The New Life, New Walk and New Warfare of the Christian (Part 9)
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
Last week we spoke about Putting off and Putting on
Scripture says put off your old self.
It is not taking off your coat and exchanging it for a cool one and placing your old one on a hanger for later use. It is take off your old coat and take the one you had and put it into a bag and carry it out to the garbage can and make sure the garbage man hauls it away never to be seen again.
You don’t sell it at a garage sale and hope someone else is blessed with your old coat.
This new self is like changing clothes literally
A great illustration is found in John 5. Jesus spoke the word and Lazarus came forth alive, an illustration of John 5:24. Notice our Lord’s next words, “Loose him, and let him go” (John 11:44). Take off the graveclothes! Lazarus no longer belonged to the old dominion of death, for he was now alive. Why go about wearing graveclothes? Take off the old and put on the new!
Today we move to the rest of Chapter 4
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.
Because of this new amazing life We don’t deviate or pervert the truth. – Do not intentionally deceive your neighbor.
Deception is defines as intentionally misleading someone.
Our Media today is entrenched in deception. – It wants to purposefully deceive you – It has an agenda and it will do whatever it takes to mold you into that agenda.
Flat out lies are just apart of it.
Remember Satan is the father of lies – in other words he is the father of deception. His goal is to deceive you- everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie.
A lie is something that is contrary to the fact.
I had an encounter with a mini Cooper the other day. On the back of his window it said I identify as a truck. The problem was there was a lifted f350 in front of him and it wasn’t hard to spot the lie. The mini Cooper no matter how hard it believed was never going to amount to a truck. It was living a life of delusion
Today teachers are being forced to lie to there students. They are told to call Jimmy - Jill because Jimmy identifies as a girl today. This is a lie. A teacher is told you will call him Jill or else you can be fired. Fired by the very parents who are lying to their kids.
These parents that are saying this to there children in my opinion are inflicting abusive behavior to them. Parents are messing there kids heads up and asking you to lie to them.
They say we don’t want to hurt their little feelings so lets just lie to them.
The lie starts in the home and if not in the home (lets make that clear) then on social media or the internet or the main stream media.
Many teachers are saying hey I cannot do this. If more teachers would stand up and say no way am i going to do this, we would see change.
It is to the point today that it is more dangerous to put your kids in public school than any other option
Satan's first lie to Eve was to say that God is really the liar -He is good at his trade. You have to be very careful.
There is a show on TV called Modern Family or the Simpsons.
It is the worlds description of what they want family to look like and act like. If you really want to know what a normal family looks like you have to go to the word of God and figure it out. Because the creator of a normal family is GOD.
Satan quickly came into the family at the beginning and we have the murder of Abel by Cain. That is how bad Satan wanted to destroy the family.
3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground,
4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,
5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?
7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
WOW
As we keep reading in Ephesians , when speaking the truth to a neighbor and in the middle of the conversation though it get heated you must deal with your anger.
It is so easy to get angry. The Book of James says “be slow to anger.”
Now I am not talking about “Righteous indignation” refers to the extreme displeasure of a holy heart unable to tolerate sin of any kind. Moses smashing the tablets was righteous indignation. Our hatred for sin is righteous indignation.
Now lets look at Context:
The Gods of the Romans and Greeks were wrathful to humans. Holding everything over there heads, withholding food, sun and water, . Wrath was a very real thing in the minds of those at the times.
People were wrathful to people. Today it is getting so bad that:
In Palestine they were serving candy to people because someone murdered two Jewish young men in there car outside there town. This hate is being encouraged and promoted to children. Hitler did it in before world war II. Stalin was a master of hate. Now we see Putin killing many of his own people Russians in the small towns in Ukraine.
God says you are not like that. Though you get angry it is to be dealt with quickly because if you don’t Satan will use your anger as a open door in your life and in the lies of others.
8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
Built up anger is like a volcano ready to explode. Maybe some of you had a father or mother like that or a boss or co-worker. You just want to back away.
Stephen when having stones thrown at him said
54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him.
55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.
58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Do you see the Contrast
On one hand gnashing of teeth and vehement rage - on the other filled with the Holy Spirit and Mercy.
Jesus hanging on the cross, says lord forgive them they don’t know what they are doing. --- WOW
Vs 28 also shows a great contrast. Stealing is taking from others what does not belong to you. God wants you to be givers. In other words not wanting other peoples stuff – using what you have to bless others.
If you have nothing the first thing your expected to do is work. So many people don’t want to work and they have a thousand excuses. It is so hard being a manager today. Do you know that many companies have a schedule write and specific software so you can accomodate those who don’t want to work or work very little.
Labor is good for you. SOme say I am already giving 100% - there is a quoate that goes . "I always give 100% at Work: 10% Monday, 23% Tuesday, 40% Wednesday, 22% Thursday, and 5% Friday." –Anonymous
Remember we talked about putting off and putting on - well we put off laziness and put on hard work.
Why ?- to be a blessing
If God has given you money – share it.
It God has given you talent in an areas- teach others
Whatever is in your basket – it is to be shared with others – so they can share it with others.
How many of you in this room are great sharers?
I got a bag of cheezies from my mom for Christmas. in it were 36 smaller bags. Trina said to me you have 36 bags why don’t you share them.
How many do you think I ate?
We would prefer to eat the entire pie and our brothers and sisters can go without. But God says share the pie. Everyone can have a portion of the blessing that someone else made.
Some of you out there need to turn into Bakers and start giving your slices of pie away. – AMEN
Last section of this Chapter deals with your mouth. OUCH !
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.
In your conversation
Don’t lie, don’t deceive don’t let anger be your mode of conversation and Paul adds unwholesome talk or in other words don’t say things to hurt or damage people.
The old saying is if you don’t have something good to say, don’t say anything at all comes to mind.
You might have to master the art of silence if you can’t speak nicely.
I was told this once that you can measure a mans maturity level sometimes by what is coming out of his mouth.
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks - one has said it is the flow from your fountain. is the water clean or dirty
6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Conclusion:
It ends with this - Jesus is your example - He is kind and forgiving.
It begins with repentance which in turn steers us to holiness - AMEN
It begins with a realignment - a new position - an abundance of the Holy Spirit - AMEN