Mark Medley: Are you hungry for the word?
Mark Medley: Are you hungry too?
Mark Medley: Okay, well, sorry.
Mark Medley: I don't know.
Mark Medley: We're in chapter four of Ephesians, and uh Derek set the table for us last week, which is actually also not a great metaphor for the fast, is it?
Mark Medley: Sorry.
Mark Medley: But he did set the table for us last week, and he helped us to see that there's a contrast uh between putting off and the putting on, something old and something new, that there's a feudal or empty way of living, and there's a non-feudal, full of life way of living.
Mark Medley: And so uh that was setting the stage for what we're talking about this week because this is very, very practical.
Mark Medley: What does it mean to put off the old and put on the new?
Mark Medley: So let's read today from Ephesians 4, starting in verse 25, to the end of the chapter.
Mark Medley: Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are all members one of another.
Mark Medley: Be angry and do not sin.
Mark Medley: Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.
Mark Medley: Let the thief no longer steal, but let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
Mark Medley: Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Mark Medley: And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Mark Medley: Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Mark Medley: Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.
Mark Medley: Father, we are grateful for your word.
Mark Medley: We believe that it is life.
Mark Medley: We open our hearts and ask you to speak to us individually, directly to each need.
Mark Medley: We ask you to speak to us as a corporate body as well.
Mark Medley: Lord, we we um hunger for your word even more than our necessary food, Lord.
Mark Medley: We hunger for your truth and for you.
Mark Medley: So we ask you to fill us up this morning.
Mark Medley: Give us a feast from your word in Jesus' name.
Mark Medley: Amen.
Mark Medley: So the previous verses that Derek covered last week, basically he was saying, don't, and Paul was saying, God is saying, don't walk like the people who don't know God, who've not been made new by the Spirit.
Mark Medley: Walk differently.
Mark Medley: The way you think and you and the way you act and the way that you speak reveals the condition of your heart.
Mark Medley: That's what he was saying.
Mark Medley: There's a distinct way that people who are born from above live.
Mark Medley: And this morning, the contrast really couldn't be any greater this morning.
Mark Medley: It's literally, don't do this, do that.
Mark Medley: Don't do this, do that.
Mark Medley: Don't live that way, but live this way.
Mark Medley: He's clothed us in righteousness, but we have to put it on practically.
Mark Medley: So where you are, which kingdom you are, your clothes look differently when you're in the kingdom of darkness than they do in the kingdom of light.
Mark Medley: So Amy and I just got back a few weeks ago from India, and um, when we were there, there's something, it's kind of like a value that they have.
Mark Medley: These people that that we were working with in Bangalore, um, I know them for many years, and they um they they kind of loved us.
Mark Medley: They knew me when I was married to Melissa, they knew me when I lost Melissa, and then they they actually celebrated with us when we were there.
Mark Medley: We were doing uh actually a marriage seminar as part of what we were doing there.
Mark Medley: So what they did was they kind of set the stage up like a wedding, and then they gave us these clothes, and the clothes that they gave us were um kind of it's it's their wedding clothes.
Mark Medley: They're wedding clothes if you live in South India, okay.
Mark Medley: So I actually was gonna wear this today.
Mark Medley: Um, but a wise person told me, ask your wife whether you should or not.
Mark Medley: And so I did.
Mark Medley: She very kindly said, Maybe you should just show the picture.
Mark Medley: And yes, it is a skirt.
Mark Medley: Um and so, and you that's not the first skirt you've seen me in, though, right?
Mark Medley: I mean, if you've been here to the Servants Heart Banquet, you've seen me in something else like that.
Mark Medley: But it's not my normal way of dressing.
Mark Medley: Okay, that's my whole point.
Mark Medley: It's not my normal way of dressing.
Mark Medley: When you're there, you dress like that.
Mark Medley: In that country, in you're in this country, I dress like this, right?
Mark Medley: That's it.
Mark Medley: You look differently, you're clothed differently.
Mark Medley: I was thinking this morning as we were worshiping and as Heather was sharing, uh, how Jesus, it says that that in heaven, the saints are clothed, they're bright and clean.
Mark Medley: The final linen that they're given is the righteousness that they're given, right?
Mark Medley: This clothes, these clothes are the clothes that Jesus, Jesus died to buy for us, right?
Mark Medley: So, so listen, we're in the middle of a church-wide fast, right?
Mark Medley: We're asking God to work in our hearts.
Mark Medley: We have some things we're we're praying for and asking him for.
Mark Medley: What he wants most is he wants us.
Mark Medley: And if you look in the in the seat back in front of you, there's a there's a little card, a little index card.
Mark Medley: I'd like for you to get that one out if you've if you will.
Mark Medley: And um, we're gonna have a prayer time after the service, probably be a little before 12.
Mark Medley: We're just gonna dismiss people to get the kids of uh and um then come back out and we're going to we're gonna pray together as we have been praying together.
Mark Medley: But I want to ask you to take a journey with me through this passage this morning and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the things to you that He wants to reveal to you.
Mark Medley: And then write those things down.
Mark Medley: If there's something that you need to put off, write it down.
Mark Medley: If there's something you need to put on, write it down this morning.
Mark Medley: And if the and after our the service and our prayer time, we want to do some business with God.
Mark Medley: I mean, let's just don't hear a sermon this morning.
Mark Medley: Let's let's let the word of God do a work inside of us.
Mark Medley: Let the Holy Spirit show us some things.
Mark Medley: Amen.
Mark Medley: That's good?
Mark Medley: So write it, whatever you hear from the Lord, write it down.
Mark Medley: Okay, so here we go.
Mark Medley: Don't live like this, live like that.
Mark Medley: But it's easy to think of these verses as just a list of do's and don'ts, right?
Mark Medley: Don't lie, speak the truth.
Mark Medley: Don't steal, work with your hands, that kind of a thing.
Mark Medley: And that's you know, it's easy for us to approach God on the basis of our performance.
Mark Medley: It's kind of our default mode of approaching God.
Mark Medley: But what chapter are we in this morning?
Mark Medley: It's not rhetorical, you can say it.
Mark Medley: What chapter?
Mark Medley: Chapter four, right?
Mark Medley: Which means, yes, there are there are three and a half chapters before these verses that we just read.
Mark Medley: There are three and a half chapters talking about what God has already done for us in Christ before he even gets to the imperative.
Mark Medley: So here's what you should do.
Mark Medley: Paul doesn't start with morality, with our moral, um, our moral or ethical actions.
Mark Medley: Yeah.
Mark Medley: So he's starting, there's another place he's starting.
Mark Medley: He's starting with what God has already done.
Mark Medley: He's grounding us in the basics.
Mark Medley: Because the you can I think you should put that, you could take that picture down because I feel like it's distracting me.
Mark Medley: I don't know if it's distracting you or not.
Mark Medley: It's just the slightest bit disturbing to me.
Mark Medley: But it's okay.
Mark Medley: I don't wear skirts.
Mark Medley: All right, I don't.
Mark Medley: Just so you know.
Mark Medley: Paul's grounding us in the in the basics, right?
Mark Medley: And there's there's a famous example of this in the early 1960s, if you'll if you'll allow me a sports metaphor, when the Green Bay Packers uh squandered a lead late in the fourth quarter and lost the the championship.
Mark Medley: This was before Super Bowl back in the day, lost the NFL championship to the of all people, the Philadelphia Eagles.
Mark Medley: Come on.
Mark Medley: The first day of first day of training camp the next July, the coach got them all together, and they're all like, okay, we almost were there, but we lost it.
Mark Medley: We lost it.
Mark Medley: And he famously, the legendary coach, Vince Lombardi, famously lifted up a pig skin and he said, Gentlemen, this is a football.
Mark Medley: And he began to go to the very, very basics.
Mark Medley: Now, they're maybe they were thinking like, well, we want to, we all know this, but he went back to the very basics.
Mark Medley: How do you block?
Mark Medley: How do you tackle?
Mark Medley: Turn to page one of the playbook.
Mark Medley: Here's what we're doing.
Mark Medley: And he was obsessed with basics.
Mark Medley: And he decided that he was going to have a team that were the very best at the things that everybody else took for granted.
Mark Medley: The basics is what they were going to do the best.
Mark Medley: Long story short is uh six months later, they won the NFL championship, beating the New York Giants 37 to zero.
Mark Medley: Okay.
Mark Medley: So this is like if you if you focus on the gentleman, this is a football.
Mark Medley: This is go back to what is most basic.
Mark Medley: This is exactly what Paul did.
Mark Medley: Church, here's what God has done for us in Christ.
Mark Medley: We are alive from the dead, we're adopted, we're forgiven, we're transformed, we're seated with Christ in the heavenlies, we're put into a body of believers.
Mark Medley: We're saved by God's gift of grace through our faith in a finished work, period.
Mark Medley: Full stop.
Mark Medley: That's it.
Mark Medley: This is our anchor.
Mark Medley: This is where we rest.
Mark Medley: This is where our soul rests, right here.
Mark Medley: Paul.
Mark Medley: Paul set the table.
Mark Medley: Gentlemen, here are the basics.
Mark Medley: And we have to remind ourselves of this all the time because our default mode is to go back into I need to perform for God.
Mark Medley: And then when we're not perfect, and when we don't perform well, we have an accuser, the devil, and he accuses us.
Mark Medley: And we have, but we're trying to measure up and gain merit so that God will owe us heaven, owe us blessings because we're so good.
Mark Medley: We got to start at the beginning, and this is what Paul did for three and a half chapters.
Mark Medley: Gentlemen, this is a football.
Mark Medley: What are our basics?
Mark Medley: This bread is my body broken for you.
Mark Medley: This this wine is my blood poured out for you.
Mark Medley: Do this in remembrance of me.
Mark Medley: Go back to the basics.
Mark Medley: Jesus set the table.
Mark Medley: Literally.
Mark Medley: He's at the Lord's table.
Mark Medley: This is it.
Mark Medley: We don't approach God on the basis of our zealous works or keeping a list of rules, our performance, but on the basis of what he's done for us.
Mark Medley: I keep saying this over and over because the Bible keeps saying this over and over.
Mark Medley: And Paul is laying that foundation.
Mark Medley: I came across this quote from Dane Ortland in his book, Deeper.
Mark Medley: He said, You can't crowbar your way into change.
Mark Medley: You can only be melted.
Mark Medley: Reflection on the wonder of the gospel, that we're justified simply by looking away from self to the finished work of Christ on our behalf softens our hearts.
Mark Medley: And when our hearts are soft, what did we read this morning?
Mark Medley: Tenderhearted.
Mark Medley: What did Derek read last week?
Mark Medley: The people who didn't know God, they were calloused in their hearts.
Mark Medley: Understanding the gospel softens our hearts.
Mark Medley: This is where change happens.
Mark Medley: From the inside out, it changes.
Mark Medley: But then, chapter 4, Paul takes a turn and he makes his way into moral behavior because the way we think and act and speak are the evidence of a transformed heart.
Mark Medley: And they are the way we represent Jesus to the world.
Mark Medley: And it is the way he brings blessing into our lives and through us to other people as well.
Mark Medley: Do we dare to believe that there is a way to live?
Mark Medley: Living righteously that is opens the doorway to blessing into our lives?
Mark Medley: Just as opening the door to sin or living in unrighteously opens the door to sin and curse, living righteously opens the door to blessing into our lives.
Mark Medley: There's a way to live.
Mark Medley: So this is not just a list of do's and don'ts.
Mark Medley: It's actually the way a free person lives.
Mark Medley: It's what a life of a person set free looks like.
Mark Medley: With each command, there's freedom to live the life that honors God, that blesses others and blesses us.
Mark Medley: That's what we're really talking about here.
Mark Medley: There's a verse in the Proverbs, Proverbs 13, 15.
Mark Medley: And in the King James Version, it says it this way Good understanding giveth favor.
Mark Medley: But the way of transgressors is hard.
Mark Medley: The way of transgressors is hard.
Mark Medley: There's a way to live your life that's hard.
Mark Medley: For you and for other people around you.
Mark Medley: And you can learn that two ways.
Mark Medley: You can learn it from the Bible, read it and believe it, and live that way, or you can learn it the hard way.
Mark Medley: You can transgress, you can sin, and you can open the door to this hardness in your life.
Mark Medley: And the fear of the Lord is a healthy, wholesome dread of displeasing God.
Mark Medley: And it's a loving what's right, and it's a hating of what's evil.
Mark Medley: And it's the beginning of wisdom, the scripture says.
Mark Medley: It's in there.
Mark Medley: But you gotta live in it, you gotta walk in it.
Mark Medley: It starts with an understanding that there's right and wrong.
Mark Medley: And we all, I think we can all agree there's there are right things and wrong things, right?
Mark Medley: But God doesn't just want good rule followers, He wants lovers.
Mark Medley: What's the greatest commandment?
Mark Medley: Follow all the commandments.
Mark Medley: No, that's not it.
Mark Medley: Keep the rules.
Mark Medley: No, that's not it.
Mark Medley: What's the greatest commandment?
Mark Medley: Love God, love people.
Mark Medley: He wants lovers.
Mark Medley: These are the ways today, what we're reading today is are the ways that we love each other.
Mark Medley: So I think what I'm reading here is that the kingdom of God is different.
Mark Medley: In the kingdom of God, morality is not the highest goal.
Mark Medley: Relationships are the highest goal.
Mark Medley: Because we read it.
Mark Medley: It says, therefore, putting away falsehood, speak truth to his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
Mark Medley: Why do we do it?
Mark Medley: Because we're members of one another.
Mark Medley: We do it because there are people around us.
Mark Medley: So this morality that is in the Bible is more than a list of rules.
Mark Medley: It's about being others oriented.
Mark Medley: One another is the reason for positive moral action.
Mark Medley: And this is this makes total sense.
Mark Medley: If you read this in the book, and I'm trying to take some pains to put this verse, these verses in context.
Mark Medley: The whole book is talking about community.
Mark Medley: We are raised up together with Christ.
Mark Medley: God has made Jew and Gentile one new man in Himself.
Mark Medley: We are to strive to maintain that unity is the very very best we can.
Mark Medley: He gives the gifted people in part to bring unity and maturity.
Mark Medley: That's part of it.
Mark Medley: And he says that he's building us together into a dwelling place for himself.
Mark Medley: So it's about context, context of community.
Mark Medley: And this now, today, what we're reading is a portrait of how we should live and conduct ourselves the way we act and speak and think with others.
Mark Medley: And this is what maturity is understanding that what I do affects you.
Mark Medley: That's what maturity is.
Mark Medley: We is more important than me.
Mark Medley: That's the only way to have a healthy marriage, only way to have a healthy family, healthy relationships, is understand that we is more important than me.
Mark Medley: And this is the reason, parents, that we teach our children the moral reasons behind what we are asking them to do.
Mark Medley: We're just not trying to make little moral robots that just do what we say.
Mark Medley: That's not the point.
Mark Medley: We're trying to control their behavior.
Mark Medley: We're trying to put the values of God in their heart so that they have something in their heart, this orientation toward other people, so that they can govern their own behavior eventually.
Mark Medley: So we don't have to be on top of them all the time, pointing our fingers, shaking, and making sure that they're doing what we say.
Mark Medley: But we're putting the moral reason why.
Mark Medley: Okay, why do you not run like a banshee through the church?
Mark Medley: Because Miss Peg is walking with a cane, because Miss Cindy is walking with a walker.
Mark Medley: Because Mr.
Mark Medley: Jack is in a wheelchair.
Mark Medley: And when you're older and you're you're with a cane, and a child is running at you like a banshee, it's terrifying.
Mark Medley: Because one wrong move, you know, a broken hip can be the end of somebody.
Mark Medley: It happens, you know?
Mark Medley: So, okay, we don't run to the church.
Mark Medley: It's not just stop running.
Mark Medley: It's we don't run because, hey, look around you.
Mark Medley: There's a context, there are people around you and they're precious.
Mark Medley: So think about how your behavior affects them.
Mark Medley: Right?
Mark Medley: Yeah.
Mark Medley: So Paul is basically telling the church what we all tell our kids.
Mark Medley: What we all learn in kindergarten, basically, Paul is telling us, right?
Mark Medley: He's okay, don't share your toys.
Mark Medley: Don't take your brother's toy.
Mark Medley: Don't lie, speak the truth.
Mark Medley: Because if you don't speak the truth, we don't have anything to base our relationship on.
Mark Medley: Yeah.
Mark Medley: Take care of people's property because it's the way we honor them.
Mark Medley: Watch your words, because words can hurt and words can help.
Mark Medley: This is what Paul is saying to the church.
Mark Medley: Really simple.
Mark Medley: But this is it.
Mark Medley: But this passage is heavy because here God is saying clearly that if you're in Christ, your life looks like this.
Mark Medley: If you're not in Christ, your life looks like this.
Mark Medley: You can tell which kingdom you're in.
Mark Medley: That's what he's saying.
Mark Medley: You can tell by your actions which kingdom you're in.
Mark Medley: And Jeremiah put it this way in the old covenant.
Mark Medley: This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days.
Mark Medley: Declares the Lord, I will put my law within them.
Mark Medley: I will write it on their hearts.
Mark Medley: I will be their God and they shall be my people.
Mark Medley: When it's in your heart and your heart changes, the actions change.
unknown: Okay.
Mark Medley: So I remembered a little story that Neil told many years ago.
Mark Medley: He was teaching out of chapter 5 of Matthew.
Mark Medley: Kingdom, the kingdom, the way the kingdom culture is, basically, that's what the Beatitudes is.
Mark Medley: The Beatitudes are this is what it this is how people act and think in the kingdom.
Mark Medley: So he said there's um there's this story, which is a true story, about the countries of Vietnam and Laos, and that when they first began to be recognized as countries, there was no border between them, no, no real physical border at all.
Mark Medley: There's not a river that goes between them.
Mark Medley: That's a line of delineation.
Mark Medley: There's no border like wall or anything like that.
Mark Medley: No real border.
Mark Medley: The way you could tell who was Vietnamese and who was from Laos is by the culture, the culture that they adapted from their kingdom.
Mark Medley: So you could tell which kingdom a person belonged to by the cultural values that they exhibited.
Mark Medley: For example, If you eat long-grain rice and you live in houses built on stilts and you have a Chinese dragon on your house, that means you're from Vietnam.
Mark Medley: If you eat short grain rice and you live in houses that are not on stilts but on the ground, and you have the Indian serpent on your house, you're from Laos.
Mark Medley: You see, if you you adapt and you live out the kingdom culture of your kingdom that you're in.
Mark Medley: That's really what Paul is saying here.
Mark Medley: You're not in that kingdom anymore.
Mark Medley: You're in this kingdom, and so therefore, live like you're in this kingdom.
Mark Medley: So which kingdom are you in this morning?
Mark Medley: That's the question.
Mark Medley: Paul is saying, here's what it looks like to live like a new man.
Mark Medley: And really he's saying, here's what it looks like to love you.
Mark Medley: Here's how I love you.
Mark Medley: What does love look like every day?
Mark Medley: The only real practical way I can show you love is the way I treat you.
Mark Medley: Therefore, he has this list.
Mark Medley: Does that make sense?
Mark Medley: It's not just a list of do's and don'ts, right?
Mark Medley: I can actually give you a gift.
Mark Medley: So if you think of it this way, what I give you, and the way I the way I'm treating you, is a gift that I'm giving you.
Mark Medley: So I give you my words, I give you my generosity, I give you truth, I give you respect.
Mark Medley: This is a gift.
Mark Medley: The way I live my life in the context of other people is I'm giving these things as gifts to people day by day.
Mark Medley: So now let's go ahead and look and see what he's talking about here.
Mark Medley: The very practical gifts that we give people day by day.
Mark Medley: Number one, put off lying, put on truth.
Mark Medley: Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Mark Medley: Okay, put away lying.
Mark Medley: What is lying?
Mark Medley: I think you know it's not telling the truth, but it's actually anything.
Mark Medley: The word actually means anything calculated to deceive.
Mark Medley: Anything that you calculate to deceive someone.
Mark Medley: So half lies are full lies.
Mark Medley: There's no such thing as a half-lie.
Mark Medley: That's not true.
Mark Medley: And because it's calculated to deceive.
Mark Medley: And you can even angle the truth until it's twisted and it deceives.
Mark Medley: I can tell you a half-truth and hold back some of the truth because I'm trying to manipulate you.
Mark Medley: And that's a lie.
Mark Medley: It's not integrity, it's not wholeness, it's not real truth.
Mark Medley: So put away those things, all those things.
Mark Medley: This is this is where your little index card comes.
Mark Medley: Okay.
Mark Medley: We're going through put offs and put-ons and see see if there's anything here that the Lord might be putting his finger on.
Mark Medley: Okay.
Mark Medley: But speak truth.
Mark Medley: Speak things as they really are to one another.
Mark Medley: Now, this is interesting too, because in all of these instances, God is not just saying don't do this.
Mark Medley: He's not just saying don't lie.
Mark Medley: He's saying there's another way that's a higher way.
Mark Medley: Not just don't do this, don't use your words this way, but rather speak the truth.
Mark Medley: Okay, so I'm actually lifting the bar, raising the bar on your truth meter.
Mark Medley: I'm raising the bar on the way that you are communicating with people.
Mark Medley: Not just don't lie, but here's what you do.
Mark Medley: Okay.
Mark Medley: And can you imagine a world where where everyone told the truth?
Mark Medley: Is that scary?
Mark Medley: Or is it liberating?
Mark Medley: I mean, if you tell me the truth, at least I know where I am with you, right?
Mark Medley: Truth's not always easy.
Mark Medley: But what if I gave you the gift of truth?
Mark Medley: Um, and that means wrapping up integrity.
Mark Medley: Integrity just means the whole picture, wholesome, wholeness.
Mark Medley: That's what it means.
Mark Medley: Things are what they really seem to be.
Mark Medley: That's what integrity is.
Mark Medley: I'm not trying to deceive you in any way.
Mark Medley: It also means reminding each other of the gospel that we've just talked about.
Mark Medley: Giving each other the truth means giving each other the gospel.
Mark Medley: Letting people understand, reminding people, you know what?
Mark Medley: Remember, Christ died for that.
Mark Medley: I know you feel lowly.
Mark Medley: I know you don't feel worthy, but you know what?
Mark Medley: This is just an open door for you to understand the greatness of God's love.
Mark Medley: What the reason God's love astounds us is because we know we're not lovely.
Mark Medley: And you can apply the gospel and you can help one another.
Mark Medley: You can speak these words of truth to one another.
Mark Medley: Um, it also means delivering something hard to hear that helps someone in humility and genuine concern for them, not in arrogance, not in harshness, but I'm giving you something hard to hear for your good, for your goodness, for the good of you.
Mark Medley: I give you a chance to grow as a human, to grow in your faith.
Mark Medley: So, way of a transgressor is hard.
Mark Medley: The way of a lying person is hard for that person and for those people around them.
Mark Medley: We can put that off and speak truth to one another.
Mark Medley: And remember, he he says it right here: speak truth because we're members one of another.
Mark Medley: Think about this in terms of the whole body of Christ, all the people who are around you, your family members, your work, your team at work, your schoolmates, all of this.
Mark Medley: Okay, number two, put off anger and put on peace.
Mark Medley: Be angry and do not sin.
Mark Medley: Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.
Mark Medley: Okay, it's really interesting.
Mark Medley: Maybe this is different than the way we think about anger, because he says two things here.
Mark Medley: Anger can easily lead to sin and trouble, but also it's possible to be angry and to not become sinful.
Mark Medley: So we have to distinguish because the Bible distinguishes between anger and sin.
Mark Medley: Anger is a natural emotion that is not inherently sinful.
Mark Medley: Sometimes it can be righteous.
Mark Medley: As Jesus was angry at the wrong that was going on.
Mark Medley: It was a righteous anger.
Mark Medley: But he says, um, it's okay to be upset by wrongdoing, but it's not okay to allow that emotion to control us and turn into rage and bitterness and personal vengeance and malice or malicious behavior.
Mark Medley: That's it.
Mark Medley: The way of an angry person is hard for them and for the people around them.
Mark Medley: So he says, resolve it quickly.
Mark Medley: Okay, anger is like uh the red light on your dashboard.
Mark Medley: Okay, anger is a sign.
Mark Medley: Anger is just something that says, hey, look at something deeper.
Mark Medley: There's something going on in your engine you need to check out, or you're gonna blow.
Mark Medley: That's anger.
Mark Medley: That's okay.
Mark Medley: It's not necessarily wrong, it's what you do with it.
Mark Medley: Don't allow it, they'll become sinful.
Mark Medley: So, how do I prevent resentment and bitterness?
Mark Medley: How do I not sin when I'm angry?
Mark Medley: Well, a good place to start would be to follow the first command we had this morning.
Mark Medley: Speak the truth in love to each other.
Mark Medley: You can actually, you can actually speak truth.
Mark Medley: You can go you can go to people and resolve things in truth.
Mark Medley: Imagine a world where everyone dealt properly with their anger and actually worked hard to resolve it and worked hard toward peace.
Mark Medley: What if I gave you the gift of peace?
Mark Medley: What if I gave you the gift of controlling my emotions by the power of the Holy Spirit when I feel angry?
Mark Medley: And come to you and try to work through those things and resolve those things before the sun goes down quickly, not letting it stew and get nasty.
Mark Medley: What if I come to you quickly, speak to you in love, and resolve it quickly?
Mark Medley: What if I gave you the gift of resolution, of reconciliation, of making sure we're all right with each other?
Mark Medley: What a gift.
Mark Medley: Okay, number three, put off stealing, put on generosity.
Mark Medley: Let the thief no longer steal, but let him rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with people in need.
Mark Medley: The way of a thief is hard for that person and for the people around him.
Mark Medley: It seems to me that Paul is just saying, repurpose your labor.
Mark Medley: You're gonna have to work hard at something.
Mark Medley: So because you know, some people work so hard at scheming toward dishonest gain, their whole life is built around scheming to get themselves something.
Mark Medley: And if they worked that hard in a positive direction for positive gain, they'd probably get a whole lot more in the end.
Mark Medley: It's a lot.
Mark Medley: They're just working hard in the wrong direction.
Mark Medley: I think Paul's saying, repurpose your labor.
Mark Medley: Make a shift from scheming to take from people to laboring to be productive to be able to give to people.
Mark Medley: It's a different, it's just a different way to work.
Mark Medley: It's a different way to spend your energy.
Mark Medley: Don't steal.
Mark Medley: And in a way, all these things we're talking about this morning are ways to steal.
Mark Medley: Because I can, if I love, if I can steal your truth, I can steal your peace, I can steal your money, I can steal your reputation, I can steal your dignity, dignity as a person.
Mark Medley: And then all these ways are ways that I can love you as well.
Mark Medley: If I love you, I won't lie to you.
Mark Medley: I will allow truth to be the standard between us and to bless your life.
Mark Medley: I will honor your property.
Mark Medley: I will give you the gift of peace on your life.
Mark Medley: So imagine a world where everyone respected everyone else's property and worked hard to make money so they could give it to those who are in need.
Mark Medley: That'd be a pretty good word.
Mark Medley: What if I gave you the gift of generosity?
Mark Medley: Of seeing what you need and being able to bless you with it.
Mark Medley: And this is not dependent upon your income.
Mark Medley: Do you know?
Mark Medley: Generous, you can be generous in a lot of different ways.
Mark Medley: And you don't have to be generous in the term terms of like thousands of dollars in generosity.
Mark Medley: You can be generous with $20.
Mark Medley: Or you can be generous with your time.
Mark Medley: So this is just a gift that you can give.
Mark Medley: Instead of stealing, working hard at take.
Mark Medley: What kind of difference would that make?
Mark Medley: Okay, but talk, but this is the fourth one and the last one.
Mark Medley: Paul spends the most time on this one.
Mark Medley: It's really important to note that he spends the most time on what you say out of your mouth.
Mark Medley: The way we talk.
Mark Medley: Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Mark Medley: Again, the emphasis is on people to give grace to those who hear.
Mark Medley: My words can give dignity and grace and healing, or they can injure you, one or the other.
Mark Medley: There's a famous scripture in Proverbs 18, verse 21: Death and life are in the power of the tongue.
Mark Medley: Those who love it will eat its fruit.
Mark Medley: The way of a death speaker is hard for them and for the people around them.
Mark Medley: So speaking life is what we're saying.
Mark Medley: And the command is to speak life is right there in the midst of the command to do not grieve the Holy Spirit.
Mark Medley: Why do you think that is?
Mark Medley: It's like how you talk, don't grieve the Spirit, how you talk.
Mark Medley: It's like a sandwich.
Mark Medley: Because one of the easiest ways to grieve the Holy Spirit and stop the Holy Spirit's work in our lives is the way we talk.
Mark Medley: The way we talk to others.
Mark Medley: I can grieve the Holy Spirit.
Mark Medley: Did you know you can grieve the Holy Spirit?
Mark Medley: He's a person, he's not a force, he's a person.
Mark Medley: He feels, he speaks.
Mark Medley: This is He's a person.
Mark Medley: And you can grieve Him.
Mark Medley: So can I also joy the Holy Spirit?
Mark Medley: Yeah.
Mark Medley: I can give the Holy Spirit joy by the things I say, by speaking truth and using my words to build up.
Mark Medley: So listen to how the message version translates this passage.
Mark Medley: We're still writing on our paper, right?
Mark Medley: Aren't we?
Mark Medley: If if you if you anything sticks, write it down.
Mark Medley: Okay.
Mark Medley: Watch the way you talk.
Mark Medley: Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth.
Mark Medley: Say only what helps.
Mark Medley: Each word a gift.
Mark Medley: Don't grieve God.
Mark Medley: Don't break his heart.
Mark Medley: His Holy Spirit moving and breathing in you is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself.
Mark Medley: Don't take such a gift for granted.
Mark Medley: Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk.
Mark Medley: Be gentle with one another, sensitive, forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.
Mark Medley: Woo! Watch your mouth.
Mark Medley: And there are a lot of different ways he talks about here that are negative ways to speak.
Mark Medley: Words of bitterness, words of anger, words of slander, which means injuring your reputation with my words.
Mark Medley: Words of malice, which is ill will or desire to injure you.
Mark Medley: And here's one way to think about it, which is kind of popular, but I thought it was really good.
Mark Medley: Basically, it's to think.
Mark Medley: Think about it before you speak.
Mark Medley: So uh not everything that comes into your head should go out of your mouth.
Mark Medley: This is a great revelation.
Mark Medley: Maybe this is you can just take this one home.
Mark Medley: Not everything that comes into your head should come out of your mouth.
Mark Medley: It's okay.
Mark Medley: You don't have to say it.
Mark Medley: So think.
Mark Medley: Is it acronym?
Mark Medley: Think.
Mark Medley: Is it true?
Mark Medley: Is it helpful?
Mark Medley: Is it inspiring?
Mark Medley: Is it necessary?
Mark Medley: Is it kind?
Mark Medley: That's a good way to think about it.
Mark Medley: This is so this is the way we're supposed to use our words.
Mark Medley: Now, there's there's one thing at the very end there, he threw a word in there.
Mark Medley: Profane words.
Mark Medley: So I gotta take a minute to talk about profanity.
Mark Medley: Profanity.
Mark Medley: Cursing, cussing, potty mouth, letting one fly.
Mark Medley: And I have to do this because it's there's a disturbing, I think, to me and to God, trend, especially among young people, to use profanity and let it be a part of their a regular part of their language.
Mark Medley: Maybe it's because it's part of our uh our culture, part of the podcast you're listening to.
Mark Medley: I don't know what it is, but you've just decided to do it.
Mark Medley: You shouldn't do that.
Mark Medley: Okay?
Mark Medley: You just shouldn't do that.
Mark Medley: And I'll just tell you some things that I thought about, some reasons, okay?
Mark Medley: Number one, perhaps the greatest indicator of the state of your heart is what comes out of your mouth.
Mark Medley: Jesus said, out of the bonus of the heart, the mouth speaks.
Mark Medley: If it's coming out your mouth, it's in your heart.
Mark Medley: If you're speaking profanity, it's in your heart.
Mark Medley: So if it's an issue, write it down on your paper.
Mark Medley: We're gonna deal with it, okay?
Mark Medley: It's in your heart.
Mark Medley: Number two, this is what unsaved people do.
Mark Medley: Number three, it dishonors you.
Mark Medley: It's not a good look at all.
Mark Medley: And it dishonors people around you.
Mark Medley: Number four, it displays an arrogance that is not befitting of a Christ follower.
Mark Medley: And number five, this arrogance that it displays reveals a misunderstanding of liberty in Christ.
Mark Medley: The grace of God does not excuse your potty mouth, okay?
Mark Medley: Number six, it makes a very blatant statement that you don't care about living distinctly from the world.
Mark Medley: Number seven, it doesn't help or inspire or shed light on any situation.
Mark Medley: Number eight, the words God and Jesus Christ and hell are not light words.
Mark Medley: They're weighty words.
Mark Medley: They mean something.
Mark Medley: They mean something in eternity.
Mark Medley: We shouldn't make light of them.
Mark Medley: They're seriously important words.
Mark Medley: Number nine, right is right even if nobody else is doing it.
Mark Medley: Wrong is wrong, even if everybody else is doing it.
Mark Medley: That applies to profanity.
Mark Medley: Number 10, excusing your language choices could mean that you might be more willing to excuse other far worse behaviors down the road.
Mark Medley: It's just opening a door to patterns in your life.
Mark Medley: Okay, don't do it.
Mark Medley: Just don't do it.
Mark Medley: Why would why why do you do it?
Mark Medley: And four-letter schatological terms, the Bible calls it crude and vulgar speech.
Mark Medley: And human beings in every culture all over the world have agreed there's certain things that are inappropriate or offensive.
Mark Medley: It doesn't honor God, it doesn't even honor you.
Mark Medley: So are you willing to honor God with your words?
Mark Medley: Are you willing to honor people with your words?
Mark Medley: And if not, why not?
Mark Medley: Look in your heart.
Mark Medley: Why?
Mark Medley: What makes you stubborn in that area?
Mark Medley: What excuses that behavior?
Mark Medley: And Paul talks more about that in the next chapter.
Mark Medley: He says, don't let filthiness or foolish talk or crude joking come out of your mouth because that's out of place.
Mark Medley: Instead, be thankful.
Mark Medley: You see, again, he's not just saying don't do it, he's saying there's a way you're supposed to talk.
Mark Medley: There's, I'm gonna raise the bar on righteousness, the righteous way to you live your, your, use your mouth.
Mark Medley: Okay.
Mark Medley: So by the way, you're talking.
Mark Medley: And in that context, do not grieve the Holy Spirit.
Mark Medley: Look what it says.
Mark Medley: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit with whom you've been sealed for the day of redemption.
Mark Medley: He's talking about eternity here.
Mark Medley: Suddenly, he's saying, think, act, and speak in light of eternity, the day of redemption.
Mark Medley: Think, act, speak in light of eternity.
Mark Medley: Jesus said, every idle word that comes out of your mouth will be judged.
Mark Medley: It's heavy.
Mark Medley: The way of a scoffer is hard for himself and for others.
Mark Medley: Imagine a world where everyone gave a gift, every gift, every word a gift.
Mark Medley: I actually, this is part of my prayer.
Mark Medley: I pray almost daily.
Mark Medley: Is Lord help me to love people with my words, to give every word as a gift.
Mark Medley: I'm trying, I'm really trying to do that.
Mark Medley: By the power of the Spirit, he's changing the way I talk.
Mark Medley: I'm thinking about what I'm saying coming out of my mouth and into your heart as a gift to you, to bless you.
Mark Medley: You can bless people.
Mark Medley: Imagine that.
Mark Medley: Okay, so Paul ends everything, and we're gonna end today as he ends the chapter with a reference back to the first three chapters.
Mark Medley: He says, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.
Mark Medley: He's going back to the beginning again.
Mark Medley: Remember you've been forgiven.
Mark Medley: Remember what your anchor is.
Mark Medley: Remember the gift that's been given to you.
Mark Medley: The gift of God, okay, here it is.
Mark Medley: The gift of God to us allows us to give gifts to other people.
Mark Medley: Be kind and tenderhearted, forgive, because you've already received this gift from God.
Mark Medley: Because He's forgiven me, sealed me, marked me, secured me, I'm able to do these things.
Mark Medley: I will not forget the gift that a kind God has given me, who had every right to judge me.
Mark Medley: And in his kindness, he forgave me.
Mark Medley: I've been given a new heart in order to give these gifts to other people.
Mark Medley: So, what kingdom are you in this morning?
Mark Medley: That's the question.
Mark Medley: And honestly, well, you can tell by the way you think, the way you act, the way you speak.
Mark Medley: But honestly, these kind of things, a lot of us have just let these habit patterns creep into our lives.
Mark Medley: And when we're talking about putting off and putting on, we're really talking about creating habits in our lives.
Mark Medley: And our habits form us.
Mark Medley: So I want to end with a quote here from Anne Voskamp from the book of The Waymaker about habits, and then we're going to pray.
Mark Medley: She says this habits change where we arrive.
Mark Medley: Rhythms build roads.
Mark Medley: Lack of rhythms leave us lost.
Mark Medley: Small daily turns decide destination.
Mark Medley: And we only have one life.
Mark Medley: The word habit originally meant a piece of clothing that we inhabit, we pull on, we live in.
Mark Medley: As nuns dress in habits to express their devotion to God.
Mark Medley: So habits are like clothing revealing our own kinds of devotion.
Mark Medley: A habit of running to Facebook before we open the word and face his face.
Mark Medley: A habit of being more consumed by the news than the good news.
Mark Medley: And we're all wearing the real love that we have in our hearts on our sleeves.
Mark Medley: Our habits build what kind of life we inhabit.
Mark Medley: Our daily way of life is the way we put on Christ or not.
Mark Medley: So what things do you need to put off?
Mark Medley: What things do you need to put on?
Mark Medley: This is a question I've been asking myself this week.
Mark Medley: And this is what we're going to do business with as we're going to be praying in just a few minutes.
Mark Medley: But I want to pray for you right now.
Mark Medley: And then we're going to have a little bit of a break.
Mark Medley: And then we're going to come back together.
Mark Medley: Hopefully, most of you can come back together.
Mark Medley: We're going to give have a break for people to go pick their children up and come back.
Mark Medley: But the question is what do we need to put off?
Mark Medley: What do we need to put on?
Mark Medley: Father, these things that are in our hearts or on our papers here are things that you're putting your finger on because you want to bring blessing to us, Lord.
Mark Medley: Not only to us, but also to other people through us.
Mark Medley: You want to bring blessing, God.
Mark Medley: This is the way of life.
Mark Medley: We know the way of a transgressor's hard, Lord.
Mark Medley: We hear your word and we believe that.
Mark Medley: We know that you have a way that leads to life.
Mark Medley: And we believe that.
Mark Medley: So we want to lay the things down that you're putting your finger on, that you're the things we need to put off.
Mark Medley: We want to walk in the ways of the blessed.
Mark Medley: We want to pull on day by day, we want to put on these garments of righteousness, this bright and clean righteousness that you bought for us, Jesus.
Mark Medley: I pray for every person here, Lord.
Mark Medley: I pray for those people who are struggling specifically with habits.
Mark Medley: And I want to pray, God, that by the power of your Holy Spirit, as we're seeking you during this fast, God, you would, there would be a breakthrough.
Mark Medley: You would just break through so that there's a doorway into freedom, God.
Mark Medley: I thank you that that's going to be the testimony of so many here, Lord.
Mark Medley: Lord, I also pray for those of us who are living in a measure of freedom, but we need to see these things as gifts.
Mark Medley: What we're putting on as gifts to other people.
Mark Medley: Don't let us just be inward-focused because rules, list of rules can make us inward-focused, Lord.
Mark Medley: But turn us outward so that we're blessing people in the church, outside the church, so we're showing Christ to people.
Mark Medley: This is what our prayer is, Lord.
Mark Medley: We want to ask your kingdom to come in our lives and your will to be done in our lives and those around us, Lord.
Mark Medley: And I pray your blessing, the blessing of your righteousness on your people this morning.
Mark Medley: I want to pray the blessing of the provision of what Jesus has died for us to have on your people this morning.
Mark Medley: Wholeness, the joy of integrity, the joy of living in righteousness.
Mark Medley: Thank you for that, Father.
Mark Medley: Thank you for freedom in Christ.
Mark Medley: Thank you for growing us up into Christ.
Mark Medley: We love you and we thank you in Jesus' name.
Mark Medley: Amen.