Fan Into Flame // 2 Timothy 3 - Nick Serban IV

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  Turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter 3.We've, uh, we've spent the last 3 weeks going through one and 2, uh, but today I am going to attempt to do the entire chapter in one day.Can he do it?Somebody say, "I believe."I've seen people go through this chapter before, and, and literally you're gonna see this entire list of all these negative attributes.I've seen pastors go through and do a sermon off of each one of these things, and there's, like, over 10 of them.I'm not gonna do that today, but I, I really want us to open up our hearts to what the Lord wants to see happen in us.And so, a- a- a- before we get into this, just ask the Holy Spirit to speak to me today.Holy Spirit, speak to me today.E- even if the pastor is saying stupid stuff, Holy Spirit, would you speak to me today?Paul is writing to Timothy, who's overseeing a network of churches in a region called Ephesus.We've covered a little bit of this before, but we've got some guests here today, so I'm gonna bring you up to speed.Ephesus is really synonymous with modern-day America in a lotta different ways.And as we'll see here in scripture, 2,000 years ago were crazy times.Like, like you think that we're living in crazy times now, it was just as crazy back then but in a, a different way.You got people worshiping all these pagan gods and, you know, instead of changing their faith, they end up adding, you know, 5 other gods into their lives, and they're, they're, they're doing all these things.There's unethical things happening in business, and so many different paganistic sacrifices and sexual things that are happening, and it sounds a lot like America today, right?Yes.Y'all are gonna have to talk at me a little bit.All right?We live in crazy times.Like, it's unhinged out here.Like, there's moments where I, I get on social media and I see different posts and different news articles, and I'm like, "Is this real life?Like, is, is this a Babylon Bee post or no?Is this really CNN?Is this really Fox News?Is this really MSNBC?Is this really happening?"Like, have you ever seen something in the world and go, "Am I being punked right now?"Yeah.Anybody?Yes.Let me just list off a couple of funny things that are happening.Like, like, uh, the other day I saw that there's people getting married to AI spouses.Oh my.That's fun, right?There's 3yearolds with iPhones and cats with Instagram accounts.There's lab-grown meat that's shaped into chicken nuggets.Watch out.Yeah.You got news anchors getting bribed by foreign nations to not talk about certain things.Right.We've got AI videos that are so good, it, it's hard to know what's real and what's fake.Some of y'all are probably way better at spotting it than me.But here's what's interesting.None of this has caught God off guard.Right.Yeah.God's not like, "Oh, snap, ChatGPT.Oh my, oh my goodness."Oh, I guess God wouldn't s- he wouldn't say, "Oh my God."He would say, "Oh, myself," you know?"What's going on?"Again, what we're, what we're seeing today shouldn't surprise us because 2,000 years ago, the Apostle Paul warned Timothy about many of the things that we're experiencing today.So I just wanna hit you.The, the goal of today is twofold.1, it's to hit some sobering truths of, of our cultural climate and where we're at, and, and some of y'all are gonna be like, "Yeah, I know.I have an Instagram.I have a TikTok.I get it."But I also wanna present the invitation from Jesus to walk in his ways in times like this.'Cause the first thing I want you toIf you wanna write something down, write this down.It's not on the screen.But write down, "Don't be alarmed.Be alert."Don't be alarmed.Be alert.'Cause in 2 Timothy 3 verse 1 it says, "But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty."Thank you, Sherlock, you know?We live in difficult days.In other words, Paul is, is, is telling Timothy that you're living in the last days.We've been in the last days for 2,000 years now, 'cause we also are living in these last days.A- a- and so we shouldn't be surprised or alarmed when things get more and more difficult.We shouldn't be surprised that Islam is leaking into our cities right now.Can I, can I get a little political?Can I get a littleLet's be real.We shouldn't be surprised that the enemy is coming against the church.We shouldn't be surprised when things start getting pulled back and, and, and the standards are, are high for the church, but the standard's getting lowered for everybody else.Don't be surprised when, when politics are corrupted.Don't be surprised by another pastoral scandal.Don't be surprised.Paul, Paul wants us to, to walk with understanding, and clarity, and sober-mindedness.And then, and then Paul lays out all of these last day things, of how it's gonna look like.And so just, just follow me here for a moment.In 2 Timothy 3:2-5, "For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, dis- Not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure ratherthanlovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power.And what does Paul say?Avoid such people.Don't be surprised when the world looks like this.Don't be deceived when the world looks like this.Paul says, "Avoid these people."Now, now, now can we just agree in the room that, that this passage of scripture looks like our world today?Yeah?Scroll on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook for 5 minutes and you'll be like, "This is checking all the boxes."But again, people have always lived this way.And why is that?We need to remember that we live in a fallen world.Ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin has crept into our world.It's invaded, it's pervaded our world.And this is what life looks like when we live apart from God.But what I wanna really key in on is like the first half of verse 5 when he says, if you could throw it back up there, "Having the appearance of godliness but denying its power."We can see Paul is making a shift here.Paul's not just talking about the world anymore, he's talking about the church.Yeah.Because again, he's, he's speaking to Timothy, who's pastoring a church.And so Paul, Paul's saying, "Hey, this isn't just the world.This is happening within the church."When they have the appearance of godliness, but they're denying the power of God.Again, we shouldn't be surprised that the world is acting like the world, and we're not surprised when children act like children.We're not surprised when the Titans don't win.We're not surprised when cats act like demons.Like, we're not surprised when the world acts like the world.But again, he's addressing Timothy, who's a pastor.He's, he's leading a church full of these, these new Christians, and Paul is talking to Christians.He's talking to Christians who are not living for God.And we have a word for someone who says one thing and lives like another.What do we call that person?Hypocrite.Hypocrite.A hypocrite's someone who pretends to be what they never intend or intended to be.And can I remind you that God hates hypocrisy?As a matter of fact, God called out his own people in the Old Testament through the prophet Isaiah, addressing their false worship.He says this in Isaiah 29.He said, "The Lord said, 'Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me.'" We're giving lip service to God, but our hearts aren't there.God's saying, "I'm not impressed with your worship if it's not from a pure heart."It's not enough for us just to go to church and appear to be Christian.No, God wants pure hearts.Amen?It's gonna get heavy here for a moment.Somebody say, "I can take it."Come on.This is what the gospel and the power of the gospel does in us, the power of God to save all who believe.Romans 1:16, "For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes."You may be saved, but are you letting the gospel purify your life, your desires, purifying your motives, purifying your actions?Because what God creates, Satan counterfeits.Don't settle for a counterfeit version of God's power.Coming to church and then doing nothing with what God is showing you is counterfeit.Listen to me, it is possible, it is possible to say the right things.Man, I just clicked a button and my- I lost all my notes.Maybe the Holy Spirit's like, "Let's roll."It's possible to say the right words, it's possible to go through the motions, and yet deny the very power of God to transform your life.Are you appearing godly or are you being made godly?Is the Holy Spirit still convicting you when you do wrong?Is he guiding you?Is he changing you?Is he challenging your way of life or is it, is he just a handbag, an accessory to your life?Because if we're just maintaining religious habits but not walking in spiritual power, we are playing a very dangerous game.Galatians 5:17, "For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want."Do you feel the conflict?Do you feel the tension, church?There, there, there is a war taking place for our hearts, for our lives.You heard it last week.God wants you to do your best to present yourself to him as an approved worker.He wants you to cleanse yourself of what's dishonorable and lean into what's honorable.Uh, let me just say this again.Don't settle for a counterfeit version of God's power.You believe in the gospel.When, when you first got saved and you first gave your heart to Jesus, church, believe it again every single day.Believe it again that you're saved, set free, forgiven.We, we, we sang about it today.I'm washed clean.I'm changed forever.God spared me.He spared my life.Sometimes I think we, we say saved so much it's lost its meaning, and the Lord just said, "I spared you when you were ready to take your own life.I spared you when you were trying to walk in your own way.I grabbed a hold of you."Some of us in the room, we think we chose God, but no, he chose us.Yeah.He chose us.I just wanna circle back for a moment.How do we ensure that we're not being influenced by hypocrites?'Cause this is what Paul is saying, like, "Hey, avoid such people."What do we do?We avoid them.He's not saying that you can't associate with anyone who's not a Christian because we're called to win the lost.Somebody say amen.Amen.We're on mission for God, but listen, your closest relationships and friendships, they must lead you toward Christ and not away from him.People who don't live for Jesus shouldn't be the leading voices in our lives.We should be the main influence in their lives, not the other way around.The Bible says that bad behavior does what?It corrupts good morals.This is the mindset that we need to have with hypocrites and those that don't follow Christ.I'll witness to you, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna walk with you.The Bible says, "How can 2 walk together except when they agree?"So God wants us to think differently than the culture that's around us.Why?Because if we think differently, we begin to live differently.And Paul, he goes on to explain why we need to remain vigilant in verse 6, "For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth."Always learning, but never finding the truth.Let me just give you some context here.I'm gonna cut this off before some feminist gets wild with this verse.Paul is not bashing women in this verse, okay?He's singling out weak women because in that day, in that cultural context, women were not educated, and they were usually left home alone to take care of the household.I mean, the, the, in that day, kids, they were, at least they were in school and they had adults, like, watching over them, but at home, the women, they were the most vulnerable of the society.Women basically had no rights in those days, and it was easier to actually trap them in false doctrine.The point of this is not to call women weak.It's pointing out the motives of these hypocrites.It's to prey on the weak and the vulnerable.And I can't tell you how many times even today I've seen people in vulnerable places find some new teaching, some new teacher, some new, you know, Instagram post and clips online that start to put them in a tizzy.And it's not just women, it's men too.Something begins to influence them away from the truth of God's word, whether it's influencing them with fear, or passion, or intellectual talk.And this is why we need to guard the influences that are in our lives.Guard your eyes.Guard your ears.And I think many times we're just asleep at the wheel.We get up, we make our coffee, we go to work, we work, we come home, we sit down, we watch TV, we get on our phone, we scroll.We don't think about the implications of what we're digesting on a daily basis, and this is why Paul says to avoid such people, because they're predatory.'Cause y'all, listen, we have an enemy, we have a deceiver doing whatever he can to distract us from following Jesus and destroy us.1 Peter 5:8, "Be alert and of sober mind."There's that be alert again."Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."Sorry I'm smiling, 'cause I wrote something in my notes, and I'm gonna try to do this, and I know you're gonna laugh at me, but it's okay.I remember watching Animal Planet as a kid.Anybody watch Animal Planet?I don't even know if that show's around anymore.Maybe, like, the- the reruns are bought up by somebody.But I remember after school watching the lions, you know, hunting, like, gazelles and wildebeest.You got a pride of- of lions, you know, all gathered around, and the narrator would come on, and it was always a guy with an accent, right?Notice the lions coming together in a herd of wildebeest, stalking and waiting for the herd to panic and run.They're strong and protected when they stand together, but when the herd runs, the slowest of the herd are taken down by the pride of lions.I was trying to go Australian, but that sounded more like British gangster.Okay?I'm sorry.But y'all, but y'all- y'all get it, right?Yeah.Thank you.Who are the slowest wildebeest in the herd?It's usually the young ones.It's usually the- the calves, the babies.And so who are the most vulnerable in our society today?Our kids.We have to guard the influences of our kids like never before.Like- like, they have access to more information and knowledge and data than ever before.They- they also have access to more influences than ever before, and there's an overabundance of data that shows the negative impact of prolonged screen time for our kids.Let me just talk to the parents here for a moment.In 2016, it was studied 79% of teens and 28% of children age 8 to 12 own smartphones, and these teens would receive an average of 192 notifications a day.And the average screen time for teenagers is 7 to 9 hours a day.Obviously, this is gonna lead to some distraction and attention span issues, right?Between 2010 and 2020, teenagers who spent 5 or more hours a day on devices were 71% more likely to have at least one suicide risk factor.Listen to this.Self-harm rates nearly tripled among adolescent girls aged 10 to 14 and doubled among girls aged 15 to 19.Self-harm.Emergency room visits for self-harm increased by 188% for girls and 48% for boys.Suicide rates rose by 167% for girls and 91% for boys since 2010.And it's not any better for college students.Anxiety f- has risen by 134%, depression by 106%, ADHD by 72%, and bipolar disorder by 51%.And all of these things, all of these statistics, you can point and direct to prolonged smartphone usage.Just- just, you know, right?Yeah.Listen, the enemy's mission hasn't changed, only his tactics.Jesus said in John 10 that the enemy came to steal, kill, and destroy.The enemy does not play fair.You know, in war, we have rules of war, but the enemy has no rules that he's gonna follow.Just like God has a plan for your life, the enemy has a plan and a strategy for your life as well.And so parents, we need to remain vigilant and guard our homes against the negative influences of this world.The enemy hunts the vulnerable because they are more likely to be led by the flesh than by the spirit.So fathers, be vigilant.Fathers in the home, step up and lead your homes again.Rise up into the authority that God has called you into.Listen, you're providers, you're prophets, you're priests, and you are protectors.So spend time with your, your children.Teach them, train them, lead in your homes again.Exercise the kingdom authority that God has given you.1 Corinthians 16:3, "Be watchful and be on guard."And let me just take it another step.In my home, it's a kingdom, it's not a democracy.I'm the king.I'm the dictator.They don't get a vote.Sorry, kids, you don't wanna be in my house.I, I, I tell my kids all the time, "This ain't a democracy.It's a dictatorship."And they're like, "What's a democracy?"I'm like, "All right.We need to go watch Tuttle Twins.All right."We don't lead by consensus.We lead by conviction.Notice what happens when we fall prey to these false teachers.Verse 7 is, "We're always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth."What's the truth?It's the gospel.But the tragedy right there, the enemy doesn't care what truth you hear as long as you don't allow that truth to change you.Like for instance, today, you can be a hearer of this word and not allow it to change your life, and not allow there to be action in your life.We need to let the truth set us free.C- Jo- in John 8:32, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."The gospel is in the unearned grace and mercy of God, that Jesus laid down his life for each one of us.He took on all sin and was nailed to a cross so that we could be saved, so that we could be spared from death and hell, so that we could be set free and delivered from sin.But the enemy wants to take us out.He wants to bind us up in chains and go, "You can say you're saved all you want.Just walk around with these chains in your hands.Walk around with these influences in your life."See, the, the enemy, the devil, he's sneaky.He's out here creeping, and he loves to do this one thing.Like, like, the enemy's not gonna come into your life and just start throwing chains over you and start binding you down.What does he do?He just takes one link in the chain and goes, "Here you go.You can have it.It's just, it's just a little negative influence in your life.It's just, it's just a, a little misdirection."And then we take the next link, and the next link.It's subtle because after a while we're so influenced by all of the other voices in our lives, that we find ourselves bound, and we find ourselves making decisions not based on the word of God, but we're making decisions based on what all the other voices in our lives are telling us.Yeah.Social media, again, is full of experts.But, but, but hear me, it makes no sense for us to give our attention a- a- allow these voices and platforms to have influence in our life when we have no relationship with these people.Right.Like, like, let's be real.I- if w- if we take a step back, none of these people truly care because we're out here getting monetized by them.We give them our attention, and then we walk away with more problems, or we walk away a little bit poorer than we were when we started listening.Like, those targeted ads are getting me, man.Period.Like, like, l- let's just be honest, like, you, you watch an ad now, and you know what happen- they, they present to you a problem.And then by the end of it, they're like, "Buy this and it'll fix the problem."And, and I'm like, "I didn't know I had a problem till I watched your video."I didn't know I had a problem in my life until I, I started watching all of your reels and all of your content.A- at first it was entertaining and it was cool, but now I'm like, oh my gosh, my life is falling apart.I have so many things to worry about.But before I started engaging in this, I was free.'Cause here's what I love about my God.He's not selling nothing.Imagine Jesus, like, healing you, and then He goes, "That'll be $7,500 for your out-of-network coverage."Yeah.Come on.Jesus doesn't say, "Come follow me, like and subscribe."Jesus doesn't have any problems for me.He is the solution.And, and let me just hit you with this.Jesus, when He come, when He, when He came, and when He comes into our lives, He doesn't say, "You're the problem."He says, "Sin is the problem."Jesus came to beat down on sin.He came to set the captives free, and that is the influence that I want in my life, that I can walk in freedom from sin and have relationship with Jesus that keeps transforming my mind, my heart, my actions, my life.And, and, and, and all of that, you, you've gotta be connected to God.You've gotta be connected to godly people and godly influences in your life.And, and that's why I love this church.That's why I love that we get to be the church, the body of Christ, and it's this body that we can be influenced by.Yeah.It's this body that the truth of the gospel can influence us and allow us to influence the world around us.Let me just, let me hit you with this.Many of you know this verse.It's Romans 12:2.It says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."I don't have this up on the screen, but I, I love this, this sort of paraphrase that I found in one of my commentaries.It says, "Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit in without even thinking.Instead, fix your attention on God, and you'll be changed from the inside out.Recognize what He wants from you and quickly respond."This is discernment through Christ.We shouldItThat, that, that discernment should lead us to obedient living and maturity in our faith.Unlike the culture around you, which is always burdening us with problems and dragging us down to this level of immaturity, maturity in Christ is the only way that we're going to survive.I love this, because in verse 8 it goes, "Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith."Who, who, who are these guys?Sorcerers.They're sorcerers who were under the leadership of Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus.When Moses came to Pharaoh and said, "Let my people go," right?Pharaoh's like, "Nope, not gonna happen."And so, so Moses then gets with God, and God sends these 10 different plagues, and the sorcerers attempted to replicate these plagues with witchcraft.And that's what ungodly influences do.That's why they never learn the truth, because they oppose the truth.And let me just, just show you really quick how many ungodly influences will twist godly things.This is, this was, this only took me about 10 minutes going through my Instagram feed, okay?You're feeling the way you're feeling because you're just on a different level than everyone else.Sounds good.You're the way you are because of your narcissistic parents.Hey, you should be afraid.You should be suspicious of the government.Your spouse doesn't do this for you?Are you sure they're your soulmate?You should feel justified in your anger or bitterness, because what they did was wrong.And sometimes to fight the hate, you need to use violence.You need to run from the church, because the church shouldn't be this way.They're all hypocrites.I'll show you what's actually healthy and spiritually good for your life.Buy my class online and join my pyramid scheme to learn how.I'm just here to entertain you.I'm just an entertainer.I just wanna make you laugh with all my opinions.We should all just laugh and be kind to everyone, except Christians.They deserve to be made fun of.They're corrupted in their mind, and they've got these ungodly agendas to bring division, to bring corruption.Why would we entrust our spiritual formation to people who are spiritually disqualified from leading us?Like, you wouldn't fly on a plane with a pilot who was disqualified from flying from an airline.You wouldn't get into an Uber driver, a j- Uber driver's car that didn't know your name.This is my life I'm putting in your hands.But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain for all to see, as was that of those 2 men.L- so listen, everybody will see hypocrites for the fools that they are.They will be exposed.'Cause here's, here's what's wild.There were 10 plagues, and then the, the sorcerers were only able to replicate 2 of them, turning water into blood and making some frogs go wild.That's a 20% success rate.Would you trust a doctor who kept 20% of their patients alive?It sounds like a Netflix show, right?Are you a doctor or a serial killer?Let me just pause because I, I, I sense this in the room, and I, and I, I already prepared my heart for this moment.'Cause you may be thinking, "Pastor Nick, this is challenging, but I'm, I'm a little shook because I'm hearing where Paul describes the world, and he's describing hypocrites, and I might be engaging in one of those areas in my life.A lover of self, a lover of money, prideful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to my parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lover of pleasure and comfort, and not a lover of God, having the appearanceofgodliness but d- denying its, God's power.And I know Paul said that I need to flee from my youthful passions.I need to flee from these fleshly things a- and avoid this foolish way of living, but I'm afraid that that would mean that people should avoid me because I'm guilty."Right?If we're honest with ourselves.If we're honest with ourselves, this, this whole group of verses exposes us a little bit.'Cause let me read the rest of 2 Timothy 3.In verse 10, I love this, it says, "You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch and Iconium and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured.Yet from them all the Lord rescued me.Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.But as for you," as for you, church, here in this room, "continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for repu- reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."Somebody say amen.There's an invitation here, church, to follow the way of Jesus.God breathed truth and direction for us, faith, patience, love, and enduring through suffering.We may feel exposed a little bit by this.We feel vulnerable.We feel like we don't want people to see that we may be hypocrites in one or more areas in our faith.This is a safe place, guys.I love you all so much, and I have wept this week over this passage in scripture.Because there's an invitation here from the Holy Spirit, 'cause if we look back into Genesis when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, what happened?They recognized that they were naked, and they hid themselves.They covered themselves, and then God comes into the garden and says, "Where are you?"Why would the omnipresent, omniscient God ask, "Where are you?"He knows exactly where you are.He knows exactly where I am, and yet he still invites us to say, "I'm here, Lord."Church, where are you today with this?He wants us to come out into the light.He wants to be invited in to search our hearts, 'cause the Holy Spirit is the great light in our life, illuminating the areas of our hearts that need to be transformed.Psalm 139 says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart.Try me and know my thoughts and see if there is any grievous way in me, and lead me into the way everlasting."Holy Spirit, would you shine a light on my heart and expose what you want transformed?Search me.Search my heart.Church, there is a war that is going on for our hearts today, for our lives, for our attention, and some of us need to get real with Jesus and let him fully invade our lives.this isI knew that I had to talk on this because sometimes Amazon ships things to your house that you never ordered.I got this from Amazon.I didn't order it.That's kinda creepy, yeah.Now I've got a new flashlight for when I go deer hunting, but I think the Lord wanted me to use this today because I'm not gonna shine it in your face when I do this, but just look up there in the corner.bright.It, it gets really bright.Nice.Yeah, like, I can, I can spread it out or I can target it in, right?Wow.I think sometimes we can get to a place where we, we read scripture like this and we go, "Oh, that light, you know, it's just shining on everybody, right?But it's not gonna laser point in on me."Unless we say to the Lord, "I'm right here."'Cause we can take this word and just goSorry, I'm, I'm shining it in your eyes.It's not good.We can take this word and go, "Oh, not me, Lord.Not me."But what if we just said, "Lord, Holy Spirit, fully invade my heart.Shine a light."John 16:8, "When he comes, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment."Worship team, you can come.And we can live distracted lives.We can choose to constantly be reacting to all the things that life is throwing at us.We can react to, you know, all the consequences of our unchanged hearts, or we can say, "God in heaven.God in heaven.Jesus Christ, I'm here.Lord, take my heart."Wow.come on, and squeeze out every bit of pride.Squeeze out every drop of complacency.I want to be free of this, Lord.I want to be free of my arrogance.I want to be free of this, of this anger and, and rage that I may be walking in.Expose every part of my life that is not of you.Bring it into the light.I want to be fully alive in you because who the Son sets free is free indeed."I feel captive.It's okay to admit that.Right.It's okay to say, "Lord, I'm struggling in this area."Don't allow your pride to keep you from him.Lord, take my heart and make me new.Purify me.Wash me clean.That I wouldn't call you Lord and then have my heart far from you.I don't want faith that just remains in my mind, I want a faith that transforms my heart and life.Are you getting the message today, Church?The first step is letting the Holy Spirit shine the light on us, that we'd shine the light on our hearts because some of us here in this room, if we don't let the Holy Spirit expose us, we're gonna get exposed in other ways.Holy Spirit, we need your light today.Lord, I don't want to be exposed as a hypocrite.I want to be exposed by your Holy Spirit.Ephesians 5, "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.Therefore," it says, "awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."1 John 1:7, "But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin."The Word of God has a way of shining light in the places that we'd rather keep hidden.And if you've ever read the Word of God, if you've ever heard a sermon preached and all of a sudden you feel convicted, that's not judgment.That's the Holy Spirit inviting you into repentance.And if you sense the conviction of the Holy Spirit, it's an invitation to return to God.I, I worked on this this last week, and I don't know if you can throw that slide up, Eric, with the QR code.I went through and realized that there was a invitation in each one of these areas, these sinful areas that Paul is describing.I'll let you scan it here in a moment.Let me just show you what it is.Go, go to the next slide.If you're a lover of self, the invitation is into self-denial and Christ-centeredness.And so the question that I would ask for you today if you're, if you feel like you've been a lover of self is: Where has my life become too much about me?Ask the Holy Spirit.If you're a lover of, of money, the invitation is into generosity.And ask, "What am I expecting money or possessions to give me that only God can provide?"There's an invitation.If you're dealing with pride, the invitation is humility.Where has pride made it difficult for me to admit that I'm wrong, weak, or in need of grace?I- I- if you're arrogant, consider others above yourself and ask, "Where have I begun to see myself as more important, more deserving, or more significant than someone else?"These are questions that we can ask ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to, to speak to us in.If you're abusive or disobedient or ungrateful, there's all of these questions and invitations.Go to the next slide.There's a lot of them.Unholy to holiness, heartless to compassion, unappeasable to reconciliation.I love the unappeasable one.Is there anyone that I've decided that I will never forgive or reconcile with or pursue peace with, no matter what?If I've been slanderous, begin to walk in gracious speech and truthfulness.If I'm not loving good, we need to start loving what God calls good.Go to the next slide.Treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power.I love this.If we want genuine transformation, we can ask this question: Where do I look more like Jesus publicly than I actually live like Jesus privately?Go back to the QR.There's scripture to go with each one of these, and this is just something I want to give to everyone here today.You can take out your phone, you can scan it, and maybe take a moment this week, take a moment today, to ask these questions in prayer and allow the Holy SpiritYeah, let me get out of your way.Allow the Holy Spirit to move in your life.