Jeremy Poe typically always asks this question that I never feel like I can think of an answer of at the conference. if we do a Q&A and that is, what is one of your favorite songs? And I don't know why, I have a favorite when I'm in the midst of it, singing it, I know that this is the answer I would give and then always forget it. So in the future, remind me this is the answer I gave. That one, I feel like I could preach like 15 different significant doctrines from that one hymn. Ephesians 5, verses 3 and 4 make up the text for this morning's sermon from Scripture. The Apostle Paul says the following word. But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. And there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. Greed is a tremendous problem in the world. It's one of the great problems in the world. It's been here literally from the beginning. You think about Adam and Eve in the garden. They were given everything minus one thing, and that was not enough. And then some men with us ever since, because all of their descendants were judged and given over to sin, one of which is the sin of greed. So people are born greedy because of this judgment. And you wouldn't have to know that through a Reformed sermon. You could just read your Bible the very next generation. Cain kills his brother Abel in resentment and greed and becomes a sort of a Smeagol figure from Lord of the Rings. You remember there was this sunshiny day in that film where everything was fine and two friends were fishing until there was something. that showed up, and you can still hear Smeagol saying, I want it. It's my birthday. And children fight. because of greed. We see adults fighting in the world because of greed. You don't grow out of it. You just become greedy of a different thing. And the Bible gives a straightforward answer that's not hard to understand. It's hard to swallow about this in diagnosis. James 4. Verses 1-2 answers every single human problem as resulting from sin, as resulting from this. In James 4, what is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and you do not have, so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight in coral. So fighting, quarreling, murdering. Greed is what has alienated man, even according to secular philosophers like Karl Marx, the greed in the social sphere. You have the distinction between the haves and the have-nots, and the alienation throughout history because of this, of the rich versus the poor. The proper distribution of wealth, which is a topic today, is an impossibility in the Christian worldview, at least while we're in this fallen world, because the wealth is always going to be into the hands of greedy men to distribute it. And so it's an impossibility. Listen to what Proverbs 2720 says because we are prone to think, well, aren't there some organizations that are not greedy? Aren't there some organizations that pay the salaries of those who work for them enough? Eventually, they make $170,000 a year. That's enough and the rest of the money will go toward what people have given it for. Proverbs 27.20 says, Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied. Ecclesiastes in chapter 1, Verse 8. How does it put this? Just one book over. Ecclesiastes 1 verse 8. All things are wearisome. Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing Fox News every day. It looks for the newest thing at the top of the screen. Nor is the ear filled with hearing. There is an insatiable desire to see what's new, to scroll, to look, to turn on the TV, to not miss anything. An insatiable desire to buy things, cars, to obtain husband, wife, things, house, decorations. You name it, it can be sought after. And the thought again and again and again of the lust of deceit, as Paul calls them here in this book in chapter 4, because they never deliver, is that once I get this thing, then the desire will go away, and yet it comes back again and again and again. No sooner than you get this thing is it now an old thing, And then if you've taken out a loan on this thing, it's even more of a bitter thing because now it becomes old and you have to go on and pay for it. So, greed in one angle of looking at it is the source of suffering in the world. I recently saw a new movie on Netflix about this Captain Phillips and the pirates come on the ship He was prepared to give this man $30,000 in cash and a boat to get off the ship and let him go, but it was not enough. It was chump change. He needed more, and he ends up killing all of his friends and getting captured serving in a prison in North United States today. There was a man even here recently, closer to home, that robbed the Capital One here in Alexandria, and after robbing the inside of the bank, it was not enough, he went to the ATM machine after he left the bank, and that's how he was caught. So, there is this insatiable desire. I want you to think about that. You rob a bank and you're leaving a bank. And it is irrational, but you have to stop and get from the ATM also. Now, greed is serious, not just in and of itself. We know because it can lead to other sins, not just the ones that we see here in the text like immorality and impurity, but it can lead to sins like anxiety and worry. The Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 6. How does it end? So do not worry. Do not worry. Verse 25, for this reason I say to you, do not be worried. Do not be anxious. Notice what goes along with all of this anxiety. Verse 32, for the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things. So worrying and eagerly seeking go hand in hand together. Sins like anxiety that result in also sins like lashing out, being in a bad mood, becoming a miser of a person, a sort of type of scrooge, where you're so anxious, you're so worried, you're not taken care of, and what is going to happen? And what Paul calls in 1 Timothy, when he tells Timothy at the end of the book, instruct those who are wealthy in this present age not to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches. The uncertainty of riches is never enough. There's no amount of money. You could be Donald Trump and you're still thinking, well, what if this happens? You live under the threat of the what ifs. And it's never enough. I have to have more for this and that and the other. And so I knew someone once who had had a lot of money left to them. I knew them personally. And they were, I don't know how many times, a millionaire and alone, no one to take care of but themselves, and in their 70s. And they freaked out because we went to the store to buy some vegetables for them and bought an organic lemon because it was too expensive. Should buy the other lemon. And I wrote an article about that, when millionaires cannot afford lemons. Greed, worry, anxiety. This particular person stared at the TV all day about the market crashing. So, you think if I had a million dollars, it would go away. No, it wouldn't. No, it wouldn't. You'd be still worrying again. If you can't be content with ten dollars, you won't be content with a million. And you become a Scrooge. You see Scrooge, these coins were disconnected from him and he knew it. He knew he was nothing without them. And he knew he could lose them. And so this is always the result of sinking our teeth and our hope into something that's changing, something that's shifting. something that's uncertain, we just become a volatile person. This is why in Eastern religion they teach that desire is the problem. Nirvana is a word that means to snuff it out, to put out the flame, the way to save the world. is to everyone stop desiring things. Desire is the problem. Very near to James' diagnosis, but it's not desire in a biblical worldview, it's sinful desire that is the problem. Desire is good, God made it, and what God made good is not the source of the world's problem, but sin entered in. And you have depraved desire, twisted, So the Christian answer to this problem is different as we see here in this text in Ephesians 5 verses 3 to 4 from the Apostle Paul, he urges us to defeat greed in a very different way. And ironically, someone, one of the believers here after several of these messages has come to me and said, so in other words, it's just the gospel again and again and again. And that is what we're seeing, isn't it? The way to defeat greed is the same way we defeat everything else. through the gospel, continuing on with this theme of changing clothes, that Paul began back in chapter 4, that the Christian life of sanctification is to be done and viewed in a very particular manner, and that is the manner of one who is changing their outward life to match their inward life. One where you are moving and acting and changing things because God has already changed you on the inside to act in a way that's fitting with the type of new heart and desire that He's given you. Well, Paul continues this theme here of becoming on the outside what we've already become on the inside. In the analogy of changing clothes, in a sense what he says is, put off greed, put off greediness, and put on thankfulness because of your singliness. That is, in a sense, what he said. To defeat greed is to put on thankfulness, because these two attitudes cannot coexist. They expel one another. If you see a greedy person, there's no way they could be a thankful person. They cannot coexist. And if you are a thankful person, there's no way you could become a greedy person. So the way to defeat greed then, according to Paul, is to cultivate thankfulness. And just as with the previous, each one of these specific garments, he tells us to take off and put on, now that we're Christians, there were three parts. There's always the negative, the positive, and then he gives us a doctrinal reason to hold in our mind. So here, there is a negative, there's the positive, what we're to put on, and then he gives us a reason to hold in our mind. So if you were to boil down this message to just one statement, it would be this. Instead of greediness, let there be thankfulness because of your saneliness. So we'll take the statement in those three parts. Number one, instead of greediness, The negative is mentioned twice, at the beginning of verse 3 and the beginning of verse 4. And both of these give a list of three things, making a total of six things that are viewed so negative that Paul says they're not even to be named among us. Similar to what you read in 1 Corinthians 5, there's sins that are not even known or named among the Gentiles. There's this idea that there would be fitting sins to be known or named among them. But these are something that is so negative as to be so abhorrent. in aversion to them, a paraphrase would be, he's really using a figure of speech saying, let not there be even a hint of these things among you. So let's see how greed comes to be the dominant idea here. If you look at the negative in verse 3, first you have this term immorality. And it's such a wonderful opportunity to study scripture this way, because you look at this word, immorality, take time to study words like this. It's in the Greek, pornaia. And you can already hear, you know the English word that we get from it, pornography. It's rooted in a word, this word pornia, where pornography comes from, and it means to sell. To sell, that's the meaning, because it originally referred to prostitution, which is selling the body for sex. And the term prostitution really brings this out. It's got two parts, pro, where it means to put forward, and then the statute, the Latin there means to set or to place. So to prostitute yourself is to set yourself forward as a purchasable object. And that's what prostitution means. And this is why it's often translated in the English in your Bibles by the word fornication. Another word that has the very same meaning in the term itself, it originates from the Latin fornix, which was the name of the archway that would be in the temple where the prostitutes would be to present themselves for this. So fornication refers to that sexual activity that took place under the fornix. So the whole idea here is the selling of yourself to sexual sin. This is not to mean that it doesn't refer to any form or any other form of illicit sexual behavior. It does come to refer to any of it, even bestiality, so all forms. of immorality, this would refer to. But the reason of mentioning the specific meaning of the word is the idea in these forms of sexual deviance is the giving of yourself over to it. So, just get in your mind that immoral... One of the great Pauline scholars, F.F. Bruce, laments this translation. He thinks it softens the idea of what Paul has in mind. Immoral is pretty vague. What Paul has in mind is pretty specific. It is the surrendering of yourself over to sin. The giving of yourself over to sin, which is interesting because he used this idea previously in the chapter where he talked about Gentiles being so dark and that they have given themselves over to these things. Which if you read, I say it's amazing because if you read Romans 1, God is the source of this action of giving man over to sin. And now we see, paired with human responsibility here in Ephesians 4, men also give themselves over to sin. So we have to remind ourselves that what does it look like for God to give you over to sexual sin? It would be for you to give you over. to sexual sin. And you only know that if you're doing that and engaged in it that way. The point of bringing all this up is obviously believers still struggle with sexual deviancy and have to fight the lust of the flesh and mortify the lust of the flesh and put it to death. And often a believer will struggle with what degree of victory they're getting over that. You come to a verse like this and you could easily begin to lose your assurance and think, well, I'm struggling with immorality. Well, the question to ask yourself is, am I giving myself over to it? That is what Paul is talking about. Am I surrendering myself to this? Or am I making war with this and fighting? This is the idea. Now, he mentions impurity next, and this can also refer to sexual sin, but it can also refer to any other kind of sin, and so it's a broader term. If you look at, for example, in 1 Thessalonians, and Paul is describing his ministry there, he says, You have the old, King James really has a nice translation in Timothy about that. It calls it filthy lucre. I just love saying that, filthy lucre. But money obtained through dishonest means is filthy money. The idea is not only if you engaged in a sexual deviant behavior would you feel dirty and impure, but if you engaged in a crooked business deal in your conscience and in your soul, you would also feel dirty. and impure. So impurity can refer to unlawful forms of sexual behavior, but it can also refer to just any sin, which I think is why Paul adds there, but immorality or any impurity of mind and heart and conscience that results from it, anything that makes you feel dirty and nasty, and guilty when you give yourself over to sin is what he has in mind. So certainly you would feel that way after looking at something you shouldn't be looking at. Certainly you would feel that way over enriching your pocket in some crooked way. But then he mentions greed, which tells us the ultimate source of this pollution. He says, with immorality or any impurity or greed, as if looking at the fountain. So let's look at this term. In English it means to growl, to hunger. The Greek term is a desire to have more. To have more is literally the meaning, to want more. So clearly it's just this idea of never being satisfied. And so greed is an even higher, more general category than impurity. So immorality is a type of impurity, and impurity is a type of what results from greed, the most general category of them all. And you could see how this would make sense. How could the immorality, the pornography, the prostitution, sexual deviancy be thought of as a form of greed? Well, it's literally a desire to be gratified by the abuse of someone else's body. To have something, even someone else's body, for your own self-gratification. So, it's the same heart either way, isn't it? A desire, an unrestrained desire for more, for self. It all springs from greed, doesn't it? Now that greed has been identified by Paul as the source of it, notice in verse 4 these three other things that flow from it. Verse 4 gives three more negatives. Filthiness. Filthiness. The word means shame. Something you'd feel ashamed of if the rest of the people in this room knew about it and saw you doing it. You would not be able to keep your head up. You would be ashamed. This is what is meant by filthiness. Greed causes you to do... This desire to have something more causes you to do things that are filthy. Silly talk is the next term. literally moronic words, mora lagos, moronic words. And this is a hapax legomenon. They call it once used in the New Testament terms, not used anywhere else. So there's some discussion of what this even is in commentaries. And best we can tell, it seems to be that there's a And I think you've seen this and experienced this. There's a type of conversation that can get going that begins to center around things of this sort that can veer off the road into sin. to where you begin talking about things you shouldn't be talking about, laughing about things that should be held in honor. And these type of conversations can lead into feelings getting hurt, sin happening. And so in good proverbial lingo, whatever leads to sin is called foolish, not because it's intellectually deficient, but because it doesn't work, it leads to a wreck. And so these are conversations, things that should be discussed between a husband and a wife in their settings where they're discussed in a group. These are things that end in a wreck, in an emotional wreck. And Paul would be saying here that that is silly talk, that is foolish talk, and it's not fitting for the saints. I think movies like, to be concrete, to give a concrete example, it's not to overly condemn anyone, but just think of movies like Dumb and Dumber type humor, that where people get going in conversations, and it does not end in edification. It ends in something foolish being said, sin happening. Suddenly the mind is defiled, the heart is defiled, and the conversation has gotten away from everyone. So just to spend your day, they don't have Blockbuster anymore, but going to Blockbuster and getting a movie and coming home and just watching silliness all day is not for a saint. You've got other things to do with your life than to just play and fall into sin. The third term is coarse jesting. Translated coarse jesting. Jest would just be another term for joking. and humor and coarse as opposed to fine is just sort of a proper way of distinguishing a palatable joke from a nasty one. So coarse joking would be nasty joking, but it's more particular than that. The word in the Greek is trope. which you may know if you've studied any poetry, is the word used for a figure of speech. So in poetry they break down an analogy, an assembly, a metaphor, and make all these distinctions of what they are. But there are all types of tropes. The word trope just means to turn. So follow what Paul is pointing out here. The idea in a poetry, in a trope, is you turn a word or a set of words that normally are used one way to another way of using them, you turn the ear into an eye, if you will, and you make word pictures with statements. But the idea is that you could use a word one way and another way and you're turning it toward the other optional way of using it. And it has this prefix to it. It's not just trope, but it's utrope, which means good, typically, or skillful. So literally the word, in its etymological meaning, is skill in turning. Skill in turning a phrase. This is what we typically call wit. But wit is the ability to turn a phrase and turn something humorously. But Paul is here talking about the cheapest form of wit. The wit that turns things downward toward the nasty and the vile and the dirty. To put it simply, Paul's talking about sexual innuendos, late night comedy, stand up shows where No matter what is said, this person is skilled in finding a dirty meaning in what is said, and the phrase is turned in that direction, and the people laugh, or conversations such as those. Paul is saying all of them flow from a desire for attention, which will use the consciences and souls of others for it. will dirty other human beings so that you can be looked at and your skill set is put on display, your wit, your ability to turn a phrase is put on display. And instead of using it in an honorable type of wittiness and humor, it's used here. All of this, Paul says, is the same greedy heart, the same desire for an accumulation towards self, inordinate desire for attention that leads to sex and lust and any of these jokes. And Paul says that type of stuff you should sling from you. That type of stuff. Isn't it amazing? The New Testament gets that specific about sanctification. Dave Chappelle is not for a Christian to watch. That type of stuff. To where it's just constant turning of phrases in a dirty, defiling way. And he says, sling that from you. And how do you do that? Well, let's look at the second part of the statement. Instead of greediness, he says, replace it and expel it with thankfulness. Instead of all of that filthiness and greediness, Paul says, rather let there be thankfulness. You see it in verse 4. but rather giving of thanks." So this is the thing that replaces the greediness. This is the garment you put on instead of the one you took off. Remember? He's not only telling us to take off, but to put on. Not to avoid, but to replace. Not just negative, but positive. And there's a very interesting play on words here that I didn't know until studying this. But the Greek word for Thanksgiving you may know as Eucharisto, where you get that the Catholics have taken captive the Eucharist. And Eucharisto is just that word for grace or thankfulness. And the U once again just means good or skill. So it's this idea of of good graces, which is typically translated thankfulness. But since the trope word had the prefix you on it, and Eucharisto has that on it, it looks like they say that Paul is being typical Paul, making a play on words here. And so he would be saying then, instead of there being this turning of phrases toward that which is dirty, let there be skill in the ability to turn things that happen in life toward grateful moments, like a different skilled wit. a graceful wittiness, develop that wit. And I thought of this example. You say, well, what would it look like? Well, one example is in the book of Philemon where Paul is having to write this letter to this Christian who you know is a slave, had fled, obviously wronged him in some ways, and Paul is sending him back. And in verse 15, he tells Philemon this, he says, "...for perhaps he was for this reason separated from you for a while that you would have him back forever." So Paul is in a sense saying he's exploring the ironic providences if all this happened, just so that he would be converted. And then you would have him back, you would have all your money back, and every way he wronged you back, and even doubly so, much more as a slave, but even a brother. So Paul pondered. You see, he tried to see connections that were good, rather than connections that were dirty. and nasty. And why is that? Well, look what he says in Titus in chapter 1 verse 15. He says, To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure. But both their mind and their conscience are defiled, You have either lived this yourself or you know people that are in this. You cannot get a pig to rejoice in a diamond. You just cannot. You cannot put something before the natural man. There is a sense in which Jesus says you cannot put the pearl before the swan. There's a sense in which there are certain fallen people that are given over to sin that they cannot do anything but be nasty and joke. Paul says in Romans 1, they are inventors of evil. So even if you try to have a normal conversation, they're going to take something, an innocent object, and twist it toward a sinful meaning. And he says for the Christian, it's the total opposite. I still remember there was one time Justin sent something. He was driving somewhere and there was one piece of corn left growing off the road there. And he wrote a big message to the guys on the group message about some spiritual idea that was on his mind. You see, what is that? That's when the Holy Spirit takes over your mind. Remember Paul talks about the mind of the Spirit. It's not just because Justin Morgan happens to be from good stock and is such a good guy, but his mind is under the control of the Holy Spirit. And He is causing him to think in ways that he didn't previously think. And so for you and so for me, if we're believers. And so, it's the very opposite, isn't it? I hope that when you get around people, who seem to constantly joke this way, that you fear for their salvation because you should. You should. Not to say that a Christian can never do these things, but when you do them, if you're a Christian, it's like Peter. sitting around the coals with the other people. You're not really one of them. And you are grieved about what you just did. And you're bothered by this. And you want to do it again. And you want to figure a way out. And you feel alone because you look around and the other people around you do not seem to be burdened like you are and bothered like you are and wanting to get out of it. And guess what? They're not because they're lost. and they're dead, and they're devoid of the Holy Spirit that is within you. They have the mind of the flesh, Paul says. So for the Christian, None of this is fitting. We're to be doing something different. Remember how he puts it in Philippians 4 verse 8, that great verse where he says, Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. We were talking, Annabelle and Charlie and I were having a conversation at some point recently about experience, and that verse in 1 Corinthians came up where Paul says, in your thinking be mature, but in evil be infants. It's not a mark of spiritual maturity to be experienced in all the wickednesses of the world. It's a mark of maturity to be innocent. to have people come and say something and you don't even get the innuendo, because you're not exploring those things the way people are all the time. That should be a goal, to be a guy who's actually somewhat dim-witted when it comes to sinning and the ways of the world. The world should have sayings that you don't immediately get, And there can be this push even amongst pastors, I've seen it in some of you, that you're really a cool pastor if you know the little sayings of the world and you can make reference to them during your sermon. Paul says, no, no, no, in evil be infants. So what an incredible replacement this is. I thought of, some of you have read his biography, we have a message on him, R.C. Chapman. They said he was known for this. If he came over for dinner or whatever, he would somehow turn it toward the things of the Lord. What is that? That's a pure mind. The same thing is in front of him that was in front of you, but he's got a different mind. And he's turning things. toward the Lord. This is how you want to be as a parent, right? You want to be at the game, and you want to be at the deer stand, and you want to be going to check the mail, or you want to be watching the news, and just somehow have a mind that is turning things heavenward toward things that are pure, things that are true, things that are lovely. The way Paul did here, he took this instance and it became an instance to teach the providence of God and the sovereignty of God over all things. Maybe he left for this purpose. That's amazing. You can be just having a salad somewhere and start talking about the providence of God because your mind is pure and you're trying to turn things. Well, what a replacement this is. And what an illustration of Romans 6.19. Do you remember that verse? He says, excuse me, my voice is starting to have a little pain in it. He says that when you were slaves of sin, you used the members of your body unto sinfulness and greater and greater lawlessness. So now, you present your members as instruments of righteousness. What a thing it is to to say you take your natural wit, if you're gifted in wit, and you used it toward filthiness and now use it to the glory of God. Sadly, preachers still try to do this and do it for attention while claiming to use it for the glory of God. There can still be this emphasis of gathering a crowd and doing all these things. And you find yourself infatuated with this sermon, or infatuated with this ministry, or infatuated with this preacher. And just do a pie chart of it. I mean, what degree of your excitement here is anchored in His giftedness to expound the truth and unfold the truth to you and for you to understand the truth better and be ministered to better about the truth of God's Word. What degree of it is just entertainment that He happens to be real witty and funny and that is what you're listening to? Because you can get drawn into that and men and their egos can get drawn into that. And it leads to sin and heartache and not good in the Christian life. Because it's truth we need that sets us free, not jokes. Just listening to sermons for that reason, because you enjoy the preacher's wit, is an immature motive to listen to a sermon. And a preacher who does it a lot, is an immature preacher. What the saints need is truth. I mean, humor is good. It's a wonderful gift. It has its place. But you know what? You've seen this. So, employ it at every opportunity. Turn attention not to yourself for your gift of wittiness, but in thankfulness to God constantly. I mean, a spotlight shines, but it shines on something, not itself. And so, do what you want to do. And that's the great revival. to be thankful, to turn topics toward things that create thanks and direct attention to God. That was a preeminent sin, wasn't it, in Romans 121? They did not glorify Him as God or give thanks. They weren't witty. That's another way of saying it. They refuse to be witty in the good way. They refuse to say, aha, look at there, look at there, perhaps God is doing that. They refuse to turn the phrase in the good direction. And through the Gospel, God changes it. You see in Romans 1 verse 8, Paul says, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all. So that brings to this third and final part of the statement, because of your saintliness, in other words, the reason that you should be a thankful person, We sang about it there, and how great they are, both themes. Creation provides content. You know, a comedian needs content. They say we need content. Well, the Christian, in his redeemed form of wittiness, look at your content. Everywhere. when I walk through the forest glades and hear the birds, these are all content to turn things and turn the people around you, their attention to God. And then he says, the cross, and when I think of God His Son not sparing, there's content to turn thoughts toward things that are thankful. Well, let's look at this last point as he makes it, he gives the rationale. He says it twice, doesn't He? Once in verse 3, He says, "...as is proper among saints." And then again in verse 4, "...which are not fitting." So the reason you should replace greediness with thankfulness is it's proper and fitting being a saint. which as is proper among saints. Imagine you have a diamond ring and you wrench off the diamond and you go outside and just grab a clunk of mud and you put in its place and you wear it. What would people think of that? It would be so absurd. You would say it doesn't belong there. It's not fitting. And that's what Dave Chappelle is in the mouth of a Christian. It doesn't fit there. Something else belongs in that mouth. Thankfulness about creation. Thankfulness about the Gospel. Wholesome, pure thoughts in discussions and content. That's what belongs there. Or you may think of a stain. Is a stain fitting on a white shirt? You put on a brand new pressed iron white shirt. I mean, they're really hard to wear through this world without getting a stain, aren't they? You buy anything white and people just assume bravery. But the same thing with being a saint. It's hard to go through this world. James says that's pure religion to go through this world, unspotted, undefiled. You wouldn't want a little mark. You would freak out over any mark. And that's Paul's idea. Let not even a hint of this be among you. You're a saint. You're a saint, and you're white, pure, and holy. That's what the word means. The holy ones. It's kind of interesting when the world says holier than thou. I know there's a way you don't want to be guilty of that, but it seems like there's a way you do want to be guilty of that. I don't know. I am called a saint. I am called a holy one. Maybe I am holier than you, but not of my own doing. I hope you trail that with, and not of anything that you can also have. I'm nothing special other than the grace of God. Well, don't talk that way. Don't think that way. Don't act that way. Isn't it a wonderful thing if you've had a parent or somebody who loved you, a coach, a parent? someone invested in you, someone who thought highly of you. And you know those times where they find you saying something, doing something, and they just come grab you and say, don't let those words come out of your mouth. Do not talk like that. And they sort of reinforce this idea of value in you. This is not for you. This is not who you are. It's such a wonderful thing. And that is in a sense what Paul does here. He says, have some self-respect. Realize that you're made in the image of God. You have inherent dignity and value. And doubly so, you're a redeemed image of God. You're a saint. You're not meant to have these words come out of your mouth. It's not fitting because you're so precious. So don't talk that way. When the kids fall into this, the idea is like, oh my goodness, you said a bad word. And don't say a bad word. The exhortation is, don't talk like that because you're a saint. That's not fitting. So, what does Paul say to us today? Simply this, instead of greediness, let there be thankfulness because of your singliness. So what's the new thought we have in conclusion? It's just simply this, that immorality exists because of a lack of thankfulness. Impurity and nasty jokes exist because of a lack of thankfulness. People funneling inordinate attention toward themselves occurs because of a lack of thankfulness. The way to fight greediness is with thankfulness. It expels thankfulness. The way to fight it is not by focusing on how greedy you are, but remembering how saintly you are because of what God has done to you. And just focusing on the Gospel. What causes the thanksgiving for the Christian? It is the Gospel. So how do you defeat greed in the end? As we keep saying, the answer comes back as one of the Christians here said to me. So in other words, it's just the Gospel again. Yes. Yes. If you simply sing that song, how great they are. If you begin that song with a Gospel heart from the beginning, and you just sing that through the day, once, You know, you've experienced it as a Christian. By the time you get to the end of that song, if you meant it, and your heart was warm, and someone comes to you and says, how did you get victory over greed? You'll say, I didn't even realize I had victory over greed. I wasn't even thinking about greed. And that's how it's meant to work. You overcome it through thankfulness. Just go back to the Gospel, and rejoice in the Gospel, and have a Gospel heart once again, and then look at the birds and the forest and all the things, and you'll find yourself conquering greed. And that's the beautiful beauty of how it's meant to work. focus on the cross, be thankful. How amazing insight, right? Read your Bible, focus on the cross, pray, sing some hymns. And you'll be like, what greed? I didn't even realize I was above it. But therein lies the freedom that God does not want you or I to strain and look and stare and come up with willpower to conquer greed. Just behold the Son. Behold your salvation. Behold creation rightly. And you'll begin to just turn things and have a thankful heart and a thankful heart can never be a greedy heart. Let's pray. Lord, thank You for Your sweet Word to us, even in text like this, how it reminds us of essential things, truly helpful things. So, Lord, we pray for all the saints today. Lord, we pray that just through the simple preaching and teaching of Your Word by a simple man in a simple little church that truth is unleashed and reality is comprehended and the heart rejoices. and sin and despair is expelled and victory is given. And Lord, what a thing it is to see that it all comes from Your Word. I thank You for Your prayer to sanctify them in the truth. Your Word is truth. So we see, Lord, how You do indeed truly sanctify us by Your Word. So thank You for these verses. Thank You for all the saints who are here. We thank You for this day and these songs that we sing. The one we're about to sing, Lord, again, Thank You for this time and the help it is to our souls. We pray that we would be good witnesses for You in the world. Pray that we would defeat greed and hopelessness and despair and that we would be found doing it through Your Gospel. Lord, we thank You for this and the way that it works. Pray You bless everyone in Jesus' name. Amen.