SPEAKER_00: If you have a copy of God's word, go ahead and grab it.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to Ephesians chapter four.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter four is where we are in our series.
SPEAKER_00: We will look there this morning as we continue from two weeks ago talking about this new self that we are to put on, that we are to uh lay aside our old way of living and our old self that is dead, and to walk in the new life that God has given us in Christ Jesus, putting on this new self.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna look at that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you're able and willing, would you stand with me in honor of reading God's word?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna look at verses 25 to 32 this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 4, looking at verses 25 through 32.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
SPEAKER_00: Be angry and do not sin.
SPEAKER_00: Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.
SPEAKER_00: Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
SPEAKER_00: 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 it.
SPEAKER_00: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
SPEAKER_00: Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.
SPEAKER_00: May God add his blessings to the reading of his word.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we come before you this morning, and God, we thank you first and foremost of what we celebrate today.
SPEAKER_00: We celebrate your creation and woman.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for every single woman that's in this room.
SPEAKER_00: And God, we thank you for your design for their lives and how you have used their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Father, some of them are mothers to children, others are spiritual mothers.
SPEAKER_00: Father, others are seeking to serve you as best they can with their lives.
SPEAKER_00: And God, we just God, we say thank you for all that you have done.
SPEAKER_00: God, we pray that you would be with us this morning as we as we look to your word, as we see an application from what you have given us to put on this new self, Father.
SPEAKER_00: May we look at it intently.
SPEAKER_00: May we not see it as an exhaustive list, but a place to start.
SPEAKER_00: Father, may we see in it this morning not salvation, but God, would we see that you have saved us and you have sealed us and secured us?
SPEAKER_00: And Father, our response to that is putting on this new self and living a life that brings you honor and glory and that looks like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Father, help us to have that the desire this morning to look like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Father, give me the words to say this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Let it be your words and not mine.
SPEAKER_00: God, we desperately need to hear from you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Would you speak to us?
SPEAKER_00: Would you give us ears to hear and eyes to see?
SPEAKER_00: We pray this all in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: A couple months before Shelby was going to give birth to our firstborn, um, I began calling around mentors in my life or men in my life because, and I hate to admit this as your pastor, but up until that point, um, I appreciated babies from afar.
SPEAKER_00: Just didn't have that in me, right?
SPEAKER_00: Most women in the room who have that nurturing instinct or that love for babies, but but that just wasn't that I'm sorry, that wasn't me.
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it from afar.
SPEAKER_00: Love love babies, I didn't feel like I had to come up and hold them.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm I'm calling mentors, going like, hey, um what do I do?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what can you just give me the the list of do's and don'ts?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody else in here just want that when you walk into something you don't know?
SPEAKER_00: Can I just get the do's and the don'ts?
SPEAKER_00: Like, can you just tell me what I should do, what I shouldn't do?
SPEAKER_00: Because in that moment, I'm sitting there like, okay, so like can can I can I break this child?
SPEAKER_00: Like, how how do I how do I love and nurture this child?
SPEAKER_00: What do I do if I want to cry while they're crying?
SPEAKER_00: Like what what how how do I walk through all of this?
SPEAKER_00: I wanted the do's and the don'ts.
SPEAKER_00: You might be like that, and maybe even a few weeks ago when we talked about putting on this new self and putting off the old self, you might be sitting there going, okay, that's great, but like give me the do's and the don'ts.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that his salvation or the salvation we've received in Christ Jesus is not based on do's and don'ts.
SPEAKER_00: It's based on sufficient grace that has been given to us unto salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Our response to that salvation is then what I am to do versus what I'm to put away.
SPEAKER_00: I I have a few points for you this morning, but I have a main idea for this text, and and the main idea is this following Christ Jesus results in an internal and external change.
SPEAKER_00: Following Christ Jesus results in an internal and external change.
SPEAKER_00: We've looked in the book of Ephesians in chapter two that you and I, before Christ Jesus, were dead in trespasses and sin.
SPEAKER_00: That means that we have no righteousness within us, not even enough righteousness to produce faith, because you and I did not want the things of God.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't want anything.
SPEAKER_00: We were dead.
SPEAKER_00: Dead people don't want, dead people don't do, dead people don't have anything.
SPEAKER_00: So you and I were uh bankrupt, spiritually bankrupt is what Jesus tells us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, sometimes we get bankruptcy mixed up where you think uh poor in that moment, because Jesus says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, but the word he uses there really results in bankruptcy because there's a difference between poor and bankruptcy.
SPEAKER_00: I remember starting off in ministry where there was one point where I was uh three days from a paycheck, there was seven dollars in my account, and I had five dollars in change in a little baggie.
SPEAKER_00: At that moment, I felt poor, but I wasn't bankrupt.
SPEAKER_00: Do you get what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: You and I, before Christ Jesus, were spiritually bankrupt.
SPEAKER_00: We have nothing to offer.
SPEAKER_00: So, what has Christ Jesus done in salvation?
SPEAKER_00: He has taken us from dead in trespasses and sin and given us new life in him.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about this in baptism last week that we are we are acquainted with Christ Jesus and that we are dying to ourselves, dead in trespasses and sin, raised to walk in a new life that He has given us.
SPEAKER_00: And this is done both internally, and then that internal results in external.
SPEAKER_00: What God has done in us is salvation should change us internally.
SPEAKER_00: It should change the way you think, it should it should change the way that you see the world, it changes the way you see yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Your worldview is now seen through a biblical worldview, it's now seen through scripture, and so this is all part of an internal change within.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_00: That internal change then should move externally.
SPEAKER_00: What is happening in here should then result in how I live it out.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you are in here this morning and going, my struggle is that uh there's things that I know I shouldn't do internally that just don't make it out externally.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the club.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it's like to follow after Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Every single one of us in here have have things to where I know how I should react, I know what I should say, I know what I should do because this is what God is doing within me.
SPEAKER_00: He's changing me, he's sanctifying me.
SPEAKER_00: He's already changed the disposition of my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's working on that heart, and it's hard and it's difficult, and some of those things don't manifest themselves externally yet.
SPEAKER_00: This is the process of sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: This takes time.
SPEAKER_00: What we can't do is say, well, then I'll do the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just do these things externally until they become something that that is internal.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work like that.
SPEAKER_00: At that moment, your your understanding of salvation is I do this and I don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, that's what makes me a follower of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's not true.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is you couldn't, so Christ did.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, our desire then is to internally allow the Lord to do his work, looking to Christ Jesus as the standard, because the standard for us is to look like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's Christ-likeness.
SPEAKER_00: And so that is what we look towards.
SPEAKER_00: We we look towards Christ and we allow the work of the Spirit to change us internally, and then that moves us to be different externally.
SPEAKER_00: But God doesn't leave that work to be done by you.
SPEAKER_00: Because upon salvation, you and I have received the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is the one he sanctifies, he continues to mold and to shape.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one that through that sanctifying work or making you more like Jesus is what that word means.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he does.
SPEAKER_00: His work is to make you more like Jesus, to reveal to you sin in your life, to convict you, to lead you in truth.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he does.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the emphasis or the understanding of this or the exercising of this is are you and I submissive to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives?
SPEAKER_00: To take that work that is to be done internally and not only allow that work to be done internally, but but to allow it to then make its way externally and how you live out your life.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I what I mean.
SPEAKER_00: You might think about, I need to be compassionate, uh, I need to be gracious, uh, I don't need to lie, uh, I need to do these things.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is, is the the walking that out or the actually exercising of that, putting on that new self and letting it be externally seen, not for the praises of man, but but to be seen to build up and to encourage.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul is gonna say here.
SPEAKER_00: You and I are to put on this new self, to allow God to do his work holistically in our lives, so that we can serve the Lord with our lives, number one, bring him honor and glory.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, so that we can continue to build up his church.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the context that we see this passage and remember the audience.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is writing to this church.
SPEAKER_00: He has taken, he has taken them through the first section of this book, talking about what Christ has done for us, what we have received in Christ Jesus and all those spiritual blessings.
SPEAKER_00: And now, in starting in chapter four, he talks about how that then is to be used within the church.
SPEAKER_00: We're to be united.
SPEAKER_00: We all have an area of service within the church, and we are called to build up the church.
SPEAKER_00: So the first point of emphasis for you and I to live out this new self and to allow what's being done internally to also be seen externally is within the the body of Christ, and that is big C church and little C church, brothers and sisters in Christ, receive those things from you, that the first fruits of that new self, because that that is how you and I are to act as we live out our life.
SPEAKER_00: So how we how we live here in the same breath should also be how we live outside of church.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what I want you to do this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I I want you, as we quickly move through these things, to walk through them and ask the Lord, Lord, am I submitting to what you are calling me to do in this section of the passage?
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to ask first, do I do that to other brothers and sisters?
SPEAKER_00: Do I treat other brothers and sisters the way that I should?
SPEAKER_00: Do I speak with them honestly?
SPEAKER_00: Do I not allow my righteous anger to turn to sin?
SPEAKER_00: Do I speak kindly with my words?
SPEAKER_00: Do I do that within your church?
SPEAKER_00: But also as we go on, we also know that uh our brothers and sisters in Christ, um, we also go home with us.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, your husband or your wife is a brother or sister in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so, do I talk to other brothers and sisters of Christ this way?
SPEAKER_00: Do I do does our home look like this?
SPEAKER_00: Do my relationships look like this?
SPEAKER_00: Am I allowing God to do his full work and does it go into every single setting of my life?
SPEAKER_00: The struggle that we have when it comes to this is that we we believe that um I'm only I I only really need to act like Jesus in these settings, and then in these other settings, I can let my guard down.
SPEAKER_00: So in private, I can let my guard down.
SPEAKER_00: In this setting where I'm with friends that don't know the Lord, I can be someone different, as opposed to this setting where I'm at church and I'm doing all of these things.
SPEAKER_00: But but the call to put on the new self is is universal, it's not situational.
SPEAKER_00: It's for every single area of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at what Paul gives us, because Paul gives us some do's and don'ts when it comes to following after Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And the first thing that we see in our section is starts in verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of or we are members one of another.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the first thing that I want you to see.
SPEAKER_00: Tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: This is not complex complex ethics.
SPEAKER_00: Tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you might sit there and go, Well, yeah, I I know that.
SPEAKER_00: Tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: But I honestly want you to sit back and ask yourself, am I a truthful person?
SPEAKER_00: Am I a truthful person when it comes to business?
SPEAKER_00: Or do have I adopted business practices with the world that tells me I can bend that truth or I can gray that area to where it's not necessarily a lie, but it's also not necessarily the full truth.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're a kid in here and so you you bend the lie with your parents as well.
SPEAKER_00: You don't tell full truths, you tell half truths, which the fancy word for a half-truth is a lie.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe maybe you see lying in different ways, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't I don't lie, I don't extort money, uh, I don't I don't do these things, I don't um cheat anybody any out of anything, I don't say any of these things, I don't do those things.
SPEAKER_00: But like if if I'm late coming home from either work or coming home for curfew and and and it's my fault, then I'll probably just say I hit traffic or there was a deer crossing or someone stopped me in the hallway and had to talk.
SPEAKER_00: So so that way I can get out of the punishment that that I'm going to receive.
SPEAKER_00: See, some of us, see, the first one is, oh man, that's a terrible lie.
SPEAKER_00: The second, the second element of that is like, well, that's just a little white lie.
SPEAKER_00: There's been plenty of people that have spent eternity separated from the love of God in hell because they just love little white lies.
SPEAKER_00: Because the God who you are supposed to be like is truth.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just love truth, he doesn't just preach truth.
SPEAKER_00: He is truth in and of himself.
SPEAKER_00: It is a characteristic of him.
SPEAKER_00: It is his nature to be truthful, and he desires his children to be like him, which means he desires his children to tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: Even if it incriminates you, did you do something wrong?
SPEAKER_00: Tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Even if it cost you money, tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Lying to the IRS is still lying.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you thought if you knew that.
SPEAKER_00: It's still not being trustworthy, it's still not being honest.
SPEAKER_00: God desires for his children to tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And it first starts with other brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: Don't don't lie to each other.
SPEAKER_00: Don't don't lie to your your class, your your Sunday school class.
SPEAKER_00: Don't don't lie to your brother and sister.
SPEAKER_00: Don't lie to your spouse.
SPEAKER_00: Kids in the room, I can tell you what your mom wants for Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_00: And while she appreciates the flyers, the flowers, she would really like you to stop lying to her.
SPEAKER_00: Novel idea.
SPEAKER_00: To lead us not to continue to walk in a way that is opposite or contrary to him, but to walk in the new life that he has given us.
SPEAKER_00: And what he calls us to is righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And truthfulness and righteousness are paired together.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul says here, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: Be truthful.
SPEAKER_00: Speak, speak truthfully.
SPEAKER_00: There's two reasons that you and I don't tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: One of them is control.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't want that person to be mad at me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to make that person upset.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't want uh to be seen as as as um this type of way to that person, and so I'm just not gonna speak truthfully with them.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Like if you're newly married in the room, you might think you're doing your spouse a favor by not telling the truth, but you're you're actually putting yourself in a deeper hole.
SPEAKER_00: Control.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want I don't want this to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm gonna lie.
SPEAKER_00: You allow fear of the lack of control to to determine how you follow through with this, but let me just let you in on a secret.
SPEAKER_00: Lying doesn't subdue your fear, it just delays it.
SPEAKER_00: Other times we we lied is because of pride.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want people to think of me like this.
SPEAKER_00: That that goes with that element of control.
SPEAKER_00: So, really, what we could say is the underlying desire of lying is to make myself look good.
SPEAKER_00: That's why when you go fishing, you need to take more than one person with you.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you say I caught a fish this big, what happens to that fish as time goes on?
SPEAKER_00: It just keeps growing, right?
SPEAKER_00: You want yourself to look good.
SPEAKER_00: You want to be the hero of the story.
SPEAKER_00: We even read the Bible sometimes and be like, I want to be the hero of the story.
SPEAKER_00: You're not.
SPEAKER_00: You're the helpless, you you're you're the helpless villain, if you will, that's against God, a helpless enemy against God that God radically came to save.
SPEAKER_00: God desires you to be truthful and to deal with others truthfully.
SPEAKER_00: When we throw off the old self, we are saying that my life is no longer going to be lived for me, and that includes our attempts to puff ourselves up or control situations through dishonesty.
SPEAKER_00: Tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing don't let righteous anger turn into sin.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: Be angry and do not sin.
SPEAKER_00: Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil.
SPEAKER_00: You see anger there two different times, and that is two different Greek words.
SPEAKER_00: The first word that's used, be angry.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Be angry and do not sin.
SPEAKER_00: That word for anger is used in two senses, both to do with God's wrath or his righteous anger.
SPEAKER_00: Now, most people will say, Well, I'm a follower of Jesus, so I can't get angry because I'm trying to be like Jesus, but you forget that Jesus chased some dudes out of the temple with some whips.
SPEAKER_00: Like he's got a little bit of passion in him.
SPEAKER_00: Like that there's there's moments where there's righteous anger that's allowed.
SPEAKER_00: Someone wrongs you, maybe someone lies to you, and you find out and you're frustrated with it.
SPEAKER_00: You can be frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: That's righteous anger.
SPEAKER_00: You lied to me.
SPEAKER_00: You you you dealt dishonest with me.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what the writer is, here's what Paul is saying.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let righteous anger turn into bitter anger.
SPEAKER_00: That's the other Greek word that's used the second time that we see in verse six.
SPEAKER_00: Be anger, or I'm sorry, be angry, do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your anger.
SPEAKER_00: One hand, the one Greek word signifies.
SPEAKER_00: The kind of severe or violent anger.
SPEAKER_00: That's what this second use.
SPEAKER_00: The second use of anger here at the end of verse 26 is.
SPEAKER_00: It arises from direct provocation and aroused anger or seething exasperation.
SPEAKER_00: That is what that word means.
SPEAKER_00: And such behavior is contrary to the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs tells us whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 14, verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: James 1:20 tells us, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: When we let righteous anger turn into bitter seething anger, we then allow opportunity for the devil, as Paul would say here, to work through that.
SPEAKER_00: To be frustrated that someone has wronged you and to allow that anger turn into, man, I just can't.
SPEAKER_00: And that guy, like, you well, you know, he has this and and this, and I can't believe he did this, and he said this over here.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's been.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what's starting to happen here?
SPEAKER_00: Now we start to get bitter.
SPEAKER_00: Now we start to dwell on how that person has wronged us.
SPEAKER_00: And now it's not the action that's wrong, it's the person that's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want them to get, I want revenge to happen.
SPEAKER_00: All of these things.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm angry with them.
SPEAKER_00: I want nothing good for them.
SPEAKER_00: They need to suffer because I've suffered.
SPEAKER_00: What happens when we let anger fester?
SPEAKER_00: It starts to turn into how dare they do that to me.
SPEAKER_00: Toward now, it's I want a pound of flesh.
SPEAKER_00: I need retribution because of what's happened.
SPEAKER_00: What we what we see in that moment is that it that very quickly, righteous anger can be taken the complete opposite direction if we are not keeping in check every single element of how we work through that anger.
SPEAKER_00: And the apostle Paul says, give no opportunity for the devil.
SPEAKER_00: Anger left unchecked goes beyond the moment and becomes an established state of mind.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you in here are just angry people.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not righteous anger.
SPEAKER_00: You're just mad.
SPEAKER_00: And all of it then just comes from, and what triggers it so quickly is when something happens against you.
SPEAKER_00: You annoy me.
SPEAKER_00: I lose patience with you.
SPEAKER_00: You said this about me.
SPEAKER_00: You did this to me.
SPEAKER_00: And now I just allow that bitterness and frustration just to stay with me.
SPEAKER_00: And then it stays with me until I find the next thing.
SPEAKER_00: That is proof positive of a life that has given the enemy a place to stay and an operation to work through.
SPEAKER_00: Charles Spurson puts it this way: a man who harbors malice in his heart invites the devil to come in and keeps a space ready for him.
SPEAKER_00: You have a guest room in your soul for the enemy to stay at every single moment you feel justified to be angry.
SPEAKER_00: And that anger turns to malice and wrath and bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, is saying, to put that away.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 27 28.
SPEAKER_00: Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
SPEAKER_00: Point number three is this put in honest work for the purpose of being generous.
SPEAKER_00: You remember the story of Zacchaeus?
SPEAKER_00: He was a wee little man.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why we did that.
SPEAKER_00: Like, must be an Irish saying.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think you say, like, oh, that's a wee, that's a wee little man over there.
SPEAKER_00: Like, but but Zacchaeus, he climbed up into a sycamore tree.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to see Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus comes up and he says, Zacchaeus, come down, I'm going to your house.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody is completely shocked and they're uh just losing their minds over that.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because what was Zacchaeus?
SPEAKER_00: He was a tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: Just like Matthew or Levi, he was a tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: He was a Jew that was working for the Romans to steal money from the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: Like he is the worst of the worst, and you're going to his house.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what happened with Zacchaeus?
SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus meets with Jesus, he recognizes that he's not doing what he should be doing.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8, he says, and Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I shall give to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: And I have defra if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I'll restore it fourfold.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: Zaschia said, If I've wronged anybody, I'm gonna give back half of what I have, but whoever I've wronged, I'm gonna give back fourfold what I took from them.
SPEAKER_00: God desires you to work honestly, to not be lazy, to not be a moocher, to not live through other people's means, but to work for yourself, right?
SPEAKER_00: This this is good for us.
SPEAKER_00: Paul tells us this later on, and when he writes to um, oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Philemon, that's it.
SPEAKER_00: I want to say Obadiah for some reason.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, nope, no, this is a different, different book.
SPEAKER_00: When he writes to Philemon, talking about a man working his wages, and so that this is this is good.
SPEAKER_00: It's good that we work now.
SPEAKER_00: Let let me preface that because some of you who are workaholics in here will be like, yeah, that's my life verse.
SPEAKER_00: Well, hang on a second.
SPEAKER_00: God tells you to work so that you can serve, not to serve work.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: To to work so that you can use that to be generous with it and give to those who are in need, not to work for the sake of you kind of hoarding it up.
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: Or if you remember, he talked about that in the parable, the rich fool, that that's not good.
SPEAKER_00: But but our desire, his desire is for us to work, not to live off of others, not to mooch from others, but to work hard and not just to work so that we can have for ourselves, but so that we can work so we'll have something to generously offer to those that are in need.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in here this morning, you're like, well, I would love to tithe, but but I just through through all the other stuff that I have to do, it just isn't.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, God desires you to work hard so that you can be generous with that, not so that you can go ahead and budget all of it off so that you can do all that you want to do, and then by the end of the end of the day, go, well, we just don't have enough to then give to you, God.
SPEAKER_00: This that's the hard part.
SPEAKER_00: Work hard, but but work so that you can be generous.
SPEAKER_00: Work for the purpose of being generous.
SPEAKER_00: Do not let the pendulum swing too far, but also do not allow yourself to kind of get into this space that I work for me.
SPEAKER_00: No, you work so that you God provides for your needs and He also uses you to provide for others' needs.
SPEAKER_00: We work so that we can take what we earn from that work and use it generously.
SPEAKER_00: The fourth thing that I want you to see this morning, choose your words carefully.
SPEAKER_00: It is a means in which you show grace.
SPEAKER_00: Choose your words carefully.
SPEAKER_00: It is a means in which you show grace.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: Let no corrupting things that are breaking down, things that tear down, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion that we may give grace to those who hear.
SPEAKER_00: You use your words as a means of grace to someone else.
SPEAKER_00: Everything we say, everything we say matters to God.
SPEAKER_00: God cares how you use your words.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 12, 18 says, There is one who um there is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise, wise brings healing.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells us in Matthew 13, verse 36, I tell you, on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every careless word they say.
SPEAKER_00: And that can be in any realm.
SPEAKER_00: The words you use in your house are the same types of words that you should use at your work.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're saying to me, I really don't want to use the type of words I use at work in my house, you got a problem.
SPEAKER_00: Putting on this new self means that I allow for the Lord through his Holy Spirit to change me from the inside out, and that gives me something called self-control.
SPEAKER_00: And self-control doesn't care about your personality.
SPEAKER_00: You can be a straightforward person without being careless with your words.
SPEAKER_00: You can get your point across creatively without using speech that corrupts or that tears down.
SPEAKER_00: Your speech is a gifts of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you might be that person in the room in here.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many passive aggressive people we have in the room.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe you're that passive aggressive that says, well, then fine, I'm just not gonna say anything.
SPEAKER_00: Charles Spurgeon once said, Since some communication is sure to come out of your mouth, let it be a good one.
SPEAKER_00: If some communication is sure to come out of your mouth, let it be a good one.
SPEAKER_00: Parents, how you how your children speak in the home start with you.
SPEAKER_00: And I say that with the utmost conviction on my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Because there are times where unfortunately I lead my home and how not to talk as opposed to how to talk.
SPEAKER_00: I I can be harsh, I can be quick, I can be blunt, and that is not how God has called us to live.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's you too.
SPEAKER_00: The goal of this is not to sit back and just go, well, man, I stink at this and I stink at this.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's to say, God, where are the areas where I need to grow?
SPEAKER_00: And Holy Spirit, would you change me?
SPEAKER_00: Would you continue to work on my heart?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna keep moving.
SPEAKER_00: The fifth thing that we see here is do not grieve the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 30.
SPEAKER_00: And do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: Upon salvation, the Holy Spirit comes upon you and he seals you.
SPEAKER_00: You are stamp of approval given by God on your life.
SPEAKER_00: That moment of justification, you are his.
SPEAKER_00: It can't be taken away.
SPEAKER_00: We can even get into this part.
SPEAKER_00: If you have received salvation in Jesus Christ, it's the Holy Spirit that keeps you.
SPEAKER_00: You don't keep you.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is what the Holy Spirit does.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit now indwells in you perpetually.
SPEAKER_00: What grieves then the heart of the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Because that word here is to sob.
SPEAKER_00: So the Holy Spirit, yes, he does have personhood.
SPEAKER_00: And he does hurt when you grieve his heart, when you bring sorrow to his heart.
SPEAKER_00: And how do we bring sorrow to the heart of the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: How do we bring sorrow to the heart of God when we choose not to put on the new self?
SPEAKER_00: If you believed up until this moment that God's okay with you not living how you should, that he's just gonna kind of let it go at the end, then you don't understand this verse.
SPEAKER_00: We grieve the heart of God when after 20 years of walking with the Lord, we still have no desire to allow him to give us self-control with our words.
SPEAKER_00: We grieve the heart of God when after walking with the Lord for 15 years, we still have no desire to do away with being dishonest or dis or untrustworthy with others.
SPEAKER_00: That grieves the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, we've already said this.
SPEAKER_00: We are all in that constant state of being made more like Christ Jesus, and we will never get to the point of being perfect.
SPEAKER_00: We know that only comes when we stand before the Lord in glorified bodies.
SPEAKER_00: But until then, our work is still to put on this new self and to be more like Christ, looking to Him as the standard to dismiss any unrighteousness that we have in our life and go, well, that's just who I am, grieves the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells us, don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Most of the time, when it comes to Mother's Day, we tell moms how much we love them, but we also say we're sorry for what how how often we make them frustrated or we make them sad, right?
SPEAKER_00: So Mother's Day is we want to give love and we want to show appreciation.
SPEAKER_00: We just want to say thank you because we know that we can be terrible children.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We know that we can be hellions.
SPEAKER_00: In in the same breath, we wake up every day and go, God, I know that I am not, I do not meet the standard of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you had to come and you had to die, so that I could receive your righteousness imputed to me.
SPEAKER_00: But God, I desire to be more like Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Help me be more like Christ today.
SPEAKER_00: That should be our prayer as we continue to walk in this life.
SPEAKER_00: As we keep going, sixth thing, really quick.
SPEAKER_00: Paul tells us in verse 31 let all bitterness and wrath and malice and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
SPEAKER_00: Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.
SPEAKER_00: So exchange bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice for kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it's Mother's Day, so typical with Mother's Day messages in church in church, we talk about how awesome moms are and we kind of trash dads.
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me give a little bit of of of some encouragement for for both spouses.
SPEAKER_00: Let's start first within the home, and then I'll I'll move to the church.
SPEAKER_00: I know that's backwards, but but just for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Bitterness, wrath, clamor, slander, malice, all of those things have no residence and no place of residence within your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as life comes, as things happen, will you experience bitterness and wrath and malice and and have moments of just clamor or or slander or or malice?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: God desires for you to exchange those things.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's a it's a transaction to to give up and then to to receive, to exchange those things for kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Husbands, what your wife would love for Mother's Day?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe is that.
SPEAKER_00: If you could exchange some of those things for for kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness, that would be great.
SPEAKER_00: Outside of that, there might some be some people in your Sunday school class that would really appreciate if you would do some exchanging here.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some people in your small group that would really appreciate to not have someone who slanders them as one brother and sister in Christ to another.
SPEAKER_00: To put on kindness, tenderhearted, and compassion.
SPEAKER_00: And we see all of this in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you're like, well, I need an example because sometimes with do's and don'ts, I need a YouTube video to kind of show me what I need to do.
SPEAKER_00: If you need an example of this, look to Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's not sysyfied.
SPEAKER_00: He did have passion, he was had righteous anger, but but he also had compassion.
SPEAKER_00: That's that tender-heartedness.
SPEAKER_00: Compassion.
SPEAKER_00: He was kind.
SPEAKER_00: He forgave.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the emphasis in verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ Jesus forgave you.
SPEAKER_00: What you have received in Christ Jesus, then share that with others.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not just the good news of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That is the work of the Holy Spirit that is making you more like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Share that with others.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you and I are called to live.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we are called to operate in this life.
SPEAKER_00: We're called to no longer walk as we did, but to treat others the same way that Christ Jesus has treated us.
SPEAKER_00: We who have received forgiveness in Christ should forgive others.
SPEAKER_00: We who have received the benefits of the kindness of God should be kind to others.
SPEAKER_00: The Greek word again for tenderheartedness means full of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: So we who have received the compassion of the Lord, you are to give that compassion to others.
SPEAKER_00: One cannot say that they are compassionate in their heart if they do not then share that compassion with others.
SPEAKER_00: Those are areas of our lives that we are to ask God to help us to rid us of our old self and to help us to put on the new.
SPEAKER_00: But God calls you to universally, to holistically put on this new self and not limiting it to different settings where you feel like it's appropriate to then act like this new self, but to allow that new self to then be how you are in every single setting in your life?
SPEAKER_00: What would let's do this.
SPEAKER_00: What would people say about you if I brought them on stage right now and had them share your their experience with you in front of everybody?
SPEAKER_00: If I brought your kids up here, how would your kids speak of you?
SPEAKER_00: Would they say that their mom or their dad is kind, tenderhearted, you know, forgiving?
SPEAKER_00: Would they say that my dad is the most trustworthy man that I know?
SPEAKER_00: Would they say that man, my mom, she's so she is so particular with her words to build up.
SPEAKER_00: That is how she desires.
SPEAKER_00: What if I brought your coworkers up here?
SPEAKER_00: What if I brought your employees up here?
SPEAKER_00: What what if I brought your neighbor up here?
SPEAKER_00: Every single week we come into church and we hear a message, and most of the time, if we're honest, we would always say, Man, I really wish someone, this person would hear this message.
SPEAKER_00: But the point of the passage here that Paul is trying to emphasize is you have a responsibility of being a unifier and building up the church of God.
SPEAKER_00: And you do so by putting off the old self and putting on the new.
SPEAKER_00: So the best way that the church can continue to be built up is not if Miss Susan or Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Joe over here can get it done.
SPEAKER_00: It's if you can do your part.
SPEAKER_00: Can you do your part?
SPEAKER_00: That's the only one you're responsible for.
SPEAKER_00: It's the only one that you'll give accountability to.
SPEAKER_00: Your part and your part as a follower of Christ and a child of God is to become more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So ask yourself this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Am I becoming more like Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Do I desire to continue to grow to be more like Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Is every single setting in my life open to where God can influence how I talk, what I say, how I operate?
SPEAKER_00: Or have you sectioned off areas of your life to where I act one way here?
SPEAKER_00: Here and another way here.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what God desires.
SPEAKER_00: And that grieves his heart.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the the questions.
SPEAKER_00: Do you desire to honor the Lord more than you desire to continue to walk in sin?
SPEAKER_00: If so, allow the Lord to work within you.
SPEAKER_00: Allow the conviction of the Holy Spirit to change you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be passive aggressive with God.
SPEAKER_00: So, well, fine, God, I'm just not going to say anything.
SPEAKER_00: Fine, God, I just won't do business anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Fine, God, I'm just not going to provide for my family anymore.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: God's calling you to something so much greater than your sensitivity to Him calling you out of this old self.
SPEAKER_00: He's exchanging with you something that's so much better for you.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever met a happy, bitter person?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember in the book of Ruth, what did Naomi say?
SPEAKER_00: Just call me Mara, because I'm just a bitter old woman.
SPEAKER_00: And her advice to Ruth was that of a bitter old woman.
SPEAKER_00: But by the end of it, as she sees how God works and she's seen the true character and nature of God, she says, Man, I delight in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Do you delight in the Lord enough to allow him to continue to change you?
SPEAKER_00: As we go into a time of response this morning, here's my question for you.
SPEAKER_00: Will you fully surrender to the Lord this morning every single part of you?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're in here this morning and you're sitting there going, well, okay, so here's what I know that I should do.
SPEAKER_00: I know I shouldn't do this and I should do that.
SPEAKER_00: And if I do those things, then God's going to be happy with me.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: The only way that God is happy with you is if you repent of your sin and trust in him for salvation and receive his son, because then at that point, he covers you with his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't see your sin anymore.
SPEAKER_00: What separates you from him?
SPEAKER_00: He sees his righteousness, his blood atonement that fully covers you.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe the surrender this morning is surrendering this idea that your behavior modification and your moralistic deism type of living isn't enough and does not satisfy the wrath of God, but his blood does, and recognizing that I'm a sinner that needs to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And you would repent of your sin and trust in Christ this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're a follower of Jesus in here this morning and you're saying, Well, hey, I'm trying.
SPEAKER_00: I just thought, you know, once I came to Christ that everything's okay, that all this other stuff, it's just kind of part of the program.
SPEAKER_00: It's not.
SPEAKER_00: God saved you where you are, not to keep you where you were.
SPEAKER_00: God saved you where you were in that moment, not to keep you there.
SPEAKER_00: His desire was to make you more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's areas that we've talked about this morning of your life that you know right now, I don't live like that.
SPEAKER_00: No longer, do not any longer grieve the heart of God by being callous to those things, but allow him to work on you this morning, to change you.
SPEAKER_00: To make you more like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask Alan to come up with the band.
SPEAKER_00: There are gonna be pastors down front as we go to sing.
SPEAKER_00: I do feel led to say this now.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're in here this morning and you're saying it's really hard to be kind and tender-hearted and forgiving when I'm just so angry.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so bitter.
SPEAKER_00: I don't feel like God has worked in my life how he should.
SPEAKER_00: I've asked God for certain things in my life and he just hasn't given them.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm trying to get rid of this bitterness and this anger and this malice, but I just I just can't.
SPEAKER_00: I I'm I'm so frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: There's some of you in here this morning that Mother's Day is not a happy day.
SPEAKER_00: Would you know that God God loves you and God isn't punishing you for anything?
SPEAKER_00: God desires to continue to show you compassion and tenderness and and mercy and kindness.
SPEAKER_00: As we respond to the word of the Lord, let's pray.