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Ephesians chapter four. We’re studying this together. Verse 17, picking up and where we’ve left off last week from verse 16. The book of Ephesians is an important and powerful book for us as a church family, because it was an important, powerful book for those who existed in the church of Ephesus. And we’ve seen the reason why together. We’ve studied the history of the city of Ephesus. We saw how powerful God moved not only within that town, but used the church in the city of Ephesus to reach what the Bible says is all of Asia. And so God did something significant in the lives of these people that impacted them in such a powerful way that they furiously proclaimed the name and beauty of Christ everywhere they went. I can operate in life with this thought that we as people. I think it’s a biblical thought, by the way. We as people are created to worship. You can’t help but worship something. Whether it be God or create some false idol in your life. We are designed to worship. And Paul begins the first three chapters of the book of Ephesians, presenting this idea if you’re created to worship. The object of your worship should really the affections of that should be placed to Christ. And for the first three chapters, Paul identifies for us the identity of who God is and who we are in light of him. He answers the question why God is just worthy of our worship.
We’ve studied it together. We’ve seen in the very beginning of the chapter, chapter one, he writes this book to those who are faithful in Christ. He mentions within the first few verses that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms, and he’s loved you before the foundation of the earth. He created to lavish his love upon you. He created you for you to experience relationship with him and for you to be able to reflect back and the glory of who he is. God designed you for that purpose. And anything less than that, we’re settling in our lives for things less than what God designed us to be. And the joy in which God created us to experience we. We can rob ourselves from that joy by attempting to experience the short lived joy in the rest of the things this world has to offer. But God has ultimately designed us to worship him and experience the joy of life found only in him. And God has loved us before the foundation of the earth. And we get to chapter two, and he sees that he’s he’s brought us from death to life in that relationship with him. And Paul prays multiple times throughout this book, and we remark that he’s praying these prayers from jail. And Paul never complains. Paul never talks about his difficult circumstance. All he talks about in the prayers is that we as people would come to know the Lord more and more in our lives.
It’s about him. And Paul presents to us the argument of his infinite worth. That we would awaken our souls and recognize his glory before us. The understanding that any time we fail to do so, we’re selling ourselves short of the very reason for which God has designed you. And so Paul gets to chapter four. And in chapter four of this book, the ideas of the book kind of flip for us. He identifies for us the beauty of who God is. Now, in response to that, he begins to proclaim to us that if you love the identity of this God and everything that he is and all that Paul has presented, then this is how we should be inspired in our lives to respond to this God we’ve come to know. And for the rest of the book, he shares with us what we should become in light of who Christ is. And in verse 17 Paul presents this thought. It says so this I say, kind of a summing up of the thoughts and affirm, together with the Lord, that you walk no longer, just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their minds. Notice the idea of what Paul says in the very first passage of this verse. He’s affirming this together in the Lord. This is this is what God would desire for us to know. This is for those of you who don’t just call Jesus Savior, but you also call him Lord of your life.
Took me a while to learn that in the Christianity I grew up in. Jesus was often presented as a get out of hell free card, and not as one that I could just have a relationship with intimately. And Paul is saying in this passage of Scripture, it’s not just for those who treat Jesus in such a way, but but understand Jesus is also Lord of your life. And I’m affirming these thoughts together with him and your understanding of who you are in Jesus. And so he says at the end of this verse that we walk no longer, just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind. And we begin to read the rest of this passage. And if I read it to you, you would begin to feel kind of this ickiness of what Paul describes here. He says in verse, ickiness is a great adjective, isn’t it? He says in verse 18, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart, and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. You know, what Paul does is he presents to us in verse 17 the reason we shouldn’t live as the Gentiles live or as pagans live as you could also translate it.
He’s building a case in the rest of the verse of what happens in our life. It’s a perpetual slippery slope of sensuality, of self indulgence, in which we try to satisfy our lives within the idea of who we are apart from God. It’s idolatry. We make ourselves God. But when you study in verse 17, you understand that this slope begins with just the futility of their mind. What it literally translates with us, for us in the Greek language is its aimlessness. It’s a life lived without no long term goal in mind. The idea of everything that God should be. This. Paul’s presented it to us. They’re darkened to it. They’re absent from the idea of living for something more glorious than just themselves. And in the absence of that goal. Their hearts become darkened. Tells us in verse 18, their hearts become hardened. It’s literally a medical term. I’ve had knee surgery when I was 12 years old, and they took out all my cartilage as a wonderful football injury. I was happy to have as a young kid because now football wasn’t worth it. And now now I have arthritis. It’s just it’s horrible. I try to fly fish out in the lakes and I come out and my legs are just like a stiff. I don’t know what it is. It’s like a stump. It just goes around with me, I drag it, it’s painful. And what Paul is saying in this passage to us, the hardness of the heart.
It’s a medical term. It’s literally describing arthritis. It’s as if saying to that God has been making himself known in our lives, and we’ve become futile in our thinking, and our goals have become all about self. And we’ve begun to get arthritic spiritually. We just can’t turn ourselves in the direction that God would desire for us to go. It’s just painful to move. And so we just keep going in the direction we’re going. And our hearts become hardened, and then our lives become calloused. The Bible tells us in different contexts, explained in the same way that we live our lives in a battle. And both the spirit and the flesh. Paul, the summation of this says that this way in Galatians 516, walk by the spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. Meaning within ourselves and everything that we are. God has created us. He breathed in us the breath of life. He’s given us a spiritual ability. And then we have this flesh that wars against the spirit. And when we talk about the flesh, we’re not talking about our skin. We talk about the flesh. We’re talking about a part of our lives that isn’t submitted to God. We’re talking about a part of our lives that doesn’t tap into the identity of who we are in light of who God is. And that flesh wars against our spirit, and as that flesh wars against our spirit, it’s lived out in our fleshly lives.
And this battle takes place. Try to recreate in my mind the idea of the person that Paul would be identifying in this passage of Scripture. Because just based off chapter 17, I would go as far as to say that these probably aren’t even bad people. Just like everyone else in the culture. They’re just fitting the cultural norm of the time. They just become darkened in their relationship with the Lord. They would probably even describe themselves as spiritual people. But the idea of who God is and their relationship with him has been lost to the idea of sensuality. Can I tell you? One of the greatest robberies that we’re experiencing today within our spiritual lives is the thought of just being spiritual people. And the premise of just being spiritual. It’s selfish. Well, I know I need to be spiritual and so I just recreate within my mind this idea of this God that I desire to want to pursue. And I and I formulate within my idea and thinking who this God should be. And so that I begin to bow down to the very God that I think that I should be worshipping in this life, rather than starting with the idea of God. Who are you? Identify yourself to me, and in that I see your worth and begin to worship. I think these people are probably spiritual people. I think these people are probably, as we would term it, even good people.
Where the people lost their way. Is that their mind were set on a factions of this world that weren’t worthy of who they were in creation and being created in God’s image and being designed for his worship, and in not having the godly goal that God had desired for them to experience in this life and relationship with him, they begin to receive darkness, and they begin to get callous in their relationship with God, and they begin to walk away from. I’m not going to say this morning. Sometimes we treat God like that within the church. We come to church for selfish reasons. Now I’m happy for any reason we come to church at all. I know God can work miracles in our lives because he’s done it in me, right? But our pursuit of God isn’t about what I gain from him. Our pursuit of God is about his worth in our lives and in so pursuing him. In that way, God does transform us. But our question isn’t how we should improve ourselves, or how can I improve myself? Or how can I be more spiritual? The question is, how can I pursue God? And in so doing, God transforms our lives. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. Walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And Paul is telling us to those who have made Jesus as Lord of your lives, to those who understand what it means to call Jesus Lord, don’t allow your mind to submit to things that just aren’t worthy of recognizing Him and His authority over you.
Your heart gets calloused to the things of God. And we walk in the flesh and our understanding is darkened. And I thought last night, as I was going to bed, I was just turning through this passage of Scripture, and there became a fear over me for a little while, until I started applying some biblical principles to it. I started thinking, oh man, these people that are cast in this passage of Scripture don’t even recognize in their life where the callousness is. They’re just hardened to God. And I remember laying in bed last night just praying to the Lord, Lord, where is it that I’m blind to what you want to do in my life? Where is it? My. My heart’s just become callous. What in the world am I going to do to solve this problem? How do I even know where I’m callous when I can’t even see my own callousness, I guess scary? Can I tell you this morning the solution to that? Isn’t found within yourself. So today we’re talking about where we’re falling short in our lives and our relationship with God. And it’s in sin. We fall short in sin. We make idols out of life rather than worship of God. And the solution to that isn’t try harder. And my fear could have been I’m getting so callous on these things, so I just need to start doing good.
I need to start like working myself up, and then eventually I just beat this callousness out of my life, right? Paul said this in the book of Romans in chapter seven he said, I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man. But I see a different law in the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind, making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body of this death? That just blows you away. We’re talking about not being callous. Jesus is Lord, but not being callous and the sinfulness that it represents, and it creates a vertical problem in our relationship with the Lord. But the solution isn’t try harder because even the Apostle Paul can’t do it. Jesus said it this way. The reason we have callousness in our heart, or the reason we live in such sinful lives, is because of our heart, I should say. This is, for out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, slanders. Jesus identified for us. It wasn’t the behavior that was wrong. It was the heart. And the heart is what leads us to react sinfully to God.
We don’t need behavior modification. We need heart transformation. I started thinking. God, where is it? My heart is calloused and my life is blind to it. And God, where is that arthritis set in other than my knee in the winter time? God, where have I become futile in my thinking? And then I started thinking, God, how, how can I come before you right now in such a way that says, I’m not going to do this on my own effort? I’m not going to try harder to defeat the things that I see as a problem in my life. But how can I make sure that that callousness isn’t there? I fell asleep last night. Just saying this. God. Could you just renew your spirit within me? God, can I just start over? Now, can you just wipe my slate clean? Can I experience what that’s like in you? Left to myself. I can’t defeat the stuff. But Jesus is Lord and he can control anything within my life as I submit to him. And Paul says that. He says in verse 20, he begins this statement for us as if this is the thought to those of us who are struggling as the Gentiles did. To those of us who have left the former way of life and continue to fight the battle of the sin that we were once a part of. You can leave it behind. And it’s not even in your own effort.
He says in verse 20, but you did not learn Christ in this way. If indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus, that in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self. Which is being corrupted in accordance with the laws of deceit. And that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self, which is in the likeness of God, and has been created in righteousness and holiness, of the truth, of the truth, of of the truth. Paul is saying to us, you don’t. You don’t even become a new man. You’ve left an old band behind and you are a new person or a new woman. You are new in Jesus. You are a new creation. You have become these things. And so there is a process within our lives where we learn to take off what we’ve left behind, and we learn to identify ourselves in a new way in which God has represented us in this world. Jesus has come. Jesus has paid for it all for you. There’s nothing else that you can pay. And so, God, if you’ve trusted in Christ and His saving grace on the cross for your sins, if you’ve done that, God’s made you a new creation in him, and you are a new man. That old way of life is gone. And so to pray the prayer God renew in me, us new spirit, a brand new spirit.
God, let me experience a clean slate and you, God, help me to let go of this callousness. It’s biblical because Christ has made you new. God’s not interested in your past. He’s interested in your future with him. And God has made all things new in you. And so Paul carries this idea in verse 23 and verse 24. That within that new man that we become, that we be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And in so doing become living in that new self. Taking the opportunity to allow your mind to be saturated in your identity, in Christ. Can I tell you if your spiritual life is based on Sunday for an hour? I ain’t going to cut the mustard. As much as the world perpetuates and propagates its idea of who you should be as an individual, we need to allow the the Lord of our lives the opportunity to work within our minds and upon our hearts. And so Paul is recognizing that for us. Listen, the reason we revert back to the old way of life, we’re not surrendering ourselves to the Lord, and we’re not giving the Lord the opportunity to work within our lives. How can God work within your life if you don’t pause within your life to allow God to work? Renew that spirit in Jesus. John says it this way in chapter eight and verse 31.
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed in him, if you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine. And you will know the truth. And the truth will make you free. Notice what it says in verse 32. It doesn’t say the truth makes you free. Do you see it? Says the knowledge of the truth sets you free. The understanding within your lives of who God is and who you are in light of God. It’s set you free. The reason Paul took the first three chapters for us to understand who God is and who we are in light of him, so we can understand what it means to be free in Christ, in an understanding that and believing that that sets us free in our relationship with God. Renew your spirit within him. Look at verse 23 again. It says in that you may be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And put on the new self which is in the likeness. Of God. I try to think, how, how can we look at this passage? Because there’s going to be some of us, we’re going to walk into this passage and we’ve got this deep callousness within our hearts. And some. Sometimes we just let it live for years. I thought, man, if ever there was an opportunity to just yell at all of us, it’s this morning. Like, what am I doing, man? What is going to take to wake me up, to recognize that God has created me for so much more in this world? And just let go.
And cleverly let God be Lord. When I make the choices to live life for myself. And I know mentally. Who got his. And I’ve read through Ephesians together with you the beauty of his love towards us before the foundation of the world. And my heart isn’t inclined to even draw near to that God. What will it take to wake that heart up? To see my life as God sees my life. I mean, how desperate do I have to get and how bad do circumstances have to become before I can just humble myself before him as Lord and just say, God, please renew in me a spirit. God, let me let go of this old self and God, let me just give you the time to work in my life. Love the way the end of First Corinthians three talks about it. He says, as we gaze upon the face of God, we’re conformed into his image, one glory at a time. As Jesus gets time with you, he transforms you. It’s not about your efforts, because from our very hearts, wicked thoughts and evil deeds are conducted, but allowing God’s mercy to reign within us. You, I think, within, even in our own state, the beauty of verse 23. The struggle of men and women. You think most guys, statistically you study it. Most guys struggle with lust.
As a matter of fact, we live in the number one state for downloading pornography. And if there’s a state you want something you want to be number one in, right? Uh, lead the way. Utah. How do you set free from that sin? Renew in me a spirit. God. God, help me see the worth of who you are. God, I don’t want to live in the futility of my mind. But I want your glory to be my goal. For? What about ladies? A lot of ladies struggle with just self-image and self-worth. I love the first three chapters of Ephesians. If that’s the struggle of you as a lady. God identifies your worth and beauty apart from anything you’ve ever done. He looks on the inward parts of who you are. And while the world may propagate a message about outward appearance, God is concerned with what’s happening inwardly in your heart. That is the true beauty. And verse 23 is about taking a message of the world that makes you feel worthless before other people, and to seeing your worth before the Lord is. God renew in me that spirit. God help me to become what you desire. I love what Paul does here. Because he just spent the first 17, verse 24, just explaining to us who we are in Christ. Jesus is Lord. This is not what you should be doing. You don’t need to be futile in your thinking. You need to renew your Spirit in Christ.
This is why. Because God has called you for in life for more than just yourself. God has called us to community. I mean, it’s like we say it every week here at church. I don’t ever want us to forget it. That’s why I say it every week. We are about community. God has called us in community, community, community and relationship with him. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, community and relationship with others. Love others. As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us they will know you are my disciples if you have love for one. What? Another. Meaning the evidence of your love for Jesus is seen in the evidence of your love for other people. If you want to love Jesus, get in his church and love his church and Jesus looks at man, they love me. I mean, he can’t just he’s not just going to come down. I can just give him a big hug. Right? How can I prove my love to you? God? How can I demonstrate that love I’m getting with a community and I’m loving that community for your sake. And so Paul takes this idea of what he’s presented to us. Jesus has made you new, and you need to renew yourself in that thought and just let go of that past and allow God to work in you. And you ask the question, then, well, what practically does that look like? I mean, that sounds really good right now.
I got that down right. I renew myself in Jesus. Right. We can go out and just say that to each other. We’re going to renew ourselves in Jesus. But what does that even look like? And then Paul takes the rest of this passage, and he explains to us to the end of chapter four, this is what it looks like, guys. He actually says, this is not what it looks like, and this is what it looks like. And this is the reason that we should do this. But the rest of the book, it’s it’s brilliant the way he does it. He says in verse 25, therefore. Laying aside falsehood. Speak truth, each one of you with his neighbors. We are members of one another. The truth is what builds this church. The truth is where we gather our identity and who we are in Christ. The truth is where we gain purpose and focus in our lives. The truth is important. I know we live in a place and an environment and a country that says, keep your religious teaching to yourself. But God’s desire is that we just speak it openly to one another, to speak his truth, because the truth sets you what free. Man. You guys are with me today. God’s truth sets us free. And so Paul proclaims to us the the prominent thing of his community, the thing that you should desire within your lives as you meet and greet and enjoy one another’s company, is that you become people that are honest with each other.
Healthy families are truth telling families. The truth is always under attack. What can I tell you? If I understand what it means to share truth in the greatest understanding we can take to this passage of Scripture. It comes from a place of humility. Because sometimes we walk into the church. It’s just it’s not always about proclaiming the theology of Jesus, which is important because it sets the precedence of who we are. But it’s also talking about our struggles. And we’re we’re afraid to share our struggles with with each other because we’re afraid of what other people are going to think. The Bible tells us to encourage each other. And from a place of humility. Truth telling families are healthy families. And this is my struggle. And if someone’s honest with you enough to tell a struggle, and I pray that you keep it sacred to that individual, it’s not something that you mock. But it’s something you encourage them away from and pray for them in. You are so important. God’s called me to love this community. And you’re telling me that you’ve got this struggle and you’re just being honest, and I just want to pray for you. And I want to come aside of you and just encourage you. We just want to be a community that just has the freedom to speak truth to each other.
He says in verse 26, be angry, and yet do not sin, and do not let the sun go down on your anger. You know, it’s biblical, or it can be a biblical thing to be angry and still be godly. You know, for instance, if you do something wrong and you feel bad about it, we don’t want you to walk around feeling guilty all the time. There’s no one good. But the reason you feel bad about it is to say internally to yourself, wait a minute, I’ve messed up here. How can I right this wrong? How can I confess this sin? How can I come back to God and renew my spirit? And the same thing with anger. Anger comes into her life. Anger helps us recognize when something doesn’t go right. Someone comes up to you and does something and it just really ticks you off. That anger says something to you. Bells ring. Right? I want to punch you. No, that’s not what you do. Bells ring and it’s saying to you something unjust, something bad, something that didn’t settle right with me, just happened here. And the purpose of that anger isn’t then for you to go out and just be angry about it. It’s to understand that what God’s created us for is community. And anytime sin is present, division exists. And when you feel divided, recognize sin is there. And that anger helps us to become furious towards a sin, but it also helps us.
It presents to us the opportunity to reconcile our relationship that needs restored to just talk to each other. Best way to carry anger in this world is to carry it shortly. Meaning don’t allow yourselves to stew over anger. The Bible says to keep short accounts. It actually says in this passage, don’t let the sun go down on your anger. Listen. We have emotions within our lives and left unkept. They can become ungodly. They can become monsters. Anger is one of those emotions. And anger can control you rather than you control it. And so when we began to get anger of an issue and humility speaking the truth, we began to reconcile relationships with each other. And he tells us the problem with carrying anger in our lives in verse 27, and do not give the devil an opportunity. Any time you’re okay with being frustrated over a period of time, any time you’re okay with the division in which it creates, we’re giving the devil an opportunity to gather a foothold within our lives. And remember the premise of the thought that Paul is carrying in this passage of Scripture is that we’re communicating with each other how to have a renewed Spirit in Christ, and God wants us to carry that renewed spirit into community, that we can experience a renewed spirit with each other. And the one thing that we don’t want in order to have that opportunity with each other, is to give the devil a foothold in our lives.
And so he says in verse 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. God created you to work. Before the sin happened in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve worked. It was a lot easier, but they worked. No one knows really exactly the premise for why Paul says this in verse 28. I’m going to give you a speculation. There was an individual within the church who was taking advantage of the benevolence fund. Meaning he knew or he or she or whatever knew that the church had money to give to their need. And rather than go out and get a job, they perpetually drained the church of its financial resources. And so Paul saying it’s a godly and glorious thing. Go out and get a stinking job. Work. And in working, it’s not just about you, but God put you in a position to bless other people’s lives rather than you take away from the church. You want to know what it means to have a renewed spirit in Christ? It’s speak the truth and don’t let anger rule your life. And don’t give the devil an opportunity to descend and work. Be a blessing to this world, and help provide for your needs that we can begin to provide for the needs of other people.
He goes on and begins or continues to describe it. He says in verse 29, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Katya. I love the United States of America, I do. I love the United States. One of the things that often will irk me. This is going to sound bad. It’s freedom of speech. Because I think what it’s taught us is people. It’s really not to be accountable for the things we say. I don’t care. I’m just going to spew it out and you deal with it. Am I going to think about it? It’s your problem. I’m going to say whatever I feel like and you just deal with it. Yeah. It’s like it’s not a godly principle. I want to keep freedom of speech, okay? I just want to keep it as Jesus steers it. And he tells us in verse 29, listen, have some accountability for the words that we use. We’re talking about living in a renewed spirit and encouraging the body of Christ to live in a renewed spirit. Have accountability for the things you say. Don’t just vomit on people. Think about the word choices that you have and encourage. Listen what it says. It’s not about you when you speak. It’s not about you. It’s we share God’s truth in a loving way without anger, according.
Look at the last part of the verse to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. When I communicate. It’s for the benefit and blessing of others. It’s to encourage you and what God wants for your life. And then when you communicate back to me, it’s the same. It’s taking accountability for the words that we choose. And you know, when we talk about things like this, it doesn’t even have to always be positive. It doesn’t say in this verse, just be positive. As soon as he doesn’t walk in and tell you she’s got the worst thing in the world going on in her life. And you’d be like, just smile, Suzy. You know, it doesn’t have to be positive. Or when someone comes in in this world and they’re just recklessly sinning and running a life against the Lord. But you know that they have claimed at some point in their life to walk with Jesus. One of the most loving things that you can do in that moment is just go before them and talk to them. Listen, I’m concerned for you and your relationship with the Lord. The gods created you to renew his spirit within you. God’s made you a new creation. They say the the wounds of a friend are better than the kisses of an enemy. God’s desire is that we’d speak the truth. And that would be purposeful in it, even if the truth hurts.
It goes on and says in verse 30, 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. Do not grieve. The Holy Spirit literally says to us as people, God’s going to lead your life in a particular way. Just don’t disobey it. Don’t turn your back on it. Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit as if you’re dying in your relationship with him. Surrender yourself instead to his leading. And allow him to work. And in verse 31, Paul goes to this explanation what happens within our lives? There’s this bitterness and there’s this wrath that builds up through this bitterness, and there’s anger and there’s clamor and there’s slander. And if you’ve been in a church for any amount of time, you’ve seen it happen, right? Somebody gets mad at somebody and there’s an explosion somewhere. And can I say in just honesty, those moments if you if you haven’t become angry at someone, you haven’t really lived in community. If someone in a church hasn’t irked you at some point, you haven’t really lived in that church and with that church. Because we’re all sinful people. The cat’s out of the bag. We got nothing to hide. We mess up, we mess up. And a community that you get close to will do something at some point to offend you.
I have this this friend who who was a part of this church and and something happened within the church that deeply offended him. And I thought what all church people thought, he’s leaving the church and he’s going down the road, right? Two blocks down the road. He’ll be at the other church next week. Everything will be okay. I’ll just start with a new family. And he told me. You know what? We preach these messages constantly. I’ve even preached a message that tells people to love even when it’s hard. No one ever lives it. No one ever can let aside their vengeance and wrath and anger. And allowing it to build. As this verse says, no one ever does that. No one ever lets that go for the sake of the community. Everyone just wants to leave. Everyone just wants to give up. And I’m going to stay. And I’m going to stay even in my pain, and I’m just going to show people what it means in the midst of just frustration sometimes just to love. I mean, you grew up that way, right? You’ve had a fairly functioning home at some point. If you’ve got a sibling, you’ve got in a fight, but you knew Mom and Dad were going to keep you under the same roof and you learn to get along. And so now when you get to the together for family functions, even at Thanksgiving, you can have knock down, drag out fights, but in the end, kiss each other and be on your way, right? Or at least sometimes.
And that’s the commitment that Paul’s talking about here in the body of Christ. Listen, there are times where there’s just this frustration that might build within you. But don’t let the sun go down on your anger. Man. Don’t give the devil a foothold to that. One thing that he would love to do is just rip a church apart. He’s a lion seeking whom to devour. But instead. Instead. Don’t grieve the spirit. Put this all away. The Bible explains it with bitterness, bitterness as anger. That’s not played out yet. We just kind of begin to harbor these hurt feelings, and then all of a sudden it begins to turn in this wrath, this these outbursts, and then it’s just anger that fills within us. And then it’s this clamor. We’re just shouting, just horrible words to each other, taking no accountability for what we’re saying and slandering. And then it’s brought into all malice. And he gets to the point where all we want to do is just hurt the other person. We have no concern for their well-being, regardless of who they are. And can I tell you I’ve seen within church. I love the reason that Apostle Paul brings this passage of scripture up for us. Because what it’s doing for me personally. I think as a church, we get the opportunity sometimes to think that we’re spiritual or that we’re being godly just because we come to church.
I did God a favor today. And then we get spiritually lazy within our lives. We’re no longer challenging ourselves to seek the face of Christ and allowing God to transform us. And we get lazy. And so Paul begins to explain to us in this passage of Scripture. Listen, if you’re getting lazy, this is this is the things that happens within your life. And rather than rather than get lazy, avoid these things. And this is what I want you to do. And then in the end, he gets to verse 31 and says, we begin to destroy each other. And I could tell you as a church, one of the things that that hurts most often more than any is just gossip. I come from the south, right? Let me tell you how it works. Little old lady comes up. Innocent little old lady. I want you to pray for so and so. I’m going to tell you everything dumb that they did and now pray for them. Just like that, right? Because you guys know how that southern accent. Just pray for them. You wouldn’t believe it. They are so evil. Here’s the evilness. Or how about this? I’m going to just vent to you. Here we go. I want to vent. There’s problems I’m having in my life, and I’m just going to vent. You know, the Bible doesn’t say find other people invent.
It says if you’ve got problems and you need to vent rather than go to someone else, go to God. And here, here’s how you get around it. If you want to be really spiritual about it, rather than just coming to someone saying, I want to vent. So I’m seeking your godly counsel, but not just yours. Everyone in the church, but the one person I have the problem with. I want to seek everyone’s counsel. God’s desire. That division wouldn’t be present among us. Someone comes to you in such a position to say, I just want to vent and seek your wisdom. You have such wisdom for which they are seeking. Let me tell you a great way to avoid that situation, or to encourage people in that situation is to respond this way. You can vent. I can give you wisdom. Within the week. If you do not talk to the person that you’re venting to me about, I’m going to. I’m going to tell him. Sounds painful. Damage and division of the Body of Christ limits us in our ability to proclaim the name of the Lord. When you tell somebody. That statement. Real quick. They see the significance. I’m just letting it go. Or, if it’s important enough, talking to the person who needs to have reconciliation. I’m not saying that today to make us feel bad. I’m not saying it to make us feel guilty. I don’t even want us to walk out feeling guilt.
No. No guilt. Guilt has no effect. It does nothing good. God, I get to heaven. You know. I want you to know God. I’ve lived 50 years of my life feeling guilty. Let me in. You know it’s not how it works. That just works in our heart. He pricks our heart through things that we just respond and we just seek the his beauty in that moment. We seek his glory and we allow our spirits to be renewed. If you’re harboring anger, if you’re harboring harboring resentment, if you’re harboring division, it’s working against us and the renewing of our spirit in the Lord. I don’t want to sound this morning like I’m talking down to us either as a group. Just to recognize we don’t need to get spiritually lazy. What we want is just Jesus to have control. When Jesus has control, this is what it looks like. And so we just do whatever it takes to see that the glory of God works among his church for his goodness to us. And we deal with it, and we seek to move forward as Christ has called us to. And so let me leave you with this thought. If someone in your life were to describe you. What are some of the thoughts they might put down someone close to you? How would they describe you? So what? The Apostle Paul left it off here in verse 32. What he’s about to say is he’s he’s about to describe for us what a person renewed in Christ should look like.
And what would it look like if you asked your spouse right now, who do you think I am in light of who Christ is? Or what have you seen that God has done in my life? Or they say. In verse 32, Paul says it this way. Be kind to one another. Tender hearted. Forgiving each other. Just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Listen what Paul is calling us to in this passage this morning. It’s the poor people that sees a community and your relationships and your home, and every interaction you have with a person in this world, that it can be transformed because of your relationship in Christ. Paul’s called us to this with one another, and he’s saying to us, listen, if you’re allowing anger in your life or you’re allowing the devil to have have a foothold or you’ve set the the futility of your mind on goals that are anything apart from God’s goodness. And you’re just calling it maybe even spiritual. But it’s not about Jesus. It’s robbing you. It’s robbing the community. It’s robbing those who are in your life. And he’s saying to us as people listen, it’s time to let it go. It’s time to pursue the things of God. It’s time to be kind to one another. It’s time to know. Sometimes family and family, it gets hard, but we got to be able to be tender hearted.
And we and we need to forgive. And that the power isn’t found with within you. It’s found in your relationship with Jesus. And so he reminds us at the very end, Christ has forgiven you. Because of that forgiveness. Think of everything that God’s allow you to become. It’s only in forgiveness that you can be renewed. So when you pray a prayer in your life saying, God, wipe my slate clean, God renew within me. If I if I harbor anger against someone else, I’m not even giving them that opportunity. And here I am, begging God for that same very opportunity that they are craving in their own lives. But I’m too angry for them to let go of it. And so Paul asks us to renew our spirit. And so he says this. When life is hard. He desires for Jesus to be in charge. Living for Jesus isn’t easy. But Paul says in verse 17, let the Lord be the Lord of your life. Forgive people who have offended you. Forgive those who have suffered a wrong against you because God has forgiven you. Let go of the past. So that we can move forward. As a church family. I guess the opening question to ask ourselves is Is Jesus Lord of your life? If Jesus is Lord of your life. And the challenge within us is to give God the opportunity to renew within you His Spirit, and to take that spirit and live it out in a community in a way that proclaims his name.