Ephesians 4 - Walk Worthy — Inside and Out - 05/03/26

Ephesians 4

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—

5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

8 Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
    and he gave gifts to men.”

9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?

10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

17 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.

18 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.

19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—

21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,

22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,

23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,

24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,

27 and give no opportunity to the devil.

28 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.

29 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.

30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for build for building up for building up the body of Christ, until we all attained the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed and tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes, rather than speaking truth and love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint from with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, when the makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Church, this is the word of the Lord, and it is alive.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Great job, Marshall. Awesome. Stay on your feet for me for just a second. Let's decree over this service. Just go ahead and get into an attitude of prayer. Father, we thank you this evening. God, we pray for those that are outside these walls tonight, that are celebrating. We pray that there would be a moment of reflection for them. Lord, many may already know you, and many may not. God, I pray what we're doing right here would shake the earth, that would cause and call people by your spirit into your presence, God. God, we thank you for what you're doing in this time and in this hour. And today we decree. I decree in the mighty name of Jesus that this church is walking worthy of our calling. The vision has no authority here. The old self has no dominion here. We are building being built up together in the full measure of the stature of Christ, and we're putting on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. We are no longer children tossed by every wind of doctrine. We are no longer walking in the futility of the old man. We are growing up in every way into him who is the head, and we are walking it out in our homes, our workplaces, and in every conversation, and we walk with victory, not do it in Jesus' name. And everybody said, Amen. And now you can be seated. Thank you, worship team. Thank you guys for being here while you're taking your seat. Obviously, we are in Ephesians, and we are picking up today in Ephesians chapter four. But I do have an announcement that I would like to say. So she is headed out tomorrow to Gotland. What's it called?

unknown 3:02

Dunbarton.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Okay, Dunbarton. So we want to pray over her before she goes. She's going to be there for a week to do some mission trip. Is that right? Yeah. And so got some excitement, also got some nerves, and uh more importantly, just want to be used by God. So if you guys will join me, extend your hands towards her. Let's just pray a blessing as she goes tomorrow. Father, I thank you. God, we thank you that as she is called in this moment, Lord, I pray that your spirit would go before her, that your angels would begin to make a way, God. God, I pray that now as you put this call on this entire team that's going into Scotland, let it be a moment in time that would change uh the atmosphere of that city and that region. As she goes into the castle that they're going to be at, Father. Lord, I pray that your spirit would go and make a way right now, that there would be a drawing under those that are lost, a drawing under those that have not uh heard of your word or of who Jesus is. And God, I pray that you would give her uh uh just the power and the uh authority to walk in what you've called her to, Father. And Lord, that as she begins to speak, lay hands on the sick, begin to prophesy, God. God, I pray that those anointings would be strong upon her. And more importantly, God, protect that team as they go. Lord, let their travel be protected by you, Father. And Lord, I pray that all anxiety be rested right now in Jesus' name, and that they would just rest in you in the name of Jesus. Amen and amen. Yeah. Praise God. Go do wonderful things. So there she's going with uh Stonewater Church to uh Scotland uh to do a little mission trip over there, so that's gonna be amazing. And I think that going and doing the work of the Lord is what we need to be doing. Um, as you know here at the gathering, um, or if you haven't been here, I'll tell you. But our focus and this moment, as we're establishing, is to focus on our community. And we are going to be missionaries right here, focusing on reaching people right here in Cleveland, Texas. And what we know is if we can take care of that mandate that God has put on us, then we will go to the ends of the earth. We will go and do all the things he's called us to do. But the first thing we've got to do is take care of our own. We've got to take care of the back our backyard. Amen? And so that's gonna be our focus going forward. So here we're in our uh fourth week. We've been through three weeks of Ephesians. And uh, if you remember in week one, as we spoke, we talked about uh before you drew a breath, God chose you. He knows you, he adopted you, he blessed you with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. In the second week, we were talking about you were dead, but God, rich in his mercy, great in his love, made you alive, he raised you up, and he seated you with Christ. Last week, if you were able to take any type of notes, because there was a lot of stuff in last week, but it was the mysteries out. The wall's been torn down. God has let us in. He's made a way, and Paul was announcing that. You're a fellow heir. You're not somebody that's waiting on something. You're already in the inheritance. You already have what God has given. You've been made alive, you're a member of his body, a partaker of the promise, and you're filled with all the fullness of God. Amen. And today we're going to get into this fourth part. So these three weeks that we've been in are the most exhilarating theology in the New Testament. The Ephesians letter is some of the best writings that you can read and study. And really, if you can get the context and the culture of what he who what he was writing into, and then you begin to see your own life and your own culture and what is going on where you're at, you can begin to understand what he was telling them, but you can also begin to apply it into your own life. And there was a lot of cultural things that were wrong in Ephesus at the time. But Paul speaking directly into them says, listen, all of this stuff, you got to remember who you are. You got to remember why you were made. You got to remember the truth that you've been given. And so many times, what happens to us, we get a little bit of truth, and then something comes and steals the truth. Something comes and takes it away, and we forget, or we lose it, or we set it down. And what Paul's trying to do is remind these folks hey, don't turn back. Go forward. Keep your eyes ahead, keep your eyes on the prize. So he's telling them, you're chosen, you're adopted, you're redeemed, raised, you're seated, and you're filled. And now Paul says one word to start chapter 4. He says, therefore. He says, therefore. He says, I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. That's in verse 1 of Ephesians 4. In the Bible, when you see the word therefore, hear me. When you see, Willard, when you see the word therefore, you need to start asking yourself a question. You need to ask and stop and look. What is this there for? It's very true. When you hear therefore, what's it there for? It's there for everything Paul has just said. Everything that he's laid out up until this point. Now he's trying to turn the page a little bit. He's going to change the direction of what he's speaking. Everything he said is established, and everything that he said is true, but now he's just going to turn the page a little bit. And what we're going to find out in two movements in chapter four is he's going to talk about us as a body, and then he's going to talk about you as an individual. He's going to talk about how we grow up as a body, that we all need each other, that our giftings are important. They all fit together. But then he's going to talk about what you need to do as an individual to do your part in the body. And so he says, Therefore. You see, in chapter four, is the therefore the entire letter is where Paul takes everything he has built and says, now walk in it. It's everything that we've given you for the last three weeks. And now he's saying, Now walk in it. Be it. Do it. Be about it. Know who you are. Know your identity. Know you're not dead. Know you're alive. Know that the wall's been torn down. Know that you can get into the presence of God. Know that you can walk onto the other side of that wall. Know that God has a place for you and He's called you. Now walk in it. Amen. And so this is what He's saying to us tonight. Now it's time for you to walk in it. Paul goes beyond how believers live together as a church and presses into the hidden places of everyday life and the mind confronting sins people rarely admit publicly, dishonesty, lingering anger, harmful speech, long-held bitterness, and a spirit grieved without being motivated, without being noticed. I'm sorry, not motivated. And this is what he's going to talk about. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand, but many of us in here have lived quite a long time. I see a lot of gray hair, bald heads. And here's the deal with that. We got secrets. We got things that we won't share. Some of us got bitterness that we haven't let go of. Somebody's done something to us, and we're just stuck in it. And here's what Paul's saying it's time to move on. It's time for you to walk in what I've already told you. It's time for you to get past it. Oh my goodness. So Ephesians 4 has two movements, and you need both of them. The first half, the corporate call, walk together. Worthy. Walk worthy together. All of us walk worthy together, doing our part, being a part of the same movement, of the same thing that God wants to do. By the blood of Jesus, we're all in this together. And that's what he tells us in the beginning. Put on what is new, walk worthy on the inside. Same chapter, same call, inside and out. And that's the second part, is what he tells you. He says, take off what is dead and put on what is alive. Redress yourself. Become something new. But he gives you keys on how to do that. And that becomes the important part. And so the Christian life is not, you might want to write this down, the Christian life is not behavior modification, it is identity manifestation. You see, the Christian life is not about, oh, you just kind of change the way you act. It's actually about his identity being manifested on the inside of you. And that people can see it and feel it, and it's coming out. The Christian life, well, I've already told you this about the world that Paul wrote in, but let me just reiterate: Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus was radical, right? Why was it radical? Because he was writing to all sorts of different people. How many of you know there's all sorts of different people in this room? He was writing, he was writing to people that worshiped at the temple, that were priests, that had problems. He was writing to people that were Gentiles, that didn't come out of the faith, that weren't Jews, that didn't know the Torah, that didn't know the law. He was writing to people that didn't know the law, that knew the Torah. He was writing to all walks of life, knowing that the church that he had established had all kinds of different people. Rich and poor, knowledgeable and unknowledgeable, uh, smart, not smart, all the things you could think of. Hair, no hair. Skinny, not skinny. Smell good, not smell good. But this is who he's writing to, and that's the world. And this was the fellowship that he was talking to. And this is the fellowship that we have tonight. Even as they brought old patterns like anger and manipulation and sensuality and deception and exploitation with them, he still preached to them the letter of Christ changed Christ has freed you from the chains of this world. And I'm here tonight to be that representation of the word of Ephesians 4 that Christ has freed you from the chains of your past. That Christ has released you from the chains of your past. Your bitterness has to go. Your unforgiveness has to go if you want to walk in the manifestation of the identification of who Christ is. But how do we do that? And that's what Paul gets into. And rather than offering a simple checklist of improved behavior, wouldn't it be so easy? That's what we all want. Like, can you just give me the boxes I could check them off and everything will be okay? Paul calls them to live out their new resurrection life in everyday relationships, in worship, at home, at their work. It's a challenge that still applies to you today. He's calling us to be different. Not just when you come in here, but everywhere you go. Even at home. So our first movement will be in Ephesians 4 1 through 16. And this is the corporate call, how we walk together. And what he's asking us to do is walk worthy. Walk worthy means to live in a way that matches your name. Ephesians 4 1. I therefore already read it, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Remember where Paul's writing from. He's in chains. He's in a Roman cell. He's not a man speaking from comfort or security. He's actually in, he's not comfortable. Many of us are comfortable. So from here, it's a little warm. He's a prisoner. And he's writing about walking. And he doesn't get to walk. He's in chains. Paul is physically not walking anywhere. And from that place, he urges the church to walk worthy. Walk worthy, he says, because he has discovered that your circumstances in chains do not define what Christ has called you to be or who Christ has called you to be. Just because you're bound in a place doesn't mean that's who you are in Christ. And that's what he's saying. I'm bound up in these chains, but I'm free to walk. That's a revelation for somebody in here. I'm bound up in these chains in my life, but I'm free to walk today because the blood of Christ has been applied to my life, and I am free to walk. And there's where he's at. He's in that place where he's chained up, but he's saying, walk worthy. You see, the walk Paul means it's not to walk with your feet. He says to walk. It's the walk of your life. How you live your life. What you're doing with your life. Now let's get to that word worthy so we can set this up right. Because someone in this room is already feeling the weight of unworthiness. You don't have to raise your hand. You don't have to shake your head at me. I want to take the pressure off of being unworthy. That's a false thought. It's sown by the enemy. It's sown by those that are against you. He says, I make you worthy. The Greek word for worthy is axios. Axios. It's from the root meaning to weigh. The image is a scale and balance. So axios is weighing on a scale and there's balance, okay? And so that word worthy, walk axios, means walk proportionally, your daily life carrying the same weight as your identity in Christ. In other words, in your daily life, I'm carrying in proportion to what Christ has done in me, I'm carrying my life with Christ being preeminent. He is the balance of the scale of my life. As I walk out with all the chains and baggage and things, I can stand upright because Christ has said, I've loosed you from those chains. You have to today proportionally walk upright in the identity of Christ is, knowing that that is trying to hold me back cannot, because Christ said, My identity is free. This is not a performance-based Christianity, it's identity-based living. So many people put on the whole thing. I got the church walk. I got the church clap. I got the church dance. I got the church raise my hands. So many people walk in, got all the church stuff on church day. But on Monday, they can't even live it. And what he's telling us is it's more important who you are on Monday than it is who you are on Sunday. That's the change that we've got to get. This is what Paul's doing. Paul's just rolling it out for us. And this is what he's telling us. He says, listen, this is about you, you're not walking worthy to earn grace. You are walking worthy because of grace. You're not trying to earn the grace of God. You're able to walk worthy because of the grace of God. Because his grace is on your life, you can walk worthy of it. Anybody can say whatever they want about you. It doesn't matter. It's what he says about you. I can walk worthy of his grace because he gave me his grace. You have nothing to do with the grace of Christ in my life. He has everything to do with the grace of Christ in my life. And so many people try to take that away from us, and we let them. Be transformed. The grace came first. Now the walk. You see, you get the grace, but then you can walk. That's when you can walk. Your Monday should match your Sunday. And the grace to walk is it is already in you. Now let's look at Ephesians 4, 2 through 6. Unity is a virtue that you maintain. It's not an accident you stumble into. So let me read this to you. Verse 2. With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. There's one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Notice the word maintain in the beginning. It says, There is one body and eager to maintain. It doesn't say create, it says maintain. Not manufacture, maintain. The Holy Spirit has always produced the unity. The move is this. He wove it together through the blood of Christ, the unity that we're to have. Our job in the body of Christ is to maintain it. Not to create it, not to make it. We just maintain it through the blood of Christ. Unity. You can look around this room and you can think, I see all these brothers and sisters. All of them. Man, I just want to be in unity and walk in unison. Why do I want to walk in unity with them? Because we got something that God wants to accomplish. And he's going to do it through the group, not through one. It's not about one guy or five guys. It's about all of us. It's about what God wants to do in a community, through each and every one of you. And you'll see this as we go on. The Holy Spirit has already produced this in you. Your job is to keep it, to guard it. And Paul is specific about how. Not through willpower, not through programs, but through humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love. You see, the more humility we have, more patience we have with one another. I'm not going to look at anybody in the room. I'm just going to close my eyes when I talk about humility and patience. Because I don't want anybody to think I'm talking bad about you. I know everybody in here has lots of patience for their children and their spouse and their loved ones. Oh, okay, yes. See, everybody does. Everybody's smiling. But this is what he's saying. This is how you keep humility. You do with humility. Patience. This is how you keep the unity. In Roman culture, where he was at, where Paul was writing this, that worship power and self promotion, they're rid of this radical acts of spiritual warfare as he wrote this. What I mean by that is we see it today. I'll use today's world. This would happen in the Roman world, but I'll use today's world. In the church, I'll even use the church. In the church, we want to build mega. We want to be very big. We want to be very powerful. And at times we get to the place where we think we're so big that the identity of the organization becomes about one or five or something, but not about the whole. And with that, there's this power that comes upon people that they think that they have to keep and that they have to hold and that they have to build up. And what is the truth is what God is looking for is a group, a gathering of folks, that it's not one that's above the other, that we're in humility and we're progressing with each other. And we understand that it takes every one of us doing our part, showing up, giving what God has called us to give, whatever that is. I'm going to give it into the body of believers that I'm walking with because I understand that my gift is what makes the body whole. And so Paul is coming at the whole structure of the Roman Empire, of the whole idea of everybody there going, Hey, you're always trying to get the be the one up here. What if you were the one here that served? And what if it was about the whole, everyone? Oh my goodness. Paul's just going crazy as he writes this. So humility is not weakness. It is knowing exactly who you are in Christ and choosing not to use that knowledge to elevate yourself above a brother. Look, there may be somebody in this room that is more talented than somebody else. Maybe they can prophesy or lay hands, or maybe they can preach, I don't know, sing like nobody else can sing, but it's not about my gift. It's about us. It's about my gift building us up. It's about your gift building us up. Not building you up. You see, when we get to the place where our gift's about building us up, we are the ones that want the glory. Our job is to glorify the king. And so when we have a gift that we can give into the body, it's all about glorifying the king. It's not about glorifying me or you. I want to glorify the king. Amen. And this is the body of believers that Paul's writing to, and this is what he's telling them. Hey, you've got to be in this place. Gentleness is not timidity, it is strength under control. And patience is not passive waiting. It is the act of choice to extend grace to someone, if you're honest, does not deserve it. Patience is not this passiveness. It's actually knowing that I'm going to extend grace to somebody, even though they don't deserve it. Could you imagine if we all walk that way? If we lived our life that way, where we're extending grace, even to those people that don't deserve it. It just might be that somebody would feel Christ. Would see Christ. Because you're willing to extend grace even when somebody doesn't deserve it. I'm gonna ask you to raise that, do you know anybody that doesn't deserve grace? You liars. Only like two hands went up. He says to be eager in this, in this extending. That word eager is diligent. It's spodazo. It's making every effort. It's in verse 3. It's making every effort to extend the grace. This word carries urgency. It's not casual. Paul is saying urgently, earnestly, with your whole effort, maintain the unity. Be eager to keep unity in the house. Do everything that you can to keep it. Division in the body of Christ is not just a social problem, it is a spiritual emergency. Look at verses four through six. Paul gives them the foundation. He says, There's one body and one spirit, just as you were called, to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all, in all. Did you count all those ones? There's seven of them. There's seven ones in there. There's one body, there's one baptism, there's one spirit, there's one father overall. You cannot be unified in seven different dimensions and be divided in your row. You can't have, I'm looking at me, I am one in this and this and this and this, but not have unity right here. You can't go look at me, how I walk with God, and I have all these things. He's got the, I'm one in the spirit, I'm one with the Father, I'm one in the baptism, I'm one, but I am not one here in this row. You cannot be in unity if you cannot be in unity across the row that you're sitting in, in the home that you're in, in the place that you're working. You cannot say, hey, I've got all this going on in my life through the Christ and all this oneness. The seven ones are working inside of me, but I'm not in unity with the people that are sitting beside of me. That's not unity in Christ. And so what he's talking to the church is he's saying, not only do you need to have those things working in your life, you need to look down the row and go, I'm in unity with these people. I'm gonna walk with these people, I'm gonna stand with these people. This is not me right now, this is Paul. And Paul says those things cannot win when you know what you share, when you know that you these things cannot win in your life when you know that you have disunity with somebody else. They cannot. Unity is not accidental, it's actually chosen. The gifts were given to build the body, not elevate the individual. This is one that has a lot of questions. Let me read this to you, Ephesians chapter 4, 7 through 12. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, another, therefore, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean? But that he also descended into the lower regions, the earth. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. That word pastors is also translated to shepherds, the overseers. You see, when Christ ascended, he did not leave the church empty-handed, he gave gifts. But notice what they're for. I think that's an important thing because when we hear about the fivefold ministry, we focus on that and we're like, man, we need the fivefold ministry, and we need to find those five guys that have that, and then we'll put them in place, and then we've got everything we need. But the fivefold gifting is for the body to be built up. It's not about the five guys being platformed, it's about the five offices, the gifts of God that He's given that we put into practice in the body so that we can build the members of, the partners of, the ministry team of, those that are an ecclesia, the church, the called-out ones, the sent ones. They are meant so that we can be built up to go and do what we're called to do. We're not looking for five guys to platform or five ladies to platform. What we're looking for is the five gifts from the Holy Spirit that God has He ascended and descended and then ascended again into heaven so that he would give us these gifts, not so that one, two, three, four, five guys could have ooh, that it would be one, two, three, four, five gifts would be over the body. So many times we focus on, man, we got to find those five things. And once we get those five things, we'll be completed. Look, we can put those five guys right in. Let's just put five golden chairs right up here and we'll sit on them and we'll go, you have the stuff. We want you to use the stuff. But what if we found the five things and said, We have the stuff? Let's be equipped and empowered in the gifts of God and use them in our community. Man, it's not about performance or platform, not about popularity. It's about equipping. It's all about equipping. You get in so many places, and the words are right. We can use the words, we know them. We want to equip all the saints. We just don't know how to do it. And so we don't. We just say we do it. We're gonna do it. You know how we're gonna do it? We're gonna use the five gifts, and we're gonna be equipped, and we're gonna have those gifts operating through our people. And we're gonna go out in the community, and we're gonna not only be disciples, we're gonna make disciples. And we're gonna give them the gifts so they can make disciples. And if we can't do that, then let's just shut the doors. Do something else. We can go somewhere else where they tell us they're gonna do something they're not gonna do, but we're gonna do it. The gifts are tools, and tools exist to build something greater than themselves. You see, the gifts are tools for the body. And tools, you guys that are uh contractors and and in construction, you know you've got to have your tools to build. Right? So if I give you a gift of a hammer, it's a gift when I give it to you. But when you're going to use that gift, it's a tool to build something. You see, when he said in the scripture in chapter four about the gifts, the five-fold ministry, and he said they're gifts from Christ, it wasn't gifts so that you would have something, go look at my shiny toy. It was gifts that could be used as tools to build something. And that's what he's calling us to do is to build something that actually makes a difference in the world. It's good preaching. A minister who uses their gift to build a flow a following rather than build the body has missed the point entirely. Every gift is given downward to serve, to equip, and to build. What God has given me, my job, is to push it down. It's to push it to the people that are here, to push it to whoever's around, to push it out to the kids, to the youth, to the young adults, to every person that's in this room. I don't know if it's worth anything, but just give it. I don't just give it. The worship team. They're not here to put on a concert for you. They're here to worship the king, but their gifts are being pushed out so that the body can receive the gift of what's happening in the room. Christianity took a turn somewhere and went about if we can just make the right buildings and put the right people in the platforms and put the right people in the right place, and then we'll bring everybody to those right people, and everything will fall in line. And we just have to reverse it now. And we have to go, let's not get the right buildings and the right people in the platforms. Let's just get the right people going out and making disciples so that everybody can see the gift of God and what it looks like and what it feels like. And let's take that gift and turn it into a tool and let's build something. You see, your gift is structural. The body needs what you carry. When you keep it hidden, the body limps. Mary, when you keep your gift hidden, the body limps. And I know some of you are thinking like, yeah, but I'm not even sure what my gift is. Let's just talk about equipping. The Greek word is katartismos. It's the word for equipping. It's used in verse 12. This word was used in medicine for setting a broken bone. It was used in fishing for mending the nets. It was used in the military context for uh fully outfit fitting a soldier. This is what God is doing when he's equipping. This is what he's doing in the gathering. He's gonna set you. He's gonna fix you. What is broken, he'll fix. He's gonna mend you and make you whole. And then he's gonna outfit you for what he's called you to do. That's what equipping is. You see, it would be foolish for us to go, oh yeah, I see your brokenness. Just go out there and do it anyway. We still have to use the gifts to get you whole, to get you mended, to get you outfitted, to get you equipped, so you can go and do the work. So you can take your rightful place in the body of Christ. And so I'm just gonna give you a news flash, like a like I wish I had something. Bright light. Just a picture of bright light. Close your eyes real quick. Open them. There you go, bright light. Here's the news flash. The body of Christ is bigger than this. If you walk from corner to corner in Cleaver and far enough, you'll pass ten churches. At least. And you go in most towns, there's more than one church. If they believe in the risen Savior, the Christ who went into the grave and rose again, the ascended one who sits at the right hand of the Father. If they believe in that, we're in the body. So we're not gonna talk bad about the Baptist church over there, the non-denominational church over there. We're not gonna talk about the Catholic church over there. We're not gonna do that. What we're gonna do is, hey, we're gonna walk out and go, man, we're part of the body. We're part of the body. Hey, can we help you? I love the fact she's going with another church. Let's do it. That's great. Let's get a list of VBS and let's send our kids over to the churches that we align with that that we understand that they know these things that I just listed off. We'll send our kids over there. That's great. They got the workers, let them do it. The body's bigger than us. Sometimes we get lost in that and think, we're the body. We are. But so are they? We need to be reaching out and shaking hands. Go, man, how can we help you? What can we do to help you? Yeah, we're over together and we're just a little place over there. We we meet on Sunday nights. It's weird. That's we're still Christian, no? We love Jesus. Maturity means you stop being tossed and start being anchored. Ephesians 4, 13 through 16. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness, and deceitful schemes, rather speaking in the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped. When each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. You see, if you stop at verse 13, because we can't move past this phrase without giving it the weight it deserves. The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Paul's not aiming at better behavior. When Paul says that, the measure of the stature of Jesus Christ, he's not aiming for better behavior. He's not aiming at nicer, more disciplined, or more respectable people. A lot of you have been able to do that, pull that one off. Became a little nicer once you started going to church and you met Christ. He's nice. That's not what he's looking for, behavior modification. He's aiming at something far more staggering than that. Something far more meaningful than that. He's aiming at a people who collectively, together, as a joined body, reflect the character, the nature, and the life of Jesus Christ in the earth. What he's aiming for is not for your behavior to be modified. He's aiming for you to be completely and totally transformed. When we say here at the gathering that everyone is welcome at the table, it's with the understanding when you come to the table, transformation happens at the table of God because you recognize the body broken for me and the blood spilled out for me, does a change on the inside of me. I can't just go worship a holy God when I went to his table and just denied the broken body and the blood poured out. But when I recognize it and apply it in my life, I go and worship a holy God with a cleanness and a clearness in my life. The integrity of my life changes, and the chains that are holding me back are breaking off right now. In Jesus' name. We come to him with a clean heart and with a mouth and hands raised, worshiping the Savior because he's king, and what he's done for me at the table that he invited me at changes everything. And so this is one of the highest Christological statements in the New Testament. The goal of the church is not moral improvement. That's not the goal of the church. The goal of the church is not moral, the goal is conformity to Christ Himself, corporate and individual. You see, what he wants is a corporate body that looks like Christ. And he wants individuals in it that look like Christ. Because individually, if we look like Christ, then corporately we'll look like Christ. And that's what he's wanting. That's what he's saying. This is what Paul's telling us. You guys with me so far? The church is not a collection of individuals growing in isolation. It's a living organism through which Christ manifests himself in the earth. The fullness of Christ is not seen in isolated believers. I've heard it. I've heard it before. Oh, I have to go to church to follow Christ. You're right. You're right. But you need to be in fellowship with other believers so that you can bring the fullness of the body together. If you're isolated from that, you're a gift somewhere that would complete and finish and bring a fullness in the body that Christ is looking for in his church. But because you decided to isolate yourself, you've robbed the body of the gift that you are. Like five people look down real quick, like but Pastor, I don't like people. Nobody in the back I'm talking to. Thank you. Christ is not merely grow individuals, he forms a body. And the fullness of Christ is not seen in isolated believers, but in a joined, functioning people. Now Paul paints two pictures, and you need to decide which one describes you right now. Picture one children tossed to and fro by the waves, carried by every wind of doctrine, destabilized by one bad conversation, blown around by the voice of whoever spoke to them last. That's the first one. Number two, second picture. People rooted in Christ, speaking truth and love, growing in every way into Him who is the head. I was a tree, and the wind blew really hard, and all of a sudden I was a tree planted somewhere else. And it blew hard, and I was a tree planted somewhere else. And I was like, man, I don't want to be blown by every time the wind blows, I don't want to be just blown all over the place and just be off kilter. And so I just I woke up praying and saying, Lord, let me be rooted and grounded. When the wind blows, I want it's okay if I bend, but I don't want to move. I want to stay grounded in the foundation, right? And that's what we have to decide. The wind's gonna blow. Things are gonna, tomorrow, you're gonna, you're gonna wake up and something something's probably gonna happen. You're gonna be like, But don't let it take it from you. Don't let it push you somewhere that you shouldn't be. The difference in all of this is not age, it's not how long you've been in the church. Spiritual immaturity isn't mainly a lack of knowledge, but a lack of anchoring. Mature believers still face storms if they aren't swept away because their roots run deep. When each person faces Shows up, serves, and grows, the whole body is strengthened and built up in love. Personal devotion and corporate health are inseparable. You hear me? When you're rooted and grounded and you show up and you serve and you give and you do and you become anchored. Let me just take the gathering out of it. When you just show up for Christ, when you just get up and show up and walk the walk and talk the talk and identify with Christ, and you're rooted in that, and you're anchored in that. Oh my. Here comes the storm. It's blowing. It's rocking. It's that we just went through one. It's going. Some of you are in the battub with a mattress over you. But here he comes. And I ain't moving. I'm gonna be right here. Tomorrow, I'm getting up. I'm doing it again. Amen. Alright, let's get into the second part of it. And uh, if you don't know this, uh the the notes will be sent out or put on Facebook immediately after service, should be immediately after service. Devotional is already on the website. There's five days of devotional on that. Each uh sermon we've done, we've given you a five-day devotional that you can do throughout the week. And then uh by Tuesday or Wednesday, we'll have the podcast up. So you can find all those things on the website. We only do that because um sometimes these I talk so fast, people say. And so you may want to go back. Or you may not, because you may not be able to handle it a second time. All right, Ephesians 4, 17 through 32. The personal exchange, how we walk on the inside. So Paul has moved from addressing the community as a whole to speaking directly to each person, shifting his language from we to you. You see, that whole that I was just giving you is talking about the body. What we're gonna do for the body, it's all of us, it's all of us. Now he's going, you. I'm talking to you. And from shared corporate conduct to what is happening inside the individual right now. So uh Ephesians 4, 17 through 19. Now this I say, and testifying the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, and you feel 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 to up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. I gotta get a drink, folks. Verse 17 opens with a word that sounds almost severe. He says, Now this I say and testify in the Lord. So he's not just saying it, he's actually testifying to it. So that carries weight. You know, and I just tell you something, and you're like, oh. But he goes further and he says, I have to say something. But I'm gonna testify in the Lord to it. So I'm gonna put weight behind it. I'm gonna put something behind it so that you know this is very important. And so he's he's like anchoring down on this, and he's he's like, listen to what I'm saying. So now this I say and testify in the Lord, Paul is not suggesting, he's testifying. He's speaking with a weight of apostolic authority and pastoral urgency. You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do. That's what he says. And he goes on, we'll go ahead and get into a minute. But he says, You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do. So let me break it down for you and your life. You should never you should no longer walk like you did yesterday. You know that thing that you came out of in your life? You should no longer walk like that. You should no longer walk like the old man. You're new. And you've been taught this. You must no longer walk like the Gentiles. That word must is not law, it is love. He says, You must do it. He's not trying to make a law. He's actually saying he's imploring them, saying, Man, you must no longer walk like you must no longer go back there. Listen to me. If you've been brought out of some sort of, I'm just gonna you've been brought out of alcohol or drugs. You must no longer want to testify to the Lord. You must no longer walk there. Cannot go back. You can't. Christ has already paid the price. You cannot go back. Do not. That's right. Do not go back. And he makes it just puts all this heaviness on it. It's it's a father saying, You're better than this, you belong to something better than this. You cannot go back to that wall. Paul describes the Gentile walking away that should have hit the Ephesians like a mirror, the things that he says, because this is what was not ancient history to them. These Ephesians just came out of it. They just came out of being in the temple of Diana. They just came out of being heathens, they just came out of all of this life. It's not some far distant thing. It is, they know what he's talking about. This is my life. And he's reminding them. He says, This, you were the Diana Cleveland. You are the ones in Acts 19 that burnt the magic scrolls. You're the ones. You know what I'm talking about. And he's reminding them. Paul traces the trajectory. Watch how this moves as he talks about the Gentiles. He says, futility of mind, which is thinking that is empty, disconnected from truth and reality, darkened understanding, the lights go off, spiritual blindness sets in. Oh my goodness, we're talking about our world right now. We got young people who don't know how to think because we've allowed them to uh let a device think for them. And some of us older folks are starting to dive into it and dig in it, and we're not thinking for ourselves. You got this futility of mind because you're allowing something else to be your mind. You have this darkened understanding where everything spiritual makes no sense to you. You can't even see that there's a spiritual fight going on all around you because you're darkened in your mind to what's happening in the spirit. Hardness of heart, the conscious begins to callous. Giving over to sensuality, complete surrender to appetite, greedy to practice every kind of impurity, not just falling into sin, but actually running toward it. He said, You cannot be like the Gentiles, you cannot walk like them any longer. You must not walk like them. They've fallen. You can't go back. You've got to change. And here's what it looks like. You can't think, you can't see. Your appetite for all the wrong things is growing, and you're callous to anything that may be wrong because it feels so right. And that Greek word porosis is hardness. It's a medical term for the formation of a callus. It's and a callus of skin that is wounded. Many times it no longer feels in that place. Many of you guys got calluses on your hands. Sin does not just damage us. Over time, it numbs us. What shocked us once no longer registers. That is the warning that Paul is sounding. Here is the sobering reality. Sin has a progression, it does not stay where it starts. What begins as a temptation becomes a habit. What begins as a habit becomes a callous. And what begins as a callus becomes a lifestyle. You see the sin in your life, and you may have it right now. You may be like thinking about, ooh, I can see it, I can see it. We gotta get past where we don't feel it. We gotta cut that thing off and bring that thing back into submission to who Christ is in our life. But Paul does not leave them there. He doesn't say, hey, this is how bad you are. This is what's good about him. This is this apostolic calling that's on his life. This is this pastoral understanding that's on his life. He doesn't just leave them, he never leaves them. Verse 20, he says, but that is not the way you learned Christ. That's not how you learned. That's not who you are. Five words that change everything, but that is not the way. That's not the way. That's not who you are. That is not what you were taught. That is not the life you were raised in. You learned Christ. And Christ does not walk in futility. Christ does not live in darkness. Christ is not callous. And if you are in Christ, neither are you. It's time for us to break through the callousness. It's time to break through the darkness. It's time for us to break out of those things. It's what Paul's saying. It's what I'm declaring to you tonight. And how do we do that? It's the exchange. Put off the old. Put on the new. Listen to what he says in verse 20 to 24. He says, but that is not the way you learn 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 truth, in true righteousness and holiness. See, Paul gives us one of the clearest pictures in all of Scripture of the exchange. Put off, be renewed, put on. Put off your old, renew your mind, put on Christ. Stand up and stretch. Reach out, grab yourself. Man, you punched me in the face 40 times tonight. It's not complicated. It's not. Put off, be renewed, put on. But it's not passive either. It's not complicated, but it's not passive. The Greek for put off is uh apotome. And it's the same word used for taking off old clothes. It's deliberate, it's intentional. You know, when you get home tonight and you're gonna get ready for bed, what are you gonna do? You're gonna take off your clothes. Most of you, I think. You're gonna take them off, but you're gonna be intentional about it. You're gonna take off your clothes. You're gonna don't throw them in the floor. Put them in a dirty clothes basket or hang them back up. Don't throw them just in the floor. That was just some house cleaning stuff I wanted to tell you. Like you could walk out here and go, I don't know what he's talking about, but he told me not to put my clothes in the floor. I learned something tonight. You see, the old self is not ripped off, ripped off of you automatically at salvation. It's not ripped off of you automatically. A lot of people think, oh, it's just gone. Paul is addressing believers. He tells them to take it off actively and daily. He's telling them to get rid of it. But that Greek word, indio, is put on. It's used for dressing yourself, for soldiers putting on armor. The new self is not something that descends on you passively. You put it on every morning, like armor, like a decision. So when you get up in the morning, you're gonna put on your clothes so that you can do that. Not the same ones, maybe. I mean, maybe, I don't know. Maybe they're church clothes, and now they're gonna be your work clothes, maybe. But you you go home and you take off the old and you put them and I get rid of them, and then I go and find the new and I put them on. I deliberately get up in the morning and I do what? I put on my new clothes. And this is what he's telling us. He's like, you deliberately have to set aside the old and you deliberately have to put on the new. You have to do it. Christ does a good new work in you. He changes you, he goes inside of you, he goes in and changes things, but he also says, I've given you free will, and if you want to choose to go back, that's on you. But I'm telling you, don't do what you've what you used to do. Go to the place what you've learned in Christ. What you learned about Christ is you take your old clothes. I get rid of my old clothes, and I deliberately put on my new clothes, and I become something new. So here's an illustration for you. A man comes to Christ, genuinely saved, genuinely transformed, but he still has that old wardrobe hanging in his closet. He's still got those old clothes that are hanging in his closet, old habits, old thought patterns, old uh relational dynamics, old addictions, old anger, old insecurities. I I didn't I didn't ask your wives about any of you, I promise. He does not have to wear them anymore. He doesn't have they're hanging in his closet, but he doesn't have to put them on. He doesn't have to choose those. They have no claim on him. The blood of Jesus purchases freedom from every one of those. But nobody is making him throw them away. Nobody is. Nobody's making him throw those clothes away. Paul says you have to do that. You actively and deliberately have to throw those things away. The old man does not live there here anymore. Stop letting him sleep on the couch. He's gone. Stop letting him hang around. Now, here's what you cannot miss about the put on. Because most people hear this and think, I'm putting on a better version of myself. I'm more disciplined, I'm more consistent, I'm nicer under pressure. This is not what Paul is describing at all. That's great that you become nicer. The new self is not a better version of you, it is a participation in Christ Himself. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, Galatians says. So putting on the new is saying it's no longer me, it's him. When you put on the new self, you're not upgrading your personality, you're not clothing yourself in the nature and life of Jesus Christ. Paul says that, I mean, you are clothing yourself in the nature of life in Jesus Christ. Paul says it elsewhere in Colossians 3. He says, the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. The new self is not you improved, the new self is Christ formed in you. Let me say it again. The new self is not you improved, the new self is Christ formed in you. The new closet? The new clothes in the closet? Is Christ going, hey, here. You got your old, you got your new. Most people, this is what happens. First, it's like on Christmas Day. You open up the gift, there's the clothes. What do we do? Hey, we're gonna go to the movie today. Yeah, we are. I got all the stuff. I was three sweatshirts on, necklace, cologne, the whole thing. I got all my new clothes. And I go out. And then before long, they're just kind of regular clothes. And they're just in the rotation. And here's just the thing. And here's the thing about Christ's life: it's new every day. And the clothes you put on every day are new clothes. It's new gifts. So every day you're choosing and putting on Christ, and you become new in Christ. Ten more minutes. I know y'all are hungry. And if I get you out like they know they end at 7. If I get you out at 645, you can go get 15 minutes of uh horses and car shows and lemonades. You see, that changes the whole frame. The new self is not you improved, it's Christ formed in you. That changes the whole frame. This is not self-improvement, this is transformation from the inside out through union with a living person. And between the put off and the put on, there's a middle step that I haven't talked about yet. It's an important one. Remember what it is? Be renewed in your mind. In the spirit, by the spirit, be renewed. Romans 12, too. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The word transform is metamorphi, which is the root of metamorphosis. This is not cosmetic, this is structural. Let me say it again. When you're talking about doing rehab of a house you buy, you go in and a lot of times it's cosmetic. A lot of times you go in, there are some times that it's structural, but a lot of times, you know, especially if you want to get over, you just go in and like slap a little paint on it, put a new carpet on it, we sell it. But that's this metamorphosis is not about that. It's not about cosmetic, it's about going deep. It's about changing inside. It's about going all the way down in the places that you wouldn't let him before, and changing the structure of the building. The battleground for this is the mind. The enemy does not have to put chains on your body if he can put wrong thinking in your head. If he can tell you you're not good enough, you're not worthy, you can't do it. Nobody loves you, nobody likes you. All the things, you're chained up already. Because you believed a lie. If you can be persuaded that you're still the person you used to be, you'll keep living out old patterns, even though you've been changed by Christ. True renewal of the mind isn't more mere positive thinking. It's a daily intentional filling of your mind with what God says is true about you, about him, and about the world. Letting God's word replace outdated ways of thinking each day. See, this is why I tell you all the time, you gotta have the word. The renewing of the mind is what will allow you to put off and put on. Because in this is what tells you who you are. In this is what tells you who he is. In this it tells you what the world is. And that's the strength of it. Walk it out in the specific. Okay, Ephesians 24, 25 through 32. Look, we're at the end here. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. 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. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, but only such as good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath, anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. You see, Paul does not let us stay in abstraction. He actually brings us into this place, into the house. He doesn't leave us out, he brings you in. That's what he's doing. This is this is what a pastor, an apostolic leader would do. He's gonna bring you, he's not gonna leave you out there trying to, he's actually bringing you into this thing. He let me bring you into the situation here, into the marriage, he says, into the workplace, into the conversation you had on the way to church. He's trying to bring all your conversation, all your thoughts, everything that you do, bring it out from the outside and bring it all into the presence of who Christ is. As you begin to talk and glorify and begin to uplift and be with people and be in your marriage and be with your children and be with the people at work and cutting hair, if you will, all the things that you do. And when you're in those places and you're you're teaching the children, what you're gonna do is you're gonna bring, you may not say his name because they may not let you, I have no idea. But what you're gonna do is you're gonna bring the presence of the spirit in and let everybody come into that place where he's at. I'm not gonna leave you on the outside, I'm gonna let you come into the secret that I know. And as you begin to bring people into that place, lives change. Your life changes. That is the spirit in which Paul writes these verses, not to condemn, to illuminate, to give the Spirit of God an invitation to point out the specific thing and say, there, that is what needs to come off of you. You see, when you allow the Spirit to begin to move in you, he looks at you and says, Right there, Becky, that's the thing. That's what has to come off. We get rid of that thing. You're on the path. Verse 25. So let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one of another. Notice why Paul says to stop lying. Not just because lying is wrong. He says to stop lying because we are members of one another. Let false talking leave your lips because we're together. Quit lying. Just be truthful, be who you are. When you deceive a brother, you're deceiving a member of your own body. When we deceive the body of Christ, we're deceiving our own body. This is what's been crazy in the world today. Everything that they're coming at churches and leaders falling and all the things, the deception is deceiving the body. Hurting the body. Truth is the oxygen of a healthy church. When you cut off the oxygen, the body suffocates. We want to be a truthful church. Unresolved anger, he says in verse 26-26, should be angry and do not sin and do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. Paul does not say anger is a sin. He says, Don't let it stay. You're going to get angry. I'm pretty sure some of you got angry this week. You're going to get angry. But what he's imploring them is don't let it stick around. Don't let it stay. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Address your anger. Talk about it. Married couples. You guys want to have some marriage influence? I'm going to give it to you. Here's our marriage conference today. Young people, you're going to get married one day. You want to get married. Talking to you two. Deal with your anger. Don't go to bed angry. Deal with it. It may hurt. It may hurt for an instant, but deal with it. Because you know what? When you sleep on it, you wake up with it, it's worse. Just deal with it. Get it out of the way. You did this. You did this. It doesn't happen in my house. I mean, we're cheerful all the time. We are cheerful most of the time. All right, no corrupt talk. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. The word corrupting is sapros in the Greek, and the same word used for rotten fruit. No corrupting talk, no rotten fruit to come out of your mouth. Let it not happen. Let no rotten fruit come out of your mouth. Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, malice. All in verse 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. That's a comprehensive list. Paul leaves no backdoor. He puts everything out there. He says, Don't do these things. Don't be like this. I know it's gonna come. A lot of things are gonna come your way, but don't stay in them. Don't live in those places. Bitterness is a slow poison. It starts with a wound, it grows in silence, it quietly colors everything. Bitterness quietly colors everything. What do I mean by that? Bitterness takes a color and makes everything look like it. And so everything that you look at is through a lens of your bitterness. It will make you see enemies everywhere until the only enemy left is the one in the mirror. Put it away. Not because the person who hurt you deserves your forgiveness. It's not because the person who hurt you deserves your forgiveness, but because bitterness is destroying you. And you're too valuable to be destroyed by something you have the power to release. You have the power today to release. Alright, let's get to what we put on. So he he now he goes into in verse 25. He says honest honesty that builds rather than manipulates. Words that give the people around you something solid to stand on. He's talking about what you're speaking. That's what he's saying. Then he talks about quick rec reconciliation, the humility to go first, to close the loop before the day ends, to not give the enemy a foothold. He's giving you the advice that you need. Hey, speak, speak truth. In humility, so you can close this loop so this anger doesn't continue. He talks about giving grace, giving words, speech that builds up, fits the moment, and leaves the here with more grace than they arrived with. Can you imagine you got an argument? And then the person that you're in argument with left with more grace than they came with? Paul does not just tell you what to take off, he tells you what to put on. And notice the foundation as God in Christ forgave you. This brings the whole chapter home. The capacity to forgive is not found in your willpower. It is found in the revelation of how much you have been forgiven. All of this, this is the hard part. This is the heavy lifting for you. All of this comes back to you. Comes back to what Christ has done in you, and what you want Christ to continue to do in you. And will you be Christ-like to those that are around you, even the ones that don't deserve it? Forgive as you've been forgiven. That is the worthy walk. Alright, I can't go without talking about this. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4, verse 30. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Paul says this matters. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can be grieved, not as a mere theological idea, but as a relational reality. Only someone who loves you can hurt. Can be hurt by you. Indifference, contracts, and machines can't be grieved, but a person can. This thing right here, I can't grieve it, but I can grieve you. The Holy Spirit, who lives in every believer, sealed you at salvation. And serves as God's down payment on his promises, is a person, and he can be wounded. Matter of fact, lapeo, which means to cause grief, pain, or sorrow, the same word used when Jesus was in agony against enemy. So when it says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit, it's the same word as Jesus, who had blood coming out of his pores, who had tears of blood. He was in that same agony. And what Paul is using that word to say to each of us is do not grieve, do not bring agony to the Holy Spirit. Don't hurt him. Love him. And the text warns that sins, this is the crazy part. Because it gives it to us. Well, how would I grieve him, right? Is that what you're asking? How would I grieve him, Pastor? Sin is like lying, corrupt speech, bitterness, and anger deeply grieve the Holy Spirit. That's why Paul put it there. He put it all in there. He said, Don't do these things, don't do these things, and don't grieve the Holy Spirit. I'll just give you these things, grief. Don't do it. And that should jolt you awake. When you're lying, you're grieving. When you're bitter, you're grieving. The Holy Spirit. Paul grounds the warning in the Spirit's role as the seal of the new covenant, the mark of God's ownership, the guarantee of his promises, and the downpayment of our eternal inheritance. So grieving him isn't merely relational hurt, but living out of step with the covenant reality we've been brought into. In response to a steady faithfulness through every season of failure, we should honor him by putting off what grieves him and putting on what pleases him. What does this mean for us? Stop living below his name. You carry the name of Jesus Christ. As I said earlier, your Monday should feel like it. Walk worthy inside and out. Protect the unity with urgency. The Spirit built the unity. Now we have to guard it. Find your part and take it. Give of your gift. Every member has a function. The body needs what you carry. Stop sitting on your gift. Stop waiting for somebody else to do it. Do the exchange every day. Put off the old. Renew your mind. Put on the new. Actively. Today. Today I'm putting on new clothes. Today I'm putting on the clothes of Christ. Today. Deal with it before the sun goes down. Unresolved anger gives the enemy a foothold. Bitterness gives him a room. Deal with it tonight. We give you an opportunity every week to begin to deal with it. By taking communion. Maybe you didn't tonight. Take it before you go. Be active today. Quit thinking it'll change tomorrow on its own. Do something yourself. Christ just paid the price. Quit making him pay it every day. Accept it and receive it today. I didn't mean to yell at you. Don't grieve the one who sealed you. The Holy Spirit is a person. He is the seal of your covenant. Let your walk honor that faithfulness. Live it out today. Amen. Praise God. Alright. Let me see if I can get through this with you. Maybe you came in today knowing your identity in Christ, but you're struggling to walk it out. I think today's your day to close the gap. To begin to put off, renew, and put on. Maybe you've come in, you got you uh bitterness and unforgiveness. You're struggling. You're angry. You've been that way for a long time. Maybe you have hidden sin. Nobody knows about it. You want to be free, but you're afraid if everybody knew he already knows. It has nothing to do with what I know. He knows. You don't have to come tell me anything. Maybe you just got dormant gifts and they're buried. Maybe your calling's buried. Maybe you just have the conviction of the Spirit right now, and you're like, man, I just need to, I just need to step into something. It's time. If you sense that God is putting something in you and you have kept it unused today, you should say yes to picking up your part. Today you should become part of the body of Christ. Not that you're not already saved, but today you want to do your part. This is not about willpower power. This is not about behavior modification. This is about transformation. Some of you are doing it great. But I venture to say you could do it better. I love you. He loves you more. And I felt like this chapter was a chapter that we were going to be looking straight in the mirror at the end of it. And I think we are. So go ahead and stand to your feet. If any of the things I said prompt you to think that, hey, I just want to come forward and allow people to pray for me, then you can do that. We'll open up this area for you. That's okay. I think what we should do then is just be bold enough with the people around us. Bold enough to hey, can I pray for you? And then when they ask you, then you can say, Yeah, but can I pray for you? And maybe we just take a few minutes here and pray for each other. Pray for your spouse if you want, your child if you want. Or you can go find some person on the other side of the room. And pray with them. But I'd ask you to be bubbled right now, wherever you're at. And just look at somebody. Maybe God highlight them. You could pray for them. Casey's gonna play for just a moment. And we'll let you guys just pray for each other. We're all ministers in this house of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord. Jesus. We thank you. Lord as we are here gathered here in your presence. We pray that your healing would come into this room. That your spirit would move upon each person. Individually and collectively. For each of us. We thank you and we honor you. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord. I pray. I pray that your coming would become strong. Your giftings would become strong in their lives. Yeah, we honor you and we thank you. We worship you. And Lord, let us see what you're wording us. Lord, let us understand what you're saying, what you're prompting us to. Let us go out of this place with a new fire, a new understanding. God, as disciples of yours, help us to go out and make disciples. Teach people of your goodness. Share your love. God, I thank you that you're empowering and equipping your people. God, we give you all the glory, all the honor. Jesus' name. Amen. Hey, love on somebody as you go. Thank you guys so much. We'll be back next week. Ephesians five.