Change and the New Life
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever made a resolution? Perhaps it was a New Year’s resolution. Working at the pool over the years, many lifeguards I know dread the first few weeks of any new year. The lap lanes are crowded with people having made a New Year’s resolution to be healthier this year, wanting to swim. Resolutions are a great thing. They are about making a change. And it takes commitment on our part, encouragement on the part of others, and the creating of habit. Psychologists tell us it takes 22 days to form a new habit of doing something daily. And then it will only continue if you continue to commit.
Sadly, too often the regulars at the pool will complain about the crowded pool lanes, forgetting that they were once new comers. Forgetting that they too had to start somewhere and at one time really needed to be encouraged to show up. Sadly within a few weeks the crowded lanes will dwindle back to mostly the same regulars that there were before. I don’t know if its because the new comers hear the complaints, or sense that they are unwelcome by the regular swimmers.
This is not only true in the pool, it is true in gyms and fitness clubs around the world. Change is hard.
A pastor was interviewing with a church that professed a great desire to grow in size. During the interview process the pastor asked the nominating committee how they would feel about going to church and seeing a lot of people they didn’t know crowding the entry talking in various clusters. One person on the committee scowled and blurted out, “I wouldn’t want to go to that church.” Some heads nodded in agreement. The pastor then said, “That’s what your church will become if you grow.”
Think about a time when you were new to some place: A new job, a new school, a new city, a new gym, a new club, a new church. What caused you to decide whether to stay or leave? No doubt you made a connection with someone. No doubt you formed new relationships and friendships. No doubt you were encouraged by someone to “keep on keeping on” in the midst of the challenges of starting something new.
Our passage speaks directly to this today.
In our previous text from last week we were being encouraged to put on love, to be joined together in unity as one body of believers. And this not just for the local church, but as part of the larger body of Christ.
We’re going to pick up today in Ephesians 4 at verse 25, which begins, “Therefore...”
Therefore...
Therefore...
Remember, anytime you see a “Therefore...” you need to figure out what it’s there for?
“Therefore...” (What’s it there for?)
“Therefore...” (What’s it there for?)
Therefore is drawing a conclusion from something that came before, so I’m just going to give you a few highlights from verses 17-24.
After verse 16, where Paul was reminding his readers to grow up to be like Christ and then when the whole body is working it builds itself up in love, he goes on not be like the Gentiles (in this case speaking of the those that didn’t follow Christ). He says they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God and have hard hearts. He contrasts that with what his readers as followers have learned in following Christ, that they have put off their old self, and have changed their ways putting on the new self, “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
And then he says,
THEREFORE...
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. 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. 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. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
This is a reading from God’s Holy Word.
Amen
To help us understand this, I’m going to use an acronym that some of you may already be familiar with when ti comes to talking about how we speak to one another and how we live our lives in community. We all need to THINK.
T.H.I.N.K.
T.H.I.N.K.
So, if you’re taking notes, I encourage you to write down those letters T, H, I, N, K, in a column and we’re going to pull out Paul’s encouragement and write them next to each letter. So your page might look something like this:
T _____________________________
H _____________________________
I _____________________________
N ____________________________
K ____________________________
Okay, so here we go.
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
The first question we need to ask is: “Is it Truthful?”
Truthful
Truthful
Truthful, that’s the first word in our THINK acrostic.
When we’re going to speak to one another, we need to be careful. Because too often in our culture we want to base our truth on what we feel. Our feelings are so subjective and we forget that truth is not subjective. Truth stands outside of us. The old tv show, X-files used to have a tagline, “the truth is out there.”
The fact is the truth is outside of ourselves. Jesus said:
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
We are to put away those false hoods of following just our feelings, we are no longer children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine or by cunning or crafty schemes. We’re no longer trying to be deceitful to get what we want and speak the truth with our neighbor. We speak truth.
Let’s go on, verse 26
Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.
There is an anger that is because our feelings were hurt - that tends to be the anger we hold on to in our self righteous behaviour, and then there’s a righteous anger. Some people think Christians shouldn’t ever be angry, that’s simply not biblical. Here we read it, Be angry - that’s permission to be angry with a caveat, “And do not sin.” If I’m angry with someone or about something, it is not okay for me to slander that person or degrade them in any way. That’s sin. It is okay to let them know I’m angry, yet there has to be an end to my anger as well. Do not let the sun go down on your anger.
Okay I need to get moving or we won’t get through these.
Verse 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.
You know, no matter who we are, we can have something to share with others. Something that builds them up in a way, that is Helpful. That is our second word.
Helpful
Helpful
Are our actions, and our words helping? Or are they just spinning our wheels. You have probably experienced this. Once I was trying to repair a faucet in my parents’ house and for those of you who know me you’re probably already thinking, “Uh oh.” The valve to turn the water on to the faucet is usually mounted close to the wall. Of course, it wasn’t, and in trying to manipulate the flexible pipe it broke on the wall side of the valve. So now I had water spraying all over the bathroom. The house was on a well, so the only way to shut off the pressure was to shut down the pump. As I ran past my dad I asked him how to shut down the pump and he immediately began, “Well, if shut down the pump, then the water’s going to drain backward, and release the pressure in your ballast tank, and you’re going to have to re-prime the pump...” in the mean time the water was continuing to spew down the hall. I finally stopped him and said, “Dad, I’m looking for solutions not more problems.”
All of us have those moments when we might be doing something or trying to be helpful, but it’s really not. So when we speak the truth as above, we also need to ask, “Is it helpful.”
Let’s move on to ‘I”
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.
When we hear the words we need to hear, it inspires us. That’s our 3rd word in our acrostic, Inspire.
Inspire
Inspire
Words can inspire or they can tear down. Words can be corrupt, not filled with truth, not helpful, or they can build a person up, fit the occasion, and truly give grace to those who hear them.
The author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote:
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
I’m using the NIV translation here because of the word “spur”. We are to speak truth, and sometimes the truth does not feel good, but that doesn’t mean it is not inspiring. When we spur one another on it is to be towards “love and good deeds…encouraging one another....”
Next verse:
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Sometimes we say the truth, and it’s not helpful, it’s not inspiring. It doesn’t do anything but put a person down. So, we need to temper our selves and ask, “Is it necessary?”
That’s the N in our acrostic,
Necessary
Necessary
Saying the right words at the right time can make a huge difference. Saying the true words at the wrong time can really be devastating. You don’t go to a woman grieving the death of her husband to lung cancer, “Well, I guess we could have expected this the way he smoked.” That may be the truth, but it is certainly not necessary, it’s not helpful, and it definitely doesn’t inspire.
Finally, let’s look at verse 32
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
It’s simple, we’ve been forgiven, how can we not forgive our sisters and brothers in Christ? And so, we ask of our words and actions, “Is it Kind?” That’s our K,
Kind
Kind
We hear it from celebrities, “Be kind to one another,” but in reality we don’t see kindness as a normal action everyday. As Christians, we can be different, not on our own power, instead, it is because of the power that is at work in us through Christ.
Finishing our passage for today, we read:
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Imitators of God,
beloved children.
As Christ loved us and gave himself up for us so we ought to love others and give ourselves up for them. That’s what family does. So as imitators of Christ, let us love one another by remembering the Acronym - T.H.I.N.K.
Truthful
Truthful
Helpful
Helpful
Inspiring
Inspiring
Necessary
Necessary
Kind
Kind
To God be the glory,
Amen.