Mineral Springs Church of Christ Podcast
Mineral Springs Church of Christ Podcast
Walking Like a Christian
What if the real barrier to growth is our love of comfort? We walk through Ephesians with a simple framework—willingness, intentionality, and being Spirit-led—and show how grace turns ordinary days into holy ground. Paul’s story anchors the message: a persecutor remade by mercy, refined through trials, and called to unify a diverse church. That same grace meets us where we are, lifts us from spiritual deadness, and invites us into a walk marked by courage, clarity, and love.
We get practical about closing doors to temptation—“don’t give the devil an opportunity”—and opening space for God’s will. That looks like honest morning prayer, a “continuous prayer” through daily moments, and disciplined speech that builds rather than breaks. We talk about redeeming the time, choosing wisdom over impulse, and using our own scars as testimonies that comfort others. The fruits of the Spirit—patience, kindness, self-control—move from ideals to habits as we learn to respond rather than react.
Unity sits at the center. Ephesians reveals a church made one by Christ, not by sameness but by grace. We remember we are not saved by works, yet we are formed for good works prepared by God. When we say yes to God’s higher will, choose words with care, and follow the Spirit’s nudge, we carry the armor of God into everyday spaces—stores, commutes, kitchens—and quietly change the atmosphere. Listen for a fresh push to step past comfort, speak life, and live a Spirit-led faith that others can feel.
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It's kind of what I want to talk about this morning. When I was asked to do this, three things came to mind that I've kind of wanted to base this off of. Those three things are willingness, being intentional with our words and actions, and then being spirit-led. We'll be in Ephesians this morning. Wasn't sure what to call the sermon. Not that it needs a name, but it's a Christian's walk, or you know, it's kind of a how-to, just like the whole Bible is, but we'll try to narrow it down. I promise this will be pretty short and sweet. So talking about uh Paul, the author of Ephesians, um, you know, Paul, among many characters in the Bible, uh, Paul went through a lot, but he used what he went through to benefit others through uh through God, through through his faith, um, showing showing God's love to others. Um of the things Paul went through, he was uh he went through beatings, imprisonment, shipwreck, um, thorn in the flesh. He was blinded on the road to Damascus, he was healed. Um, those are just a few. There's there's several other things, but um we can start in Ephesians with uh with Paul, who had been through many processes of processes of being refined, and a refined is being uh cleansed. It's a it's a cleansing process. Requires heat, um requires being broken down, uh, but that's that's what Paul went through, and that's what we go through as Christians sometimes. Um we have been pre-selected by God the Creator for his redemptive work, his redemptive works here on earth. And redemption is a result of God's grace. We talk about grace and mercy a lot. Um redemption is a result of God's grace, the act of being saved from sin. Um Ephesians 1 verses 3 through 6 says, Blessed be the God, our Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us and him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us, the beloved. Um again, uh one of the things, one of the points here is willingness. That's I hope I'm an example of being willing to do something that's out of our comfort zone. I think uh growth requires you to get out of your comfort zone. If you, you know, our natural tendency is to kind of back ourselves into a corner where we feel safe and secure, but we don't really grow when we do that. So, willingness, we must recognize that there is a greater will than ours, a greater calling. We must be able to acknowledge our own wants and the will of God. We have to separate the two. We must uh be able to separate the two to willingly place his will higher than ours. He gives us that choice. Um, we have the choice to do right or wrong. Hopefully, we choose the right side of things. Um we're all in a uh a spiritual battle of of good and evil. There's there's two sides that that uh play tug of war with with us every day. It's uh it's a never-ending thing. Um through this we recognize that we were dead in our trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world. That's in chapter two, verses one and two of Ephesians. Um but God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love, with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And verse 8 says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that is not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not as a result of yours. We didn't do anything to earn his grace. Um, so going back and being willing, first we must recognize that uh you know we didn't earn this life. We talked in in class this morning about just being able to breathe is uh is a gift of God. God put the breath of life into you when you were born, and um each day is uh is a blessing from him, and he allows us to live uh this life. Uh Paul uh highlight highlights through his writings that we are one body through the Holy Spirit. He tells us of God's plan to reconcile all things to himself through Christ, creating a unified church out of diverse people. Both Jews and Gentiles can receive his salvation from the gift of God's grace that is freely given. Believers must live a new holy life of love, of unity through love and holiness to be able to stand strong in spiritual warfare. Christ's death removed all barriers between different groups of people, Jews and Gentiles, creating a new body, the church. And um, you know, just talking about Paul's previous life, you know, before he was a he was one of the leaders of uh that persecuted Christians. Um he believed that Christ was fake, pretty much. He believed that Christ was a liar. So he was out to to kill all the Christians and all the work that Christ uh was doing. But on the road to Damascus, he met Jesus and learned of his grace and mercy, um, partially because he was blinded, and then being able to see again, he learned that uh God um was the was the um God was in charge, uh, and Paul was not. And Christ was here to tell that story to help others. Um in chapter four, Paul talks about unity of the spirit. Uh it starts with the words therefore. So we know we've heard many lessons by Anderson talk about therefore. We need to go back to see what was before the therefore, and we've talked about that, how um Paul was in sin, living in sin, and now he has converted to Christianity. Uh he tells us how to be intentional with our actions and to not give the devil any opportunity. That's in verse 27. Don't give any any opportunity to the devil. If you give the devil an inch, he'll take a thousand miles. We all know that. We've heard that. Paul explains we must have self-discipline. This is this is something that is favored by the Lord here. Uh we must have self-discipline in order to live a Christian life. Um, that doesn't mean that we're going to be perfect, um, doesn't mean that we're gonna be close to perfect, but it does mean that we have the opportunity and are enabled with the will to uh spread God's word and to be that that shining light. Um, we're we're not here to to judge people uh based on their their past or or whatever. We're here to help people. We need to remember that we will be judged the same way we judge others. So um it's good to start each day um with a talk with God. Start your morning with a prayer. And you know, sometimes people get prayer confused with something that they think has to be a certain way, or you have to say, dear God, or or whatever. The thing is, God knows what's on your heart and what's in your mind, whether you say it or not. The fact that we speak out loud to God, uh, I think is um is a testament to uh where we're trying to go, where the direction is that we're trying to go. Um we we can't we can't tell others about God and about his grace and mercy if if we don't talk about it. Um so again, just having the right mindset from the start of your day will will help you. Um that may help you get in the right mind frame. Um a lot of times for unexpected things throughout the day, you know, because you start your day with uh with God, um, he'll give you the strength to you know get out of your comfort zone when you're at Walmart or when you're somewhere else that you run into someone that may need a good word, you know, you have that uh you have the armor of God to be able to do that. Umother thing with with prayer is I I do it. Um have a I call it a continuous prayer. It's just you know, when you're driving down the road, if you need some encouragement or if you need uh, you know, if you just need to talk to someone, God's always there listening. He his His Spirit is is with us um all the time. And I think that we um you know it's easy to it's easy to get content, it's easy to forget about that stuff, but um the power of prayer is uh is a good thing. Um being saved through salvation, uh knowing that we were dead in our transgressions, being unified with others through the Spirit, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love just as Christ also loved you. Not as unwise, but as wise men, making the most of our time, because the days are evil. Uh do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Again, starting your day, being willing, um, being intentional with with our actions, with our words, um, the way we communicate with with each other. I've told Laura I want to be a I want to be an effective communicator. Um I don't want to, you know, try to leave, try to leave opinions out of things and just talk about factual matters, talk about facts that are in the Bible, um, talk about the examples that are set for us here. Um we're you know, we can use ourselves as an example. Um we talked about in class how you know sometimes we go through things in life or have been through things in life that um that challenged us, um, but we came out on the other side, and it's it's you know, we can use that to to help others, to talk to uh to others about uh about God's grace and mercy that helped you. Um being spirit-led through our Christian walk is a result of both willingness and intentionality with our actions that comes from fruits of the spirit. Uh patience, kindness, loving one another, speaking kindly to others, putting others first, wanting the best for them. Um, when we're when we're kids and growing up, we talk about it a lot more, but having that little angel on your shoulder, there's one good one and one bad one. That that little voice that we hear inside our head a lot of times is the Holy Spirit trying to push you uh one way, and it's the flesh, it's it's your selfish nature that that tries to resist from that. So allow the spirit to lead you. He will not mislead you. Um remember that uh you were once dead in your transgressions, then saved by God's grace through your faith. And because of this, we are able to have unity with one another through the Spirit. We're able to have constant reminders of how we should be Christ-like and imitators of God, carrying the full army, carrying the full armor of Him to carry out the mission of spreading the good news to others. So we must, you know, we we need to realize that we have a new life, that we have a new opportunity, that uh we didn't we're not saved by works. We are saved because of God's grace through our faith. And uh these things are uh freely given to us. Um again, we talked in class about things that we've gotten, grace and mercy. Uh we get these things so that we can share them with others and hopefully bring other people to uh to know Christ and God's grace and mercy as we have received it. Um that's about all I've got. I know it was short and sweet, but I hope that um you know being willing, being intentional with our actions, and being led by the Spirit, these are things that you can carry with you every day into any situation. And um, you know, they're the armor of God for a reason. They'll help you, uh they'll help you bring glory to Him. So if these uh words have been encouraging to you in any way, if you need prayers, um if we can do anything for you, um, I encourage you as we stand and sing.