Blueprints for the Church: Be Who You Are

Notes:

Ephesians 4:25-5:2: Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Results of Putting off Old Self and Putting On the New Self

New Self=Created after the Likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

v. 25=Therefore, having put falsehood…

25: Speak the TRUTH with his neighbor (why? Because we are members of one another).

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

27: Give no opportunity to the devil.

28: Let the thief no longer steel, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

29: Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

30: Do not grief the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed on the day of redemption.

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

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

7 Motivations:

28: That you “may have something to share with those in need.”

30: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit”

31-32: “As God in Christ forgave you”

5:1: “As dearly loved children”

5:2: “As Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.”

Therefore, put away falsehood

Truth, anger, theft, speech, and love

Introduction:

Putting off and putting on.

Don’t put this on, but put this on.

What you say matters

25: Put away the Lie

25: Speak Truth to your neigbor=Zechariah 8:16 “16 These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace;”

NOTE: In Zechariah: Zion= “Faithful City”

29: No corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but build up, “that it may give grace to those who hear.”

Several Motivations…

I don’t need to explain myself.

Corrupting= “spoiled” or “rotten”

v. 29: “… AND do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

O’Brien: “The Spirit, who is the divine agent of reconciliation and unity in the body (2:18, 22; 4:3–4), is especially grieved when unwholesome speech is uttered by members against one another.”

Isaiah 63:10 “10 But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them.”

O’Brien summarizing Stott: “Anything incompatible with the unity or purity of the church is inconsistent with the Spirit’s own nature and therefore grieves him.”

31: Slander

Motivations:

25: “We are all members of one body”

29: Communicate Well “that it may give grace to those who hear.”

Anger Management

Anger:

26: Be angry and do not sin, do not let the sun go down in your anger.

Psalm 4:4 “4 Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent..”

31: Let all… anger be put away from you.

Put a time stamp on your anger

Deal with it. Chronic anger will kill you. Blood pressure. etc.

Motivation: 27: “And give no opportunity to the devil.”

Lit. Don’t give the devil a place, a wedge, a position to posture himself.

The point is not the devil, the point is your anger. Don’t give any opportunity to grab hold of a situation.

Romans 12: 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it[room, space] to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Same word!

Other Forms of Anger:

Bitterness, wrath, clamor, slander, malice

Resentment/bitterness

rage and anger

clamor= “Loud scream or shout” (being loud!). Rebuke to parents who raise their voice regularly.

I’ve had it once where someone yelled at me…

Brawling

Slander=Blasphemous=abusive speech against God. Profanity.

Malice=Anger in any form

Don’t Harm, but Help!

Lincoln: “The thief is to become a philanthropist.”

Community, productivity, and stewardship.

Example of People who broke into the church and stole stuff.

Terribly destructive: Example from Ministry email?

Build up by giving, perhaps the greatest sign of Christian maturity is through generosity.

Command isn’t just not to steal, but also to be generous.

Gospel Ethics

v. 32: “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Forgive because you’ve been forgiven.

Three “graces”

M. Zerwick could say, “Be merciful, if you want to be just.”

Ethics Rooted in the Gospel

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Example

Reason and motivation for all Christian morals.

They are adopted, and need to act like God.

“Dominical” Model

We can’t do it.

And yet we are commanded to do it.

“Fragrant offering”=Remember my stench story from last week. Got in the pours.

Old people when I give them a hug. Hey, they smell like my grandparents!

O’Brien: “Costly, sacrificial love, then, is to characterize believers in their relationships with one another.”

O’Brien: gave himself, “Christ took the initiative in handing himself over to death.”

Offering and sacrifice:

Old Testament imagery: You need to smell like steak!

O’Brien: “Christ’s handing himself over to death for his people was the supreme demonstration of his love for them. Because he is both the ground and model of their love, costly, sacrificial love is to be the distinguishing mark of their lives. To serve others in this way is not only to please God; it is also to imitate both God and Christ.”

What do we do with this?

Organize:

We’re going to divide out

Romans 6:1: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means!”

Gospel-Motivated Ethics

Shall I jump in the mud again to see how good your washing machine is?

List of Motivations:

Church Membership

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

Motivation: Belonging

We are hinges!

If you’ve ever hard anyone lie to you, immediate disconnect.

The motivation to speaking the truth is because we’re members, connected: A breach in the hinge is a breach in the purpose of the hinge! To move two different parts in one uniform movement.

Removing the inner part is to remove TRUTH!

Real Community is built on TRUTH

So why don’t you always tell the truth?

Because I belong to a local church. I’m church member!

Threat of Satanic Influence

26-27: Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

Anger=Natural emotion:

When you’re angry:

Do not sin

Put a time stamp on it.

WHY?

Give no opportunity to be the devil.

Preparing a Place for Enemy influence

Don’t go back under the authority of the Devil?

“Foothold”

“Come here, I saved a place for you.”

Motivation to not sin: Don’t give the devil a foothold, a place.

Romans 12: 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it[room, space] to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Let God take care of it.

Be comforted, THERE WILL BE JUSTICE!

Leave space for God to take care of it!

God will take care of it!

Generosity

28: Let the thief no longer steal… That you “may have something to share with those in need.”

Motivation changes from steeling to generosity

Don’t take away, but give away!

Joy in giving

New Society=New way to deal with stuff.

Sharing Grace

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.”

That it may give grace to those who hear.

NIV: Super weak translation: “That it may benefit those who listen.”

Encouraging one another one another is a form of giving grace.

New Society, New Ways to Behave

It’s not about rules, it’s about motivations.

We aren’t motivated to DO this or that.

We are motivated to BECOME someone.

It’s about BECOMING WHO YOU REALLY ARE!

Gospel-Motivated Ethics=Reflecting God’s Heart

About giving grace

About restraining, resisting, denying, and destroying EVIL

About TRUTH and Tender-heartedness.

Gospel-Motivated Ethics=Really: Reflecting God’s Heart

Reflect God’s Grace

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

We are to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgive?

Why? Because it’s a reflection of what Christ has done already for you!

Forgive, as God in Christ forgave you….

How does this work?

Well, let’s do a little exercise?

Any sinners in the room?

Take quick look at your life.

I don’t want this this to be too depressing of a story, but consider all that Christ forgave…

Think of the conversation, outbursts, anger, fear, idolatry, lust, every time you gave into temptation, each time you had to pray, “Forgive me, Lord,” all of that trash has been forgiven!

That’s the power of the GOSPEL, and that amazing grace should motivate you to forgive others!

You need to forgive just like Jesus forgave you.

Because we’ve been forgiven, we’ve been set free from the power of sin!

Unforgiveness has damaging influence on us. Forgiving others comes from the same redemptive RIVER as Christ’s Forgiveness of you! Forgiveness frees you, just as Christ freed you.

May Christ’s forgiving power motivate you to forgive others.

Reflect God’s Family

“Be imitators of God, as beloved children.”

We are called to be imitators of God:

Best Impressionist

Jimmy Fallon

Impressionists:

Grover

Grandmother’s dutch accent

Christians aren’t always the greatest impressionists, but we’re called to be!

Know whom you belong to!

Childhood memory of yawning while my dad was praying.

Dad, praying with sincerity, not fully knowing the brokenness of the family.

I made a bad impression without even realizing it.

May the Call to be God’s beloved CHILD motivate you to imitate your Heavenly Father.

Reflect God’s Love

Motivation=the Love of Christ

Christ’s sacrifice

It’s hard to change: “Yeah, I know.”

It’s too risky to change: “Yup, been there done that.”

It’s dangerous: “Been there too.”

“Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Greatest singular motivation to LIVE as CONVERTED!

Once saved always saved.

Once converted always

We ought to be motivated to love because we are loved by God and by what Jesus did for us!

Christ giving:

Ephesians 4:19 “19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”

Ephesians 5:2 “2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Humanity give themselves to feed their selfish addiction.

Christ gave himself up for us.

Giving themselves into themselves.

Giving himself for others.

That’s what we’re supposed to model.

Application: What motivates you?

Peer Pressure: “everyone’s doing it!”

Accountability:

Covenant Eyes

Parental Influence: Did I become a pastor just because it was going to make my parents proud of me?

Rebuke: You have to change or else you’re going to die.

Fear

Consequences

Immunity to Change:

“"A recent study showed that when doctors tell heart patients they will die if they don't change their habits, only one in seven will be able to follow through successfully. Desire and motivation aren't enough: even when it's literally a matter of life or death, the ability to change remains maddeningly elusive." Robert Kegan

Desire and motivation is not enough: “the ability to change remains maddeningly elusive.”

Fragrance can be poison!

Story of Three Guys who died from affixation in Drayton

Gospel Motivation