Welcome to the Islands Christian Church podcast.
Subscribe to hear a new episode every week.
Thanks for joining us. We are in part three of our
series Make Room, creating space for the life Jesus offers.
And over the past couple of weeks we have been in Paul's
letter to the Romans. So we've been talking about what
he said to the Romans, and now we're going to swap and go over
to Paul's letter to the Ephesians.
So if you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, or if you
have your phone, go to Ephesians chapter 4 is where we're going
to be Ephesians chapter 4. And in this part of the letter
where we're going to be reading, and actually, most of the
Ephesians is really about the unity of the church.
Paul's writing a letter. I know you guys may find this
surprising, but a lot of the letters that Paul writes are
dealing with churches that have some conflict in them.
Is that surprising to you that people get together in a
community and don't get along sometimes, right?
I know, shocking, right? And what I love about the Bible
is the Bible doesn't hide that fact.
The Bible is clear that, hey, humans have a hard time getting
along sometimes. And so Ephesians in the in the
letter to the Ephesians, he's dealing with unity and the
church coming together, but he's talking about it in terms of
sanctification. Like this whole series, we've
been talking about sanctification, the process of
the Holy Spirit growing us up into Christ likeness over the
course of our lives. He's calling these Ephesian
believers into being sanctified to being more like Christ
because he does. He says, hey, when you're
sanctified, when you're more like Christ, you as the church
will be unified. Believe it or not, here's the
thing about the church, the church at this local church and
every local church around the world, The more of us who are
following Jesus and pursuing Christ and letting the life of
Christ work at work itself out in us.
In other words, we're becoming more like Christ.
The more of us who are doing that, the better our churches.
Isn't that surprising, right? That's shocking.
And that's basically Paul's argument in Ephesians is that,
hey, the more of you who are, who are walking and following
Jesus and the life of Christ is coming out of you, the better.
So last week we talked about the role the Holy Spirit plays in
our lives. We said that if you believe in
Jesus, the Holy Spirit is governing your life.
Not might be and I could not, could be, not maybe is.
If you believe in Jesus, God's Spirit lives inside of you and
governs your life. And we said that your role in
that process is that you are setting your mind on the things
of the Spirit, the truths about who you are in Christ.
Remember, we said you are adopted, you are accepted, you
are not condemned. And as you set your mind on
these truths, you begin to operate out of that identity.
Christianity calls us to operate out of our identity, not behave
our way into our identity. There's a difference, OK.
And so last week I said this. I said sons do not obey in order
to become sons. They obey because they are sons.
They they, they obey because they are sons.
They're not trying to become a son.
So today, what does all this actually look like in everyday
life if I set my mind on these these truths, if if I'm setting
my mind on the Holy Spirit, what does this look like in your
Monday through Friday in your in your everyday life at your house
with your kids, with your spouse?
Like what does this look like inside of our church?
What would my life begin to look like?
What would your life begin to look like?
If I really set my mind daily on the truth about who I am in
Christ, if that became a habit of mine daily that I'm loved,
I'm accepted, I'm not condemned, there's nothing I can do to earn
God's favor. I've been given that as a gift
through Christ. If I actually set my mind on
that every day, how would that change things?
What would my life begin to look like?
And here's one of the premises of the gospel, and this may, it
sounds silly that I have to say this out loud, but I think I do.
One of the premises of the gospel is or the assumptions of
the gospel is that people can change in, in our culture, you
know, you hear people, people never change.
If you ever heard that before, people never change.
If you're a believer in Jesus, those words can never utter off
your mouth. They never can utter off your
mouth because the, the, the premise of the gospel is that
people do indeed change. Otherwise none of us should
believe this stuff, right? We do change because of the
gospel. People do change.
Now the Christian life, you becoming a Christian is not
about you trying harder to become someone new or trying
harder to change. You know, the Christian life is
about learning to live out the identity that God has already
given you in Christ. You see the difference?
I'm trying, I'm being determined to be different or I'm just
learning who I am in Christ and living from that place of
identity. These are two very different
ways to live your lives. One is white knuckling and one
is hands open, right? And this is the invitation that
you have. We're going to see this in
Ephesians chapter 4, verses 20 through 32.
I know it's a lot of verses, but you guys buckle up.
I mean, it's time change Sunday. I'm not mailing it in either,
brother. All right, so chapter 4, verses
20 through 32, we're going to read all this chunk of Scripture
and then we're going to break it down into three ideas.
You ready? All ready to go.
All right, here we go. Verse 20 of chapter 4 it says
that, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard
about Christ and we're taught in Him in accordance with the truth
that is in Jesus. You were taught with regard to
your former way of life to put off your old self, which is
being corrupted by its deceitful desires, and to be made new in
the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self created
to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
There each of you, therefore each of you must put off
falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all
members of 1 body. You hear that?
We're all members of 1 body. In your anger, do not sin.
Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not
give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing
must steal no longer, but must work doing something useful with
your own hands that they may have something to share with
those in need. Do not let any unwholesome talk
come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for
building others up according to their needs, that it might
benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy
Spirit with whom you were sealed over the day of redemption.
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger and brawling and
slander. I love the word brawling is in
here. Like what was going on in this
church, right? Like they have some like I've
been, I've been in some, I've been in some rough church
meetings. I've never seen any brawls break
out, right? But that has happened that I
could tell you stories about people.
I know where some people been popped in the jaw at deacons
meetings, all right, at churches, along with every form
of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one
another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave
you. All right, there are three ideas
in this passage. If you're a note taker, I want
you to write these three days, these three things down.
If nothing else, it tells you where we're going and tells you
how close we are to being finished.
All right, so number one, number one, we learn Christ.
We learn Christ. That's going to be verses 20 and
21. We learn Christ #2 we take off
an old self. Verses 22 and 24, we take off an
old self. And then, believe it or not,
verses 25 through 32, you might want to guess what the third one
might be. If 2 is we take off an old self,
3 is we put on a new self. Look, you guys are writing this
sermon for me. This is easy, right?
Easy. So let's talk about the first
idea first. Verses 20 through 21.
And I'm going to do something I normally never do.
I'm going to reread verses 20 and 21 in a different
translation because I think the English standard version
captures this translation absolutely beautifully, nearly
perfectly. All right, so we're going to
reread this in the ESV, verses 20 and 21, and this is what it
says. But that is not the way you
learned Christ, assuming that you have learned about Him and
we're taught in Him as the truth is in Jesus.
Go back to verse 20 there. There we go.
Let's let's look at this if it's on your screen there in front of
you, but that is not the way you learned Christ exclamation
point. Now this is not how we normally
talk, is it? Right.
That is not the way you learned Christ, exclamation point.
Normally we don't normally we don't learn a person.
Paul's like, Hey, you, you learned a person.
Normally, what do we learn? It's not a person, but a what a
subject. We learn math.
Well, some of us struggle in math, but we try to learn math,
right? We, we learn English, we, we
learn a skill, we learn how to Weld, we learn how to be a
mechanic. We learn how to fix stuff.
We, we, in other words, we learn a subject, we learn a skill.
But Paul says, and he's talking about us coming to faith.
He says, you learned a person, you learned Christ.
Now that's that is that is an interesting thing to me.
And the word that Paul uses here for learned you learned Christ
is the Greek word Montano Montano.
And that means more than like sitting in a classroom and
getting information. This would be like hands on
learning that you learn through practice and through experience,
through becoming accustomed to something, right.
Anybody ever taught you anything about like throwing you in the
deep end and saying, hey, sink or swim, figure it out and
they're kind of on the sidelines watching you, making sure you're
safe, but you kind of feel like you're in the deep end.
This is the image that Paul's using when you become a
Christian is that you learn from Jesus himself.
You learn Christ himself, and you learn it through experience
and through time with Christ so that you become accustomed to
Christ. So the Christian faith is not
just about learning facts about the Bible or about Jesus.
And so some of you like the reason you don't feel like a
very good Christian is you don't feel like you know the Bible
very well. I don't know much.
I don't know the Bible that great.
But the Christian faith is more than just learning facts about
the Bible or learning facts about Jesus.
Now, it's certainly not less. It's not less than that.
OK, So don't misunderstand me. This is still very important.
The Christian faith is not learning facts, simply learning
facts about Jesus or learning information about Jesus.
The Christian faith is actually learning Christ, learning
Christ. Now how do we learn a person?
Like, how does that even happen? Will you learn a person by being
in relationship with a person? I mean, you know this, right?
You would. If you think about spending time
with a person, if you spend a lot of time with the same person
over and over and over again, will you find yourself picking
up their mannerisms? Yes, you will.
There's a lady who's attending our church.
He only attends during the when Her and her husband only attend
during the winter months. They live up north and they come
down here for the winter months. And I love her to death.
They've been coming for 10 years.
We have lunch once a year with them.
They're amazing people. But one of the, the common
things she says is whenever someone says something around
her that she agrees with, she says this is true.
This is true. Anybody else say that this is
true? Well, I've, I've just seen her
on Sundays and one lunch with her and her husband and I have
picked up that phrase. And so that Marianne has said to
me, you sound like Margaret, this is true.
Somebody else, I say this is true.
Well, how did that happen? Because I'm just spending time
around her, right. And this is the image that
Jesus, that Paul's painting about Jesus, that what
Christians are called into his relationship with Christ, so
much so that we actually learn a person.
Now think about it this way, like a child who was adopted
into a family. OK, imagine with me a family has
adopted A10 or a 12 year old little boy or little girl.
And that child when they they come out of the foster system,
they come out of maybe their family of origin.
They do not know the rhythms of the new home.
They don't know how the new home works.
And every family has its own rhythms, that's for sure, and
its own way of living. Every family has certain ways
they talk to each other, how they handle conflict and what
they value. Now imagine with me that this
child who's been taken out of the foster system or out of his
family of origin, he's been popped into this new family that
he's been adopted into and he's legally his name has been
changed. Her name has been changed.
She's a part of this family. That child over time has to
learn the culture of that family.
Now, is that child trying to become part of the family?
Or is that child already legally part of the family, already
accepted by the mom and dad, already brought into the family
and has a place at the table, has their own bedroom?
That that child's already part of the family.
But what is that child trying to learn?
Even though the child is objectively, legally and
emotionally part of the family, That child's rhythms and that
child's style of living, that child's, how that child deals
with conflict, how that child talks, all of that, that child
is having to learn. They already belong.
They're not trying to become part of the family.
They already belong to the family.
They're simply learning the culture of this family.
They're learning the mom and dad.
They're learning the other siblings.
They're learning what it means to live in this family.
The Christian life is the same way.
You're not trying to earn your place in the family.
You're simply trying to learn the rhythms of a house you
already belong to. You already belong to the
family. You just got to learn the
rhythms. You got to learn the rhythms and
this is when Paul says we learn Christ.
We're adopted first and then over time we learn the ways of
our Father's house. Now if you think about verses
verse 21, if you let's just glance down at it.
He says that when you enter into this relationship with Christ,
it's a relationship of learning. He uses he uses school language.
He uses learning language. He says you were you here and
we're taught the truth that is in Jesus.
That's in verse 21, you here and we're taught the truth that is
in Jesus. In other words, you begin to
learn how Jesus thinks. You begin to respond to people
the way Jesus responds to people.
You begin to trust the hope that your heavenly Father the way
Jesus trusts his heavenly Father.
This learning with Jesus where yes, there is learning
happening. You are being taught by Jesus.
He's your teacher. It's more than just information,
it's formation. Here's the thing, and I love
this idea. You were in the family already
adopted. And in this family there is, to
use our language, there is a biological son and you're the
adopted son or daughter. And the biological son isn't
envious or jealous of your presence.
The biological son is actually the one who's I who went out to
get you and found you and took you out of the system and said,
mom and dad, we need to adopt this, this person, this child,
and like a very good older brother, yours, your savior
Jesus is like an older brother to you.
He is your, he is your older brother because he is a son in
the family. You are adopted into the family.
And your older brother, like good, like any good older
brother is showing you the ropes.
He's teaching you the ways. Hey, this is what it's like in
dad's house. This is what it's like in mom
and dad's house. This is how we live here.
This is how we talk to each other.
This is how we walk. This is how we deal with
conflict. And this is what Paul means when
he says we learn Christ. We're learning from our older
brother how to live in the home that we've been placed in.
What a gift. This is the gospel.
Now when you begin to learn Christ like that, something
begins to shift inside of you. As you could expect, it begins
to shift and shot inside of you. And Paul moves to from learning
Christ to a picture that helps us understand the the learning
process. In other words, Paul gives us an
analogy to help us understand this whole learning Christ
thing. And that's the point #2 this
morning we take off our old self.
So number one, we learn Christ #2 we take off our old self.
Let's reread verses 22 through 24.
It says you were taught with regard to your former way of
life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its
deceitful desires, and to be made new in the attitude of your
minds and to put on the new self.
Comma created. That's an important word there.
Highlight it, underline it in your Bible created to be like
God in your in true righteousness and holiness.
Now Paul's using the language of clothing here.
And we all, we all understand clothing.
We all understand what it means to to take off a piece of
garment and to put on a new piece of cloth.
Like we get it right. We understand even if you go
shopping today and you're going to go try on a new shirt or try
on a new pair, you're going to, you can't put a new shirt on top
of this shirt. I got to take this shirt off in
the dressing room and I got to put on a new shirt, right?
I got to try it on. And so Paul's using language of
taking off and putting on. And notice that in this
language, and this is important, this isn't something that you're
trying to do. You're not trying to put on a
new self or take off an old self.
Now, this is something that has already happened for you.
When you came to Christ, when you came to faith in Jesus, God
did something radical in you. The old life that had to find
you was put away and the new life was created in you see,
Christianity is not you trying to modify your behavior.
Christianity is you receiving and having faith in the new
creation that was given to you. And let me show you this is a
little thing you are going to miss, especially if you grew up
in a very religious kind of environment with lots of
legalism. In verse 23, and I told I
pointed it out to you when we read it the first time in verse
23, Paul says that we put on the new self comma created to be
like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Who created the new self according to Paul's words, not
me, but God. God created the new self.
In other words, I don't manufacture the new self.
I don't try to come up with the new self.
God is the recreator of the new self.
You see the old self was corrupt and falling apart under the
power of its desires, but the new self is created and he goes
on to say after the likeness of God in righteousness and
holiness. Now listen, please don't miss
this. If I told you to go out today
and you had to become righteous and holy, that would be very bad
preaching because I would be telling you to do something you
cannot do. You can't do it.
It's dangerous preaching. It's hurtful preaching.
But if I say God has created a new self, he's given you
something new. He's created this.
And you, your new self, given to you by God, is made in the
likeness of God. It is righteous and holy.
That is what's true of you as a gift from God.
In other words, what God gives you in Christ is not just
forgiveness for your bad deeds. He also gives you a brand new
humanity, a brand new new creation, a new self. 2nd
Corinthians 517 Maybe you know this passage, right?
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has
come. Maybe you grew up hearing it
like this. If any man is in Christ, he is a
new creation. The old has gone, the new is
here. That's a moment in time.
That's a declaration by God when you come to Christ.
Then the old goes away and the new comes.
That's already true of you. But Paul places something right
in the middle of these two ideas of taking off the old self and
putting on the new self, and that's in verse 23.
Look at what he puts in the middle of taking off the old
self and putting on the new self.
Verse 23 says to be made new in the attitude of your what minds.
And this is where Christianity's actually lived.
In Pauline theology, Christianity's lived between the
ears. In the Gospels, Christianity's
lived in the heart. Jesus talks about our heart.
What does he say? That the overflow of our heart
is what the mouth speaks. And the mouth is just a
metaphor, right? It could be the overflow of the
heart is, is what my hands do. The overflow of the heart is
where my feet go, right? It's not just the mouth, it's
every part of me is. Motivated by what's in here.
So for Jesus, it's, it's what's guiding your heart for pause,
what's guiding your mind. And so the, what's Christianity?
We tend to think Christianity is all about the walk.
We're walking and you know, the hands, what they're doing.
And we, we think it's all about the actions.
But your actions as a Christ follower are simply the
outpouring or the outcome of what's going on in your mind and
what's going on in your heart. Period.
That's all. And so Paul says that the
Christian life is lived here between the mind, and that the
Spirit of God is what renews our thinking.
The Spirit of God is what creates us into a new creature.
And as he renews our mind, the attitude of our mind, and he
changes our thinking, the rest of our laws begin to follow
suit. So when you come to Christ
supernaturally as a gift, you are made into a new creation.
Your old clothes are put off from you and your new self is
given to you and created it in you.
That's a fact given to you. But how does that live itself
out? Like, how do we begin to see
that? Well, it shows up in the
everyday life as we consistently renew our mind through the Holy
Spirit. In other words, I have the new
clothes, but it's through the renewing of my mind, the
thinking of the truth of the Scriptures, of thinking of the
truth of the gospel, that those new clothes come to bear in my
life. So the Spirit of God will
reshape the way you think. The Holy Spirit reminds you who
you are, reminds you whose you are.
He reminds you that you are already a new creation in
Christ. And as that truth settles deeper
into your thinking, something begins to change.
The old ways of living begins to feel like a stranger to you.
They just do. And you don't even understand
it. And it is it's, it's not even
perceived. You don't know when you cross
the Rubicon. You don't know when it happened.
But at some point it happens where the old, the old self
feels like a stranger. The reactions that you used to
have, they don't, They no longer feel normal to you.
The attitudes that you used to have about people, they no
longer feel natural to you. They start to feel like clothes
that don't fit. They start to feel like clothes
that are uncomfortable because they were clothes that God has
removed from you to give you brand new clothes.
And so the new life that God has created in, in you begins to
feel more and more like who you really are.
So the Christian life isn't like you going to the closet and
saying, OK, I got to put on new clothes or God's going to be mad
at me. And as this is not going to be
good and I better, I better put on new clothes.
The Christian life is me bringing my mind to God and
renewing my mind with God consistently in a, in a lifelong
process. And then God undressing the old
nature, the old self off of me and putting brand new clothes on
me. The new self has already been
given to you and so that the old ways begin to fill out a place
in the new life God is created in you begins to feel like who
you are. You're slowly becoming the new
creation that you already are. So you're not slowly becoming a
new creation. You're slowly beginning to live
out the new creation that you already are.
You're learning how to live in the family that you've been
adopted into. Through the renewing of your
mind, the Spirit slowly aligns your hands and your feet with
what God has already made true about you.
Which leads us to the next part of this passage.
Because Paul does not want to leave these words in the
abstract. He wants to give us something
practical. And so verses 25 through 32, we
put on the new self. So we learned Christ, we put off
the old self and through the renewing of our mind and then
three, we put on the new self. Like here's the thing about
getting new clothes. If you buy me a new shirt, you
buy me a new pair of pants. I cannot put them on unless I
take these off, right? I have to take these off.
I mean, if you buy me super big ones, then maybe I could put
them on. But if I'm, if I'm putting on
clothes that fit me correctly, which is what the new, the new
clothes are from God, they're the clothes that fit correctly.
I've got to take these clothes off and I got to put on the new
clothes. And so part of putting on new is
that the Holy Spirit, through the renewing of our mind is
taking off the old clothes. And we begin to see our
behaviors change in practical ways.
We do because in our mind and in our hearts these things are
shifting towards God, and slowly our hands and our feet began to
shift towards God's ways as well.
We're learning the nature of our new home.
In verses 25 through 32, Paul gives us examples, and in each
one of these examples he tells us to take something off and to
put something on, and he gives the reason to do this as rooted
in the gospel. Now that's important.
If you didn't write that down, you missed it.
OK, He says to take this off and to put this on.
And the reason you should do this is rooted in the gospel.
The old life comes off, the new life begins to show up.
And interestingly, this is super interesting to me as well.
In every example Paul gives, it has to do with relationships.
So he gives all these examples about the new self, the new
clothes, and it's all surrounding relationships.
So, friend, we're all really good at following Jesus if I
don't have to interact with other humans, right?
Amen. But that's what the Bible,
especially in the epistles by Paul, are talking so much about
relationships, because God and his wonderful wisdom knows we're
pretty good at doing this Jesus thing if you don't get in my
way. But the problem is, is that
people. Problem is people.
And I'm one of those people for you, and you're one of those
people for me. So in the context of
relationships, that's where sanctification happens and how
we live with other people. And so Paul gives us several
examples. I'm going to go through these
quickly. I'd encourage you to go back and
reread the whole passage later. But first, he says for us to put
off falsehood and to speak truthfully.
Put off falsehood and speak truthfully well inside of a
community of believers, inside of a family.
If a family's lying to it, to each other, that family's not
going to last long, is it? But if that family speaks truth,
that family's going to be unified.
The members of that body are going to be together.
They're they're going to be built up.
So Paul says, hey, people who have the new clothes, who are
setting their mind on the spirit, they're going to be
people who speak truthfully. They don't tell white lies.
They don't twist the truth to make themselves look better.
They speak the truth, the whole truth.
Paul talks about anger. He says don't let anger control
us. Don't let anger linger.
He says, don't give the devil a foothold.
Anybody ever given the devil a foothold with their anger?
Yeah, me, I have. Paul says don't do that.
Well, because the new clothes, the new clothes are more
interested in the relationships with other people than they are
in holding a grudge over people. That's what the new clothes do,
Paul says. This is what this is what it
begins to look like when you're putting on the new clothes.
You let things go. I tell my kids, get some duck
feathers, man. Get some duck feathers.
Let that stuff go off your back. Don't worry about it.
And most of the time they look at me like I don't know what I'm
talking about. What is a duck feather?
Next, he talks about work and generosity.
He says the thief must, no, must no longer steal.
And this is important. He, the Bible calls people to be
workers, to work, to produce, to to go to work, to make things
happen. And that doesn't necessarily
mean outside the home, but everybody's productive, that
we're doing something useful with our hands.
And Paul goes one step further than that.
He says, hey, go to work and don't steal.
But he goes even further than that.
The goal isn't just for a person to stop stealing.
The goal is to become the type of person who gives to others in
need. That's the goal.
Now listen, listen, I wrote, I
wrote this. You got to hear me say this.
Only Christ can transform a thief into a giver.
Paul's assuming that people change.
He's also assuming that in this church there are thieves, which
means tells us that if our church doesn't have a few
thieves in it, we're not reaching.
The lost in this church are some thieves.
And Paul says that change is so possible through the gospel that
thieves will go from takers to blessers.
Wow, only Christ can bring that kind of change.
Next, he talks about our speech. He says don't let any
unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only words that
build others up. Words have power, friend.
They can wound other people. They can build other people up.
Paul says a person who's led by the Spirit is a person who
thinks about their words carefully and then he gets to
the heart of it. He says, and do not grieve the
Holy Spirit of God. And this, you need to hear me
say this. This is probably a whole sermon.
I should preach on this, just this line.
The Spirit who lives in you, who's working in you to renew
your mind to, to bring your new clothes to bear, that spirit is
not an impersonal force. This is not like an the force is
with you. That's not what the Spirit is.
This text makes this really clear.
Impersonal forces don't grieve persons grieve the Holy Spirit.
He, he is a person in the Spirit of God.
He has sealed you for the day of redemption, and he's also the
one though he has sealed you, he's also the one who is
bringing about the new creation out of you.
So you've been made a new creation.
The old has gone, the new has come, and he's the one that's
bringing it to bear. He's the one that's working
inside of you to bring about this new truth of who you are.
And so when you and I returned to the old patterns of
bitterness, rage, slander, and malice, when we go back to those
things, Paul says we're grieving.
We're grieving he who was working in us so hard to bring
about rhythms and lifestyles that fit in the Father's house.
This matters to your Heavenly Father.
It matters that you wear your new clothes, not because he
somehow needs you to like, oh, I wish these people would wear the
new clothes I bought for them. I would feel better about
myself. No, God is not his.
His sense of self is not riding on us being obedient to him.
No, God calls us to wear new clothes because it's good for
us, it's better for us, and it's better for the community that
we're part of. And so Paul says, instead of
giving in to rage and slander and malice and brawling, he says
instead be kind and compassionate to one another.
Forgive each other just as in Christ God forgave you.
And there it is again, a gospel reason.
Hey, forgive each other is Christ.
Forget. What's the gospel reason?
Well, God forgave us. We hold out kindness for one
another instead of malice because God himself held out
kindness towards you instead of malice.
We forgive one another because Christ himself, God himself
forgave us in Christ. And we're learning from our
older brother how to forgive. The new life that God created in
US will begin to show up in you. It will, because He began this
good work in you, and he will see it to the end.
And it will begin to show up in you in practical ways,
specifically how you treat people.
Pay attention to how you treat people.
That is the evidence of the new life of Christ working itself
out in you. Pay attention to how you treat
people. And that's what this whole
series has been about. When we make room for the
Spirit, we are setting our minds on the truth of the gospel in
the life that Jesus lives, who our older brother is, his
identity, his actions, his attitudes.
The life of Jesus begins to show up in our lives in ordinary,
everyday places. Places like our dinner table
with our family. Places like our cubicle or our
job. Places like our anger.
Places like our relationships. Friend, the Christian life is
not self improvement. It is simply living out the new
clothes that Christ has already given you.
What's already true about you? So here's the hopeful news this
morning. Change is possible.
And if you're a follower of Jesus, it's more than possible.
It's probable not because you're trying harder, but because
something has already really happened inside of you.
The old self has already been removed and you have already
been given a new set of clothes. And now the Holy Spirit is
renewing your mind daily so that the life God has already created
in you is beginning to show up and how you live.
And that's what we mean by making room.
You return your mind and your heart to these truths about who
you are over and over and over again.
I am loved, I am accepted, I am not condemned.
Christ gave his blood for me. I am adopted in the Father's
house. That's where I am.
I'm just trying to learn the new rhythms of this new house I live
in. And as you keep your mind set on
those things, the life of Jesus begins to show up.
And we learn Him, we learn Him, we learn his ways.
Making room for the Spirit simply means making room for the
life God has already put inside you.
It's already true. So this week, my friends, will
you remember who you are in Christ and trust that the Holy
Spirit is already at work in you?
He has already removed your old clothes.
He's already given you new clothes.
He is simply teaching you to love and trust those new
clothes, that they are indeed the best way to live.
Will you stand with me as I pray for us?
Father, thank you for the truths of Ephesians chapter 4.
Really, the whole letter is beautiful, but thank you that
that Paul has made such a clear argument here that our behavior
does not come from white knuckle willpower.
Our behavior comes from trusting our identity and what's true of
us. That that any person who has
come to know your son Jesus is a new creation.
The old is gone, the new has come.
That is what's true of us and God living that out in a
sanctified way. Living that out in a sanctified
way is simply about remembering daily who we are.
And then slowly those new clothes will begin to feel
normal, and the old patterns in the old clothes will feel like
they don't fit. And slowly over time, we'll
begin to manifest or see your life, Jesus, coming out of us.
And this is what our hope is, Father, that in our church,
people will be drawn here, not because we're such good people
or kind people or welcoming people, but because Christ
himself embodies us, that Jesus himself is the magnet as we lift
him up in our lives and trust his ways in our lives.
Men and women flock to be around us just the same way they flock
to be around Jesus. Lord, you're doing this work in
our lives. I praise you for every bit of
fruit we get to see. Do even more among us.
In Christ name we pray, Amen. Thank you, friends, I love you.
We'll see you back here next Sunday.