Untitled Sermon

PASTORAL SALUTATIONS

Good morning, family.

Whether you are joining us in person, across our campuses, or streaming online, I pray that you are well.

It’s a joy to anchor ourselves again in God’s word this morning.

Not as isolated individuals, but as one body with one heart,

…bound by one Spirit, and united in one Lord— Christ Jesus, our Savior.

THE HINGE

Well, family, it was five weeks ago when we asked one foundational question:

What does a healthy church actually look like?

To find the answer, we anchored ourselves in Ephesians 4,

…and traced three non-negotiable vital signs of a healthy church.

First: Singular Devotion.

Because Christ alone is sufficient, sovereign, and supreme,

…He alone deserves our everything.

Second: Sound Doctrine.

Christ uses His word to grow His body and to guard it against deceptive doctrines.

Third: Sincere Discussions.

Because our words either break down or build up the body,

…Christ commands us to speak the truth in love.

Today, we reach the final vital sign: Sanctified Disposition.

This is not a new piece of the foundation.

It’s the comprehensive umbrella covering the entire Christian life.

Because devotion without doctrine becomes mere emotionalism.

Doctrine without love becomes abusive.

And speech without holiness becomes destructive.

A sanctified disposition is what protects us from all three.

And, it shows a watching world what Christ has actually made us to be.

Which is one body, with one heart,

…called and set-apart from the world,

…by Christ,

…and for Christ,

To see what this set-apart life looks like, let’s turn to God’s word.

If you're able to, would you stand with me for the reading?

SCRIPTURE READING

Ephesians 4:17-32 —

17 Therefore this I say, and testify in the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their mind, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart. 19 And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

20 But you did not learn Christ in this way— 21 if indeed you heard Him and were taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22 to lay aside, in reference to your former conduct, the old man, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and to put on the new man [new self], which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. 26 Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil an opportunity. 28 He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.

29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for building up what is needed, so that it will 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 anger and wrath and shouting and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Instead, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, graciously forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has graciously forgiven you.

Let’s Pray

SERMON TITLE

Sanctified Disposition: A People Set-Apart for Christ.

OPENING PRAYER

THE HOOK

Several years ago, a prominent pastor was being interviewed by a local reporter.

Because he had planted a church that quickly became a massive, highly attractional religious center, that drew people by the thousands.

As I watched closely, I noticed that the entire environment was engineered for consumer comfort.

It was carefully tailored for people seeking positive affirmation and self-help motivation.

There was no mention of God’s judgment, no call to repentance,

…and no encouragement towards Christlike living.

When the reporter asked him plainly why he avoided biblical themes…

…such as sin and sanctification, the pastor didn't flinch.

He looked at the reporter and said,

"People love worldly things, so you have to attract them with what they love.

“You have to act like the world in order to reach the world.”

Sadly, that ideology wasn't isolated to a single pulpit.

That type of thinking has infected the broader body of Christ.

Many churches and many Christians have adopted this same mindset.

They’ve adopted the mentality of what I refer to as camouflage Christianity.

The belief that we can think and act like the world, even though we profess to be different.

We’ve traded biblical transformation for cultural assimilation.

But God’s Word never invites us to blend in.

It commands us to stand out.

God draws a razor-sharp line between light and darkness,

…between truth and error,

…and between the people of the cross and the people of the culture.

CONTEXT

When Paul pens the letter of Ephesians, he is writing to a church being suffocated by that same compromise.

First-century Ephesus was a massive metropolis dominated by demon worship, sexual cults,

…and a cutthroat economy ruled by pagan guilds and trade unions.

In Ephesus, idolatry wasn't confined to the temple.

It was woven into the fabric of daily life.

So, if you wanted to make a living, buy food, or protect your social status,

…the culture demanded that you blend into the pagan landscape.

The pressure on those early Christians wasn’t to abandon Jesus entirely.

It was simply to dilute Him.

Cultural Assimilation is one of the enemy's most effective strategies.

He wants to deceive us into thinking we can be functional pagans in public, while claiming to follow Christ in private.

But we must reject this false ideology.

PREVIEW

In our text today, Paul unpacks three distinct movements that show what happens,

…when the grace of God transforms a believer's disposition.

First, a transformed believer continually Renounces the world’s way of living, for Christ’s way of living (v.17-22).

Second, a transformed believer continually Receives the renewal of their mind by Christ’s word (v. 23).

Third, a transformed believer continually Reflects the new self being made in Christ’s likeness (v. 24-32).

Let's unpack that first movement together: Renouncing the way of the world.

1ST MOVEMENT: RENOUNCING THE OLD WAY

Ephesians 4:17-22

Verse 17 opens with apostolic authority.

Paul says,

'Therefore, this I say, and testify in the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk….'

That word “testify” carries the legal weight of an eyewitness testimony.

Paul is not giving friendly advice.

He is issuing a divine command from the Lord.

Now — who are these Gentiles?

In Paul's world, a Gentile was anyone living outside of God’s covenant community—

People who lived as if God did not exist.

That’s the life Paul is calling us to leave behind — a godless way of living.

Paul says that former life is not something we adjust, refine, or slightly modify.

It's something we must completely renounce.

Notice what Paul does not do here.

He doesn't give us a standard list of bad behaviors.

He does something far deeper.

He cracks open the chest cavity of the old life

…to show us the terminal disease underneath.

And at the very core of the human heart is a single, dead root—

…alienation from God

Look at verse 18:

Ephesians 4:18 — 'alienated from the life of God.'

The word alienated here means to be cut off —

…to become a complete stranger to the very life you were created to live.

When Paul lists out all those vices in verses 17 to 19—

…he is listing out the symptoms of a heart that is cut off from God.

Let’s quickly look at each of the symptoms Paul names…

A futile mind:

This is a mind that is running a million miles an hour.

The mind is busy, but entirely in the wrong direction.

A darkened mind:

This is a mind that is completely cut off from the light of God,

…leaving the person morally blind.

An ignorant mind:

The ignorance in view here is not an innocent ignorance.

This is a willful blindness stemming from a hard heart.

The Greek word for hardness here is pōrōsis.

It's a medical term that refers to a bone healing over with a thick callus.

Think of a laborer who handles rough tools every day.

Gradually, the skin thickens, the nerves deaden, and the pain signals stop.

The friction is still grinding the flesh, but the worker can no longer feel the pain.

Paul says this is what sin does to the human conscience.

A heart struck by sin over and over forms a layer of moral scar tissue.

The destruction is still happening, but the capacity to feel conviction is dead.

And Paul presses the diagnosis even further in verse 19.

Ephesians 4:19 — "having become callous."

The Bible uses a terrifying word that drops like a hammer.

The Greek term means to actively lose the ability to feel.

Paul is not describing passive casualties who woke up surprised by their own coldness.

They didn't just drift into darkness—they intentionally drove into it.

They happily practiced sin.

They repeatedly rebelled against God.

And, they systematically cut the wires to the alarm of their conscience…

…until it no longer warned them of anything ungodly.

Friends, that is the terrifying nature of what sin does.

It acts like anesthesia to the human conscience.

The more you indulge, the deeper the numbness spreads.

First, it dulls your convictions.

Then it deadens your conscience—

…leaving you completely numb to the voice of God.

And, when the human conscience is dead to God, it shows up in three habits that we see in our culture today.

Sensuality,

Impurity, and

Greediness.

Sensuality refers to living with absolutely no filter and zero moral restraint—

…completely throwing off all public decency.

Impurity here refers to a pervasive moral pollution that corrupts every thought, every motive, and every relationship.

And, Greed refers to an aggressive, insatiable hunger to grab more and more,

…without care as to who gets hurt in the process.

Paul describes this mindset as the old walk—the old self— the old way of life.

That is the way of the world,

…and that is who we were before Christ.

That is why the Bible does not tell us to manage the old way of life.

It tells us to renounce it.

To take it off.

To leave it in the grave, where it belongs.

So, here's what this means for us.

It means we don’t negotiate with or entertain the desires of the old self.

It means we don’t believe the lie that we are losing out on something when we reject our old way of life.

And, as the body of Christ, that means…

…we won’t listen to our old self when it tells us to withdraw from fellowship…

…or use defensive and divisive words that build walls instead of bridges.

It means we won’t give in to the suspicious or the protective patterns we cling to out of fear.

That old way of thinking is dead.

It was nailed to the Cross.

And, it has no power over us —

…except the power we deceive ourselves into thinking it has.

Friends, we are not called to rehabilitate or christianize the old self.

We have to leave it in the grave, along with all the shame and guilt that comes with it.

TRANSITION

But here's the danger, family:

You cannot strip off the old self and just stand there bare.

Renunciation without reception leaves you exposed and vulnerable to the old way of life.

So before Paul tells us what to wear, he tells us what has to change first — and that is our mind.

Which brings us to the second movement: the renewal of our minds.

2ND MOVEMENT: RECEIVING RENEWAL IN OUR MINDS

Look closely at the command in verse 23:

Ephesians 4:23 — 'to be renewed in the spirit of your mind.'

The Bible says we are to be renewed.

This is a single Greek word, and it’s a definitive, passive command.

Meaning this is not a command for self-improvement.

We are not commanded to renew ourselves.

It’s a command to receive God’s supernatural renewal.

The implication here is that a mind locked in spiritual darkness cannot renew itself.

The same mind that deceived us into disobeying God cannot suddenly become the source of obedience to God.

The renewal must come from outside of us.

Think about how this undermines the paradigms of our day.

We live in a culture that tells us that the human will is God.

We are regularly sold the myth that if you just grind hard enough, you can will yourself into a new reality.

Tragically, the Church has bought into the same lie.

We’ve rebranded the miracle of salvation as a spiritual self-improvement plan,

But Paul says you cannot self-improve a corpse.

In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul didn't say we were spiritually out of shape.

He said we were “dead in sin”.

And, last time I checked, the dead don’t need self-improvement.

The dead need resurrection.

We need a renewal.

Notice where Paul says this supernatural renewal happens.

Look at verse 23 again.

Paul says it happens 'in the spirit of your mind.'

The word “spirit” here is not referring to the Holy Spirit;

Spirit refers to the innermost posture of your mind—

…your underlying disposition,

…your governing orientation.

In plain English, God is reaching into the human mind to reset your factory settings.

You see, gospel renewal doesn't just alter the information in your mind;

…it transforms your inner disposition.

It rewires your instincts and motives.

And, this is the exclusive work of the Holy Spirit.

Friends, we don’t manufacture our spiritual formation.

It’s the Holy Spirit who does this.

He is the one leading all of us in the adventure of being like Jesus.

And our part is simply to yield and receive the renewal.

TRANSITION

But what the Holy Spirit does in the private space of our minds,

…He intends for the world to witness in the public square of our culture.

The Holy Spirit doesn't leave this inward miracle safely hidden in the sanctuary of our minds.

He drags it straight down into the reality of everyday relationships.

Let’s turn now to verse 24, to watch what happens—

…when our new self confronts our old world.

3RD MOVEMENT: REFLECT THE NEW SELF (v. 24-32)

Ephesians 4:24

Look at the explosive language in verse 24:

Paul says, "put on the new man, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth."

Let’s camp out on that word “created.”

Paul could have said improved.

He could have said upgraded.

He could have said reformed.

But he didn't.

He said created.

The word is packed full of meaning.

It alludes to the creation account of Genesis 1.

Paul deliberately takes a word alluding to the creation of the universe—

…a word describing how God made the heavens and the earth out of nothing— ex nihilo.

…and brings it all the way down to you and I.

But why?

It's because Paul wants to make it clear that the new self is not a renovated version of your old nature.

It is not your old self with slightly better moral habits.

As John MacArthur reminds us,

“The new self is not a renovation of what was, but an entirely new entity.

What was tragically lost in the first Adam is being miraculously re-created by God in the Second Adam [Jesus].”

In Ephesians 2:15, Paul reveals that Christ died to create "one new man" out of Jew and Gentile—

And, he used the same vocabulary in that verse as well.

Do you see what Paul is doing?

He is saying that what Christ created corporately at the cross in chapter 2,

…is exactly what you and I are commanded to live out personally in chapter 4.

Personal sanctification is not a lonely, individual project.

It’s the visible embodiment of the global body of Christ.

The new self we put on every morning is the new humanity Christ has already purchased for His church,

A new people created in true righteousness and holiness.

In the original text, these twin realities are tightly stitched together.

Holiness is your vertical devotion, turned entirely toward God.

And, Righteousness is your horizontal conduct to others, flowing from a right relationship with God.

It’s right-worship and right-living, woven into the same fabric.

Now, to be clear, this inner renewal is an ongoing process.

No one achieves moral perfection in this life.

That is why the new self is not a static destination;

It’s a daily lifestyle that we practice.

So, what does this new lifestyle look like day-to-day?

Well, in the next two verses, Paul maps out concrete pictures

…of how our new nature should be reflected with each other.

Let’s see how the new self radically disrupts the standard operating procedures of the world.

1st Picture: Anger Disarmed.

Look at verses 26 and 27.

The old self weaponized anger to destroy relationships.

The new self doesn't pretend anger doesn't exist—

… it just refuses to let that anger ferment and destroy people.

The text says we must not let the sun go down on our anger.

Why?

Because unresolved anger creates resentment and bitterness,

…which is an open invitation—a literal foothold for the devil himself, to set up camp inside our hearts.

This warning is so critical to our personal and corporate health that—

…over the next two weeks, we will walk through what God's Word says about resolving conflict,

…so the devil doesn’t have a foothold in our church and in our homes.

2nd Picture: Labor Transformed.

Look at verse 28.

The old self labored to hoard.

But the new self deliberately works in order to share.

The old self worked to get.

The new self works to give.

With a renewed mind, the church becomes a hub for generosity.

3rd Picture: Speech that Honors God.

Look at verse 30.

The old self spoke as if words were cheap and neutral.

But the new self recognizes a terrifying and beautiful reality:

…that the Holy Spirit of God is present in this body.

So, when we gossip, slander, or withdraw into passive-aggressive silence as a body,

…we are not just offending each other,

…we are grieving the Holy Spirit of God.

4th Picture: Bitterness Buried.

Look at verses 31 and 32.

Paul lists a toxic nest of six vices:

bitterness, rage, anger, fighting, shouting, slander, and malice.

And, Christ demands that we put all six to death.

But notice how Paul tells us to do it.

He doesn't just say stop.

He says we must remember and reproduce how Christ has graciously forgiven us.

Friends, when you remember that Christ has graciously forgiven you,

…it gets easier to freely extend forgiveness to people who offend you,

…not because they deserve it,

…but because Jesus has forgiven you much.

Friends, when you grasp the sheer weight of Christ’s grace toward you, forgiving others becomes a reflex.

We do not forgive because someone deserves it.

We forgive from the overflow of what we have already received.

This is who we are now— this is our new self in Christ.

We avoid sinful anger.

We open our hands to give.

We speak in ways that honor the Holy Spirit and edify one another.

And leave no room for bitterness and resentment to grow.

We are not called to polish the old corpse.

We are called to put on our new self….

…and to live a life that is sanctified—

…a life set apart by Christ and for Christ.

TRANSITION TO THE BIG IDEA

And, Friends, this is the destination the Holy Spirit has been driving us to all morning.

From the opening command in verse 17 to "walk no longer as the Gentiles" (those who are without God)...

…to the staggering mandate in verse 32 to "forgive as Christ forgave you"—

…the Holy Spirit has been pressing home one single truth.

Listen now to God's heart for us, captured in the BIG IDEA.

THE BIG IDEA

Because we are in Christ, we must no longer live like the world, but we must live like the new people we are, people created in true righteousness and holiness.

CONCLUSION & PASTORAL HEART

Family, over these five weeks, we’ve explored what a healthy church looks like.

A healthy church has four vital signs…

Singular Devotion to Christ.

Sound Doctrine in His truth.

Sincere Discussions in His love, and

Sanctified Disposition in His holiness.

These are not characteristics we manufacture.

They are supernatural realities that Christ forms in us.

These four vital signs all point to one Christ—

…who is making us into one body with one heart.

Church of the Open Door, please hear Christ’s heart for us:

In Christ, our sanctification is not a suggestion.

It’s an absolute certainty spanning three distinct horizons:

First, we have been set apart at the cross—

…where our debt was paid in full.

That work is finished.

Second, we are being set apart today,

…as the Holy Spirit continues to reshape our deepest desires.

This work is ongoing.

Third, we will fully and finally be set apart…

…when our King returns, and sin is permanently destroyed.

This work is soon to come.

But until that day, we will be a people whose confession and conduct are consistent regardless of the audience.

Because the world doesn't need a church that blends in.

It desperately needs a Church that stands out with Christlike distinction.

So, family, let’s live out our true identity in Christ.

Renounce the old self.

Be Renewed in your heart and mind.

And Reflect your new self in Christ.

We have been made new. So let’s live new!

INVITATION

Invitation to Christ (Seekers: Receive the New Creation)

You may be here today, and you are exhausted from trying to optimize your old self.

You are tired of searching inside for an identity you cannot produce.

Well, Jesus is not offering you another cosmetic touch-up or another self-help renovation.

He is offering you a new identity created in His likeness.

Surrender the old life today.

Come to Him, and be made new today.

Invitation to the Church and to Community

And, some of us are here today, and if we are honest…

…we have grown comfortable with practicing camouflage Christianity.

We have become comfortable with being functional pagans in public—

…and faithful followers in private.

Family, it's time to drop the masks.

It's time to live the set-apart life Christ has created you for.

Invitation to Community

Friends, this life was never meant to be lived alone.

So, if you're not a member, make today the day you become part of the family.

And if you're already a member, make this the day that you plug in.

Wherever you are in your journey, please know:

…there is always a seat for you here at our family table.

CLOSING PRAYER