Ways the Holy Spirit changes us

April 28th 2024

Series: Who is the Holy Spirit?

Sermon Title: Ways the Holy Spirit changes us

Topic: Journey to help us learn who the Holy Spirit was, is, and will always be and how the Holy Spirit is active in our lives today.

Key Passages: Ephesians 4: 1-6 & 11-32

Sermon Blurb: In today’s message, we will look at how the Apostle Paul said the Holy Spirit would change followers of Jesus.

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Sermon:

Hello Family Church!

Family Moment –

Start with something personal from your family life recently to help people get to know you.

Celebrate salvation’s / re-dedications / baptisms last week.

Those of you who are new, or newer, to Family Church we are SUPER happy you are with us today!

We are in a series that is taking a DEEP dive into who the Holy Spirit actually was, is, and will always be.

We spent the first two weeks of this month looking at how we KNOW the Holy Spirit is a person just like Jesus or God the Father.

Last week we talked about the Trinity….

How God the Father.

The Son Jesus.

The Holy Spirit….

How they are ALL the SAME…

And how they are ALL different…

We waded into one of the hardest things to understand about God to try and help us better understand the AMAZING God we have!!!!

PAUSE

Today, we are going to do something different.

Today, we are going to look at a teaching from the Apostle Paul about the Holy Spirit and His role in our lives.

We will see a variety of ways that we will change because of the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives.

PAUSE

Then I want to invite you back next week.

Next week we will begin looking at how the Holy Spirit was active and moving in the Bible….

We are going to begin in the Old Testament….

Or the first ½ of your Bible….

And we are going to look at how the Holy Spirit was present there…

After we spend some time learning about that, we will move into the New Testament….

Or the second half of your Bible…

And do the same thing, look at how the Holy Spirit was present there.

Sound good church????

PAUSE

Grab your Bible and open it up to

Ephesians 4

New Person Bible Connection:

And if you do not have a Bible, that is ok!

After service, we will give you an AMAZING leather-bound study Bible!

Just go to ADD YOUR CAMPUS PLACE and get one for FREE!!!

PAUSE

Now let me explain why I want to start here….

In Ephesians 4 Paul, who we learned a LOT about in our last series walking through the Book of Acts…

What we are about to read is Paul talking to the church in Ephesus…

He is talking to them about the goal of the church….

And we want you to know why we teach the way we do at Family Church…

Why are we spending so much time talking about the Holy Spirit and His power in our lives and world?

So….Ephesians 4, starting at verse 1….

And if you have a study Bible, note the title of this passage.

UNITY and MATURITY in the body of Christ.

So we are about to learn what leads us into UNITY…

What leads us into MATURITY as followers of Jesus…

Ephesians 4:1-6 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Pause here…

Unity of what church???

Spirit….

Ok…so we are unified by the Holy Spirit…

Maybe write that down…

Part of the Holy Spirit’s role in my life is to bring me into UNITY with God and others.

Repeat

And let me point out here something…

The Holy Spirit brings us into unity…

It is OUR job to maintain unity…

Unity with God and others…

Don’t let that fall on deaf ears…

We need to strive for unity, NOT division.

Which will make us look a LOT different from our culture today which is ALL about dividing us…

Let’s keep reading….verse 4…

4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;

5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Pause here…

There, we get into the unity of God as one… as we talked about last week…

PAUSE

Drop down to verse 11, and let’s keep reading…

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,

12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

Pause there…

Let me make sure we see the Biblical world view here…

Paul is saying Jesus gave people all kinds of DIFFERENT gifts…

That we are ALL NOT given the SAME gifts by God.

Some of us will be apostles… meaning some will be trailblazers for God going to new places to reach new people for Jesus…

Some will be leaders of leaders in God’s movement…

And some will NOT be…

Some will be prophets… or people that God clearly speaks to and through…

And some will NOT have that kind of connection with God….

Some will be evangelists…or people who find it EASY to talk with others about God because they are wired that way….

And some will NOT have that kind of gift..

Some will be pastors… or people who naturally love and care for people.

And some people will NOT have that gift…

Some will be teachers… or people who are gifted at helping people learn new things…

And some will NOT have that gift…

And look at verse 12….

We are ALL gifted differently by God to BUILD EACH OTHER UP!!!

To help each other!!!

To help people in our community!

God gifts us differently and that is a GOOD thing….

I know our culture is trying to teach us that we should ALL have the SAME everything…

That is NOT a Biblical world view!

We are all created different and that is a blessing to embrace!!!!

PAUSE

Let’s keep reading….verse 13….

13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature,

attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

So, pause there…

There is that word UNITY again….

Until we reach UNITY in faith….

Which comes through who again church????

Yes… Holy Spirit in our lives….

The Holy Spirit helps unify us in our Faith in Jesus!!!

BUT….

We see something else here…

Something else the Holy Spirit helps us with…

Look at verse 13….

Unity in FAITH…

AND…

AND… in the knowledge of the Son of God…

Knowledge of Jesus….

Write this down…

Part of the Holy Spirit’s role in my life is to teach me about Jesus.

Repeat…

PAUSE

Church….

Learning about Jesus is a BIG key….

That is why we, as a church, spent over four years walking through the life of Jesus…

We NEED to know who Jesus was, is, and will always be…

We NEED to know the kind of life he lived and how that should change how we live our lives…

And the Holy Spirit helps us learn that and apply it in our lives….

And if you were not here for the years we were preaching those sermons….

Well that is OK…

That is why we created a book you can get a the Bible stand to help you learn all that!!!!

If you don’t have one of those yet….go get one… its FREE!!!!

PAUSE

BUT…

But it doesn’t stop there…

Look at what Paul says….

As we come into unity…through the Holy Spirit working in us..

As we learn and grow in the knowledge of Jesus… through the Holy Spirit working in us and teaching us…

Look at what it says happens….

We become….what church???

Mature….

So biblically….

Maturity means people who are unified with others and God…

Maturity means we are people who know Jesus well…

So, the question is….

Are you a mature believe in Jesus???

PAUSE

Now….

I am sure some of you think yes…

I am sure some of you think NOPE…

I would be willing to bet some of you are unsure…

PAUSE

So Paul goes on to describe what a person who is living through the POWER of the Holy Spirit will look like…..

Let’s listen….verse 14….

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching

and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.

Do you hear that church?

We will be people who can discern God’s teaching from the junk this world teaches.

We will be able to see truth from lies.

We will be able to see through the lies the world teaches…

I have people ask me ALL the time…

How it is possible that people cannot see the reality of what is going on in the world….

The answer is quite simple…

They do NOT have the Holy Spirit!

They cannot see what we see because they do not have God’s help!

PAUSE

Here is the point…write this down…

Part of the Holy Spirit’s role in my life is to help me distinguish truth from lies.

Repeat

BUT…

IF….

The Holy Spirit lives inside you and me…

We will have a VERY different lens from the world…

And in verse 17 and beyond Paul will talk more about this…

Let’s keep reading….Verse 15…

15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

That means we will start looking more like Jesus…

As we mature…verse 15… we look more like Jesus…

Verse 17…

This section begins to explain how we should LIVE differently because of the Holy Spirit’s guiding…

Instructions for Christian living.

17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them

due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity,

they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

Stop there…

Think about our culture…

Think about the direction it is going…

Think about what drives our culture…

What drives our leaders…

What drives politics…

Paul says….verse 17…

We will NOT live like Gentiles, which is just a term they used for people that did not follow God back then.

We will NOT live like people who do NOT know God.

Because the Holy Spirit is guiding us to be like Jesus.

They will think and act different than us…verse 18….

Because they are ignorant…

Ignorant of God and His ways…

Why?

Because their hearts are hard…

They have lost touch with reality…

So they give over to every sexual sin…

They indulge in sensuality….

It only takes a second to look at our culture and how we are sexualizing EVERYTHING today…

Sadly…including children now….

And so many of us look around and wonder HOW…WHY!!!!

Because the people who want this do not know God!

Because their hearts are hard to truth!

Because they do not see what they are doing is SIN!!!

Because as it says in verse 19….

They prefer sexual immorality and every kind of impurity and are greedy!

I don’t care if you are a republican…democrat…independent…

Your party is irrelevant…

If you are a Christian you should NOT be ok with sexualization of kids…

PERIOD…

If you are a Christian you should NOT be ok with the transgender indoctrination because it goes against what God teaches!!!

Church I have said this many times and I will say it again…

You and I do NOT get to determine morality…

You and I do NOT get to determine right and wrong…

God does…

And if God says something is wrong, or sinful, it is…

It does not matter if you wish it was not… it is…

PAUSE

And so Paul is saying….

You will be able to tell who really has the Holy Spirit inside them because they will be able to tell right from wrong….

And he goes on to reinforce that in verse 20 and beyond….

20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned

21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.

22 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;

Do you hear what we just said being re-enforced??? Jesus gives us a NEW life…

The Holy Spirit helps us learn how to live this NEW life…

We re-align our lives to be like Jesus…verse 21….

So…verse 22…

We CHANGE…

We CHANGE our way of life…

We STOP listening to our flesh…

We STOP doing things we use to do that we now learn are wrong…

We STOP following people that were leading us astray…

Do you all see this clearly in the Bible????

PAUSE

Verse 23….

23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;

24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

As we learn the NEW truths of God…

We go back to our friends…

Our neighbors…

And we tell them what we have learned to help them change…

Verse 26…keeps giving us more specific ways we should look different.

26 “In your anger do not sin” Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,

27 and do not give the devil a foothold.

28 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands,

that they may have something to share with those in need.

29 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 may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Do you hear that?

People who have the Holy Spirit will NOT…

Let their anger push them to far and into sin…

They will not steal…

They will GET A JOB and work…

Yup!!!

NO FREE loading if you’re a Christian!!!!!

You will share with other people…

They will control their mouths…

They will build people up NOT tear them down…

They will NOT deny the role of the Holy Spirit in their lives…

Here is the point…write this down…

Part of the Holy Spirit’s role in my life is to change me.

Repeat

PAUSE

Church….

I love you guys…

I want to help you all become the BEST version of yourself.

I want you all to become who God created you to become…

And I know that will ONLY happen when you become FULLY devoted to Jesus…

You and I NEED the Holy Spirit to guide us.

We NEED the Holy Spirit to change us.

That is why we are on this journey to learn more about the Holy Spirit.

Because we ALL need more of Him and less of us…

PAUSE

End with a story about how the Holy Spirit changed you…

Let me share your life application with you today….

For those of you who are new, or newer, to Family Church.

We end our messages with a Life Application.

It is simply something to help you go home and process this message with someone else.

Something to help you continue to ponder how you can apply today's message into your life.

So here is what I want you all to spend some time processing and talking with someone about.

Life Application: Read through Ephesians 4 and honestly evaluate where you need the Holy Spirit's help to change. Ask the Holy Spirit to help change you in that area in the days ahead.

As a result of today’s message, I will _________________________.

Prayer:

Make sure to do salvation call!

Offering:

Thank you all for being here today!

If you would like to continue your worship through giving, there are offering boxes by the doors as you exit or behind me on the screens you can see other ways to give here at Family Church.

You can also place any connection cards you filled out in there.