Sunday Worship HITG 6-19-2022

Alright. Well, I was going to announce I forgot to earlier so we all know Ruth who comes here. Sometimes what is her last name? Again truth why she she she went to be with the Lord earlier this week and so her faith is now site. Her journey is complete and so there will more than likely be some sort of memorial service for her here. Still looking into the details about that. So I'll give you more information about that to come but just be praying for her close friends and family during this time, be lifting them up. If you have your body will turn to Ephesians chapter 4, that's where we're going to be this morning.

Ephesians 4:17.

You know, everyone wants to feel Worthy. I think that's something innately and us as humans. Even from an early age children, want the approval of their parents, We grow up and we might join the Work World somewhere and we want to feel like that we add value to the company that we work for whatever our calling is in life, whatever. Our lot is in life is a student as a, as a mom, whatever it is, we want to feel worthy, we work hard at finding our worth in other people. But that's not how it works in God's economy you and I cannot earn God's favor. That's what Grace is. It's a gift. And so your motivation in my motivation to walk worthy of the calling that God has called us to is not so that God will love us. It is because he does love us through Christ. He proved his love to us when he died for us on the cross. And as a church, we want to strive for Unity as each individual member walks worthy, right? And last week, we saw at the beginning of Ephesians chapter 4, Paul talks about this Unity. This Unity that we are to strive for this Unity of Faith this Unity. As Believers in the bond of Peace may God has given gifts to the church for the purpose of building the church up in all of these gifts are centered around the word of God, write the apostles and Prophets which made it known to us. The Evangelist who share it, the pastor teachers, who equip us for the work of the ministry. And as a result, we see that there will be this spiritual maturity. This spiritual stability within the church. This multiplication. It says that it makes the body grow as it builds itself up in love spiritual growth and numerical growth because of what God is doing in and through us. The verses that we are going to look at here this morning serve. If you will as an introductory section to the larger section in Ephesians where we're going to take it out through the end of chapter 6. But you have these rapid-fire specific commands and he's going and he's going to tell us specifically what does it practically look like to walk worthy. So what is it practically look like for us to walk worthy of this calling and he's going to introduce this section here. So if you would stand and we don't just do this as a formality, but to honor the reading of God's word, if you're able to, I'm going to read verse 17 through 24. So here we go, Ephesians chapter 4, beginning a 17. Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They're dark and in their understanding, their alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. Due to the hardness of heart become callous and giving themselves up to sensuality to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him and we're taught in him as the truth is, in Jesus to put off your old self with belongs, to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind into put on the new self created, after the likeness of God and true righteousness and Holiness. Praise God, for his word, you may be seated.

Okay, now the church in Ephesus at this point in time is about 10 years old, okay, and Paul had been with them. For about three years. And from Acts chapter 19, we know that he spent about three months in the synagogues, right, cuz the gospel goes first to the Jews and after they were hardened heart and didn't want to listen. He, he spent about two years in the Hall of tyrannus which was a public place were Gentiles would gather, and this happen for about 2 years and he taught them extensively Acts, 19 shows us that from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. he was teaching in the Hall of terrain. This would have been the part of the day where there really wasn't a lot going on. You had to be doing chores in the morning and evening, but from 11 to 4, that was kind of more free time and I guess unless you're working. But so from 11 to 4, he was teaching the Gentiles. And so if, if you do the math on that, that's it. Let's say it was 6 days a week for about 50 weeks, out of the year. You're looking at about, at 2 years, about 3,000 hours worth of, teaching time, you know, and some of us get weary when we have to go through a study for like, 12 weeks or something, right, 3000 hours worth of instruction and teaching here, But that's because Paul understood some things. He understood that being on this Earth meant that we have an enemy. That Satan the temporary ruler of this world. The father of Lies wants to destroy the church. That they had friends that they had neighbors that they had families people that they rubbed elbows with on a regular basis who were still living the way that they used to live. And Paul also knew very well about indwelling Sin, right? But even after were born again that we still have to wrestle with that old man. Right is Paul talks about in Romans. The thing I want to do, I don't do in the things, I don't want to do, I continue to do. The Paul understood this Paul knew this and so he writes these instructions to him, listen to what John Stott says. About about this about these that without these versus he says the Christ whom the Ephesians had learned about the Christ, whom the Ephesians had learned about was now calling them to a new set of standards and values which were totally different from their Pagan life. Their behavior needed to be consistent with the kind of person that they had become. Hence, the taking off and the pudding on right there. There were taking off and putting on not, so that we will become a Christian, but because we are a Christian, that's what that's what we're doing. Salvation is only the start of our journey with Christ. As a matter of fact, the word that Jesus used for his followers, the people literally means a learner The only way to become a more Godly person is the path of learning. Imagine if you will, if someone handed you a book on prayer, Is the greatest book on prayer ever written, and it was a short book even better, right?

It taught you all about prayer and all about the different scriptures on prayer and very plain terms. But it was written in a different language.

And you wouldn't be able to understand it and it would do you zero. Good. Because you couldn't learn what it actually said, which means you would not be able to apply it.

Donald Whitley in his book spiritual disciplines for the Christian Life says the word of God must go through your head before. It can change your heart and your life.

So as we look at this passage, let's engage our minds and let's actually think about what is being said here. He says this, I testify in the Lord, or in the name of the Lord, same thing. This I testify in the Lord, you must no longer walk as the Gentiles you in the futility of their minds. So in order for me to stop walking like the world, I need to stop thinking like the world. Okay, so what are you saying? Here is not that you and I should disengage from society and become Hermits. Because that would distract us from our mission to make disciples what he's saying here is, we need to stop thinking like the world in order to not live like the world at the core of worldly thinking he says, is a futile mind, a futile mind. This is empty-headed thinking being empty-headed, you know, you know, I love giving examples from the Marine Corps. Okay? But this one's a little bit hard to give, but it came to mine. So I'm going to give it, sometimes they call marines. What jarheads? Why? Because there's not a lot up. There's just an empty jar, right? This is empty-headed Marine sinking or like Bruce Lee's philosophy. Don't think just feel right. Don't think just don't think about it, just feel, just, whatever, comes natural, just let that happen. And you might say, well, you know what, I hear what you're saying, but I know some really smart people in the world. Really successful people thinking people And I say, yeah, I understand that. But I understand that no matter what degree of success, a person might achieve outside of Christ, their motivation and what drives them is still futile. It's still empty because it says that they are alienated from the life of God. And so, therefore they don't have the mind of Christ. When you became a Christian, when you repent of your sins and Trust in Christ for salvation, you were given a new heart, but you were also given a new mind. If you want to drop this down, 1st Corinthians, 2:14 3:16 Says that the natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God for their Folly to him, and he's not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned, the spiritual person, judges all things but is himself not judged by anyone for by no one for, who is understood the mind of the Lord as to instruct him. And then this last phrase, but we have the mind of Christ. When you became a Christian, you got a new heart. But you also got a new mind which came with new way of thinking and new desires. So no, this does not make us better than the world, right? Because we used to be there at one point and really read into fusions chapter 2 that at one point, we were all dead in our sins and Trust transgression, we were following the course of this world. We were following the same desires, the same ungodliness that the world was in. We were right there, we were doing the exact same things at one time. And so, when I think of an illustration of this, what came to mind was number scantrons in school, cuz if you heard teachers, you member number those dreaded things. And sometimes they get all clogged up in the thing and then it went great it, right and everything. But you had this piece of paper that the, the student would I had him in school, where you, you bubble in the, the answers on this thing and you hold it up to something and it'll show the correct answer, right? And so the question we have to ask ourselves is is is if I held my life as a Scantron up to God's word. Would it look consistent with what god with what God has said and what he wants me to be doing or what it look more, like the world? And it starts with our thinking and starts with our thinking and the problem with empty thinking the problem of don't don't think just feel right? This go-with-the-flow kind of thinking if it is left unaffected by Christ is going to lead to a hardened and calloused heart. That's what verse 19 tells us that's where it ends up with a futile, mind comes a darkened understanding

2nd Corinthians. 4:4. And their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Satan wants us to be distracted. Satan wants us to be discouraged, so that we won't be able to see the light of the Gospel, the glory of God, You know, I remember back whenever I was a young man, I guess younger than I am. Now, I know some interesting young man, but I remember when I was younger, the Lord used situations in my life and he used other people in my life, who surrounded me, who we were all on the same path. We are all doing the same things, but the Lord was gracious in and gave me understanding to look at these other men who were some 5 10, 20 years older than me. And to see that, if I continued on the path, I was on, I was going to wind up where they were someday. And that's how it works. God puts situations in our lives. He puts people in our lives for us to be able to see where we are in the path. We're on so that our understanding won't be dark Kent, so that we won't just go with the flow. In the fact is that thinking like the world leads to Living For Pleasure, it leads to living for Pride, it leads to living for money or for things that we that we begin to look through as a lens to all the rest of our lives, right? Whatever it is that we love, we begin to see life through that lens in that darkened understanding. And what eventually happens is, is, is it leads to a hardened heart, we're giving up to it, right? And it says, hardened heart here in verse 18 and 19. It's interesting. The word hardened is used three times in the New Testament. And each time that it's used, is used to describe the heart, the hardening of the heart, but it's also a word that's used to, to describe a sort of marble. Write like a marble countertop. That's extremely hard. It's also used to describe a callus that can form on the joints overtime. A medical terminology used to describe this callous this hardening of the joints and this hardening, like the joint on the joint. It doesn't happen overnight. It takes months and years of choices that Harden our heart to ignore that still Small Voice in us. That's calling us to Christ. It's calling us to himself, right?

And that's a scary place to be. Remember how Jesus said over and over? He who has ears? Let him hear, right? and he got that imagery from Isaiah chapter 6, one of the most frequently quoted Old Testament passages in the New Testament, Say go and say to this people keep on hearing but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive make the heart of this people do in their ears, heavy and their blind in their eyes, blind less, they see with their eyes, hear with your ears understand with their heart and turn and be healed. And outside of the grace of Christ. We're all there, right? And it's hard. Even as Christians to give up the old man, sometimes isn't it. It's hard. It's hard to say no to that little voice in us. That wants to stay. Yes. And we create habits in our life. We have moments of strong, emotion or moments where we just want to give in and be totally uncrease. Like It takes the holy spirit of God to prune us of these things. But in order to properly deal with these deep-rooted behaviors and habits that we have, it starts with the mind, it starts with the Mind notice where this bad notice, where this bad thinking leads to look with me at verse 19 and says they have become Tower, they have become calloused. And they've given themselves up to sensuality too greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

Turn with me to Romans chapter 1.

There's a parallel passage here. That Paul.

Paul is hitting on this in Romans chapter one as well.

He starts in verse 18 by saying that God's Wrath is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. and he tells them that

that that through creation were able to know that there is a God. that we're able to look out at God's creation especially an organ and see That there is someone who has created all this at all. This didn't just happen and inverse 24. He says this four of those who claim to be wise, but you ignore God's natural Revelation, therefore God gave them up to the lust of their hearts to impurity to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God, for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. Who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to the dishonorable passions for their women, exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to Nature and Men likewise gave them self up to Natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one, another men committing, shameful acts with men and receiving in themselves. The due penalty for their error and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God. And hit the way he is. He is revealed himself to that. God gave them up to a debased mine to do what they ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil covetousness and Malice and they are full of Envy murder, striped deceit, maliciousness they are gossips. Landers haters of God insolent hottie boastful Adventures of evil disobedient to parents who is faithless heartless and ruthless. Do they do they know God's righteous? Decrees that those who practice such things deserve to die. They do not only do them, but they give approval to those who practice them. That that there's a point where you can become so hardened and calloused and heart to the things of God that you don't only approve and do such things but that you praise others who do such things. Do we ever see that today?

But by God's grace, let's not it be, let's not let that be in our own heart. Let's be on alert and let's be vigilant for any attitude within us that might lead us down that path as well.

All right, so we move on. And we continue and that is why the greatest commandment is to love the Lord. Your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. When God shows us the error of our ways, it is his mercy and it is his grace that does. So, As long as a person is upright and breathing, there is hope that they can repent and that they can live. But it's important that we not ignore the check engine light that God puts in our minds. Right? Our conscience. So there's the negative don't live like the world or don't think like the world so that you will not live like them but instead back in our in our texts and verse 20, he says, but that is not the way you are in Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him and that you were taught in him as is in the truth. As the truth in Jesus is so you have these three things here that he says, he said, that's not the way you learned Christ. You'd heard Christ or were taught Christ, right? And when I first read that, I thought that those are all in the past tense. But what do you do with the present tense? Right, learning learning hearing being taught, right? Well, then I looked at it and realized it's in the heiress tents and Greek. And basically what that means is that there was something that happened in the past but it has ongoing implications. That's what that tense mean. So think about an echo, write this Echoes. Right, I speak and then it reverberates out. There is an initial. There is an initial sound and then there's a reverberation or like a pebble. You throw a pebble in the water. The pebble hits the water, but then you have a Rippling effect. And that's what this tense is here. So, how does this work? Well, it's not just about gaining knowledge about Christ that saves us, right? Or that sanctifies us, many people know, all about. Jesus Satan knows all about Jesus. Satan knows the gospel. Well, he knows it, probably better than we do. And he even believe that it's true, but he doesn't personally embrace it for himself. He does not accept what Jesus Christ did for him on the cross for himself, personally, So what is meant by learning Christ is how is, is gaining a knowledge that affects your life? What's a that you want to become a more Godly parent or grandparent. And so, you get a good book and a cup of coffee and you sit down and you begin to read and think and pray about that Witcher. What that, what you're learning about and then you go and you find ways of applying what you learned. That's the kind of knowledge were talking about here. Becoming a child of God is about coming to the end of ourselves. And realizing that we have no hope that we have nothing good in ourselves and that's what. And that's at the moment that moment that we turn to Christ, we turn from our sins and we trust in him for salvation. That's that saving knowledge.

And so, as long as we're on this earth, right? As long as we're still running our race, we need to keep our minds sharp and rooted in the word of God.

How do we combat? The desires of lust, how do we battle against greediness, the desire of wanting more? How do we deal with covetousness thoughts? Whenever we want something, that's not ours that someone else has. How do we put to death in pure thoughts and actions? Well, we have to first understand That Satan wants to exploit our human weaknesses, the desires of the mind and the body that cause us to stumble and fall away from Christ. But he has come to steal to kill and to destroy and he comes. And he says, hey, you know what? It's just one more time.

It's really not that bad. No one else is going to know.

You'll feel a lot better if you just give in. If you just say it, if you just do it.

But these are lies. These are lies. The fact of the matter is, what the world, The Flash, and the devil promised to fulfill. I promise to give us is never there not it's not able to be it's not able to come to pass. It's not able to come to pass. The Bible says that true Freedom. The Bible says that truly having joy in the Lord is found in knowing him and in walking in his ways One of my favorite songs is Psalm 31 8 and when I read it, you might not think won't why is that? So great. But I want to explain it to you. So I'm 30. 18 says You have you have not delivered me into the hands of my enemies but you have set my feet in a broad place. And that's that phraseology. You have set my feet in a broad place is what he saying is is You have delivered me and not giving me into the hands of my enemies but you allow me to be free because you have set boundaries for me and there is freedom within the the the broad boundaries that God has placed in our lives.

But it starts with learning. It starts with learning, it starts with this knowing God personally and bracing the gospel personally for ourselves and he he goes on in verse 20, through 22 to 2:24 to say, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life, which is corrupted through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And to put on the new self that's created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and in holiness

So how do we put off the old self and put on the new self? Well, there's a few things here. I think that this implies for us in the first one is, is that we need to be able to recognize in our lives personally, thinking and behavior that belongs to the old self. I need to be able to recognize in my life behavior and thinking that belongs to my old self. You can't take off something, if you don't know what it is, right? Have you ever had something in your teeth? And you didn't know, and then that true friend really comes along and says, he got something in your teeth? Are we have to be able to recognize it? Satan wants us to be ignorant, but God calls us to be vigilant to be awake, right? Proverbs 4:23. Keep your heart with all vigilance for from it flows, the Springs of Life. Matthew 2442. Therefore stay awake. Because you do not know the hour that the Lord is returning cautions for to continue steadfast in prayer. Being watchful, in it with Thanksgiving, don't allow your mind and your body to be dull with the pleasures of this world. Keep alert. And part of what is what it means. To be able to recognize these patterns of thinking, and behavior is to know, is to know when we're likely to be tempted, right? We need to know when temptation is coming and there's an old acronym that I love. It's halt, h a l t and it stands for Hungry. Angry, lonely and tired, right? We need to know when it is that we're going to be tempted. Sometimes it's when you're hungry and you're hungry, right? Or you're angry lonely or tired. So we need to be able to recognize that we need. And also constantly remind ourselves of the gospel and our identity in Christ because the fact is we are not going to always be able to recognize these patterns and we're going to fall. We're going to is James's stumble in many ways. And so, when we do, we need to remind ourselves of God's grace and his love for us 1st. John 1:9 says that he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. If we will confess our sins to him. Satan wants us to stay in shame and into tell ourselves. You know what, I'll never be free. I'll never be free of this. I'll never amount to anything because I continue to do this and that's a lie. We have to preach the gospel to ourselves. We have to remind ourselves of God's love and his grace towards us through Christ. And in the third thing, we have to do is we need to renew our minds. That's what it says here, this whole process of taking off and putting on can be seen in, Romans, 12:1 and 2, which says I appeal to you, therefore Brothers by the mercies of God, to present your bodies, a Living Sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship? Do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That by testing you may discern. What the will of God is what is good acceptable and perfect? He appeals to them by the mercy of God, right? That's the basis for us to be able to live a life, that is pleasing to him. And to know his will And then he says, to present yourself as a Living Sacrifice to God, that all of our Lives should be pointing to Christ into worshipping him in the way that I'm going to be able to understand the will of God Is by testing everything. According to his word, according to his will. And the interesting thing about that is Is that? I am able to grow and knowing the Lord knowing the Lord's will and walking in it, the more obedient I am. Right. We're going to have greater degrees of understanding of God's will as we walk in obedience.

And then finally says, or finally, when the opportunity presents itself, we need to, we need to obey and we kind of touched on this this morning but Salvation is a gift, right? Salvation is all of Grace, sanctification is of Grace to sanctification is the process of me looking more and more like Christ, but I think it was Jerry Bridges who said that vacations, kind of like an airplane. And you have two Wings, One Wing is God's grace and his sovereignty. But the other Wing is my responsibility and we need to cooperate with what God is doing in our lives. We need to to cooperate with that process of becoming more like Christ. And when the opportunity presents itself, We need to obey. We don't want to be a Christian in word only, we want to be a Christian in word and In Deed as well. And God is faithful. God is faithful 1st Corinthians 10:13 says no. Temptation has overtaken. You that is not common to man, God is faithful and he will provide a way out when you were tempted and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with temptation, he will also provide a way of Escape that you may be able to injure it. So as we start this, this section looking at all these different commands, we're going to talk about what this new life looks like in terms of marriage, in terms of being a parent in terms of work, and then it ends with this awesome picture of the Spiritual armor that weird to put on to be able to do battle. So just remember is as we're seeking to live out who we are in Christ to walk worthy. To strive to no longer think like the world does, even though we're tempted to so that our hearts will not become hardened to the things of God, that means we're going to have to take off certain behavior and put on christ-like Behavior by recognizing the wrong. And knowing the right thing that to do in God's eyes because we are rooted in the word, having our minds transformed daily, in his words, moment-by-moment the choices we make will do so in a worthy manner of the calling that God has placed on our lives. So if you would do your head with me and we're going to pray this morning. and,

You know, this morning, we we've been talking about what it means to walk in a manner worthy of Christ.

But maybe you're here this morning and you would say, I don't know Christ. Or maybe you would say I know of Christ but I don't believe in Christ.

But God is working in your heart. And he's been doing a work in your heart this week. I have some encouragement for you. There's no better time to turn to Christ, then right now. None of us know what the future might hold.

And if God is doing a work in your life right now and he's showing you your son and he's showing you Christ. I just I just I'm going to pray here in a moment that you will cry out to the Lord. That you will repent and turn from your sin that you once loved and turn to Christ. Who loves you. God sent his son, born of a virgin born under the law to live the life you and I could never live and he died the death that you and I deserve and he was put in the grave and on the third day he rose from the grave by the power of God and he's coming back one day to judge the living and the dead.

If God is working in your life, I just I'm going to pray here in a moment that you will cry out to him and I encourage you to come and talk to me afterwards. Don't leave here without talking to me or just someone else about what it means to follow Christ. So, let's pray.

God, thank you for. The fact that we can even come into your presence through Christ. I thank you Lord for growing us. Lord and making us look more like your son.

Got and I just pray for anyone who might be here today, Lord. Who is feeling hopeless, who maybe has questions? God, that you would put it within their hearts to turn to you, God. But they would trust in you for salvation that you would open up wide their heart Lord, and that your Holy Spirit would move in them to repent into trust in you. God, I pray that they would not leave here today without talking to someone about that decision about what that looks like. God.

It's a lord. As we sing this last song, I just pray that Lord. What is of your word? Would ring true in our hearts and in our lives, throughout the rest of the week? In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. We're going to sing One Last Song and