A Sharp Contrast in Identity

Introduction

Recap Series

Chapters 1-3 - How we are saved, God’s plan has always been the gospel. Individually, we were spiritually dead, but now are alive, we collectively isolated, left out but now are a new people brought into the family of God.

Last week - Chapter 4 - transition to how to live this out

We noted three things that marked a healthy church

Spiritual unity, being united around the gospel

Spiritual diversity, each using their different gifts

Spiritual maturity, growing in the knowledge of the Lord and his word. Not selfishly growing in it, but a desire to see our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ grow in Christ as well.

Today - A Sharp Contrast in Identity

I read that the average family wastes 250 pounds of food each year, about 1/3 of the food that they buy

we have all thrown food away, but have you done the, “see if you think that this is still good sniff?”

you know where you pull something out of the refrigerator and your now sure if its bad or not, you look it over, it doesn’t look great, but it doesn’t look bad.

so you decide that it is good enough for who it is for and you cook it, eat it, and sit there the rest of the day thinking, “My stomach doesn’t feel right.” because you have convinced yourself that it wasn’t good.

Why do we do this… because there is no sharp contrast in the food. if it was obviously bad, if we could see it, smell it, we would not eat it.

too many Christians are living straddling the line between follower of Jesus and the world, and people cannot tell if you are good for them, or if you are going to make them sick

Ephesians 4:17–32 CSB

17 Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thoughts. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. 19 They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more. 20 But that is not how you came to know Christ, 21 assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth. 25 Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another. 26 Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and don’t give the devil an opportunity. 28 Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need. 29 No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. 30 And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. 32 And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.

There should be a sharp contrast in who we are, the way that speak, and the act from the rest of the world. We have a different identity as a children of God.

PRAY!

Do Not Live as a Pagan

Christians live as pagans when they seek self gratification more than spiritual unity, spiritual maturity and are not working to that outcome.

Pagan - a person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main world religions

In the Christian worldview, it would be anyone holding a belief that is not according to the Bible

Gentiles - Paul is not speaking of the specific ethnic people (non-Jewish), but of nonbelievers.

Ephesians 4:17–19 CSB

17 Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thoughts. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. 19 They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more.

Pagans worries about a lot of worthless things (v17)

comforts of this world

Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and all of these things will be added to you.

power and control

Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, high and seated on a throne

in the grand scheme of eternity, the politics of today mean nothing, yet we allow ourselves to get so worked up over it

Pagans have no understanding of God and no desire to know him (v18)

you can look at the life of an unbeliever

they have no understanding of God

they have no desire to understand

they desire to have it easy in this life… eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

Jesus gives a parable about a man that has excess, so he builds bigger grain bins to hold all his grain with a plan to live the life…

Luke 12:18–19 CSB

18 I will do this,’ he said. ‘I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods there. 19 Then I’ll say to myself, “You have many goods stored up for many years. Take it easy; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.” ’

unbelievers, pagans live a life with no thought to God, and no desire to to even know about God

they give a nod to him, claim they believe in him, but their life says something completely different

Paul writes that they are ignorant of God

ignorance - not having information,

and because of their hard hearts have no desire to change that

we as believers often live as if we are ignorant of God, as if we do not know about him, or that he is even there

that he has a plan for our lives, that there is an eternity

why? because we chase our desires

Pagans desire to satisfy themselves is never satisfied (v19)

Promiscuity - the fact or state of being promiscuous:

promiscuous - having or characterized by many transient sexual relationships:

aselgia - it refers commonly to a lifestyle. It refers to a lack of self control over oneself, often in the excess of sex and or food

does this not describe the life in the Untied States

satisfy your flesh… rather is be sexual in nature, food or the comforts of this life

we chase after them, work for this purpose as if this is the most important thing in the world.

but this promiscuity is something that is never satisfied and we chase after more and more

this even creeps its way into worship when we come in wanting things done our way, a way to make us more comfortable, a way that makes us feel good

Paul says do not live this way! Why, because you dear believer are a new creation.

Live as a New Creation

Living as a new creation requires us to daily deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Christ

You might be better at this than I, but if I do not make the conscious choice to dive into scriptures everyday, it is easy to see my flesh come rising up

Ephesians 4:20–24 CSB

20 But that is not how you came to know Christ, 21 assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.

You are different from the world because you know Jesus (v20-21)

Manthano (know)- to learn both practically and conceptually

like a medical testing - EMT’s need to take a written test and a practical test to make sure that they know and have the skills

this is an interesting way that Paul is writing this

Paul is not speaking of the intimate relationship that you have with Christ

you have been taught about him and by him

2 Corinthians 4 speaks about a veil that is over the eyes of nonbelievers

that they cannot see the truth because Satan has blinded them (2 Cor 4:4)

it is drawing a picture that the believer has heard and the word and believed (Eph 1:13)

you have heard and you have been taught by Jesus himself

by his written word, by coming into his presence

The result should be taking off our old selves and putting on our new selves

This starts by the renewing of our mind

Romans 12:2 CSB

2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Paul tells the Romans that this is how they should live as their spiritual act of worship because of what God has done for them

that every day as we awake, renew our minds, cast out or take off the fleshly desires and thoughts that we have and replace them with the thoughts of God

Picking up kids at a foreign orphanage

they had to leave their clothes behind, the new parents gave them all new clothes, a new name and a new identity

this would be easier if our old self was left behind, but this is the battle of everyday until we are with christ and have our new glorified bodies

when we will see him and know him fully as we are fully known.

until then, put on what is the new self, the one that is in his image, in his righteousness and his truth

This is the test, are you putting on the new self or not

have you actions and your thoughts been like that of Christ

do you read and think of the way that Christ lived in scripture and see that it is drastically different

have your actions and thoughts been based on his righteousness

do we live a humble life knowing of what we have been forgiven of or are we still struggling with the idea that we were mostly good

have your actions and thoughts been based on his truth

you have the power to live this out everyday, through the Holy Spirit that dwells inside each and every believer!

we fail when we try to do this in our own strength, our righteousness and our truth

of this we must repent

some of us have been wearing the old comfortable sweatshirt that just needs to be thrown away. we need to put on, everyday, the new glorious clothes that Christ has given us.

Living Out Our New Identity

Our lifestyle as believers should be one that points people to Jesus.

Ephesians 4:25–32 CSB

25 Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another. 26 Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and don’t give the devil an opportunity. 28 Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need. 29 No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. 30 And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. 32 And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.

Four opposites that Paul gives to demonstrate how the believer should be living in this world

put away lying and speak the truth

interestingly the word translated lying is not a word that is just about speaking

pseudos - a falsehood, untruth

it is not a description of just speaking, that we are not to live a lie in action or in speech

we are not to put on a show

when we say that we are to live out Christ for the world to see, that does not mean that we are to lie and be somebody that we are not

we do not put on a righteous show, the world and fellow believers will see right through the act

you are hurting your own testimony

Be angry and sin

anger is not a sin, it is what we do in that anger that is sinful

do we hate those who are created in the image of God

do we cut down with our words, do we

is our anger righteous, anger over sin, or is it over a sense of justice, that we are being slighted in some way

there are two different words translated anger in that verse

angry - enraged

anger - irritation

it is okay to be angry at unrighteousness and sin, we do get irritated

but when we act out wrongly on our in anger, when we just let irritations fester instead of dealing with them we all Satan space to operate in our lives

Let the thief no longer steal, but work

theft was common in this time, seasonal workers especially would take during their times of not working to provide for their families

it is the thought that stealing is ok if it is so that I do not starve, that the ends justify the means

instead, we are to work, not just for ourselves to to help those that are also in need

notice that all of these are not just to help yourself, like the first point, not just chasing after the comforts of this world

but to help those that are in need

No foul language should come from your mouth

we have shrunk this verse down to mean a few curse words

that as long as we are not saying the things that are not be broadcast on TV or radio then we are ok

as if what our society classifies as bad words allows us to count ourselves as obedient to God

the term foul language actually means words of no value

speaking in a worthless way

Instead we are to speak in a way that lifts people up, encouraging

this is not just to other believers, but to all

are we speaking to them in a way that points them to Christ or pushing them away

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit

I have heard many preachers and teachers attempt to guilt teenagers and even some adults into behaviors by reminding them that the Holy Spirit is there watching everything they do

it is true that the Holy Spirit is with every believer, the God can see all, believers and unbelievers,

but our actions are not just because he sees and knows, but out of love

it should break our hearts that our sin, or living in a sinful way, breaks the heart of the one dwells in us

This all sounds so nice, but how do we live like this

We are to remove all of this like the clothes of an orphan and put on Christ

that is was Paul describes in verse 31-32

let all of this be removed from you

be compassionate and forgive one another as you have been forgiven

the first century church was mocked and looked down on because of their humility and love for people

It is easier to put all of this away when we are kingdom minded.

Colossians 3:2 CSB

2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.