SERMON: HOW’S THE WATER?

3 February 2019

I.  Introduction

            -- turn in Bibles to 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1

6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will live with them

    and walk among them,

and I will be their God,

    and they will be my people.”

17 Therefore,

“Come out from them

    and be separate,

says the Lord.

Touch no unclean thing,

    and I will receive you.”

18 And,

“I will be a Father to you,

    and you will be my sons and daughters,

says the Lord Almighty.”

7:1 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

            -- several years ago, the late author David Foster Wallace was invited to offer a commencement address to the graduating class at Kenyon College in Ohio -- he began his address to these young men and women by telling them this story:

            -- “There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” -- And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What…is water?”

            -- as Wallace continues his address, he makes the point that every day, we must make a choice as to how to live and to view the world around us -- otherwise, he says, we find ourselves in a default setting of unconsciousness -- living in a rat race that revolves around us and our wants and our desires -- worshiping at the altars of money or things or beauty or power or intellect -- where we do not make a difference in our lives or this world -- and where we end up just like all those around us -- enslaved to the common culture

            -- this week, I spent some time reflecting on how important this past weekend at Chrysalis was for those young men and boys who attended -- it may have only been a three-day retreat -- a time for them to separate themselves from their normal lives and to come out to a place where they could hear God away from the cacophony of noise that usually drowns out His voice in this world today

            -- as we challenged these young men to choose -- to make the choice to live different from those around them -- I thought about the story Wallace presented about the young fish immersed in water without knowing it -- for that is where those young men and boys were -- that is where most of us are -- that is where His church certainly is, as well

            -- for we are so immersed in the water of this culture -- we have lived in this culture for so long -- that we don’t even recognize it -- it has become who we are -- it has become what we do -- and it affects our lives, both secular and spiritual

            -- when Jesus prayed for us on the night He was betrayed in John 17, He prayed that the Father would not take us out of the world, but would protect us from the evil one -- He said in verse 16 that we were not of the world, even as He was not of the world -- and asked the Father to sanctify us by the truth of the Word

            -- to be sanctified means to be set apart -- it means to be separated from the world -- it means consecration and commitment to God and His kingdom rather than remaining in this world

            -- to put it in the terms of Wallace’s story:  we are to be in the water, but not of the water -- those young fish were so immersed in the water they lived in, that they did not recognize what they were swimming in

            -- that is where we find ourselves today as God’s people -- instead of being set apart and separated from this world, we have let ourselves become so immersed in this culture that we do not even recognize it any longer -- we have ceased to be in the world, but not of it -- we are living as if we are part of this world, and it is affecting our faith and our belief and our commitment to God

            -- we’ve talked before about how the church -- the people of God -- saved by His grace and through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary -- how the very people called to be different and to live different look just like those around us

            -- how our behaviors and moral attitudes are not that different from those of unbelievers -- how we are believers who are so immersed in the world that we are basically living as the unsaved

            -- several years ago -- not long after I started at Moody Air Force Base -- I was talking with a coworker and found out he was a Christian -- that he had been on the Walk to Emmaus -- and was an active member of his church -- and I was dumb-founded -- for I had seen the way he lived and I had heard the way he talked and I had seen the way he interacted with other people at work -- I would never have guessed he was a Christian -- nothing in the way he lived would have led me to believe he was a Christian

            -- and that made me wonder, “Am I doing any better?” -- would people know that I’m a Christian based on how they see me doing life? -- am I just as compromised as him? -- am I living in the world as if I’m part of the world? -- “How’s the water, boys?”

II.  Scripture Lesson -- 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1

            -- this great compromise in how we live our daily lives is not a recent phenomenon -- A.W. Tozer, the great Christian author of the last century, wrote, “Religion today is not transforming people -- rather, it is being transformed by the people -- it is not raising the moral level of society -- it is descending to society’s own level, and congratulating itself that it has scored a victory because society is smilingly accepting its surrender”

            -- and, we see the Apostle Paul addressing this issue with the church in Corinth here in 2 Corinthians 6

            -- as we have discussed, the church at Corinth was struggling with how to live separate from the culture around it -- mostly made up of Gentiles who were coming from a pagan background -- whose lives before coming to Christ revolved around wealth and power and immorality as the cultural norms -- these men and women had no idea what it meant to be in the world, but not of it -- of how they were called to be set apart and separated from the world -- to be different from those around them

            -- as a result, there were problems in the church there at Corinth -- in Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians, he dealt with sin in the church -- actions and behaviors that were acceptable in Corinthian culture and which the newly saved believers had brought with them into the church -- Paul taught the Corinthian believers that they must separate themselves from these sins, even if the world considered them normal

            -- now, in 2 Corinthians, the church was in danger of receiving and incorporating false teachings in their beliefs because they were welcoming false teachers into their midst -- they didn’t understand how to test the beliefs and teachings of others against the Scriptures -- and were falling prey to every wind and whim of false belief that came their way

            -- so, in this passage, Paul expounds on the call to be set apart and separate from the world around us -- on how we, as Christians, are to live in this world

            -- let’s look at it now, remembering the context of the church of Corinth -- a church struggling to separate and identify itself as believers in a culture where anything was acceptable -- a time not so vastly different from our own

            -- 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14-16a

6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16a What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?

            -- to make his point about being separate from unbelievers and the world, Paul uses the analogy of a yoke -- yokes are uncommon in our day -- with our age of mechanized agriculture, you don’t see animals in the field like you might have 100 or 1000 years ago -- but, in Paul’s day, it was a common sight

            -- typically, a pair of oxen would be joined together with a wooden yoke -- a collar that fit around each of their necks -- that was then fastened to a farm implement, like a plow -- the yoke would force the oxen to work together as a team -- pulling the implement across the field, as the farmer directed

            -- with a yoke, the oxen were forced to go in the same direction -- if one of the oxen decided to go rogue and head out across the field, then the other ox had a choice -- he could either resist the pull and bend the rogue ox back to the right path, or he had to follow -- it really came down to the question of who was stronger -- and the strongest ox was the one who set the pace and direction

            -- Paul’s point here is that when we allow ourselves to be yoked to an unbeliever, we end up getting pulled away from God’s way to the way of the world -- when we are constantly being tugged the wrong direction by an unbelieving world, it just becomes easier to give in and go that way

            -- it’s kind of like a dripping faucet -- when a faucet first starts to drip, it bothers you -- you’ll lay there at night and just here that faucet: “Drip, drip, drip” -- but, if you don’t do anything about it, you soon quit hearing it -- it just becomes background noise -- and, finally, you just accept it and go on

            -- it’s the same way when we let ourselves be yoked to an unbelieving world -- we start off fighting the pull towards the way of the world -- but, over time, we just give in -- a step here -- a step there -- until finally, we’re marching right in step with unbelievers

            -- that’s why Paul makes the case here about being yoked with unbelievers -- that’s why he asks the questions -- what do righteousness and wickedness have in common -- what do light and darkness have to do with each other? -- the Corinthians were trying to accept both at the same time -- they were trying to hold onto God with one hand, while allowing sin and wickedness into their lives with the other

            -- and, as a result, their lives were just like those around them -- there was no difference between the way they were living and the unbelievers that surrounded them

            -- look back at the second part of verse 16

16b. For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will live with them

    and walk among them,

and I will be their God,

    and they will be my people.”

            -- I had a young friend several years ago that was caught up in pornography -- he was a Christian -- he had grown up in a Christian home -- he was active in his church and in Chrysalis -- but, he still got caught up in it -- one day, his father found out and went to him and said, “Why are you doing this? -- This is not who you are.”

            -- what a powerful statement -- “This is not who you are” -- that’s what Paul is telling the Corinthians here -- why are you yoked with unbelievers? -- why are living like this? -- this is not who you are

            -- you are the church of God -- you are the temple of the living God -- you are the people of God, and God lives in you and among you -- you have been bought by the blood of Jesus and redeemed from the world -- why are you still living like you are unsaved? -- this is not who you are -- stop living like the world and start being who you are

            -- verse 17

17 Therefore,

“Come out from them

    and be separate,

says the Lord.

Touch no unclean thing,

    and I will receive you.”

18 And,

“I will be a Father to you,

    and you will be my sons and daughters,

says the Lord Almighty.”

7:1 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

            -- God’s command to us is clear -- we are to be in the world, but not of it -- we are to be in the water, but not let the water become who we are

            -- God tells us that we are to come out of the world and be separate from them -- in belief -- in thought -- in desire -- in behavior

            -- we are to stay away from the unclean things -- to purify ourselves from everything that might contaminate our body or our spirit -- we are to be holy as He is holy -- for that is who we are -- that is how we are to live

            -- not like the world around us, but different -- separate -- holy

            -- we are called to be light and salt to this world -- to shine lives of holiness into the darkness around us -- to season the world with the salt of the gospel of Christ

           

            -- we have not been doing a very good job at this -- we have failed to be the church -- to stand up for what is right and true and holy in this world -- we have allowed ourselves to be yoked to this world in so many ways -- through politics and entertainment and morality and our desires for wealth and comfort and happiness -- and we have ceased to be who we were called to be

            -- Paul’s message to the Corinthians speaks to us today -- come out of the world -- be separated from those around you in your life and in your behavior -- live for God and not for this world

III.  Closing

            -- I read a story one time about a guy who was out hunting bear -- as he’s going along, he sees a large bear in his path and he slowly raises his rifle and takes aim -- just as he was ready to pull the trigger, he was shocked to hear the bear talk

            -- the bear spoke in a soft, soothing voice -- “Isn’t it better to talk than to shoot? -- what do you really want? -- let’s see if we can negotiate an understanding between us”

            -- the hunter lowered his rifle and replied, “I want a fur coat” -- “Good,” the bear said, “That is negotiable -- I only want a full stomach, so let’s sit down and work out a compromise”

            -- they sat down to talk, and after a little while, the bear got up and walked away -- he was alone -- the negotiations had been successful --    the bear’s stomach was full, and now the hunter had his fur coat

            -- compromise with the world is a bear -- the world can promise so much, but in the end, it will just eat you up -- it will devour you

            -- compromised Christians don’t become worldly all at once -- it’s a gradual process -- a step here -- a step there -- but, before you know it, you’re no different from the world at all

            -- every single day, we must make a choice -- we must choose to see the water we are swimming in and choose to live differently than the world -- we must choose to take up our cross, to separate ourselves from the world, and to follow Christ

            -- that is our call as Christians -- that is who we are

            -- as we close now, I want to encourage you to take a moment and think about where you are in your life -- think about how others might see you -- think about how God sees you -- are you living differently than the world around you -- or are you marching through life yoked with an unbelieving world?

            -- do your thoughts -- your actions -- your words -- your beliefs -- reflect God or this world?

            -- choose to live differently than the world around you -- choose to be sanctified through His word and through the power of the Spirit within you -- choose to be who He called you to be

            -- how’s the water, boys?

            -- let us pray