camelot is burning: c ontrolled burn… ·...

Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

Transcript November 28/29, 2015

Camelot is Burning: Controlled Burn Matt Hessel | Matthew 18:7-9; Hebrews 4:14

Well how’s everyone doing? You guys doing well, alright. It’s good to see you. Hey, if you’re a guest we just want to say welcome. I’m glad that you are here. My name is Matt. I’m one of the pastors here. Let me invite you to take an opportunity to stop by Connection Central on your way out today. It’s really the first step here at Traders Point. So, if today is day one for you to be here and you want to get some more information about the church or ask any questions, I encourage you to stop by Connection Central in the lobby on your way out. There are some people there who would love to talk to you and give you any information that you need and show you around this place. And even if this is not your first time, if you’ve been coming for a while and it’s time to take that next step and get plugged in here, Connection Central is the place for you to go. So take some time and stop by on your way out. Also, if you’ve been here for a while, you know the deal with this. If you’re a guest or if you’ve been here for 50 years, take some time this morning to fill out a Communicate Card located in the seat back in front of you. It’s a great way for you to tell us who you are, what’s going on, and ask any questions that you might have. And most importantly, let us know how we can be praying for you. We all need prayer. I covet it when people pray for me. So don’t leave here today without that. Fill out a Communicate Card. You can drop it in one of those silver boxes on your way out today. Well, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is personally my favorite along with the 4th of July because you’ve got food, football, and just blowing stuff up. God bless America. Let me ask you a question. This is a good indication of where we are at right now as a church. How many of you put up your Christmas tree and decorations this weekend? Okay, alright. Now, how many of you put Christmas stuff up before Thanksgiving? Okay, see that’s what I was afraid of. I hope you realize that putting up Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving is actually listed in Genesis 3 as a part of the fall. You know that, right? Why do we always have to overshadow Thanksgiving? I’m just disappointed that’s where we are at as a church. Anyway, today we’re in part two of our series Camelot is Burning and just another indication that Camelot is burning is premature Christmas decorations. So, thanks guys. I don’t know why I’m really passionate about this. You can pray for me. Aaron said last week that the title Camelot is Burning screams Merry Christmas, doesn’t it? But this series is not about the negative. It’s not supposed to depress us. It’s not supposed to shame us. Actually, it’s the opposite. We can’t just throw our hands up in the air and say, “You know what? Everything is going to hell in a hand-‐basket,” with a defeatist attitude. That doesn’t do anyone any good. Even if parts of our lives are burning or things around us are burning it doesn’t mean we quit. It certainly doesn’t mean that we don’t have any hope either.

Camelot is Burning: Controlled Burn November 28/29, 2015

Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 2

On the flip side of the coin, we can’t take on a mentality of ignorance either. We can’t walk around with rose-‐colored glasses on all of the time while singing the Everything is Awesome song. You want me to sing it right now, don’t you? Be careful. That stuff will get stuck in your head. We’ve got to be real. We’ve got to look at what is really going on in our lives, and our homes, and our church to see where we really are. Where are you with the Lord? Are you growing in your relationship with Jesus or have you stalled? Why? What’s going on in the home? Are we living intentionally? Or are we just setting things on cruise control? Maybe things are falling apart at the seams. Here’s what we’re getting after. It’s a problem if aspects of our lives are burning but it’s a much greater problem if we ignore it. We live in a culture that wants to create utopia, right? We want to build Camelot. And whether we realize or not we focus on building Camelot because if that happens, if we can build Camelot, and live in our castles—whatever that is for you—then everything will be better. Then we’ll finally be satisfied. Then we’ll finally be content. Then life will be the way it was supposed to be and we can be happy. What we’re trying to do when we’re trying to build Camelot is that we’re really trying to build heaven. That’s what we’re trying to do. But we all know that we can’t build heaven. We can’t build Camelot. We can’t walk around and say, “You know what? Everything is great. No, we’ve got to look at where we’re really at and be honest enough to say, “Yeah, this aspect of my life is burning.” Or, “I’m not really intentional in this particular area.” What will it cost us if we’re not? If we don’t acknowledge the flames, if we’re not real about what’s going on in our lives, our homes, and around us it’s going to cost us more than we can afford. So let me give you permission, in this series you have permission to be real. I want to encourage you to be real. Be real about what’s going on in your life, what’s going on in your home, what’s going on around you because whenever we face reality that’s when growth starts, that’s when healing starts, that’s when intentional mission starts, and that’s also where hope can thrive. Hope is attached to a very real promise, not a manufactured illusion. That’s what this series is about. So, if you’ve got a Bible open it up to Matthew 18. Matthew, chapter 18 is where we’re going to hang out today. My brother-‐in-‐law is a forest fire fighter in southwest Utah. He leads a crew that gets sent all over the country to fight forest fires. Sometimes his crew is gone for weeks at a time. One of the things that they do is they actually fight fire on the ground. That’s what you think at first. That all they do is fight fire on the ground. They call in big air strikes from the tankers—the big planes and the helicopters that come drop water on the fire. But they actually do quite a bit more than that. They also do protection and prevention. Part of his job is to protect the landscape and prevent a catastrophic fire from happening. The last time that I was out there we were driving to the Grand Canyon and we passed this area that looked like it had just recently been in a fire. So I asked my brother-‐in-‐law, “Hey, Jeremy. Did you and your crew get put on this fire? If you did, what happened? Tell me how it started, what did you guys do to put it out, how long did it take? Tell me the story.” He said, “Actually we started this fire.” Now I’m confused, “You’re a forest fire fighter. Your job is to prevent the forest from going up in flames not expedite the process. Do you know what would happen if Smokey the Bear found out about this? It’s not going to go well for you.”



So he explained that one of the things that they do to protect and to prevent a massive fire like the ones we see on the news is that they do something called a controlled burn. They do a controlled burn. What they’ll do is that they’ll go into an area and they’ll slowly burn it to get rid of excess brush, low hanging limbs, any excess growth that could take a natural fire from being a part of nature’s pruning to being overwhelmingly destructive. Basically, they go in and burn something as a means of protection. Then he told me about this study that he did. He went to Arizona and conducted a study to see what would happen, how much prevention they would get if they did a controlled burn at each level. Here’s what they found. He said if they didn’t do any kind of controlled burn—if no protection and no prevention was taken—in that area there would be a 98 percent fatality rate if the fire hit; 98 percent. So if nothing is done, no prevention, no protection there would be catastrophic damage when a fire comes—not if, when it comes. When I heard that, the concept of a controlled burn made complete sense. It made complete sense to get rid of the fuel, anything extra that could take a fire and let it get out of control. Why would you not want to do that? Nobody wants to see a forest go up in flames. Nobody wants to see a 98 percent mortality rate. Nobody wants to see that. Nobody wants to see people’s homes get destroyed by an out-‐of-‐control fire that just rages over hundreds of square miles. Can all of that be prevented? We’ve seen those fires on the news. But do they have to destroy that much? Camelot is burning but does it have to? Can it be prevented? Should we just come to expect that some facets of our life are just going to go up in flames? Can we just assume that? And when we talk about our own Camelot burning, when parts of our lives: our family, our relationships, our homes, people around us go up in flames, usually we take the reactive role, “Okay, how do I put out the fire? What do I do to stop this? How can I fix things? How can I make things better?” We play the reactive role. We should do that. Those are great questions to ask. We should react to fire. We’d be fools if we didn’t. But what about being proactive? Can we protect ourselves? Can we protect our spouses? Can we protect our kids? Can we protect our friends? Can we protect the people around us from the damage of a potentially catastrophic fire? Can we do our own, personal controlled burn? Well, according to Jesus the answer is a resounding, “Yes!” Jesus introduces the concept of a controlled burn in Matthew 18. Look at verse 7. Jesus says, “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.” Pretty intense—here’s what Jesus is getting at. Temptation is not sin. It’s not. You’ve been tempted, that’s not sin. What He’s saying is that indifference to temptation—that can be catastrophic. Here’s the bottom line temptation, left unchecked, will burn your house down. Temptation is going to come. That’s a promise. We can expect it. It’s going to come at you every day of your life in different ways. It’s the spark that can start a fire. But a spark can only start a fire if it has something to burn. The good news is that we have a God who’s not indifferent to this. He’s not foreign to the concept of temptation. Jesus is not sitting on His throne saying, “Man, that temptation thing, that’s a raw deal. I



don’t know how you guys deal with that. Holy Spirit, I’m really glad that I don’t have to worry about that. That’s great.” That’s not what Jesus is saying. Not at all. Here’s what Hebrews 4:14 says about that. It says, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” So how are you, personally, being tempted? What’s tempting you right now? Are you being tempted by pride? Everyone in this room should answer, “Yes.” How about greed, envy, power, sexually? It’s kind of weird to think about Jesus being tempted in those ways but, according to Hebrews, He was tempted in every way, every way that you and I are and the reason is so that He can look at you and He can look at me and say, “Hey, you’re being tempted in that way? That’s temptation for you? I know how that is. I’ve been there. I know what that’s like.” He can relate with us. He can sympathize in our weakness. Verse 16 says this. This is one of my favorite verses in Scripture, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Where are you struggling right now? Wherever we’re being tempted, that verse says that we can run to the throne of grace with confidence and ask for the mercy and the grace to help with whatever temptation we’re facing and we can expect to get it. That’s good news. That’s a promise of hope. And since Jesus was tempted in every single way that you and I are, yet was without sin, it would probably be a really good idea for us to listen to what He has to say about temptation and how to handle it. That’s what He is getting at in Matthew 18. So last week we talked about how what is going on in the world is a direct result of what is or isn’t happening in the home. Today we’re going to build on that. Whatever is or isn’t happening in the home is a direct result of what is or isn’t happening with us as individuals. As individuals, how do we protect ourselves from the fire that temptation brings? The answer is a controlled burn. Do whatever is necessary to get rid of unnecessary temptation. That answer is very simple but the execution is going to be hard. It’s going to be hard. And depending upon where you are it might even seem a little drastic. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. That’s drastic. If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. That’s really intense—heavy. I can tell by the looks on some of your faces right now. Do me a favor. Take a deep breath. It’s okay. Please don’t literally go and cut off your hands today. Don’t do that but have the same seriousness about confronting your own temptation. Maybe for you it’s an iPhone or your computer at home. You struggle with looking at images. If that’s the case, get rid of the iPhone. Get rid of the computer. It’s alright if you have to rock an old-‐school flip phone. Maybe for you it’s a gossip oriented friendship. Whenever you get together with a particular person the conversation always seems to go back to gossip in some way or fashion. If that’s the case, stop spending time with that person. Maybe for you it’s bad stewardship of your finances. If that’s the case, cancel your credit cards and get rid of Amazon Prime. That’s a really nervous laugh, guys. Think I struck a chord right there. Maybe for



you it’s envy or comparison. If that’s the case, get off of Facebook, and Instagram, and social media, and Pinterest. Just get rid of them. Whatever it is for you—what is it for you right now? What is it that is tempting you? What’s your temptation? Even if it’s a good thing. Okay, now I hear what you’re saying, “But that seems kind of drastic.” Is it? According to Jesus it’s not. Jesus says that it’s better for you to get rid of those things, even if they are good things, get rid of them because it’s much better for you to pitch them than to be totally consumed by fire. As Christians we’ve got to be serious about confronting our own personal sin and confronting temptation, especially unnecessary temptation. And the action here is not passive repentance either. It’s not, “Okay, Lord. I’m going to get rid of these three fingers but I’m going to keep my pinky and my thumb.” It’s not gradual either, “Okay, God. I’m going to get rid of my left hand this week. Next week I’ll get rid of my right hand or maybe the week after, then I’ll get rid of it.” No, according to Jesus, it’s immediate and it’s decisive. We don’t mess around with personal sin and temptation. We don’t try to make personal sin and temptation better. No, we drag it out into the street and we burn it. The Puritan, John Owens, said this. He said, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” Let me give you an example. The Titanic was the first of its kind when it came to ship building. Everyone knows that. In 1912 it was enormous, but that wasn’t its claim to fame at the time. Its claim to fame at the time was that it was unsinkable. And the reason that it was believed to be unsinkable was because it had a first-‐of-‐a-‐kind hull design. Up until that point in ship building the hull of the ship, which is the bottom part of the ship underneath the waterline, was an entirely open, empty space. So if there was an opening in the hull the whole thing would fill with water and the ship would sink. The Titanic was the first ship that compartmentalized the hull. It was sectioned off and the theory was that if there was a hole then only one compartment would fill with water and the ship could stay afloat. It was an interesting theory. Some brilliant engineers came up with that. How did it end up working out? First compartment filled with water. It spilled over into the next compartment, and then into the next compartment, and then into the compartment after that until the ship sank. Here’s the bottom line. A hole in a boat is a hole in a boat. And just like water, you can’t compartmentalize fire. Fire is not going to say, “Hey, I’m going to burn three rooms of your house but not these two. I’m going to burn this particular section of the forest, but not this one over here. Just like fire, sin will burn until there is nothing left. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can control sin and the damages it cause. The effects are not just limited to you as an individual. A thriving home starts with personal holiness. So if you’re growing in your relationship with Jesus, if you’re bearing fruit, then the people in your home who are closest to you—they’re going to be the ones who are going to enjoy that fruit the most, and first. So for me if I’m growing in patience, and kindness, and gentleness then for me, particularly, Kelly and my kids are the ones who are going to benefit from that the most.



The opposite of that is also true. If you’re burning then the people in your home and the people who are closest to you are going to get burned. Sin may be personal but it always has public effects. Always. My brother-‐in-‐law told me about a particular fire that he got called to in Utah. He said that what happened was that a guy was burning leaves in his back yard. Here’s what he did. He was burning leaves in his back yard during fire season on a windy day and he didn’t have any water around him. Not a smart move. What happened was that the wind picked up, the fire got out of control, and it ended up burning this guy’s house down and it burned his neighbor’s house down as well. Sin always has public effects. If you throw a rock into a pond it’s going to have ripples, right? Even if it’s just a little pebble there are going to be ripple effects and they’re going to go much farther than you could ever imagine. Sin always has public effects. The way that we protect others from the fire is by protecting ourselves. If you protect yourself from the fire that temptation creates then you protect your home, you protect your family, you protect your friends. You even protect the mission. So we have two options. The first option is we can either cause the temptation. Jesus says in verse 7, “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!” Translated—you really don’t want to be the person who starts the sin for someone else. Then He says this in verse 6, “…but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,” little ones are not just kids, that means anyone who is less mature in their faith. There is no age attachment to little ones here, “…but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Happy Thanksgiving. Let me be really transparent with you. I don’t want to go over this. Verses like these, they are not fun to preach. They’re just not. I would much rather go to Exodus 3 and 4, or Colossians 1 right now. Those are some of my favorite passages. But we have to be serious about confronting our own sin and whether or not we are throwing temptation at someone else’s back yard. Yeah, this passage is a warning but that’s not what it’s really about. This is all about protection. That’s what this is about. Jesus came to save and redeem, which He did. He came to save and redeem but He also came to protect us. If my oldest son, Sawyer, if he rides his bike in the street, as his father I know that eventually he’s going to get hit by a car. It’s going to happen. So, as his father, I’m going to do everything that I can to protect him. The reason that I’m going to do everything I can do to protect him is simply because I love him. I love my son. So, I’m going to create rules for riding his bike. I’m going to tell him, maybe very bluntly with graphic details about how a car always wins against a five-‐year-‐old boy. I’m going to tell him that there will be



consequences and discipline if he does go into the street. I might even go to the point where I get rid of his bike altogether. Why am I doing that? If I do those things, what’s my motivation? It’s to protect him, right? That’s exactly what Jesus is doing here. He’s trying to protect us. Yeah, this passage might seem intense and come across as drastic. It may even seem a little harsh. But don’t miss the point here. This is God displaying His love for us. And the way He’s displaying His love for you and me in this passage is by protection. And if, God forbid, Sawyer does get hit by a car, who do you think is going to be the person to scoop him up in his arms? Who do you think is going to be the first person to wipe the blood off of him? Who do you think is going to be the first person to wrap his wounds so that they heal? Who’s not going to stand over him and say, “See, I told you. You just screwed up.”? Who’s not going to do that? But who’s simply going to try to save and redeem him? I am because I’m his father and I love him. That’s exactly what Jesus is doing. That’s exactly what Jesus has already done and what He will continue to do. He’s trying to protect us and even if we screw up and fall—in fact when we screw up and fall—He’s not going to condemn us. He’s simply going to pick us up and wipe the blood off. That’s what a loving father does. A loving father protects and a loving father saves. That’s exactly what He is doing here. He’s trying to protect us from what temptation will bring because temptation leads to sin and sin always, always, always promises pleasure but it will only deliver pain. That’s what He is trying to protect us from. And then the cross is His eternal protection for us from the eternal effects of sin. That’s what it’s all about. So, we can let our house burn down, and we can let it take our neighbor’s house with it, and we can be the cause of temptation in someone’s life, or; here’s the second option. We can protect other people. And when we think about protecting others in this kind of scenario, we really just think about pointing out the car that is coming, right? We think about pointing out the problems, and temptations, and sin in someone else’s life. That’s usually where our minds go. At least that’s where mine goes. That’s not what Jesus has in mind here. No the model right here is this. You protect others from the fire by protecting yourself from the temptation that starts the fire. That’s the model. Let me talk to the guys just for a second. Guys, this is how we’re wired, right? We want to protect. We want to do that for other people. We all want to storm the beaches of Normandy to protect our buddies, to protect our country, and our loved ones back home. We all want to put on the blue face paint and give the freedom speech. We want to take on three guys at one time who have insulted our wives and our kids, in slow motion, while the theme song from The Last of the Mohicans is playing in the background. That’s a really specific example. I have no idea where I got that. Out of thin air—don’t act like you haven’t had that daydream too. We want to protect people. The good news is that the gospel calls us to protect. It does. But you can’t protect anyone else if you can’t protect yourself. You want to protect your wives, your kids, your friends—you start by protecting yourself from the temptation and the fire that that brings. Single ladies; let me say something to you. If you find a guy who says he wants to protect you—that’s awesome. That’s great. He should. But protection is more than just physical. It’s also mental, emotional,



and spiritual. But know this. If he can’t protect himself from falling into temptation, he won’t be able to protect you either. So, save yourself the pain. Protecting others is also how we protect the mission. So, if someone’s house is burning we don’t just look at it and say, “Okay, it’s burning.” We also don’t talk about it in a form of gossip under the disguise of a prayer request at Life Group, “I’d really like to pray for Lisa because she did that, she said this, or she thinks that about herself.” Don’t do that. That’s not what we do. If someone’s house is burning we also don’t look at it and just say, “Hey, your house is burning.” No, if you really love them throw your hood up, put your head down, and run into the burning house and pull them out. That’s what we’re called to do. Christians don’t play with fire but we’re not afraid to smell like ash. Contrary to popular opinion, Jesus didn’t smell like a Christmas cookie scented candle. No, He smelled a little bit like ash because He was with sinners. He was with people whose Camelot was burning. He was saving sinners. This church should always smell a little bit like ash. The second we’ve got it all put together and when the smell of ash is gone from here that’s the second we cease to be on mission. Every time we’ve done a spontaneous baptism service on Easter, if you are back in the tank you can always smell a slight hint of liquor and stuff that’s legal in other states but not legal here. I’m going to be honest with you, I love that. That’s the way it should be. Are sinners welcome here? Because if they’re not welcome her, I’m not welcome here. And we can be certain that Jesus wouldn’t be spending His time here too. We can be certain of that. Here’s what we have to be careful of as a church. We can’t project the image of Camelot. We can’t make it look like this place is Camelot. If we do, then people with a burning Camelot won’t feel like they belong here. I’ve heard this said too many times, “I don’t belong there. If I ever showed up in church lightening would strike me as soon as I walked in.” Maybe you have said that yourself. I know that’s usually said with tongue in cheek, but there’s always a hint of truth sprinkled into that statement. It pains me to hear that because if lightening would strike you for being here, it certainly would strike me. It pains me because you don’t know that the truth is that you do belong here, even if you don’t believe yet. You belong here if you’ve got your life together or everything is a mess. Jesus is for saints and He’s for sinners. He needs both and He wants both. Here’s the question that we’ve got to ask ourselves. In our lives, in our homes, in our church have we created any obstacles that would prevent people from being introduced to Jesus? We’ve got to ask that question. So in here we want things to be nice, not to give the image of Camelot but to remove barriers. We want the building to be nice. Not to wow, not to impress, not at all—but simply to make people comfortable and welcome. We want to sell-‐out in worship, not to give the impression of a concert or performance. Not at all, far from it—but first and foremost to glorify the Lord and then second to give people a glimpse of what worship in heaven is going to be like.



Everything in the church and everything in the home should be completely intentional. We can remove barriers. We can make others feel welcome. We can do that but if we’re not careful with temptation, if we allow fires to start in our own lives, if we’re not open and honest about our failures and then our repentance, then none of this will feel authentic. If we’re not humble and transparent, if we’re not serious about confronting temptation, if we’re not generous in giving each other grace and forgiveness, if we’re not open and honest about repentance and pursuing it then everything in here will say to everyone out there that this is the perfect church with the perfect environment, with the perfect people who have perfect lives. And their response is, “I don’t belong there because I’m not perfect and my imperfection would stand out in the middle of all of their perfection.” That just seems a little extreme. Is it? Because I’ve heard things like that before and what’s truly terrifying about that is that people can assume that Jesus is only for the perfect, “Lightening would strike if I went there.” Few things hinder the mission of the gospel like the manufactured image of the perfect church, or perfect people. We’ve got to be careful. We’ve got to be really careful. It’s the same thing in our homes, and in our lives. Are we projecting Camelot? Because if we are then all we are doing is making ourselves unreal and unapproachable. That’s all that we’re accomplishing. If we try to give this image that everything is picture perfect, we are Camelot, then all we are doing is hurting ourselves, our mission, and putting on masks. We won’t be able to be on mission at that point. So let’s be real. Let’s be real about our struggles, let’s be real about our short-‐comings and because of that let’s all be real about how we put our hope and faith in Jesus Christ and His grace and truth. We cannot build Camelot but we can certainly point people to the one that is coming. That’s what our hope is in. Not in the work of our hands, but in the work of Jesus. I’ve heard is said like this before: Christian hope is imagining God’s future promise in the present. And that hope is for all whether you’ve got your stuff together or whether your life is burned to the ground. It’s for all of us. What do we do if that is the case? It’s one thing to do a controlled burn and get rid of temptation but what if the fire has already started? Aspects of my life are already on fire, what do I do now? How do I put out the fire? In Acts 3, Peter is talking to a group of people who denied and killed Jesus. He’s talking about the fire that they started. That’s a pretty big fire. And then in verse 19 he says this, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord…” Here’s what we can take from that. If sin is the fire, repentance is the water. We need to address the elephant in the room that may be here for some of us. Whenever you hear the word repentance maybe that’s like hearing somebody scraping nails down the side of a chalkboard because you were just beat over the head with it. Repentance was used like a billy club and all you ever heard was somebody ordering you to do that. Maybe you think that Christians use it as a way to shame other people. I get it. Unfortunately, there is baggage attached to the word repent but I promise you that’s not because of God and it’s not because of His Word. It’s because somebody else abused it. Repentance was never intended to frustrate or shame. No, it’s the opposite. It’s intended as a gift. Verse 19 attached



refreshment to repentance—not pain. If you put out a fire you’re going to feel a sense of peace and relief, right? Not disappointment that you had to dump water on it. Repentance is not just saying, “I’m sorry.” It’s not just asking for forgiveness. There is forgiveness attached whenever we repent throughout Scripture, I promise. Let me try to frame up what Biblical repentance is as clearly as I can. There are three parts. There are three “C”s. Number one: Confession. Confession. Un-‐confessed sin is like running away from healing. The Book of James says that whenever we confess our sins we will be healed. Here’s what confession is not. It’s not you setting up a time with me or one of the other pastors and just dumping all of your sin on the table. Please don’t do that. It’s not you finding the person closest to you and saying, “Hey, can we get together for coffee tomorrow. I’m going to start confessing my sin starting from when I was 8. We’ll get through my 20s and the next day we’ll start in my 30s.” That person will never go to coffee with you again. I promise. Here’s what confession is. It’s first acknowledging your sin to God. It’s not because He doesn’t know about it. God knows about all of our sins. Psalm 19 says that God even knows the secret sins of our heart and is willing and able to forgive even those. Whenever we acknowledge and confess our sin before the Lord, it’s an act of humility. And whenever we humble ourselves before the Lord, even if it is hard, I promise you that that will always go well for you. Always. I wish we had time to get into it today. Go home today and read Psalm 32. See what that has to say about confession and how much of a gift it actually is. Confession also might mean that you need to confess sin to somebody whom you sinned against. And the reason that you do that is simply to try to reconcile, or at least attempt reconciliation. That’s confession. Here’s the second part: Contrition. Repentance is fundamentally more about the heart’s attitude toward sin that it actually is a change of behavior. So, am I broken by my own sin? Do I hate it? Do I war against it? Or do I cherish it? Maybe even defend it. If your heart is not broken by your own sin, I want to encourage you to go ask the Lord to break your heart by your own sin. That’s something that’s very scary and private but I promise you that that will be a gift to you. Here’s number three: Change. It’s change and turning to Jesus. We only have two ways that we can go. This is for all mankind. We can go toward Christ or we can go toward sin. There’s no other option. When we fall and we go toward sin, repentance is simply turning around and running back to Jesus. That’s what the word means, turning back. Repentance is brokenness by sin, confession, and then turning around and running to Jesus. And then verse 19 says, “…turn again,” key word again. This is not a one-‐time act. It’s a lifestyle. Here’s what Biblical repentance really is. It’s a lifestyle. Repentance is repeated refreshment, not repeated shame. That sounds pretty good. I’ll take repeated refreshment. I’m all in. If you’re not a Christian, if you don’t know the grace that Jesus is offering you, it doesn’t matter how many fires you have going on now, and it doesn’t matter how much damage the fire has caused you or other people, that same gift, that same refreshment is yours right now, if you want it. It’s yours.



I want you to know something. This is for everyone, whether you don’t know Christ or you’ve been following Jesus for 50 years. This is something you may have to preach to yourself often. Know this. The power of the cross is far greater than the power of your past. Far greater. You are not too far gone. You’re not out of the reach of grace. You’re not too far gone and too damaged that He can’t reach you. If He couldn’t He wouldn’t be God. Camelot might be burning but Jesus can put out any fire. So Traders Point, let’s be real, let’s be serious about confronting our own personal sin and the temptation that’s in our lives. But we can’t condemn other people for theirs. Yes, we can warn people about the fire, and we should. If we don’t then we don’t really love them. Our passion should be about pointing people to the water and the Camelot that is coming. That’s what our passion should be. Let’s not try to project an image of perfection—we are not picture-‐perfect people, with the picture-‐perfect lives, with the picture-‐perfect homes. That’s not getting anyone anywhere. But let’s be real. Let’s invite people in. Let people see the fires that we might have so that they can help pull us out and help us to do a controlled burn, what’s it going to cost us if we don’t? I want to give you a couple of things to go to the Lord in prayer with. Number one: Today ask God to give you the ability to see where you are being tempted. Sometimes temptation is obvious, sometimes it’s not. The enemy is not stupid. He is conniving, and scheming, and methodical and he wants you to burn. Ask God for the ability to let you recognize where temptation is in your life. Then ask Him for the courage to get rid of it. Okay, God. You’ve given me the ability. I see where this temptation is. Now will you give me the courage to get rid of it, even if it is a good thing? Then ask Him to allow you to protect other people. Father, let me protect other people by not catching on fire myself. Don’t let me be the spark for someone else. Ask Him for the gift of understanding and tasting what repentance really is. That we would delight in the water of repentance. That any kind of baggage would be removed from it and that we would see it and understand it for what it really is. Ask those things of the Lord. Let’s pray. Father, Your Word is living and it’s true. You promise in Your Word that it does not return void. I ask that it doesn’t return void today. Father, this is tough. Your words in Matthew 18, they’re not easy to swallow. They seem intense, harsh, and drastic. But, Father, I pray that you would open our eyes to see how much it is an indication of Your love for us. That it’s all about protection, that You waste no words, let us take those and apply them to our hearts and our minds. Father, I pray that this would be a church that smells a little bit like ash. That all would feel like they belong here even if they don’t believe yet. But I pray, Father, that they would come in here not okay and that over time they would leave okay because they’ve met and been introduced to You and they put their faith and trust in You. And Father, those of us who are walking with You now, we’re following You and we’re giving up our lives with joy for You, that we would continue to be able to follow, that we would continue to be able to do a controlled burn even though we don’t want to do that. Nobody wants to burn anything out of their lives, especially good things. Help us.



Father, I pray right now that Your words stick and that anything that was said that was from me would be stricken from memory. That You are glorified here, You are lifted up because it does smell like ash here and that people are running to You in repentance and joy from a burning sensation in their own lives and that they’re helping others who do have burning lives. Father, forgive us if we ever get to the point where we just look at a burning house and do nothing. Forgive me for when I’ve done that. Forgive me for not being courageous enough to talk to friends or family members who might have a Camelot burning, especially when they’ve asked me to speak into their lives and I didn’t want to make things awkward so I didn’t say anything out of grace and love. Father, let this be a church of grace, and truth, and love. We love You. Thank You for Your Son. Thank You for grace. God, we need it. We love You. It’s in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

camelot is burning: c ontrolled burn… ·...

Documents