Ephesians 4:17-24 - Pastor Kyle Weeks - April 26th, 2026

Join us this week as Pastor Kyle Weeks continues our Sunday morning study through Paul's letter to the Ephesians. 

Transcript

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If you have a copy of God's word, go ahead and grab it. Turn to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four is where we find ourselves this morning. Last week we we looked at that all of us are unified by the calling that we have on our life in Christ Jesus, but all of us are individually different because we've been given distinct gifts by God through the Holy Spirit upon salvation to be used, not for any individual purposes, to be used not to build yourself up, but to be used to the glory and honor of God within his church for the purpose of building up his church. This is what all of us have in common. We saw that another gift to the church was biblical spiritual leadership that helped train up saints and equip them for the work of the ministry, and that all of us are to be about this work until Christ Jesus calls us home. To walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling of Christ Jesus. This morning we're going to see the opposite of how we are to walk and what we are being called to do by God. And so if you're able and willing, would you stand with me in honor of reading God's Word? We're going to look at verses 17 through 24 this morning. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 17 is where we'll begin. This is the word of the Lord. Now, this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart, they have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to every to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life, and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. May God add his blessings to the reading of his word. Let's pray. Father, we pray this morning that you would speak to us through your word. As we open your word, we pray that you would give us ears to hear and eyes to see what you have for us this morning. Father, as we talk about putting off this old self, something that all of us are still called to do, Father, may we remember what you have purchased for us in the new life that we get to walk in. Father, I pray that you would give me the words to say this morning. Father, I pray that you they would be your words and not mine. Father, I pray this morning that you would speak to me through your word. And as I've prayed all throughout this morning and this weekend, Father, that I would be the first to apply this to my life. That Father, you would speak to me first through the words that you give me. Father, we pray that you would be honored and glorified throughout this time. We pray that's all in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Paul is talking about a manner in which they once walk, a manner that is now incompatible with the calling of the believer, and how they are to walk now in a manner that is worthy of the calling of Christ Jesus, as we've already read, and as we'll get into, to ultimately put off the old self and put on the new. That that old part of you that was once walking as a Gentile with no desire for the things of God must be put to death, and you're to put on the new self, to no longer do the do things the way that you used to, but with having a new purpose, with a new understanding, with a greater knowledge of God, with a mind that has been saved by God to continue to or to begin then to walk in a new life that seeks after Him. It's hard to put away old things, though. It's hard to move past old things and get to new. It's easy though when you understand how much better the new things are. My grandfather had this in his garage, and uh my grandmother gave it to me uh pond when he died. If you don't know what this is, uh this is a golf club. And you're going, it's made of wood. Exactly. It used to be persimmon. That's what this is. Golf clubs used to be made of persimmon. This is a five-iron, it has about as much loft as most putters do nowadays. Um, but but it's it's meant to play golf with. Now, um, the irony is that most of these clubs now are um antique items, they're they're collectibles. Um, you never see anybody out there playing with a set of these today. But because they're obsolete. Why would I play with something like this when I know there's something better out there and something that that was meant to take the place of this? That's why you can now go and for something like this, you can pay for $10 at a yard sale and new clubs, a new knot, a new five-iron included in a set of irons would now cost you at least $600. There came a point in time, though, where it was determined that this is now no longer the best way to go forward, and that that I that I need to go forward with something new. In your life, when you came to Christ, you realize that the way of doing things is no longer longer compatible with what God is calling you to, and that there is something better out there, a better life, and that is the new life that's in Christ Jesus. That's exactly what Paul is talking to us about this morning. He'll use the same metaphor as someone walking as he did in the beginning of chapter four, and he'll talk about though we are to no longer walk as Gentiles. The first thing that I want you to see this morning is the futility of walking in sin. The futility of walking in sin. Look at verse 17 again. Now, this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. All of us in here are walking in a direction in life. If you are in Christ, then you are called to walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling that you have received in Christ Jesus. Every person that is not working, walking in that manner, is then walking in a manner that is away from the things of God. And that is exactly what Paul is calling them away from this morning. He's calling the church to no longer walk as they used to. Now remember, when we first looked at the book of Ephesians, there is a Greek goddess there named Artemis, and Artemis is the main goddess of Ephesus, and all of their economy runs through the pagan worship and uh the pagan relics that are made uh in a in a way that is to bring honor or to point people to worship this goddess. Ephesus is also known for their sexual immorality, they're known uh for their idolatry, they're known uh to be a town really mixed with both free and slave, and so um it's very much a mixed pot. If you were to look at our culture today, it pretty much would line up identically. To walk as an Ephesian would mean to walk worshiping goddesses, uh, to be open when it comes to your sensuality, all of these different things. And so what Paul is saying is hey, you can no longer walk as as Gentiles do, as you did before. But but you're to walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling that you've received in Christ Jesus. He he he says in verse 17, now this I say and testify in the Lord. That word testify is used like in a corporum setting, but but it goes deeper. I insist, it is a testimony that has deep insistence upon it, that this is what I'm saying to you, this is what you should do, this is what I know, and this is what I am telling you. You cannot walk like the Gentiles do. Verse 18, we see what it means to walk as the Gentiles do, and it's there at the end of verse 18. If you read this like we should exegetically, you could see that all of what Paul is talking about when it's walking begins with a hardness of heart. Every person that is not walking in Christ Jesus, but is walking in sin is walking in sin because of a hardness of heart towards the things of God. They've heard the things of God, they know the things of God, and they chose and choose to say, I am not going to follow after that. I'm gonna go my own path. I'm gonna go the way that I feel is best, I'm gonna go the way that makes me happy, I'm gonna go the way that that that pleases me. And what the apostle Paul says is that manner of walking is futile, it's hopeless, it's empty. There's nothing in it. John Piper quote is quoted by saying, My deepest problem is life in life is that apart from the free and sovereign grace of God, my heart is hardened against God. I am like a stone towards all that is spiritual. It does not move me, attract me, nor delight me. This is a far deeper problem than ignorance. It is the cause of ignorance and the guilt of ignorance. Every person that has chosen not to, by faith, walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling in Christ Jesus chooses to walk in a manner that is natural to them as a person dead in trespasses and sin, and that is to walk away from God, hardening, hardening their heart towards the things of God. And so the decision-making comes through a hedonistic uh ideal of what brings them the most pleasure, what pleases me, an idolatrous way of living, of having an idolatry of self. What do I want to do? What makes me happy? What what brings me satisfaction? That's ultimately what happens when pride takes over your life and it is all about you, then you become the God that you worship, and and you want a God that is just worship and delighted all the time. So you want to be worship and delighted all the time. And so everything that you do, uh how you live, is all based on what makes you happy. And the Apostle Paul says here that that's a futile mind, devoid of any desire of the things of God and walking completely away from him because of a hardened heart. That's why when when you, especially in the South, when you when we go to evangelize to somebody, the question, do you know that you're a sinner, no longer is a question that gets people to reflect on anything spiritual, because every single person knows in this room that I'm a sinner. The big question is, do you desire your sin more than the things of God? Because if that answer is no, then that that answer just showed you the condition of your heart. Because if you desire other things more than you desire the things of God, then you have a hardened heart that is walking away from him. And this is exactly what Paul is calling the church away from to no longer walk as the Gentiles do, because what does it ultimately lead to? Death and destruction, spiritual death, which all of us at one point were walking in outside of Christ. You continue to walk in that spiritual death until until the moment when you die on this earth and you stand before the Lord, and then you end enter into eternal death, eternal torment and judgment because of the way in which we you walked on this earth, walking in unrepentant sin. Darkened in mind, alienated from God, ignorant of the truth, callous towards the things of God, sensual in practice. This is not how we are to walk. If you are in Christ this morning, there there should be a red flag going off if there is any part of your life that that looks like any of this without any kind of check or any kind of conviction from the Holy Spirit. Some of us in here, if there's one word in here that I would say that, man, I I really have to pray and ask God to help me walk in, is that is becoming callous to the things of God. To come in and come out each week and and and there be no conviction in my life as I go throughout the week. There's no desire for the things of God. I just kind of find myself in autopilot. You ever find yourself that way? You might have come in here this morning on autopilot. I'm gonna come to church, then I'm gonna go to eat, then I'm gonna go home, then I'm gonna take a nap, then I'm gonna wake back up, I'm gonna eat again, I'm gonna go to sleep, I gotta go to work tomorrow, and and and then I go throughout the week, and then I get here next week and I'll do the same thing. It's not how we're called to walk. What God is calling us away from, to when he takes us from dead in trespasses and sin to a live together with Christ, he's calling us from something that's old and something that's insufficient, something that's corrupted, and calling us to the new life that he's given us. When we walk in unrepentant, scalous sin, it communicates that our desire is sin more than the things of God. It does A. W. Tozer puts it this way: no matter what a man does, no matter how successful he seems to be in any field, if the Holy Spirit is not the chief organizer of his activity, it will fall apart when he dies. That's why I want you to see the incompatibility of your old life. That's the second point I have for you this morning. Your old life is incompatible, it doesn't work, it doesn't cross over to this new life. Now, you might be in this room and go, I know as a follower of Christ, I'm not to walk in that way. I'm not to walk like the Gentiles do. And so that's what I'm seeking to do. I'm seeking to walk with the Lord, to honor the Lord, and that is great. But the calling that all of us have is to put to death the old self and to put on the new self, not to repackage the old self to try to be compatible with the new self, because there is no area of your new life that is compatible with your old life. How you once lived and how you once walked now has no business being in how you walk in Christ Jesus. Look with me at verse 19. I'm sorry, verse 20. But that is not the way that you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. Taught what? And who ultimately called you to do that? We can we can participate here. Sunday school answer. Come on. Jesus did. Right? So so if anybody says, well, who actually told me to do that? God did. That's what Paul says here. You weren't, that's not how you learned Christ. You learned to deny yourself just like he did, to pick up your cross, to to be about the killing of your old self and to follow after him, not seeking the desires of this world, not seeking your own pleasure, but to follow after him. That's how you learned Christ. But again, the the problem for us where we find ourselves is that sometimes rather than putting to death the old self, we just find ourselves sitting on the fence where I have one leg in and one leg out. Now, all of us are in the process of all of us in Christ. You are in the process of sanctification. That's a big word that just means to be made more like Jesus. That process will take your whole life. Here's the good news of the gospel: you are justified before God by the blood of Jesus Christ. So God didn't save some future version, some future sanctified version of you that maybe by that point you've now been justified. No. Upon receiving salvation in Christ Jesus, boom, justified. You walk out of here after receiving salvation and you get killed in a car accident. It's not based on your sanctification, it's based on your justification. And the only person to justify you is Christ Jesus by his blood. Praise the Lord. Sanctification is the rest of your life, the process for the rest of your life of becoming more like Jesus. That doesn't happen instantaneously, that is slow. Sanctification is not a super highway, it's not I-10 going to 85. It's that car that you get behind on Houston going 15. Right? It's a slow process. It takes time, but you are still called to do it. How many people in here are kind of that person where it's like, well, I'm gonna do it. I want it to be done now, and I want it to be all done now. Anybody? Instant gratification people? Where are we at? Right? Yeah. So that's not what it's like following after Jesus. We'll still be frustrated a year from now that I'm not as far along in following Jesus that I want to be. But what call what Paul is talking or telling us is not to run in a manner that is worthy of the calling, not to sprint, not to catch a flight, to walk. It's a more day-to-day thing. You continue to progress in walking in Christ Jesus. When something becomes corrupt, it is no longer usable. You and I, because of sin, are tainted by sin. And a life that is lived, allowing sin to have free reign is not compatible with what God has called us to. So we are called to toss that aside and put on the new self. We are called to kill that area of our lives. Do you remember when we talk about this in the book of Ephesians and I talk about kudzu? You know about kudzu, its roots run deep. It's not just a one-time knocking it to the ground, it is a constant effort to kill and put to death that which is sinful within you, because that is how I become more like Jesus. Paul tells us in Colossians chapter 3, verse 5 through 9, to put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices. Now, this is not an exhaustible list. If you were an Ephesian living in Ephesus, then you would believe that uh this goddess, which uh Artemis had a bunch of different uh elements to her and the reasons that they worship her, but you would worship Artemis to kind of worship her for futility, fertility, you would worship her for um to be to support your family, but but you would Walk in a manner that's just going, how do I make my life the best as possible, making the decisions that I make and doing what I think is right? Now, our world today would sit back and go, Well, what's wrong with that? We're all called to make good decisions, to be smart with what we do, uh, to make sure that we we don't do anything outside of uh the law, all of these different things. Here's the problem. If we aren't careful, rather than killing our sin, we'll just allow it to mutate into something that looks like godliness, but it's just godlessness undercover. Let me say that again. If you are not careful, rather than killing your sin, we'll allow it to just mutate into something that looks like godliness, but it or godliness, but is just godlessness undercover. I'll give you an example personal. In high school, I went to a very liberal high school. I was one of maybe four kids that went to church, two of whom had actually read the Bible. What I love to do is to help people in high school. Why I love to help people is because I'd like I like them to think that I was smart and that I was wise. So here's what I would do: I would use the Bible to help solve people's problems, and when they would say thank you, I'd say, Well, that's just who I am. Okay, do you see the problem there? Because the problem is, is I would feed my pride with something that looked good. What's wrong with a young man reading his Bible? Nothing if he uses it to bring glory and honor to God, if he only reads it so that he can bring glory to himself, that's a problem. That's that's sin. How about this? Some of us have control issues, but we mask it as wisdom. So you have so much control of your house and you grip it so tightly. You grip your children, you grip your job, you grip your finances, where there is no room really for God to work outside of your purview. And you call it wisdom. Some might call it faithlessness. Had a girl at a church one time, kept, didn't come to church and kept her baby out of church for six months. You know why? She was afraid the baby's gonna get sick while being at church. If God protected that baby for nine months in the womb, where there's a lot of stuff that can go wrong for that nine months, you don't think he's good to protect that baby outside the womb? That's not wisdom. That's fear. But we get it twisted because we like to go, yeah, but I I gotta do this and I gotta do this, and I gotta operate this way. Hang on a second. Where does God play into this factor? Well, God wants me to be wise. Yeah, with with faith, in faith in him. Wisdom is not having every element of your life under control to where you are kind of prepared for worst-case scenario. To have every answer in life, answer or question in life answered before you even take a step forward. Where's faith in that? See what, see what I'm talking about? Putting to death the old self means to allow God to have every element of your life. All the what-ifs, all the maybes, uh, all the what happens, every element to trust him and to say, I'm gonna walk in righteousness and holiness, to trust that that he's God, he's on the throne, and that I can take everything to him, and everything I take to him, that he can give me wisdom to walk in and guide and not help me to just clench my fist tighter so that nothing can slip through the cracks. Because the devastating thing will happen when tragedy strikes, and we and the first thing we say is, but I was so careful, but I did this and I did this and I did this. You're not God. What God's calling you to do is not to be like him in the sense of control. He's calling you to be like him in the sense of righteousness and holiness, to to be more like Jesus. That's not the way you earned Christ is what learned Christ is what Paul said. To try to make this old life and new life compatible. They're not. It's oil and water, they do not mix. The way you learned Christ is to deny yourself, to pick up your cross, and to follow after Jesus. God wants us to do that with all that we have. He wants us to get to the root of all of the sin that controls our lives, and he doesn't want to just take it down to the ground or keep it at bay. He wants you to remove all of it because you have a new life. You no longer walk in this way, you walk in this way. Pixar came out with a new toy story a few years ago, and they're really grasping at straws now because they couldn't find a new character to come up with, so they made a character out of a spork. It's called Forky. Anybody seen the new toy story in here with my young adult? There we go. Young parents in here, you know. It's forky. The premise of the movie is Woody trying to get Forky to not jump in the trash because Forky just goes, Well, I'm trash. I'm supposed to be with the trash. And he goes, No, no, no, you're a toy now. You've been made as a toy, so you you you're no longer trash. You're you're Bonnie's toy. That's the whole movie. I just summarized it for you. If you haven't seen it, sorry. Oftentimes that's how the Holy Spirit is with you and I. You keep wanting to run back to the trash because it's comfortable. He's taking you to your new life because it's what you've now been made into. Do you see the difference? You look the same appearance-wise, but but you are not the same internally because of what God has done in your life. The calling of the Christian is to follow Christ from death to life, to put off the old self and to put on the new. That's the last thing that I want you to see right here. The calling of the new self. The calling of the new self. Look at verse 22. I'm sorry, 23. Verse 22 says, To put off the old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupted through deceitful desires, verse 23, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness. To be created after to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Here's the characteristics of the new self. The new self is fully dependent upon the Lord. Matthew chapter 5, verse 3. The new self is or seeks to love the Lord with all their heart, mind, and strength. The new self seeks his kingdom in his righteousness. To walk in this way, to put on the new self created after the likeness of God and Christ Jesus in righteousness and holiness. Now, might be asking yourself what every person has asked themselves that has heard this phrase, to put off the old self and put on the new. How in the world do I do that? It's the same as the day when that person that traded in their old persimmon club grabbed that iron club and go, What in the world do I do with this thing? Do you want to know the good news of the gospel? Is that God doesn't just call you to put on the new self without strengthening you to do so, without equipping you to do so. What does he equip you with? His spirit. God calls you to put off the old self and put on the new. And just like a help a helper, which is exactly what the Holy Spirit is described as, you have a personal coach, a swing coach, if you will, if we want to keep using the golf metaphor, that that walks you through how this life now is to be lived. To put off these old ways and to put on the new. Paul in Ephesians or Colossians chapter 3 tells us those characteristics when he tells the church in Colossae to put on the new self. He says in verse 12, put on then as God's chosen one, holy and beloved. Holy, set apart. Not perfect. Putting on your new self doesn't mean that you are now perfect. Putting on the new self is that you are set apart by God to pursue after him and to be about his purposes in your life, to no longer walk as a Gentile, but to be set apart like he is set apart, to live a life that is set apart, that seeks to honor him, not set apart physically, but set apart, set apart spiritually. He says, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, you must also forgive. Now, if we're honest, we read the first list of the old self, anger, malice, sensuality, we're like, okay. And it said, put on the new list, uh, compassionate hearts, patience, forgiveness. You're going, man, it's a lot of work. What's easier to be patient or angry? Angry. What's easier to be self-controlled or sensual? Sensual. It is the easier thing. It's the natural thing. It's what it's what appeals to our nature. But what God calls us to, he also strengthens us to do through the work of his spirit, this new life that we have received in him. This is how we are to walk. To actually be humble, not have the facade of humility. But to think of yourself, but to think of others as more important as yourself, as Paul would say in Philippians. To actually walk in humility, to have compassionate hearts. We saw when it came to the church in Ephesians chapter, in the beginning of Ephesians, he says, hey, to bear with one another, to love one another, walk in a manner that is worthy of Christ, in this unity that you have received, with gentleness, with patience, and with bearing one another in love. That's the new self. Are there times where our old self rears its ugly head? Absolutely. Full honesty this morning had had it. Don't know why. But you know what God calls us to do in that moment? Is not to get frustrated where we are. It's not to have a pity party and just go, man, I'm just the worst. It's to say, God, continue to heal me and help me put this to death. That's what you and I are called to do. To walk in that way. Is that an easy walk? No. Does that take effort? Yes. Will you be exactly where you want to be upon the time that the Lord calls you home? No. Spiritually, we will always continue to fight against sin and to kill sin. But what God says is to walk in this way, strengthened by the Spirit. And the good news of the gospel is that your performance is not what earns his grace. His grace is freely given to you in salvation. Your performance is not what earns your eternal life. His justification is that your call is to walk in a manner that is worthy, to bring God honor and glory with what you do and how you live on this earth. And we seek to do all of this, to put on the new self for that. Verse 15 of chapter 3 of Colossians, Paul continues on. He says, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you, richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thanks, thankfulness in your heart and in whatever you do. Do you remember this? In word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. So, what is this new life I'm called to walk in? In righteousness and holiness, seeking to honor God in every single thing that I do while putting on a compassionate heart, humility, patience, bearing with one another in love, and loving one another, loving other brothers and sisters in Christ. Being compassionate to those inside and outside of the church. My new life, your new life was given to us through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You didn't earn this new life, and you did not rise to a status that is worthy of that new life. It was paid for by the death of Jesus Christ and offered to you freely as a gift. You are in here this morning and you are continuing to walk as the Gentiles do, as Paul would say, with no desire for the things of God, but a calloused, unrepentant heart. God offers you new life, not by behavior modification or changing how you live. He offers you new life from what only He can offer, which is salvation through His Son, paying for your sin. And the good news of that gospel is that that salvation is not based on how you perform. You are sealed upon salvation by the Holy Spirit. Sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. In the moments where you slip and fall, in the moments where you stumble. God is a great high priest who has once and for all paid the penalty for our sin. And we can come to him seeking help. As I tell our Wednesday night Bible study all the time, God is a helper. He is not a heckler. When you come to him, he doesn't sit there and go, about time, you've really messed this up. He says, I'm here, I'm here to help. I'm here to continue to sanctify you, make you more like myself, make you more like Christ. And we're strengthened by the Holy Spirit for this work. You might be sitting in here this morning, you're like, I don't know how to do that. How do I put off the old self and put on the new? Here's two great things. Um, God desires to help you in that, and he just asks for you to call out onto his name for help. The second thing is he's already given you that help. He's giving you the Holy Spirit. You don't need more of the Holy Spirit, you need more submission to the Holy Spirit. So here's what we cry out in prayer: God help me be more submissive to your spirit. God help me be more sensitive to your conviction. God help me to hate my sin and seek to put it to death. And the good news of being a child of God is God will continue to give you more help, more of what you need that's found in him, to continue to fight this battle that you have with with sin in your life. So here's the closing closing question today. Here's what I have for you this morning. What needs to be put to death in your life? Some of you have done what we've talked about in here and you've masked godlessness with something else, hoping that it'd be perceived as godliness. You would say you're a good steward. Others would say you're greedy. You would say I'm wise. Others would say you're you're you're controlling and self-righteous. You would say, I'm I'm just honest. Others would say you're a gossip. There are things in every single one of our lives of this old self that's trying to rear its ugly head back up. And what is God calling us to do? To put it to death. Maybe this morning it's to come up here with a with a pastor just on your knees and pray, God, reveal to me the areas of my life where I have masked the old self, thinking that it was compatible with the new. What did David pray, God, reveal to me the secret sin in my heart, things that I don't realize? God, convict me of that. There are things in your life, though, that you know aren't compatible, that you just aren't giving any attention or effort to. So maybe it's God, convict me of these areas and strengthen me for that work. Maybe it's just coming and say, God, I need your help. God, help me. God, I I need your I need your help. Would you help me? Give me patience, give me these things. If you're a farmer in this room, you've been praying for patience for the last few months. God, help me not to try to take things into my own hands. Help me not to try to will my way through this. God, help me to trust you. God, give me patience, give me faith, give me strength. Work. You might be coming down and say, Lord, I'm gonna pray for patience and rain. That's okay. But God, would you just work in my life? What do you need to put to death this morning? There might be one of you in this room that what you need to put to death this morning is you. To say, I'm trying, I'm tired of running this direction, trying to find something that won't end up futile, and you realize that everything that you run to outside of Christ is futile. It doesn't satisfy, there's no hope in it, and it leaves you feeling empty. The reason for that is because the true lover of your soul and the one who satisfies you beyond anything else is only Christ Jesus. Stop running this morning. Turn to him. He offers you a free gift of salvation. You don't have to pay penance, you don't have to be flogged like he did, because he did all of those things for you. Any punishment you feel like you deserve, he took it on himself and he said, Your record is paid for. Trust in me. Would you do that this morning? As we go into a time of response to the Word of God, let's pray.