Well, good morning, everyone. It is great to see a crowd today
that is full of some visitors, some local, some maybe from
another town, some brothers from another place.
We're excited to see you all and happy to have you with us as we
worship this morning and is our number one goal to worship God.
But we hope that you feel welcome and built up in the
process and that and our goal will be accomplished For today.
I'm excited to study through the second-half of what we started.
Last time I taught in Ephesians Chapter 4.
So if you want to turn with me there, that's where we're going
to focus our time today. Ephesians Chapter 4 and we
stopped at verse 10 last time. And if you haven't been with us
in this book of Ephesians, we've basically got two parts.
We've got a first three chapters of the book of Ephesians that
deals with all the teaching and the doctrine.
Basically a general encouragement to Christians.
Do you realize who you are? Do you realize what you have
been blessed with and called to and redeemed from and welcomed
into? And because of that, in chapter
four we started last time the call to action.
So there is no beautiful benefit without our own stake in this.
And that's not just a bad thing, you know, Sometimes people think
I have something to do now that that should give you a sense of
purpose, This should give you a sense of belonging and
usefulness. Because when you're not active,
you're not useful and really anything in life.
But when you're active, you're useful for a 'cause.
This should be an encouraging section of the letter for us,
and hopefully a challenging section as well.
If it's not challenging to you, and if it's not challenging to
me, there's probably an issue with our heart that we're not
seeing something that we're responsible to see.
So maybe we have open minds to understand as we go through
this. So the call to action he started
with in the first verse was to walk worthy and we talked a
little bit about what that meant.
And he gave us some specifics as to what does it mean to walk
worthy. You know, with this great thing
placed ahead of us that is our salvation and our membership and
the heavenly Kingdom. You would think it's some
grandiose things. And he really listed some very
simple tasks for us as Christians, To walk humbly, to
be patient, to be gentle, to be unified and to build one another
up, That's part of what it means to walk worthy.
But that's not the whole gambit. And we talked more about those
things, but maybe we didn't talk as much about the command
itself. To walk worthy, the command
itself is a mindset and sometimes we get caught up and
you know, I'm just, I'm never going to be worthy and there's
that that self criticism that he's not dealing with here.
There's other passages that deal with self criticalness or
needing to move on from the past, but here it's a call to
action that basically says step up to the plate, walk in a
worthy way. It's a decision.
It's a it's a mindset that says I'm determined to live up to
what I've been called to, to live up to both him who called
me. If the God of this universe is
is calling me, I should walk according to His will and not my
own, and also to what he called me to.
If he called me to the service of the work of his Kingdom, I
should be honored by that. He didn't call me to bad works,
to evil things. You know, some religions around
the world would ask you to do some things that are harmful to
yourself and others. Our God is a good God and he
does not request that of. Us, we are called to a great
work and we are called by a great one.
So I hope that we in the in the deciding all these things that
it does mean. And about the specifics we don't
lose that we have a call to action.
Now let's just get some momentum coming up from last time we
start in verse one saying I. Therefore Paul speaking, the
prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of a calling with
which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with
long-suffering bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to
keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called
in one hope of your calling, 1 Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God, and Father of all who is above all and through all and
in you all. So He gave us the call to
action, how to be worthy, And then He gave us the principles
of unity, how we walk together in that unity.
Verse 7 But to each of but to each one of us grace was given
according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Therefore he says when he ascended on high, Speaking of
Jesus, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.
Now this he ascended. What does it mean?
But did he also first descended into the lower parts of the
earth? And here's where we're getting
into where we left off Last time.
We talked about how Jesus descending into the lower parts
of the earth could mean several things and probably does mean
several things. He came down to earth from
heaven. He also died and went down into
the grave. He went down into the depths of
the earth, which during that time they likely understood to
be Hades. They went, Jesus came down in
every sense of the word. But he all He who descended is
also the the One who ascended far above all the heavens.
He's above the the heavens, the earth, and He is actually seated
at the right hand of the Father. He's at the top of the heavenly
Kingdom. So in every sense of the word,
He is ascended, He is raised up, He is lifted up, He is powerful.
Why did he ascend to the throne to then come back and to just
knock out everybody who was against him?
We will learn that all enemies will be put under his feet and
have been put under his feet. But his purpose is not here
spoken to simply just be a a, a vindictive judge.
His purpose in ascending is because he has to fill all
things. We learned that without him
nothing was made that was made in In John we learned that he is
part of the creative force of this universe as the Godhead,
and he is the one who sustains and upholds all things.
Hebrews chapter one, verse three, he upholds all things
Colossians one verse 17. In him all things hold together
according to the ESV. You may have seen this before.
I know some people have in here, but I like to throw it in any
chance I had got because it's so exciting to see as science
delves into the depths of the universe.
This is a black hole in a Whirlpool Galaxy, I don't know
how many light years away. They zoom in with a Hubble
telescope and they see what looks to me to be a cross.
You go down into the depths of our cellular makeup and you find
this cell adhesion molecule that literally what it does is it
holds your body together and it's in the shape of a cross.
I I'm not going to say that scripture, that's that's exactly
what that's pointing to. But we do know that in him, in
Jesus, all things hold together, in him all things consist.
And so Jesus had to come and be raised from the dead, that he
might continue to fill all things.
When Jesus was crucified, it was no accident that the earth
shook, that the very foundation of the ground they stood on
quaked and shook. It's no accident that the sun
that was in the middle of the day giving them light, that sun
was darkened. Now, I do not believe for a
second that Jesus or the Godhead had a lapse in power.
There was no gap in authority there.
But I do believe it was a sign. It was a it was a symbol.
Do you? Realize what you're doing.
You are crucifying the one who's upholding everything you see
around you. The very sun that's lighting
your earth, the very ground you're standing on is shaking as
you're crucifying the Son of God.
He didn't just go back and and ascend though to fill all things
and to uphold the earth, but he also did so in verse 11 of
Ephesians chapter 4 to fill all things in the church.
And that's the next kind of point he's going to start
making. He himself, Speaking of Jesus,
gave some to be Apostles, some prophets, some Evangelists, and
some. Pastors and teachers, he told
his disciples. I will not leave you or forsake
you verse 12 to equip the Saints for the work of ministry.
He gave all these rules to give the Saints as was prayed this
morning that they will be equipped.
That would be that they would be armored or given the tools to do
the job. Do you have the tools to do the
job? And if you don't have the tools,
is it because you are willing to use them to pick them up?
Or is it because you're not being given the tools?
I believe God has given us through spiritual leadership
through His Word and. We're going to talk in a minute
how I do believe this is more focused on His word in the setup
of the early church. But we as the body of Christ,
not just the evangelist, not if there's an elder and a
congregation. It is the work of the body to be
doing the work. Of the Church, he says to equip
the Saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying or
building up of the body of Christ.
The word edify means to build up.
We are to be doing the work as the members of the Church to
build one another up. It's not just the responsibility
of these spiritual leaders in the Church, it is our
responsibility and I cannot hammer that home enough.
Now, I do believe in these verses right here as he's
talking about the equipping. It applies in multiple ways, but
I do believe based on what he's going to say next, he's talking
about the early church. He's talking about how things
needed to be set up miraculously, especially in the
in the early church by giving apostles, the apostles delivered
the word. Prophets help teach the word and
confirm the word. Some evangelists who were in the
early church delivering the word.
Pastors and teachers. I believe a lot of this he's
talking about is miraculously, but I do also believe it applies
today, even if you can't completely justify it one way or
another. And here's why He says verse 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
measure of the stature of the fullness in Christ, and that's
from the that versus from the ESVI.
I use it there. Sometimes it's easier to read
verse 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 cutting, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.
Here's why I believe this is specially talking about
miraculous set up of the early church.
This is the same kind of language that's used in First
Corinthians chapter 13, verse eight.
In the context, he's talking about how they should desire
certain gifts and how in chapter 12 they should use those gifts
of different miraculous ability. In the early church, because
they were still building the word, they did not have the full
completed word of God yet. They didn't have this Bible all
completely laid out. And so they needed special
assistance from the Holy Spirit to make that happen.
And as he's talking about these prophecies, he then transitions
and says, but you should first desire love.
Love is the greatest because love never fails.
But whether there are prophecies, they will fail.
There's going to be a time, he was saying when the prophecies,
the miraculous prophecies, those are going to stop.
Whether there are tongues, they will cease, whether there is
knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part these
apostles and different ones did not get the whole scripture
revealed to them. Paul had to write a lot of the
New Testament. But then there are other writers
who read out of their pieces. They knew in part they did not
each have the complete knowledge of God's word, and they
prophesied or taught in part. But when that which is perfect,
that word perfect, means complete, has come, then that
which is part in part will be done away with.
I believe that completeness is talking about the completed word
of God, He goes on to say. When I was a child, I spoke as a
child. I understood as a child.
I fought as a child. But when I became a man, I put
away childish things. I believe in the context he's
talking about the need for the miraculous abilities to build up
the church. In its infancy, the church was
an infant stage and so it needed childish support.
It needed childish or immature supports to uphold it.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face to
face. Now I know in part, but then I
shall know just as I am known. OK, back to Ephesians 4.
Here's the same language he's using, Ephesians chapter 4 so
that we may no longer be children.
I do believe this applies to spiritual maturity as well.
All these principles do apply, but we should not be children in
our understanding of God's word. And God has made a plan and has
given these early church supports, the apostles, the
prophets, the teachers, the evangelists, all these things
because we don't have any excuse anymore to be immature and not
have the full knowledge of God's will, to not have the full
foundation for what the church is built upon.
And especially during this day and time, if you did not have
the completed word revealed, it might be tough to not be tossed
to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of
doctrine. There were ones who have right
when the church was set up that people criticize them just years
later and said man, Jesus isn't back yet, or Jesus already came,
You missed him. There was your shot.
There are people who are throwing these doctrines and
these ideas around and it could easily throw around a Christian.
In the early church we talk about how man we wish we were a
Christian. In the early church where they
had all those miracles, you know why they had the miracles?
It's because the church was undeveloped to where they may be
able to be tossed around by these doctrines.
When I don't have the completed word, how do I know what to
follow completely all the time? So they needed that support, but
now we don't. We have no excuse for being
carried around by doctrines because.
We have the whole word. We don't have to have somebody
come in here saying, hey, I have a prophecy, I have a teaching.
God gave it to me and you need to listen to me.
And that makes us waver. Well, is that true?
We don't have to do that because the church is now in its state
of maturity, in God's infinite plan to design A church and to
support that church with the proper teachings and doctrine,
he says. These these doctrines and waves
that that carry Christians around when they're unstable,
they're from human cunning and craftiness and deceitful
schemes. Now, have you ever thought about
the fact that as you consider the work of the devil?
Or the work of people in the world who are trying to deceive
others. Often times those people are
themselves deceived. That's the nature of sin and the
nature of the devil's work. So sometimes it's easy to say,
you know what these people are just evil and deceitful.
But we have to remember that they are themselves deceived.
The difference between someone who is deceiving others and
somebody who's teaching others truth is the correct.
And that's why it's so important, the next verse, that
we should speak the truth in love.
If we don't speak truth, it could be so easy to get off
kilter and to be leading people in deceitful ways.
I believe a lot of people who are deceiving others are not
trying to do it. That's the nature of evil.
That's why truth, when it's convoluted and my truth, your
truth all the time, you can't have that and have God's ways
because there is a specific pattern to follow.
Otherwise there's no unity, he says, verse 15, rather speaking
the truth. In love we are to grow up in
every way into him who is the head into Christ.
So there is truth, but there's also a way to speak truth.
Have you ever been told the truth in an unleading way?
There's no need for that. There's no, there's no edifying
or building up in that. May we speak the truth with love
in our hearts, and we're to be building up into Him who is the
head into Christ. The flow of thought he's given
as the Holy Spirit and Jesus instituted these leadership
positions. He did all this work to build it
up, and it's our personal responsibility to be growing in
that the Holy Spirit aided and Jesus aided the development of
the Church. And if he did so much work to do
that, what about personally? Am I?
Are you growing up in every way into Him?
Who is the head we? Have an intense responsibility.
We should be doing our part. To grow up and to grow for the
church. So whether this is speaking
specifically only about the early church or even about
things today, they both apply. The leadership of the Church
today should be edifying the members to then build one
another up that we should do the work and we should.
Not be carried about because we have no excuse now because we
have the completed word of God. Where are you at in your
Christian stages of maturity? Are you a child?
Are you an infant? And there's a time for each one
of those stages. But have you stayed in one of
those stages too long if you are a boy or a child or a?
Young girl, how long have you been there?
That's the question. And I'll refer you back to the
survey we took in January. It's now been nine months ago,
nine complete months since we took that survey.
And my question will be maybe if you have that still as as a high
school teacher, what I would do is I would say, OK, pull those
back out, we're going to do that self-assessment again and see if
there's growth. I don't expect you to have that
in your Bible still, but hopefully you have it somewhere
at home that you can go back nine months after we did this
original self-assessment and you can see did I grow?
In nine months in 360, that's not the right.
In all that time, did I grow in prayer?
Do I pray God's word back to Him, His plans and his will?
Do I leave my time of prayer with?
Am I constantly in prayer? Do I carry responsibility in the
congregation? Do I share accountability with
someone in the congregation? Do I discuss and study the Bible
with someone else in the congregation?
Do I serve others by identifying ways I can help and actively
seek opportunities to use them? Do I give?
Do I serve and give benevolence in the contribution?
Cheerfully and generously? Do I show benevolence in my
personal life and in general? Do I step out of my comfort zone
for God's work? Am I actively befriending people
who are lost? Am I working spiritual matters
in the conversation? Having patience with others?
Patience with yourself? Perseverance.
Am I rejoicing publicly and alone?
Am I finding new ways to grow? Even if it doesn't come from a
source I want to hear it from? I encourage you to revisit that
survey. Revisit your own self-assessment
of where you're at 9 long months from last time we took it.
Are you growing in every way verse 16 from whom the whole
body joined and held together? I missed a point.
Let's go back one second. As we think about the growth we
are supposed to have, I think about the the verse in First
Corinthians chapter 4. Where it said even though our
outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed
day by day. There was a flaw with this
visual if you're taking it spiritually.
Because at some point the human body starts to decay and you go.
Backwards, but spiritually that should not happen, Paul says The
in the outward man is perishing, but the inward man is being
renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. I we have older folks in here
that are an example of this. We have an older a group of
older folks in here that are wonderful and they continue to
be renewed and show what it looks like to be renewed in
their faith. Because no matter what happens
to the body, no matter what happens to your your flesh or
even maybe the the circumstances in your life, you can continue
to be renewed day by day. I as I thought of this, I
thought of this brother in Peru. He's an older man.
He's hunched over walking one day to services.
This guy rides his bike. That was to a different
congregation because we were visiting, But normally he rides
his bike about. I think it was 10 miles one way
to church in the morning. He lives in the Andes mountain,
some 10,000 feet up. The inward man can be broken
down, destroyed, discouraged. But God's word and God's way
should be renewing us day by day to where there's no there's no
downslope. As a Christian, when you get
older, it should continue to grow as we get old.
Verse 16 from whom the whole body joined and held together by
every joint with which is equipped when each part is
working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up
in love. There it is again.
Not so that the preacher or the elder can do all the work for
the congregation, but so that the.
Body can have all of its pieces doing the work.
And you might say, you know what?
I'm not very strong. I'm not very sturdy.
You wouldn't think of me as one. He's going to build up this
body. Sometimes something strong and
sturdy and hard cannot work properly without a joint.
Think about a bone. A bone can be as strong and
sturdy and unbreakable as you could want, but you'd put 2
bones together Without a joint, without cartilage, and without
the proper fittings, you get no function out of your body.
That's what happens when you got to have to have surgery.
If you're If you get torn meniscus, man, that hurts.
That's just a little piece of cartilage in that joint.
Bone on bone does not work too well.
Every joint equips the church, and if every joint is working
properly, the body will grow. It doesn't say you need to be a
different body part. We covered that in other studies
in First Corinthians. You don't need to be a different
body part, but you need to be equipped for the work you can
do. Otherwise this body will not
function properly and it won't build itself up the way it can
value what you offer, because God does and because this
congregation values what you offer, one man said.
Some people think of the church as a pyramid with a pastor or
the preacher at the top. Others think of the church as a
bus driven by the pastor or the preacher who takes his passive
passengers where they should go. God wants us to see the church
as a body where every part does it.
Share verse 17, Ephesians 4. Now this I say and testify in
the Lord. That's a lot of boldness.
I testify this in the Lord that you must no longer walk, as the
Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.
So he's talking about calling us to a worthy walk.
He's called us. He's told us what he's done to
build us up as a church and how we have a responsibility to do
our job. And he's saying some things that
we have to do to clean up our walk, to live a worthy walk.
The first thing is we cannot walk like the rest of the world.
The Gentiles, there's Jew and Gentiles.
You're either God's people or you weren't, he says.
Don't walk like people who are not God's people.
And the reason is it's futility. Ecclesiastes, Vanity of
vanities. All is vanity.
Everything is empty. It's futile.
There's no point in this life. It doesn't mean people can't do
good things. In the world.
But ultimately, it's futile. It's empty.
Especially when sin is rooted. Because when you and I rely on
our own minds and our own feelings and and desires to what
to do, it's empty. It's futile.
It's pointless. We should no longer walk.
And the futility of their minds. Verse 18, They're darkened in
their understanding. We talked earlier about what it
means to be enlightened. It just means to have the true
reality brightened up so you can see what's there.
As Christians, we want to see the true reality of our hope and
of our faith. We need to see evil for what
evil truly is. We need to see good for what
good is and rejoice in good and and be disappointed by evil.
Because the people who are stuck in that, they're darkened.
Most people are walking around blindfolded, walking in a world
of illusion with a blindfold, one man called it.
They're darkened in their understanding.
And sometimes we can think of it like man.
Those people have in different points in my life.
I wish I could just whatever. This seems like they have
everything the Bible says. They're alienated, they're
strangers from the life of God. That's a scary line.
Alienated, separated strangers from the life that God has to
offer. Why?
Because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of
heart. You know, there's two different
types of ignorance, and I think one is much less common the
other. There's ignorance that just
says, I don't know it, something.
And that's I think a very small portion of our world.
And although atheists and others might try to challenge your
faith and say there's so many people don't know anything about
the word of God, this just this type of ignorance makes me
excited to see what God can do. I've heard of some amazing
stories where people were not thought to have ever heard the
gospel before and some far out countries and they had heard
about the gospel. So we never really know how
ignorant people are. God can handle that, God can
take care of that, and we could do our part in getting the
gospel there. But I think the more common
ignorance, the ignorance he's pulling out here, is an
ignorance that is willingness and it's a hardness of heart
that we choose that when we will reject truth, that when people
reject truth, they will have a hardened heart.
They have become callous and have given themselves up to
sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
It is amazing to me how our bodies work.
Our bodies will adjust to anything it seems like.
If you do hard work and it would mess you up to have hands that
are soft your body makes harder skin.
It's that it's it's amazing what our body will do.
The calluses purpose is to block out things that are going to
hurt the body. You're if you're not going to
use your conscience if. People are going to use their
conscience. It's going to develop a callus
because there's no purpose for it.
There's no purpose for having a conscience if you're not going
to use it, if you tell your body or if you tell your mind.
I'm not going to, I'm not going to follow that conscious God has
given us. A conscience would say OK, if
you're not going to use it, then it's not going to hurt anymore.
Are there areas, even if it's not a general callus across
everything you believe in, are there areas in your life, in my
life that we have a callus spot that we would think, oh, that
doesn't really matter, it's not that big of a deal.
I would encourage us to have surgeons hands when it comes to
our conscience because a surgeon's hands, Our surgeon
needs every kind of dexterity they have softer hand because
they need to be able to, to manipulate their tools in a very
precise way. And as Christians, we should be.
Sensitive in our conscience that we would be quick to respond to
something that is brought to our attention.
That God would direct us in through His Word and the Holy
Spirit to prick our hearts and we'd be quick to respond and not
be calloused. Maybe we would avoid a sensual,
A sensual lifestyle. Sensuality is living for
pleasure. It could be easy, even if it's
not in a specific sin, to live just for pleasure in general.
There's a lot of ways that we can do that and the things we
watch, the things we think about, the things we give our
time to or we're just chasing the next pleasure, the next
thing that will feel good to us. Verse 20.
But that is not the way you learn Christ.
That is not the way that you learn Christ.
Verse 21, assuming that you have heard about him and we're taught
in him as the truth is in Jesus, he's going to continue to give
us some put offs and some put ONS.
He says verse 22 put off your old self, which belongs to your
former matter of life and is corrupt through deceitful
desires. He says put off your old self.
Sometimes people say things like you need to love yourself just
the way you are, and there's a whole conversation about that
and what that does mean and doesn't mean.
That's just a very broad statement.
We should not love the parts of our self that are against God's
will. We should put that off and be
ready to throw that into the past and to close the door on
it, because we have. No place in that old life, he
says. Your former manner of life that
is corrupt through deceitful desires.
There's that phrase again, that deceitfulness of desires.
Desires will trick our minds into thinking that something is
good for us when it's really not.
And that's the sad part about sin.
You know, these people sometimes fall into two camps.
They're either. A lot of times people say things
like, oh, there's just so much evil out there.
There's no good. Everybody's evil and they're all
just terrible and can be. We can be really cynical about
that. And then on the other hand,
there's people who say, man, there's so much good in the
world and and all these people there, they have good
intentions. They're not really in sin, are
they? They have good.
And that's the problem with sin is it's deceitful there.
People aren't all bad, and yes, people have good intentions, but
it doesn't mean they're not sinning.
Paul says I would. I lived in all good conscience
persecuting Christians. So we should be compassionate
enough with people who are in sin that we would understand
that they're they're deceived, they don't see it.
So now they feel like, how can you not see this?
It's because they don't. They don't see it at all and be
renewed into the spirit of your minds.
We should be renewed as Christian.
We should be built up day by day.
A lot of times you ask people how they're doing.
They say same old, same old. As a Christian the better.
Hope is not same old, same old. If it's same old, same old,
something is wrong and broken. We should be made new in our
minds and returned to the source of our newness, created after
the likeness of God and true righteousness, not in deception
and and smoke and mirrors, but in true righteousness and
holiness. Therefore, having put away
falsehood, there it is again putting away that deceit, that
falsehood, that fakeness. Let each one of you speak the
truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
If the brain tells the the hand that fire is not hot, the body
is going to be damaged. We we are affected by one
another. We have to be able to teach to
tell truth with one another and to speak truth because we depend
on one another. Verse 26 Be angry and do not
sin. Do not let the sun go down on
your anger and give no opportunity to the devil.
OK, we're closing up here. Just a minute.
But let's break down this verse. Be angry and do not sin.
The first thing to do and dealing with anger, he says, is
to handle it without sinning. So he's affirming the emotion of
anger. The Bible gives us plenty of
examples where God was angry with the children of Israel.
Anger is an emotion, and every motion has a purpose, but it
does not have a place. And our life, always every
emotion has a purpose. And the purpose or the first
thing we should do with anger is to contain it.
Anger you might describe as a fire, and I think, I think anger
as a fire works in a lot of these analogies.
And the first thing is to be angry, but kind of draw a
boundary as to where you're not going to go.
And then when you're fighting fires, what they'll do is
they'll dig out a fire line to where the fire is.
No fuel there. The fire will not go outside of
that. If you go out to the woods and
just start spraying on a fire, the fire is going to go the
other way and you will get no more containment.
You have to first draw a line around that fire that says
you're not going to go anywhere outside of here.
And as Christians, we have a responsibility to set our minds
and to handle our anger in a way that first make sure we don't
sin, that we don't lash out with vengeance or violence, violence
physically or emotionally or reputationally.
Reputation violence as a huge response to anger, but anger can
also be a very positive motivator, he says.
Be angry because there's a place for the motivation it gives you.
Because if conflict is difficult for some people, it's more
difficult than others. Some people are very conflict
averse. Some people are really
comfortable with it. As Christians, we shouldn't be
overly anxious to have conflict, but we need to use anger when it
needs to bring a conflict to pass.
That we would address an issue that when there's some wrong
being done, that when there's something that would anger us,
that we would address it so it has a purpose, he says.
Use that. But it can't spill over into
gossip, backbiting or violence. The second thing he says to do
is to not let the sun go down on your anger.
There's the old phrase don't go to bed angry.
And there's actually some some science behind that.
They did a study recently where it showed that they took a bunch
of men and they anyway, I won't go through the whole study, but
they basically proved that if you go to sleep angry, you wake
up the next morning. It is more difficult to get the
negative images out of your head before sleep you it's it's like
you can you can move past them easier.
They do brain scans as to where the the the stimulus is going on
the brain scan and this brain scan will move depending on
what's happening in your own emotion.
It's kind of fascinating but anger sends adrenaline through
our bodies and it clouds the prefrontal cortex, which is the
decision making part of your brain and that can make it hard
to make good decisions. That's why he says, first of
all. Watch out that you don't sin
because it's going to cloud your vision, cloud your decision
making skills, and if you let it sit in your mind during rest,
your brain goes through a process of kind of sorting out
everything that's happened in the day.
It sorts out your memories in the short term, long term, and
it deals with things. It's a place of rest, but
chemically, that's what's happening.
And they prove that it starts to disperse into the whole cortex
if you just let it sit in your mind.
So he says, don't let the sun go down on your anger.
Maybe more practically speaking, handle something when you're
angry. If you just let it Stew and sit,
things don't get done. It was a pointless emotion.
But if you let that anger drive you to have a conversation that
needs to happen, to address an issue that needs to happen,
that's productive and that's useful, but then work through it
because you have to go to sleep sometimes.
So we have to work through it. Once that fire is contained,
then we work on putting that fire out.
And maybe that's the hardest part, is figuring out how do I
get this anger out of my mind and out of my body.
And there's a lot of things that could be said about this.
Maybe you have all your own tricks, strategies for getting
through it, but number one, we know it's never going to be
about explaining why you're wrong to feel that way.
You you're not going to be less angry for someone to tell you
why you shouldn't be angry, or by telling yourself I shouldn't
be angry about this because we we can get worked up about any
number of things. I can get worked up on the road
driving, of all things, you're you're just going to work.
You're going to get there maybe 10 seconds slower.
There's no reason for us to get angry driving.
But then there's always, well, this happened and this happened.
OK, you can always explain why you might feel angry.
So the answer is not to explain why it's wrong, but we have to
have another reality that supersedes our own perspective
on something. And here's the perfect one.
It's later on this chapter where he says be kind to one another,
tender hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave
you. Matthew 18 verse 23 says,
Therefore the Kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who
wished to settle accounts with his servants.
But when he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him
10,000 talents. And since he could not pay, his
master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and
all they had and payment to be made.
So this servant owed an amazing and massive debt.
So the servant fell on his knees imploring him.
Have patience with me and I will pay you all that I owe.
And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released
him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went
out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100
denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, pay
what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down
and pleaded with him. Have patience with me and I will
pay you the same thing, he said to the person he owed money to,
But he refused and put him in prison.
They should pay everything he owed.
This helps reset my perspective. I might be angry with somebody
or something that happened, but when I look at what God has
forgiven me in light of this analogy, this passage, my anger
in that problem just shrinks. It just kind of dissolves
because it might be it's there, it's there.
But it's much smaller. When I look at what God has done
for me, when I look at this is me right here, this is my place.
That's what I'm guilty of. We sing songs that say things
like Odyssey, My Name written in the wounds.
For your suffering, I'm free. There's a song that talks about
can you still feel the nails every time I fail?
That's why He was crucified. The song, my crown.
It was my sin. It was my crown, my robe, my
cross that put the Savior there. It was my sin that drew God's
wrath. He bore for me.
I could have never had a life with Him eternal.
It is my sin, so it's not always the anger that's wrong, but it
needs to be much smaller in comparison with the reality we
deal with. This third thing he says in that
verse is and give no opportunity to the devil.
We have to realize that anger can be a wedge with a very small
point where the devil can start to work his way in and give a
place for a lot of other things to happen.
So may we not give him a place? We have to identify who the real
enemy is. We've talked a lot about deceit.
Anger can be blinding and we have to be watchful so that we
don't misidentify the enemy. If I'm mad at any number of
people in this room, well, let's say let's say I'm mad at
someone. I cannot let them become the
enemy. They are not the enemy.
I may have a conflict with them that we have to work through,
but they are not the enemy. The enemy is the one who's
trying to split us up to cause division, to cause anger.
That would create a wedge in our lives and we must defend
ourselves in case something in our anger could enter into our
heart that would be sinful and cause damage.
So three things, contain the fire.
Work on putting out the fire and focus on identifying and
defending against who the real enemy is.
If we are ever at odds with someone and we don't have their
best interests at heart, and that's the root of sin, whether
it's violence, whether that's tearing down the reputation,
that is a sinful attitude. Verse 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. Thieves can be very frustrating,
but I feel bad for thieves because it's most of the time
it's thieves who are poor and who don't have anything.
And I love the word of God because it always gives us a why
the thief who doesn't maybe have enough to survive or to live on,
he's given the instruction to turn that into his why to his or
her reason, or why? For why they work hard that they
will have something to give to someone else who's impoverished.
God's basically saying, I get it, you're in a hard spot, but
turn that into motivation to help somebody else who's in your
same place by working with your hands.
Now we think of theft like stealing something off the
shelf, but there's also white collar theft. 4 or 90% of all
significant theft losses come from employees.
That is a scary number. These are taken from the US
Department of Commerce. 4.5 hours of time Theft per per
employee per week is what the national average is.
That's things like being on your phone at work when you should be
getting something done. That's things like clocking in
at a time where you're not really in work.
Different things, but in my business ethics class I took it
was billions and billions of dollars.
They say $50 billion in theft comes from their own employees.
Time theft is a massive issue, so maybe you don't steal things
off a shelf, but are you a trustworthy and reliable an
honest employee? One of four people admit to
lying on their time cards. There's white collar lies.
There's not. I guarantee not one of four
people steal things off shelves, but there's theft in other ways.
Verse 29, Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths.
No corrupting talk, but only such as is good for building up,
as it fits the occasion. So our job again, is to edify
one another. And we have to have a little
tap. We need to be very intentional
as to what our goals are, is to build others up with our
communication. And we have to be very skillful
and tactful as it fits the occasion.
That 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. We're almost done here.
The only time I remember my parents being really grieved,
just like flustered and like, is when we were arguing too much
and just kept fighting with each other for no reason.
Move on. It's the same thing with the
Holy Spirit. I believe He has given us so
much and has done so much to build this church and to develop
us as Christians. May we not be once to tear it
down when we're just fighting amongst each other for no good
reason because he has sealed us for the day of Redemption.
It hurts the Holy Spirit and grieves the Holy Spirit when
that is present. When that division and anger is
present, that divides verse 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and
anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all
malice. If we are contrary to the
well-being or best interests of others, that is a selfish
attitude. We may disagree with somebody or
want to go against what they have in mind, but if we are
trying to go against their best interest as a sinful attitude,
be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another as God and Christ forgave you, there is the
perspective for everything he asks of us.
He's already done it himself today.
That's the that's the study. If you are a member of this
body, it is a wonderful thing and it should be.
If you're not a member, you can be added.
Today, after hearing the word repenting of your past life.
Changing you can and you believe in the Son of God.
You're repent of your past life, confess that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. You can be baptized and added to
the church for the remission of your sins.
We had a new brother, Chris. We're so excited to have him as
a member here, as a member of the family of God.
You can do that too. Today.
You don't have to be voted in and all this stuff you can.
You can do that today, if you're ready.
And if you're a member of this, the body already you can.
You can come for if you have something you need prayers for,
if it's a public sin or something you need support in.
We can take care of either thing while we stand and while we see.
We thank you for listening to our podcast put on by the Church
of Christ at 2215 Plans Rd. in Bakersfield.
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