didn't come to you with eloquence of speech. I didn't come to you claiming to be the academic giant. I came to you with Christ and Christ alone, because Paul understood that it had nothing to do with academia, And it has everything to do with Christ. And that culture is the very same culture we largely find ourselves in today. Not just on the outside, but also on the inside of those who would claim Christ.

We don't have to look far for an example. When we enter into a pandemic or whatever you would call the thing that we've been through in the last year or two, are they driven to Scripture? Or are they driven to the smart people? Well, this guy is smart. This guy's got lots of letters after his name.

Do I live my life according to what scripture says? Or do I live my life according to what? I will just pick his name because he's a representative, Dr. Fauci. Do I make decisions based off of what Scripture says, or do I make decisions based off of what the smart people say?

You see, this mentality of the Greeks is alive and well in America. It's alive and well within most of what American Christianity would claim to be. Now, I'm not saying that we never listen to anybody. God is the author of science, but science is subject to Scripture. Amen?

When we come to a situation in our life where things are fearful, things don't make sense, our reaction isn't to go, should not be as believers, to go to the smart people. It should be to go to the author, the author of life, the author we would react. As we go to Scripture in this current problem. The answer in Scripture isn't to give the smart people more money. The answer in Scripture is for God's people to repent.

Largely in our culture we've done the opposite. We've separated ourselves from God. We've had less to do with Him. Why? Because we fear something other than God.

That is why in this culture the atheists were pleased, they were happy, they were glad for everybody you believe, whatever you want. Because the atheist would use fear against people. And this morning, let me reassure you, the only thing there is to fear is God. God is the author. He is the beginning.

He's the alpha. He's the last. He is the Omega. God decides whether I live another day. God decides whether I live another second.

It is He alone of whom we should fear. But that's not what we find in this culture, and it's not what we find in our culture. And Paul, in some sense, a warning. Let me read it again. Now this I say in testifying the Lord, you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.

Why were the Gentiles, why was their minds futile? Why was their futility in it? They were supposed to be the smart people. Their minds were futile because they were separate from God. They were separate.

They didn't know God. They didn't know the author. They didn't know the one who holds the universe together, leaving themselves futile. In fact, we joke very often, or I joke very often, but I find that myself gets drawn into this so easily. I joke all the time.

I say, you know, The science of a hundred years ago is the jokes of today. We literally, there are people today, I can't hardly believe this, there are people today who think the earth is flat again. And we laugh at it, and rightly so. But the science of a few hundred years ago would have laughed at us if we didn't think it was flat. It's that science in which we tend to throw our whole bodies or our whole souls into trusting when times get rough.

It's that same science that most likely will be the jokes of people a hundred years from now that our flesh wants to deeply trust and almost totally ignore the Word of God that God has placed within us. And for hundreds and thousands of years, The Word of God has proven to be right over and over and over again. Science, so often wicked scientists set it in their hearts to go into science and disprove this once and for all so they can be rid of these pesky people who won't do what we want them to do. And often those same scientists get converted to Christ because they spent time in His Word trying to disprove it. And yet my flesh and your flesh, there's something about it that's always drawn to trust the scientists.

It's always drawn to trust the smart people. These smart people in this time very rightly understood that they could control people with fear. And I would tell you this morning, the culture hasn't changed. There is a reason why the TV, day after day, hour after hour, is trying to put you into fear. This morning, believer, if you are in Christ, you have nothing to fear.

You have nothing to fear. It is a mountain that they placed in front of you that is a house of cards. There is nothing to fear. If I get the bug today and it kills me in a week, there is nothing to fear, because I didn't change anything. God's will was not changed by it.

The early church, and I still believe this, that you cannot die apart from God's will. You cannot. It doesn't give you a license to jump off of a building. It doesn't give you a license to jump off of a building. It doesn't give you a license to test the Lord.

We should have some sort of sense about us that we are trying to not push God, not test Him. But there is no amount of fear that should cause us to say, well, maybe I don't need to obey Scripture. Maybe I don't need to do what it's called. Maybe it's okay this time because it's scary out there. It is—understand this—it is deathly scary out there.

If you were here this morning and you were without Christ, you have right, you have right, and you should be terrified of this world. But this morning, if you have turned from your sin and put your trust in Christ, there is nothing to fear. The God who says he loves you does not change. If I die tomorrow, I have nothing to fear. And those who would try to populate your life with a continual fear of something other than God have ill intentions.

Understand that, church. If they are trying to populate you with continual fear, they have ill intentions. Christ is the one whom we should fear. As a result of this, and I know we're still at the first verse, let me read it again. It says, Now I say this in testifying the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.

I believe this morning as I read this, you and I as brothers and sisters in Christ, we are called to no longer walk in fear. We're no longer to walk as the world walks. It's no longer to control our lives. We have nothing to fear. They think that this life is all that there is.

They think this is all that there is to live for. And so we come up with phrases like, you only live once. If you believe that, if you believe that this is all there is, you should fear. But it's not what God says, it's not what Scripture says. Continuing on, Ephesians 4, 17-19.

Now this I say in testifying the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. See, rightly so, this morning we could read that first verse And I could tell you this morning that it would be correct to say, now this I say in testifying the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Americans do. Maybe that makes it more real for us.

You must no longer walk as the Americans do in the futility of their mind. It goes on to describe them. They're futile in their thinking. And what does this word backing up just a minute? What does this mean, walk as they walk?

It means don't live your life as they live their life. Don't behave the way that they behave. We could go way into it. Don't dress as they dress. Don't think what's important is the same thing that they think are important.

Don't spend your time the way the Americans do. It is futility. If you come to scripture and it tells you, this happens all the time, If you come to Scripture and it tells you, you should live this way, and you say, well, yeah, that would be just hard for me to do. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if it's hard.

It doesn't matter if your neighbors don't do that. It doesn't matter if that's what everybody around me does. Everyone around you that isn't living Scripture is living in futility. They're living based off of what their mind says. God tells us to stop that.

They have futility in their thinking. They're darkened in their understanding. Apart from the Word of God, our understanding is almost worthless. When we question how we are to live, maybe as husbands and wives, maybe we go a little farther in Ephesians and look about how we should live as a family, or when we go to other parts of the Bible that tell us how to live, our mind has almost zero to contribute. This is the Word of God.

We don't go to the Word of God and read it, and it says, if it said, thou shalt not wear a black suit coat anymore, and say, well, you know, I've only got one suit coat, so it'll surely be okay. It's the words of God! It's the words of your Creator! It's not up for debate! I have nothing to offer.

I am not... Job found this out. When Job start to ask, God says, you don't, in a sense, you don't know anything. And he says the same, not just a joke, he says it to your pastor. You don't know anything.

Your mind has nothing to contribute. You know nothing. And this morning, that same plea or that cry from Paul is, I come before you and know nothing except for Christ and Christ crucified. That is the mind of a believer. I know nothing apart from this.

I know nothing. I have no, I have no rebuttals. If God tells me to do something, I do it. I should do it. Period.

It's not for debate. And that's what we find. The Gentiles knew nothing. They knew some facts here and there. They may have knew how to understand if it's going to snow tomorrow.

They might not. But in reality, if you don't know God, you know nothing. It says they are alienated from the life of God. But look at the reasoning when it says the reason they are alienated is because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. This morning, if you don't know Christ, if you don't know God's Word, in America, it is only due to your hardness of heart.

There is nobody in here that does not have access to God's Word. If you don't know Him well, it's because of the hardness of your heart. And we become alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance of His Word. This morning, if you are not pouring your life into knowing God's Word, you are living as the Gentiles live. See, the Gentiles, they somewhat had an excuse.

They didn't even have God's Word. And yet this morning, if you sit in here, you have it. You are at least doubly as guilty as the Gentiles if you don't know it. If the ignorance is within you of God's Word, it is due to the hardness of your heart, for they are calloused. Those that have dug post holes, they know what calluses are like, that you get this really thick skin on your hand.

In essence, it means they're no longer even swayable by the Word of God because their skin has thickened. They put on the armor, but not the armor of God, the armor defending against the Word of God. And number five, they give themselves up to sensuality. In essence, it's this. Because they're ignorant of the Word of God, because their hearts are hard, because they're calloused.

What do they do that every non-believer in America does? They do what seems right to them. Well, my dad never read the Bible to us. I turned out okay. I can give you lots of things people say, and it is their calloused hearts.

They do what seems right to them. They give themselves over to sensuality. Continue on, Ephesians 4, 2. It says, But this is not the way you learned Christ. We could go really deep into this scripture, but I'd like to refer to John 17 verse 3.

If you don't have this highlighted in your Bible, or I would even say if you don't have a memory verse this week, memorize this verse. Highlight this verse if you write in your Bible. John 17 3, this is the words of Christ. He says, and this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Let me read it again.

And this is eternal life, that they know you. It that they know you. It doesn't say know about, that they know you. This morning, if you don't know God, not just know about Him, if you don't know Him, it is almost 100% evidence that you are not in Christ and you have not eternal life. Do you know Him?

The way that we know Him is we turn from our sin, we turn from our lying and our stealing and our selfishness and all these things, and we turn to Christ. And that word is repent. We turn to Christ and we trust Him holy not only with our eternity, but with right now. We trust Him holy with everything about our entire lives. We trust Him with how we live.

We trust Him with how we live. We trust Him with how we raise our children. We trust Him with the decisions that we make. He becomes all things. Let me read it again.

And this is eternal life that they know you. The only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Do you know God? When problems come your way, do you turn to Scripture, or do you turn on the TV? Do you turn to Scripture, or do you turn to your friends?

Coming back to Job, I didn't want to, I didn't plan to talk about Job, but do you know Job? If he would have even listened to his wife, he would have been in trouble. If he would have listened to his friends, he would have been in trouble. But Job trusted in God. When the entire world, not just the Gentiles, when the entire world, including his wife and his friends, tried to turn him against God, Job doesn't do it.

And that is our call today. Are we trusting in Christ? Do we know Him? Ephesians 4, 20 through 24 says, but that is not the way you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. Let me repeat that.

The truth is in Jesus. To put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness. We're told to do a couple of things here. If we are like the Gentiles, if we are like the rest of the world, then it described well what is going on in our lives. But if you are in Christ, if you have heard of Him and if you have come to know Him, it says first of all we're to put off our old self.

There was a way in which we once lived, and we are to put it off. Apart from Christ, the only thing that really made sense to us is how we were raised. How did my parents do things? And how do my friends do things? But precisely that is what this is telling us, and this is extremely hard to do.

And in fact, it's impossible to do without the Holy Spirit. It's impossible to do without God intervening and doing this for you. And to illustrate it, how many of you are, how many of you are 30 and older? Let me pick on you men. How many of you are 30 and older and have ever said, I'm doing this just like my dad did it, and I said I would never do it the way my dad did it?

Amen? We're a product of how we were raised. Some of that is really good. If you had a biblical father, I pray that many of those things, that you grow in that. But some of it isn't good.

And this is what this is saying. It says, to put off your old self. Can I be transparent and completely honest with you this morning? After Sunday school this morning, the verse came to mind that if you were bringing an offering and there was something between you and a brother, that you were to leave the church and to make it right and then come back. That scripture was in my mind.

I said, there's something I have to do before I can preach. I asked my daughter if I could talk to her. Because this morning, things happened, things didn't happen that should have happened, and my flesh reacted just as my dad would have reacted and got angry. And here I am before church confessing my sin to my daughter, telling her I'm sorry. That is to my detriment that my old self wants to come back.

It wants to get angry. It thinks it gets its way by being the loudest. Put off your old self. Put it off. It is the war that's within the Christian.

Put off this flesh. Put off the way we thought before. Put off reacting as the world reacts. The second thing it tells us to do is to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. We can't help but think, I didn't put it on my list, but I can't help but think of Romans 12 verse 2.

How many people have Romans 12 verse 2 memorized? Go ahead Caleb, you want to recite it? See, you probably memorized one and two, and I'm putting you right in the middle, right? It says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Be transformed.

God is the transformer, but He chooses to operate in such a way that He does it through the Word of God. He does it through His Word. And this morning, if your mind isn't being transformed, if it's not being more like Christ, if you're not putting off your old self and putting it on your new, it's one of two things. It's either, one, you don't know Christ, Or two, you're starving the Holy Spirit of his job. Pour your life into knowing God's Word, that the Holy Spirit might renew your mind.

That he might empower you to put off the old self, and then thirdly, to put on the new self created after the likeness of God. Martin Lloyd-Jones commented on this scripture. He said, Our conduct should always be to us something which is inevitable in view of what we believe. If my Christian living is not quite inevitable to me, if I'm always fighting against it and struggling and trying to get out of it and wondering why it is so hard and narrow, If I find myself rather envying the people who are still back in the world, there is something radically wrong with my Christian life. See, this is the difference between a true believer.

This is the difference between someone who is on their way to heaven, who's been bought by the blood of Christ, and someone who is simply practicing religion. Now there are days when I don't feel like reading this, but most of the time it's a joy. Most of the time, I'm looking forward to it. There are days when I look into the world and I say, boy, I sure, Greg's to blame a little bit for this. I sure would like to have my own airplane like those people have.

But you know what? That becomes less and less, and it becomes more and more. It is a joy to serve Christ. It is a joy. It's not a hardship to not do the same things that the world does.

It's not a hardship to not have the same amount of money that the world has. But it's a joy. The verse says to store your treasure up in heaven. The guy's airplane, I don't know if moths can destroy it, but something will eventually. It will melt down.

It will break. On the news this week, I saw a jet engine broke when the people were on the jet. Man's stuff breaks. I'm thankful for people like Kenny and Jake who can fix those things, but it's still eventually going to break. Amen?

It's a joy to live the Christian life. Understand, church, it is a joy to disciple my children. It is a joy to read the Bible together. It is a joy to serve Christ together. Do you know what's not a joy?

When I revert to the Gentile mind and get angry with my daughter because she didn't get her chore done. That's not a joy. But you know what my flesh says? Oh yes. It is.

You got to get mad. You got to get angry. You got to get... The flesh is always lying. See, The Gentile lifestyle, the American lifestyle, if you don't get anything else this morning, get this.

The American lifestyle is nothing but a lie. It is a lie. It is something that cries out to you, if only you have this or that, or do this or that, or have this or that, then finally you'll be happy. You will not. A hundred years from now, it won't matter.

A hill of beans, and people still say that? It doesn't matter. Do you know what's a joy? In a hundred years standing before my Lord and Savior. And if the world is still going on at that time, hearing him talk of the work that he did in my life, that now my great-grandchildren are proclaiming the gospel somewhere in the world.

And even more than that, the joy of standing before my Savior, that even though I didn't deserve it, He saved me, He rescued me. He rescued me from this false, gentile way of thinking. He rescued me while I was on this earth, and now I spend eternity grateful for him changing me. Finally, another quote by James Montgomery Boyce, as he spoke of this text. He said, If I am failing in the Christian life, what should trouble me is not that I am failing or that I have a problem, but that I have failed God and His important purposes for me.

Understand this morning, the more we're distracted by the Gentile lifestyle, the more we're not living out what we could be doing for our Savior, the more we're not serving Him, the more we're not discipling our children and training people up and loving people and serving people. All of this, everything this world has cries out to us, this is so important. But in fact, it's all but a big distraction that distracts us, that takes our eyes off of Christ, that takes our eyes off of God. And in fact, the book that I gave out for Christmas, so often it rings in, the title rings in my head, at least every week. The things of this world cause us to waste our life.

It's to waste it. We waste it with a smile on our face. We waste it being entertained. This morning, don't live as the Gentiles live. Don't live as the Americans live.

Now this morning, this message, and this is the conclusion, this message isn't to say try harder. You cannot win that battle. The message is to seek Christ. Seek Him with everything you have until you find Him. And continue to seek Him until He continues to change your heart, that your mind might be renewed, that it might see the deception and the foolishness of the world, that we might serve Him with our entire beings.

This morning, set your eyes upon Christ. If you don't know Him, turn from those things which seem important. Turn to Christ. If you have, each of us have, at some point, and most of us for a long time and some of us not, we live lives that were enemies of God. We sinned against Him, not just for the sake of sinning, but because we were His enemy.

We hated Him. We wanted nothing to be like Him. And this morning, rightly so, He will punish His enemies. This morning, if you turn from your sin and trust in the work of Christ, taking the punishment for your sin upon the cross, if you would trust in Him that He would save you, If you would seek after Him, the Bible promises that you will find Him, and He will change your heart. And it will then become a joy to not live as the Gentiles live, but to live as scriptures called me to live.

And that joy won't just be for a few moments after buying a new car or whatever it is, but that joy will endure for all of eternity. And it will grow. But the joy isn't in anything the world has to offer. The joy is in the One whom has saved you, the One who died for you. Put your trust in Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, There's nothing to fear in this world. Don't—I'm not—I'm not proclaiming—I'm not standing here as one who's perfect. It's a battle in my mind as well. But we can't continue to live in fear. God is sovereign.

He's in control. If anything, when the news comes on and tries to fear us, it should remind us that we should repent, that we should draw close. In fact, if you were, and I'm not even a proponent of any of the whatever, if you were thinking of giving something up for the next few weeks, shut your phones and TVs off and let the fear go for a little bit. You might learn to really like that. Amen.

Shut the stuff off. The person who has your best interest at heart wrote this, not the person on your TV. Draw near to Christ. Amen. Amen.

Let's pray. Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning.

It's so hard for each of us, Father. It's so hard to be immersed in a culture and then try to think differently from that immersion. Father, this morning I pray that you would help us, that you would draw us, that you would cause us to immerse ourselves into your Word. I pray that your Holy Spirit would further draw us and sanctify us. Father, as we see the fear in Peter in the New Testament changed by you.

The one who denied Christ three times, Father, and just a short time later is standing up and boldly proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ before people whom might kill him. Father, we know that that wasn't Peter, that was you changing his heart. And so, Father, this morning our cry, our plea is to draw us that our hearts might be changed, that we might have the boldness of Peter, that God we wouldn't be weighed down by the fears of this world, that we wouldn't live as the Gentiles live, that God, we wouldn't justify why our lives are different than what you have called us to be, that God, we would have the discipline, the strength, The understanding that says, I will live as God has called me to live, for there is no else. Everything else is futile. Father, I pray I ask, awaken us to our futility.

Draw us, Father, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.