WEBVTT 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:03.520 Good morning. 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:04.879 It's so good to be with you guys. 00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:12.880 There's so many good areas of scripture. 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:20.719 If you haven't uh had the chance yet, maybe this is your first few weeks here, and you're just catching up. 00:00:20.719 --> 00:00:25.600 We are in a Bible, um, walking through the Bible in Ephesians. 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:31.920 We went through uh chapters one through three at the end of last year, and it was talking about identity. 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:40.000 And then, of course, we've started back with this uh Bible uh sermon series called In Christ for Purpose. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:43.039 And so we are in the purpose section. 00:00:43.039 --> 00:00:57.439 Um really hope that you take it and look at the scripture as it was written and don't go to chapters four through six first and try to figure out what your purpose is without going back to chapters one through three and figure out who you actually are in Christ anyway. 00:00:57.439 --> 00:00:58.399 Right? 00:00:58.399 --> 00:01:10.799 So if you've missed any of these, we he was just talking, Joshua was just talking about doing our uh fast that's starting tonight, and we do have a service tonight to kick that off at six o'clock. 00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:15.040 This would be the perfect time to catch up with the sermon series. 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:23.840 This has been such a good sermon series, and really need to understand what the first three chapters of Ephesians says about us. 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:38.480 So this would be a great week to, as you're not eating lunch or as you're not eating breakfast, that you pop on to our website and find the sermon series that started back in, I think it was October of last year. 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:54.159 You can go to any of the podcasts that you listen to, like any form of way that you watch or listen to a podcast, they're on there, and you can catch up with all of those and so that you can continue on as we step in to chapter four. 00:01:54.159 --> 00:02:05.040 So, uh number of years ago, I had heard a story about this lady who was like the richest person, the richest woman ever was in America. 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:06.719 And so I looked it up this week. 00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:11.199 I wanted to bring back the facts of this lady, and her name was Hetty Green. 00:02:11.199 --> 00:02:18.719 She lived in the late 1800s, and honestly, probably one of the most successful women of all time. 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:29.520 She at the time in 1916 was worth over like 200 million dollars in 1916, which is like hundreds of billions today. 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:34.319 But yet she didn't actually live that way. 00:02:34.319 --> 00:02:40.240 Not because she was humble or anything, but because she liked her old life so much, she acted like she had no money. 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:42.319 She ate oatmeal every day. 00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:47.039 She wore the same black dress for years and never changed it. 00:02:47.039 --> 00:02:59.199 She lived as if she was totally broke, so much so that her son, who uh had something happen to his leg, she refused to go pay a doctor to have him taken care of. 00:02:59.199 --> 00:03:04.000 Ultimately, it was an infection that got into his leg and he lost his leg. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:13.360 She died in the early 1900s worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but didn't spend any of it. 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:17.919 Not taking care of her, not taking care of her family, nothing. 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:27.360 And so that story brings us to uh where I want to go today in Ephesians chapter 4, where I feel like the Lord's bringing us. 00:03:27.360 --> 00:03:30.960 So we're going to just dive right into the scripture. 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:33.840 If you want to turn in your word, or you can look here behind me. 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:42.479 Now, this I say in testifying the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. 00:03:42.479 --> 00:03:52.319 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is within them, due to their hardness of heart. 00:03:52.319 --> 00:04:00.639 They have become callous and have given themselves up to all sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:26.319 But that is not the way you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to the former manner of life and is corrupt through its deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:27.439 Let's pray. 00:04:27.439 --> 00:04:33.519 Father, I thank you so much that we have your word that has stood the test of time for thousands of years. 00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:39.759 God, that you gave these words to these men who put it down on paper for us to see two thousand years later. 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:44.959 And God, I just pray right now that you help us to hear what you want us to hear this morning. 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:50.720 God, we've already had a great word, Lord, talking about repentance, laying down the old life, Lord Jesus. 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:52.480 And I know that that's where you're leading us today. 00:04:52.480 --> 00:05:02.959 And so we just pray right now across this room for open hearts, open minds to hear your gospel this morning so that our lives can change in the name of Jesus. 00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:03.920 Amen. 00:05:03.920 --> 00:05:09.120 So as I'm reading these scriptures, there's so much built into these verses. 00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:16.720 So I'm going to walk verse by verse through these because as I was reading it, there were some words that stuck out to me that maybe I didn't fully understand. 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:24.480 That's the cool part about the Bible is we read the Bible and it's alive, and we read it yesterday and we read it today, and there's two totally different things, right? 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:26.959 But God is so good like that. 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:32.399 And we also have to realize that when we're reading the Bible, this was written in different languages than we speak. 00:05:32.399 --> 00:05:32.959 All right. 00:05:32.959 --> 00:05:43.759 And this one here is in Greek, and it's a more complex language than what we speak, and so it might take a sentence or two to describe one of their words because it was so complex. 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:49.519 So then I was thinking about this, and I was looking at this scripture right here in verse 17. 00:05:49.519 --> 00:05:57.120 So he says, no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:02.000 Well, I really wanted to know what futility meant to them. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:04.639 And the word is, I'm gonna butcher this word. 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:06.160 You see it behind me, I think. 00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:11.120 Matoete's how do you say it, Neil? 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:13.360 So you see it on the script. 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:23.279 I don't know how you put that together, but its definition is emptiness, purposelessness, producing no real fruit. 00:06:23.279 --> 00:06:26.000 There's no truth or substance. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:34.720 Ultimately saying that when you're not connected in Christ, all of your thinking, all of our thinking before Christ is complete garbage and complete rubbish. 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:35.600 Okay? 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:46.800 All of our thinking has no meaning, it has no foundation, it has no setting because all of our hopes and dreams before we come to Christ are just built on sand. 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:49.759 It's there's it's useless. 00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:54.480 So no longer walk with the useless mindsets of our old life. 00:06:54.480 --> 00:06:57.600 So a gentile, in case you don't know, those are us, right? 00:06:57.600 --> 00:06:59.600 It's anybody that's not a Jewish person. 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:04.480 And then we get saved and we come into the life of Christ and we become adopted children of his. 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:07.680 But before that we were called Gentiles. 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:12.240 So you know, don't have this mindset any longer. 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:27.279 So then we continue to go on, and I love how he broke this down because he he said that these people and us, and I say these people, us, our old life, we were darkened in our understanding. 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:33.439 And when we were darkened in our understanding, it was again, we had no thoughts that were worth anything. 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:37.680 Then we're darkened in our understanding because of our ignorance. 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:42.560 And here's the thing today, in today's world, we think that ignorant is a bad word. 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:45.519 It's not, it means untrained, right? 00:07:45.519 --> 00:07:49.920 So it's not bad that we're saying this, we're not calling somebody a bad word. 00:07:49.920 --> 00:08:01.839 So we're ignorant, which then caused our hearts to be calloused and hardened because we look at ourselves as God. 00:08:01.839 --> 00:08:05.519 All of us are all about ourselves. 00:08:05.519 --> 00:08:11.040 Before we come to Christ and realize that this life is all about him, it's all about us. 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:23.519 And it's wild as he starts breaking into this because even in 17 through 19, I feel like I'm reading the newsletter of today of what's going on because nothing has changed. 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:26.480 We're still the same. 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:33.600 We're always trying to fulfill our own desires because all that matters is us. 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:41.679 And so we get to this point when we're not saved, and the truth doesn't matter. 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:53.679 How many people in the room have have talked to somebody and you're trying to walk them through something, and you feel like you just want to punch them because they just keep doing the same stuff, expecting different results. 00:08:53.679 --> 00:08:56.320 But it doesn't work. 00:08:56.320 --> 00:09:02.720 And you could tell them truth, truth could be standing in front of them, and they would run the opposite direction. 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:05.120 That was most of us. 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:17.679 Because we needed something to come inside of us and take our vision off of ourself to get the darkness out of our mind. 00:09:17.679 --> 00:09:21.440 There's only one that can do that, and that's the Holy Spirit. 00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:26.159 And I'm so thankful that God allows that and comes in. 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:30.000 But how do we come to the place of knowing the Holy Spirit? 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:34.480 How do we come to the place of the Holy Spirit coming inside of us? 00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:41.440 And we see in verse 20, it's not the way you learned Christ. 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:45.360 So again, this is one of those places where I stopped again. 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:47.600 And I says, What is learned? 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:55.679 Because the truth is, is I could go read any car magazine and learn a few things about a car, and hey, it's great. 00:09:55.679 --> 00:09:57.360 Now I know a little bit about a car. 00:09:57.360 --> 00:10:00.639 Uh you could go read an owner's manual for half of us in the room. 00:10:00.639 --> 00:10:01.840 That'll never happen. 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:14.559 But we can go and we can read a little bit about it, but it just goes back in the glove box, or it just goes back in the box as we're trying to build something and we throw it away and we're trying to figure out why this thing won't go together. 00:10:14.559 --> 00:10:16.960 It's because you missed step seven, right? 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:19.600 So this is what we do. 00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:26.559 We go and we think we learned something, but this is not the learned that Paul is talking about. 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:30.799 The learned here is, and I'm gonna try this word, mano. 00:10:30.799 --> 00:10:33.039 That makes the most sense. 00:10:33.039 --> 00:10:34.000 Manthano. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:38.399 But it's learning from a teacher in a way that shapes a student. 00:10:38.399 --> 00:10:42.960 Learning that changes the student. 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:47.360 This is not you sit down and you hear some instruction. 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:58.320 This is not some head knowledge where you go to college and you're sitting there in class and you're just trying to retain it for two weeks so that you can pass your final and forget it it ever happened. 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:00.639 That was my whole high school experience. 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:03.840 Get me through. 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:08.639 But it's bringing it from the head knowledge into heart knowledge. 00:11:08.639 --> 00:11:12.879 Head knowledge is it's fine. 00:11:12.879 --> 00:11:16.480 But for eternity, it's useless. 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:20.720 It's just a bunch of stuff up there. 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:25.840 If it doesn't change, if it doesn't do something, it's useless. 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:31.279 So the key distinction there is people who heard the gospel that just walked away. 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:33.919 And we've seen that, and some of us have even done that. 00:11:33.919 --> 00:11:37.039 Some of us in the room right now are still trying to run so hard. 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:38.240 Stop running. 00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:39.600 It's exhausting. 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:47.120 But those who heard the gospel and allowed it to come in and transformed their mind. 00:11:47.120 --> 00:11:49.200 A couple of examples. 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:57.519 Before I understood what abortion was, I just knew that it was something that people did if they didn't want to be pregnant. 00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:00.960 And then I came to know Jesus and my life changed. 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:08.559 And then all of a sudden, I heard abortion and I learned what it meant by seeing a video of how it happens. 00:12:08.559 --> 00:12:15.600 And I'm gonna tell you right now, my whole life changed around learning what it meant to have an abortion. 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:19.600 And now I know that it's wrong, and scripturally it's wrong. 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:24.159 And so my whole life then changed around the thought of that. 00:12:24.159 --> 00:12:27.600 And what we're talking about is biblical worldview. 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:32.399 It's allowing our lives to be what the Word of God says. 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:37.360 If it says it's wrong, we know it's wrong, not believe, no, right? 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:58.720 But the thing is, is you see the difference of when you have learned something, I'll go and I will fight against things and I will uh not literally fight, but I will push through and sign and uh vote, whatever needs to be done to make sure that this heinous action of abortion has to stop. 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:03.840 It changed me because I learned it. 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:10.480 Then another one that kind of shapes how I've done things as I was growing up, I didn't have a whole lot. 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:16.320 So when I got the opportunity to spend money, I did previously, just all over the place. 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:19.759 And I found this little plastic thing that would allow me to buy anything. 00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:27.840 And um, and I'd swipe it and swipe it and swipe it until I started getting these letters in the mail saying I had to pay that back at 28% interest. 00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:34.559 And wait, I don't understand, but it took like I'd heard, I knew what they were. 00:13:34.559 --> 00:13:40.080 I truthfully knew what was gonna happen when I swiped the credit card, but apparently I didn't learn its consequences. 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:48.879 So when I learned what happened, my life changed, and I said, I'm gonna stop doing that. 00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:54.240 I'm no longer going to swipe a card and pay stupid interest for something. 00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:56.159 I'm going to get debt free. 00:13:56.159 --> 00:13:59.200 And my wife and I did, and we're debt-free today. 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:04.960 Because you learn something, it changed the way I do things. 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:09.600 That's the kind of learning that he's talking about. 00:14:09.600 --> 00:14:17.279 Not that you step into a classroom, but you come in and you learn by a teacher and he disciples you. 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:19.279 We've been talking about discipling. 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:21.120 We walk with one another. 00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:26.720 Iron sharpened iron doesn't mean that the two swords stay rusty. 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:37.759 They scratch against one another to keep themselves shiny and bright, but that doesn't feel good for the sword because you see little red things that fly off. 00:14:37.759 --> 00:14:39.039 They're called sparks. 00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:40.399 Yellow sparks. 00:14:40.399 --> 00:14:43.039 I'm sure if it had feelings, it would hurt. 00:14:43.039 --> 00:15:00.720 But it's time that we have true learning, which is what 21 he says, assuming, he's making an assumption here, that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:02.639 This is a big part again. 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:14.720 These scriptures are so deep, and the truth is we could sit here for a month of sermons and just one scripture at a time, because you're taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:17.360 How many know that truth is Jesus? 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:18.960 He's the definition. 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:21.440 If he said it, it's gonna happen. 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:23.440 Truth is in him. 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:27.840 Now the question is the truth that's in him that makes him up. 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:30.000 I mean, he's the definition of truth. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:34.240 The way that the truth is in him, are we in Jesus? 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:35.440 That same way. 00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:37.360 Right? 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:41.919 So when we learn Jesus, we learn about, it's not learn about him. 00:15:41.919 --> 00:15:42.320 Nope. 00:15:42.320 --> 00:15:44.000 It's learn him. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:46.879 Because Paul never said learned about Jesus. 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:49.440 He said you learned Jesus. 00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:55.919 So then the truth in us about him should be that same truth that's like Jesus. 00:15:55.919 --> 00:15:59.039 But yet we can't do that in ourselves. 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:03.120 It goes back to the Holy Spirit again. 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:10.000 When we learn Jesus and his life comes in and truly changes us, the Holy Spirit comes in. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:13.679 Because here's the truth, and we see this through other of Paul's letters. 00:16:13.679 --> 00:16:22.159 We cannot come to Jesus about the knowledge of Jesus without the Holy Spirit coming and revealing to us our need. 00:16:22.159 --> 00:16:31.759 So I thank God that God uses us to bring the gospel to people, but I also thank God that I'm not the one that has to change your heart. 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:35.360 Because nothing would happen. 00:16:35.360 --> 00:16:37.919 I might be able to force you into a couple things. 00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:40.639 You'll just learn about it and you won't learn it. 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:43.679 But the Holy Spirit comes into our life. 00:16:43.679 --> 00:16:48.799 That is how we can be in Jesus like the truth is in Jesus. 00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:57.039 Because Jesus Christ allows his spirit to come inside of us, and that's how we see lost lives change. 00:16:57.039 --> 00:17:01.279 That's how we see that the former manner of life was wrong. 00:17:01.279 --> 00:17:07.599 That's how we see that we need to allow something to change inside of us. 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:10.720 It's learning that changes us. 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:23.359 One of my favorite things that I found here in verse 22, he says, put off the old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through its deceitful desires. 00:17:23.359 --> 00:17:26.160 Mark already touched on this a little bit. 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:30.079 Must mean that the Lord's really wanting us to hear it today. 00:17:30.079 --> 00:17:37.599 But what he's talking about when he says, put off the old clothes, he's uh in this scripture, he says put off the old self. 00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:39.119 He's talking about old clothes. 00:17:39.119 --> 00:17:41.920 All right, he uses a metaphor for clothing. 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:44.000 Now, for us, it's not a big deal. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:46.079 My closet's full of clothes. 00:17:46.079 --> 00:17:49.759 If you have me throw away one of my old work shirts, it's fine. 00:17:49.759 --> 00:17:51.119 I got 15 more. 00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:55.519 If you tell me my jeans are too ripped up and they got too much paint on them, it's fine. 00:17:55.519 --> 00:17:56.960 I've got 12 more. 00:17:56.960 --> 00:17:59.759 And I'm sure as do most of us here. 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:07.680 But in this time, they usually had about three items and they wore them daily, all three of them. 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:10.319 So they didn't have closets to go to. 00:18:10.319 --> 00:18:14.799 Matter of fact, these clothes they would pass down from generation to generation. 00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:15.920 Right? 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:26.000 And so if you were good enough and blessed enough to get a new set of clothing, you would pass that old clothing down to your son so that he could have some nicer clothes. 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:36.400 They would never throw clothing away until it was filthy, too stained to wash, rotten, could no longer be repaired. 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:38.640 Is it starting to sound like something? 00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:41.920 It's our life before Jesus. 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:51.440 We tried over and over and over in our life to wash the sin out of our life because we want to do the right thing. 00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:54.559 Oh, because you know, that's just what everybody else is doing. 00:18:54.559 --> 00:18:56.480 It's moralism, right? 00:18:56.480 --> 00:19:07.599 So if I just do right enough, if I'm just nice enough, and if I can just clean up my outer garments just enough, then maybe I'll be accepted in. 00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:11.759 But that is totally against the word of God. 00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:16.880 These old clothes, we can't wash them clean. 00:19:16.880 --> 00:19:19.759 We can't repair them enough. 00:19:19.759 --> 00:19:21.920 They're too rotten already. 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:24.480 They smell me coming from the front lot. 00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:29.359 We we can no longer wear these things. 00:19:29.359 --> 00:19:34.480 They're severely defiled, totally unrepairable. 00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:37.680 But there's awesome news. 00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:40.400 And it started in 23. 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:48.160 But it says, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds brings me back to one of my favorite scriptures that I think about a lot, is Romans 12, 2. 00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:52.400 Be not conformed to the ways of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 00:19:52.400 --> 00:19:56.799 And he says it again in, I think it was Romans 6, he's talking about the dead man. 00:19:56.799 --> 00:19:58.000 We'll talk about that in a second. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:19:59.200 There was another one in Colossians. 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:00.880 So we really like to say this. 00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:07.839 But we need to allow the learning to actually come in and change us. 00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:12.240 No longer keep putting on these old clothes. 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:25.200 He says, to put on the new clothes and the new self in verse 24, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:39.039 So we don't just get new clothes from Abercrombie, we get new robes of righteousness, like Jesus, like God, in the likeness of God. 00:20:39.039 --> 00:20:48.000 And I'm reminded to uh back in Genesis chapter one, when God says, Let us make man in our image to be like us. 00:20:48.000 --> 00:21:04.160 God always originally wanted us to be with him, like him, but yet we separated ourselves from him, and in his great righteousness and mercy, he brought us back in through the blood of Jesus, right? 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:09.200 But he's always putting righteous clothing on us. 00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:10.319 Think about this. 00:21:10.319 --> 00:21:16.400 Jesus is given the parable of the uh rich man and the son, and the son takes off and goes off. 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:22.480 And one of the last things we hear in the parable is before he comes back to the father, he's eaten in a pigsty, right? 00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:27.200 And he's like, Man, if I could just go back and be a servant in my father's house, it'll be much better. 00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:28.880 And he's running down the road. 00:21:28.880 --> 00:21:32.400 And what's one of the first things that the ruler did? 00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:39.839 Put a robe, put it the righteousness on him, the nice clothes, a ring on his finger, brought him back into the house. 00:21:39.839 --> 00:21:42.160 And so it wasn't about the old clothes anymore. 00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:45.279 Well, no, I've covered that's covered by my blood, right? 00:21:45.279 --> 00:21:47.119 And in this way of saying. 00:21:47.119 --> 00:22:06.160 So I love to hear that he's saying to us put on the new clothes, stop wearing the old, trash, broken, ripped, stinky, filthy clothes, and put on the news On the righteous outer garments that I've given you because you're now covered by my blood. 00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:08.960 You're in a new family, in a new way. 00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:12.640 It's a different way of living. 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:16.400 He has made all of this possible. 00:22:16.400 --> 00:22:20.799 But so often we continue to try to hide things. 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:28.799 He's talking about earlier, allowing the old self to be alive, to not letting the Lord change us. 00:22:28.799 --> 00:22:31.839 And so we feel really comfortable in our old clothes. 00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:33.200 Really comfortable. 00:22:33.200 --> 00:22:41.200 My wife years ago, now she's in the back work, and I'm probably going to get beat up for this, but she had this pair of sweatpants from high school. 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:47.119 And she wore them to bed every night till about eight years ago. 00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:50.799 And they were torn to shreds. 00:22:50.799 --> 00:22:51.759 I don't know why. 00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:55.359 Like, I'm not sure how they made it through the washer each time. 00:22:55.359 --> 00:22:58.160 But she loved them. 00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:02.000 One day they disappeared. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:08.880 And in their place came some nice new sweatpants. 00:23:08.880 --> 00:23:11.759 Yeah, I threw them away. 00:23:11.759 --> 00:23:18.000 But she wanted to wear those old ones because they were comfortable. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:25.599 How many times in our life do we continue wearing the old clothes because they're comfortable? 00:23:25.599 --> 00:23:37.359 How many times are we trying to cherish our sin because it feels good and we don't know anything different because we've not tasted of the goodness and the righteousness of God? 00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:42.079 Some of us are too afraid to lay it down because it's been so good. 00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:43.359 It's felt right. 00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:45.759 It's the way that I've done it for so many years. 00:23:45.759 --> 00:23:47.759 It's the only way I know. 00:23:47.759 --> 00:23:54.799 And the Lord's saying, it stinks, it's filthy, it's trash, it's torn up. 00:23:54.799 --> 00:23:59.519 Throw it in the trash because it no longer belongs on your body. 00:23:59.519 --> 00:24:09.200 And that's what Paul's reminding us of is that the old clothes don't have any right to be in your home. 00:24:09.200 --> 00:24:10.319 None. 00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:14.000 We must throw them out. 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:16.160 I'm gonna do something here. 00:24:16.160 --> 00:24:22.000 If everybody would stay seated for just a second, Timothy, would you turn out all the lights? 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:24.160 Okay, but I want you to look around. 00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:26.000 You can still see clearly, right? 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:28.559 Why can you still see clearly? 00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:30.480 Somebody say it. 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:32.000 Light. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:33.200 Light. 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:35.359 Alright, turn them back on, Timothy. 00:24:35.359 --> 00:24:36.319 Light. 00:24:36.319 --> 00:24:42.880 When Jesus comes into your life, light enters into your heart. 00:24:42.880 --> 00:24:48.240 This room could not go dark because light is infiltrating it. 00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:54.160 When you bring light into a dark place, it will never stay dark. 00:24:54.160 --> 00:24:55.599 It can't. 00:24:55.599 --> 00:25:05.519 So you're telling me this morning, but I've got Jesus in my life, and I'm trying to live this way, but I'm gonna hold on to the one thing: the darkness. 00:25:05.519 --> 00:25:10.480 You're fighting to hold on to some darkness in your life. 00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:13.759 But we're supposed to cast those darkness out. 00:25:13.759 --> 00:25:15.599 And the light already does it. 00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:18.559 This is not something you have to do. 00:25:18.559 --> 00:25:20.400 You have to allow it. 00:25:20.400 --> 00:25:24.240 My wife could have gone to the garbage can that day and pulled them back out. 00:25:24.240 --> 00:25:31.599 But she decided to leave it there because she knew after she put on the new ones they were much more comfortable. 00:25:31.599 --> 00:25:35.200 And she was okay with it after that. 00:25:35.200 --> 00:25:39.039 But it took actually trying on the new clothes. 00:25:39.039 --> 00:25:42.880 And that's what we have to do. 00:25:42.880 --> 00:25:46.799 We have to stop putting on the old stuff. 00:25:46.799 --> 00:25:50.400 We have to stop making excuses for our sin. 00:25:50.400 --> 00:25:53.839 We have to stop saying, but oh, this is okay. 00:25:53.839 --> 00:25:55.759 It doesn't cause me any problems. 00:25:55.759 --> 00:25:57.839 It's all right if I wear it. 00:25:57.839 --> 00:26:02.319 No, it has no right to be in your life. 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:03.519 None. 00:26:03.519 --> 00:26:14.400 And the light's trying to dispel it, and you're wondering why you're still walking through hell, and it's because you're sitting there literally fighting with hell to keep it there. 00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:18.480 When the light's trying to push it out. 00:26:18.480 --> 00:26:25.599 Sometimes we fight ourselves when we could just let the Lord take it out. 00:26:25.599 --> 00:26:30.480 Well, I don't know what my life would be like if I didn't go to the bar anymore and hang out. 00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:34.720 I don't know what my life would be like anymore if I didn't go to that party. 00:26:34.720 --> 00:26:39.599 I don't know what my life would be like anymore if I didn't watch those videos I shouldn't watch. 00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:46.400 I don't know what it would be like because it's just something I've done for so many years. 00:26:46.400 --> 00:26:51.759 When we come to Jesus, we should give it all up. 00:26:51.759 --> 00:26:53.359 100%. 00:26:53.359 --> 00:26:57.519 The clothes don't belong in the closet no more. 00:26:57.519 --> 00:27:00.559 They need to be out in the trash can getting burned. 00:27:00.559 --> 00:27:03.920 And that's what we need to be doing every morning. 00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:07.759 Deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. 00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:12.559 And allow the righteous wear of God to come inside. 00:27:12.559 --> 00:27:16.000 Allow that righteous wear to be put on. 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:20.559 Because he doesn't want you to walk around in filthy rags anymore. 00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:24.799 He doesn't want you to stink from seven miles down the road. 00:27:24.799 --> 00:27:28.720 He wants you to smell good to people when you come around them. 00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:32.720 Maybe your attitude still sucks and it's trash. 00:27:32.720 --> 00:27:36.720 And you need to allow the Lord to come in and change that. 00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:58.079 Because here's the truth: when we come in and we allow the dead man to be alive, the Holy Spirit comes inside of us and begins to transform us with repentance, with kindness, with grace, with love, with mercy, with generosity, and so on and so on. 00:27:58.079 --> 00:28:04.319 Those things will become of us when we just allow Him to do it. 00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:12.319 But we can no longer put on new clothes if the old clothes stench and everything is still right there. 00:28:12.319 --> 00:28:19.119 You know, you've got one sleeve in the nice new righteous robe and one sleeve in the falling apart robe. 00:28:19.119 --> 00:28:22.319 That's not, that doesn't work. 00:28:22.319 --> 00:28:34.160 So we need to allow the Holy Spirit to come inside of us and change us because the gospel doesn't change, but yet people are teaching that it does. 00:28:34.160 --> 00:28:41.599 And what we're seeing on Facebook and what we're seeing on TikTok and Twitter and Instagram, I don't know what all's out there still. 00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:42.880 But there's a lot of them. 00:28:42.880 --> 00:28:45.680 And it's a lot of terrible news and a lot of lies. 00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:54.240 There's a false gospel that's floating around saying that it's alright to live in sin and wear the old clothes. 00:28:54.240 --> 00:28:58.799 It's alright to do that because, oh no, that's not what the scripture says. 00:28:58.799 --> 00:29:03.519 It's alright to live with your boyfriend or your girlfriend for six years before you get married. 00:29:03.519 --> 00:29:06.880 It's totally fine to be sleeping around with multiple people. 00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:09.680 It's fine to get drunk three times a month. 00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:15.200 It's totally fine as long as you just say a prayer once in a while. 00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:17.440 That's a false gospel. 00:29:17.440 --> 00:29:19.759 That is nothing that's been in the scripture. 00:29:19.759 --> 00:29:22.480 That is not what we should live like. 00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:25.200 The old should be gone. 00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:27.200 It should be gone. 00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:37.440 It's not an option to wear the new clothes that Christ has given you of righteousness in the likeness of God. 00:29:37.440 --> 00:29:40.960 The old clothes have to be burned. 00:29:40.960 --> 00:29:44.319 The old clothes have to go away. 00:29:44.319 --> 00:29:49.200 Now we're starting our fast this evening. 00:29:49.200 --> 00:29:57.200 And what a time it would be to take the time while we're fasting to pray. 00:29:57.200 --> 00:30:02.720 As Mark prayed a minute ago, Lord, reveal in me any wicked way. 00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:05.039 That was David's prayer. 00:30:05.039 --> 00:30:13.759 Because if we want good and real fruit to come out of us, then we gotta be planted in good soil. 00:30:13.759 --> 00:30:22.000 If you take a beautiful plant down here at Lowe's and you take it home and you stick it in really bad soil, it's gonna die. 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:41.519 And yet we think daily that we can take our life and keep planting in trash soil with all of this stuff coming in our mind, all these terrible things that we watch, our mouth, our talk, and hanging out, listening to nasty stuff with the boys, and all of this gossip that's going on, and we think we're gonna grow well. 00:30:41.519 --> 00:30:49.200 This would be the perfect time to stop and say, Lord, I want to be like you. 00:30:49.200 --> 00:31:01.839 When I wear my righteous robes that you gave to me, I want to be in the likeness of God, in the holiness of God, because you have allowed me to step into that. 00:31:01.839 --> 00:31:12.640 I didn't earn my way there, but you gave it to me and say that I can stand boldly in the throne room with you, God. 00:31:12.640 --> 00:31:16.240 You, Lord, give us that opportunity. 00:31:16.240 --> 00:31:22.640 But we can't step in because we keep wearing the nasty clothes. 00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:27.599 And God's saying to us this morning, throw them off. 00:31:27.599 --> 00:31:33.839 Throw them off, for you are in Christ if you've learned Him. 00:31:33.839 --> 00:31:37.599 And that's what our sermon series is about. 00:31:37.599 --> 00:31:39.200 In Christ. 00:31:39.200 --> 00:31:48.880 So, Father, we just pray right now that there be any wicked way within us, Lord, that we would cast it off. 00:31:48.880 --> 00:32:08.720 Lord, that we would forcefully throw it in the garbage, that we would want nothing of our old life, nothing because it feels good, nothing because we know what really feels good is to have your robe of righteousness in the likeness of God placed onto us. 00:32:08.720 --> 00:32:26.160 God, and in the areas that we have not learned truly in our heart who you are, that you would reveal to us even as we start to fast and pray, Lord, that you would come in and change us from the inside, Lord. 00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:33.440 That we would no longer wear the trash robes, that we would no longer stink to the world. 00:32:33.440 --> 00:32:47.039 God, that we would no longer keep trying to put this stuff on and claim that the light has come into us, even though we're trying to hide little dark pockets and make a little shelter for our dark pockets. 00:32:47.039 --> 00:33:03.680 That you would break through your light through them, Lord, and that they would burn them out of our life so that we can have that robe that looks like you, that smells like you, that lives a life like you want us to live, Father. 00:33:03.680 --> 00:33:06.799 We thank you for it in Jesus' name.