Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Good morning family.
When we were in the middle of our move to Farmington, one of the tasks I had was to organize and clean out anything that was either past its useful stage, or simply just not using any more.
Back in Albuquerque, we had this nice storage shed where I stored much of my duck hunting gear.
It was nice because I was able to get the decoys stored and hung.
It was also a place where I could just let things air out over the season.
I’m not sure what the duck hunting is like up here.
I’m sure I will figure it out this coming season.
Just South of Albuquerque there are some nice area to hunt.
You would hunt on ponds.
The ponds were nice early in the season.
But, toward the end of the season, the marsh seasoned your decoys, waders and your person very well if you let it.
When I would come home, the smell of the marsh would come along with me.
After a while I couldn’t smell it.
I became use to it.
But week after week I would return.
Ok here’s the deal with us guys.
Do you know when we decide something stinks and is ready for the laundry.
We use the smell test.
We smell here and there.
Most of the time, if it smells real bad, we usually talk ourselves into it, oh it’s not that bad.
Plus it’s only for a little while.
And, in 20 minutes I won’t notice any way.
So after the stuff stinks, you wives try and clean up after us.
Bless your hearts.
We love you for that!
When you try and clean our stuff, have you ever noticed how we have different piles?
Well the different piles is our gauge of what I like to call “clearty.”
You see clearty is this very delicate mix of clean and dirty.
It might be dirty to you all.
But to us guys - you know we could still get a few more wears out of it.
The bad smell that cloths start to take on really doesn’t bother us that much.
It the same way when we come to Christ.
Our old nature, which is what we look at as dirty and desperately needs a washing.
When that happens we turn to Jesus to give us a washing.
As we’re going through the washing, we are made clean.
We are given a new life, a clean life through the blood the Jesus.
So when we are given grace by God, and made clean through the washing of Jesus; why do we sometimes return to our old nature, and dirty our clean self.
This morning Paul is talking to us about the nature of clearty.
Turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4, and we will be reading from verses 17 through 24.
Pastoral Prayer
Our passage this morning is best to look at it in two halves, verses 17 to 19 begin the first half talking about the old self and verses 20 to 24 begin the second half talking about the new self.
Paul opens with “So I tell you this.”
This is a reference back to what Paul said about our allegiance and calling to Jesus.
We are called to salvation, where we are unified in the Body of Christ and gifted by the Holy Spirit.
This gets Paul saying, “that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do.”
But what does Paul mean by this, and why does he plead this way?
Like the church in our time today, the church in Ephesus was surrounded by paganism and its servant immorality.
During Paul’s day, Ephesus was a leading commercial and cultural city of the Roman empire.
This map gives you and idea of the location.
There was a great pagan temple in Ephesus.
Some would have considered it to be one of the seven wonders of the world.
Around the temple, there is thought to have existed a 1/4 mile perimeter that served as an asylum for criminals and all sorts of immoral debauchery.
In fact, Ephesus had been described as “the darkness of vileness.
The morals were lower than animals and the inhabitants of Ephesus were fit only to be drowned.”
So you get the idea of some of the activity going on.
Paul is writing to the church out of love, because he know many of the believers had themselves once been part of that culture of paganism.
The believers would have most likely ran into friends at their local Wal-Mart, Albertson’s and Sportsmans Warehouse, and knew the life style they left behind.
We all have that past we do not want to return to.
Some of us have friends that are still part of our past lifestyle.
And you know if you start hanging out with those friends, it won’t be long until we are faced with the temptation to travel that road.
Even if we put on the waders to shield us as we make a temporary trip.
We are still in the pond.
You see Christians think and act differently when it comes to the matter where spiritual and moral issues are concerned.
Christians choose not to navigate the trails of futile thinking.
Have you ever had a flash light go out on you?
Isn’t that the most annoying thing?
The flashlight goes out … and… what do we do?
We shake and tap on it with hopes we might just squeeze just a few more seconds out of it.
And when it works - we say YES!!, only to be let down second later when the light goes out.
Now we’ve come to terms of being in the dark.
We start blinking to get use to the darkness.
Than WAAAAHHHHAAAMM!
We hit our pinky toe, and that just about kills us.
BUT!
We muster enough strength to hobble to the nearest light switch.
We cut on the switch.
Now we’re blinded by the light which could have helped us in the beginning.
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