New Rules | The Book of Ephesians

come on are you ready for the word of God today I am not Pastor Jason okay all right I just need to clear that up for some of you guys I'm Pastor Brennan but I've had the privilege of walking here at Discovery with Pastor Jason and Veronica since day one I like to say that you know the youngsters called they they say that makes you OG so apparently I'm OG I don't know what that stand no I'm just kidding I know what that stands for where my dad's at today Happy Father's Day you know dads we can say a lot to our kids but our actions speak louder than our words you're here in the house of God man that's powerful thank you I want to do something I got a gift card and a book to give away to a dad here today first service I gave it to the dad who'd been the dad the longest but I want to mix it up if you just had a baby and you've only been a dad for like a week or a month or two months or three months raise your hand or four months there's got five months six months a dad the youngest dad maybe maybe 11 months 12 months okay 11 months 10 months all right who else anything younger than 10 months no that's it hey Happy Father's Day come grab this he'll give that to you a gift card go have a good time man bless you there's something amazing about being a father and we're going to read about that in the passage today Paul has a lot to say about fathers he has a lot to say about that in the word it just so happens to line up but I'm ready I'm hungry and I want to give you the word of God I hope you're ready I hope you came today hungry saying God speak to me and so if you're here in the house or you're watching online or in the courtyard man make that your declaration God here I am speak to me because I want to learn and I want to grow amen how many of you want to grow today come on that's what I like to hear you better buckle up cuz we're continuing on in our series on Ephesians it's part four we got two chapters we're going to work through but in the first three chapters of Ephesians Paul begins to give us this Rich theology in deep Doctrine and so he spends time unpacking Theology and Doctrine and in the last three chapters of Ephesians Paul turns the corner from theology to practical so Paul's going to show us today how do we practically live out our life as a follower of Christ and the good news is is Paul has a lot to say to us today about how to do that so I'm excited to jump into it come on would you read with me maybe you brought your Bibles Ephesians 4 verse one he says I therefore a prisoner of the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called Paul's saying listen therefore based off everything I've said to you thus far I want you to and I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling you've received there's this implication in this statement that you've received something and the truth is if you're in Christ you have received something and the implication is this that what God did for you and I through the finished work of Jesus on the cross that it was so great it was such a gift it was such Grace such Mercy such love that you and I in light of that in light of what Jesus has done should live worthy of the calling we should value God's love God's gift to us so much that we allow God to shape us and this isn't a calling into professional Ministry I know some of you are like well thank God I wasn't called no this is God's call over all of us all of us and this is what Paul's saying he's not saying okay if you obey God then you'll be blessed no that was Old Testament he's saying God God already blessed you God already died for you so in light of that in response to that let's live differently and I don't know about you but I'm trying to live differently than the world Amen I'm trying to let God do a new work inside of me and Paul he uses this word walk a lot all through all of his letters but especially in Ephesians you're going to read Paul talking about walking and the reason he does that is because our our relationship with God is like a walk in a lot of ways and Paul is instructing us to walk it's an invitation Paul says walk in Romans 8 he says it's a walk with God in Galatians 5 Paul he encourages us to walk in the spirit in 2 Corinthians 5 he says walk by faith in third John he says we walk in the truth 1 John 2 says we walk as Christ walks this is a walk we're on he's instructing us to walk but really it's an invitation to walk Paul's inviting you he's inviting me on a walk with God and the imagery that we get when we consider our relationship with God as a walk is that we're going somewhere that there's a destination we're going to I don't know about you but I hate slow Walkers listen when I went on my first date with my wife I was like are we going to walk because I need to know is she a quick Walker or a slow Walker slow Walker stay together all right fast Walker stay together if you married a slow Walker we praying for you okay you're going to be all right but man we're walking it's a journey we have a destination Christ has a destination and a plan for your life that's greater than where you're at man that this world the enemy wants to use everything in the world to destroy you but God wants to take you on a walk of fulfillment and freedom Paul wants to show us that walk today so he goes on to say this hey I urge you to be um to live a manner worthy of the calling he said be completely humble and gentle be patient bearing ING with one another in love make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of Peace because there's one body and one Spirit just as you were called to one hope when you were called one Lord One Faith one baptism Paul's saying right now right off the bat if you want to live a life worthy of your calling that you've received you need to eagerly pursue Unity simple he's laying out the foundation of our walk with God and it it's Mar marked by unity which is interesting right because he says make every effort to walk in unity and it's interesting because Unity is so difficult right now our culture is marked by division everybody wants to be divided about something no one wants to walk in unity Unity is difficult but Paul's saying we're not United because we're a part of the same religion we're United because we share in the truth that we're all forgiven accepted redeemed bought with the price we pursue Unity because Christ forgave us and it's not easy it's not this easy thing that he invites us into Unity is the key to Christ likeness you can't say I'm walking with Jesus and not walk in unity you can't serve God and not walk in unity and here's the reason why because as followers of Christ if we cannot be United if us in this room cannot be United what hope is there for the world that does not know Christ the greatest indicator that you're a follower of Christ is that you have the ability to walk in unity and Paul's saying we need to do that that's the foundation so the question is how do we live in unity if Paul's saying to us this Foundation is Unity how do we walk in that how do we do that and is it really possible to have Unity with everyone because I got some crazy people in my life you know what I'm saying and some of them are family members amen wow okay and the answer is yes it's possible while the world the the world is trying to unite around everchanging ideals and but we're United around the Eternal never changing God he doesn't change we're United around a God who never changes who's the same the Bible says yesterday today and tomorrow we're not trying to unite around the new fad the new thing we're United Around Jesus in this un is only possible as we choose to walk in humility that's supported by gentleness and patience the Bible says in that passage of scripture that we are to bear with one another in love and that's like a really archaic saying to bear with one another in love thou shalt bear with one another in love you you know say that to your wife when she's mad at you it works no it doesn't work at all it makes her more mad you know don't do it what would even make it worse if you were like you need to baby you need to read this all right don't do that but really this is what it better translates to putting up with each other in love you see Paul understood the only way we would walk in unity is if we were walking in humility gentleness and if we had the capacity to put up with one another because I can't change your actions some of y'all are crazy and God's calling me he's calling you to put up with one another and this this has made Possible only as we walk in humility Galatians 62 says carry each other's burdens and in this way you'll fulfill the law of Christ walking in unity has little to do with actually agreeing with someone and it has everything to do with bearing with one another in love and Paul he he gives us and makes this incredible focus on one another and this focus on one another is significant the word occurs 4 many times in all of Paul's writings and letters Christians are a part of each other the Bible says that we are one body in the verse we just read earlier it says we're one body one Christ one Lord so we're all part of one body and we are to receive one another we are to think about one another serve one another love one another build up one another not tear down bear each other's burdens submit to each other and encourage each other we need to make every effort to maintain unity in a day and age where division is so rampant and if you think this word is not applicable to you wait until November comes around and everybody starts talking about politics then it's really going to be hard to be unified but here's what we're going to do we're going to make every effort to walk in unity motivated by love amen amen come on the good news is this because some people are hard Paul gives us some hope in verse 7 he says but to each one of us Grace has been given as Christ a portioned it did you know that God has given you a Grace to walk in unity I need that Grace sometimes because we're around some difficult people but he's given me the grace to walk in unity with one another and thank God for Grace a Grace to maintain Unity because without it we'd be in trouble somebody say I need Grace amen you do see you said it not me so Paul's showing us that our walk with God has its foundation in unity and is others focused it's not a a walk with God where I'm saying hey God me me me my walk with God is going to cause me to put my focus on one another on others which is in stark contrast to the world in which they were living in in which we are living in and we get a sense of what the culture looked like when Paul was addressing the church in E Ephesus when we look at verse 17 so look at verse 17 with me Paul says with the the Lord's Authority which is an interesting statement because Paul's actually saying this is from God okay so church not from my authority but from the Lord's Authority I say this live no longer other translations say no longer walk as the Gentiles do for they are hopelessly confused you guys we live in a culture that's hopelessly confused we live in a culture that doesn't even know their own identity that argues about identity that tries to push their viewpoint on you they celebrate the very thing that we're trying to walk out of and then here's the deal if you don't agree with it you're in the wrong and you know what Paul says eagerly pursue Unity but don't walk the way they walk it is say don't don't say the right things he said no I want your actions to look a certain way in the midst of a culture that's crazy he says this their minds are full of Darkness they wander this is that walking analogy again when they're far from God they're just wandering they don't know where they're going there's no destination they wander far from the life God gives why because their minds are full of Darkness they've closed their their minds and Harden their hearts against him they have no sense of Shame they live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity In this passage Paul's referencing the state of Ephesus but it's really the state of the world we live in today there's a pattern that we see time and time again when people move away from the things of God and move into the world and here's what we see at first it starts when we're just exposed to Darkness we get exposed to things you're not dark but you're around dark things but then those things begin to take up residence in your mind and this is a darkened mind that the verse talks about you begin to develop a darkened mind just because you were exposed to it you might not even agree with it but you hung around with it and then your mind became dark but before long what started as just exposure you need to catch this begins to permeate in our hearts you start thinking differently you start Desiring differently you've been so exposed so inated that your heart has actually changed and your heart becomes darkened and when you have a darkened mind and a darkened heart you will reap darkened behavior and this is where we lose our shame we give into every desire and lust darkened Minds plus darkened Hearts equal darkened behaviors sin has a narcotic effect effect on Persons and cultures it feels good for a while but then it begins to break us down and deaden everything inside of us that's good what is right and what is true and Paul's saying now that you know you're a follower of Christ there's something you need to know and you need to remember that used to be what you were like but you don't walk like that anymore you don't walk in that anymore you don't act like that you don't do those things that's not who you are it is who you were not who you are some of you God's done a work inside of you but you're still walking as you were but God wants you to walk as you are in him that's the model it's a guide for your living now and Paul he gives us the solution because if it's not how we're supposed to live then how am I supposed to walk what am I supposed to do what does walking well look like we know what what walking wrongly looks like but what does it look like to walk well and he lays it out so simply in Ephesians 5 he says we need to be imitators of God in a dark world we need to be imitators of God uh chapter 51 says imitate God therefore in everything you do why because you are his dear children I love this analogy Paul uses where he says Hey listen don't it's so easy to look like the world when you're around the world but if you spend more time with Jesus you're going to look like him so so imitate God just like dear children and anyone who spends enough time around kids understands that they're little imitators they're copycats they literally will watch you and do and say exactly what you do it's amazing and absolutely terrifying and what I love is when we get around other people's kids and you see them say something or do something and the parents are like I don't know where they learn that we're like dude you do that like you say that you know that kids are natural imitators it's who they are and get this just like your children will imitate you Dad we as children of God should imitate our heavenly father and some of you you had a horrible example of a father growing up but guess what you have a heavenly father who was the greatest example for you you've got a father who's an example and guess what what you are are around is what you will walk like it's interesting imitation Paul could have said hey talk like a Christian but he didn't he said imitate God he could have said hey look like a Christian but he didn't he said imitate God talk is cheap but your actions are powerful Pastor Veronica she she spoke a few months ago and she talked about the anointing she talked about the power of the anointing of God and you might not remember what she said but you'll never forget what she did because she literally got on stage and poured like a gallon of oil and anointed someone what you don't know is everybody she brought up on stage had a call of God on your life did you know they might not remember what she said but they'll never forget what she did you will not be remembered by your words you will re be remembered by your actions who are you imitating who are you imitated and I got a question for you today if people imitated your relationship with Christ what kind of relationship would they have because I'm concerned that some of us we're trying but we're doing a really bad impression of Christ and Paul he's got something to say about this because the enemy his goal is to get you looking more like the world and less like Christ and so he wants to show us how to live the enemy he wants a grip on you he's going to do it by trying to get your mind he wants a grip on you Paul says listen there's a few things we need to do and we need to ask oursel a few questions how do we how do we stay out of the enemy's grasp how do I combat the enemy's schemes how do I stay in my right position how do I keep from drifting back to this old way of living how do I make sure I'm not imitating the wrong people you need to ask yourself these questions first who am I walking with who are you walking with because who you walk with will determine your destiny and I'm not saying don't love your neighbor don't minister to someone in need I'm talking about walking doing life with someone if you aren't careful your heart will harden if you're around the wrong people Ephesians 4:17 he says now this I say to you and testify in the Lord you must no longer walk because the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds who are you walking with who are you walking with we have to surround ourselves with the right people the right Community if we want to walk in the fullness of Christ this is why you need to be in a small group here at Discovery some of you you're like I If I Only Had Christian friends then I wouldn't like I would do better okay great there's a whole church here that wants to be your friend and they're not crazy okay some okay some are in a church that with this many people in the room but they're they're probably as crazy as you you know but this is small group season this is the key to life change is being around the right people some of you you need to reassess who you've been around and you need to get around the right people the next question we need to ask ourselves to make sure we aren't drifting back to an old Life Is this where have I lost my sensitivity where where have I lost my sensitivity really what we're saying here is what things you used to bother you what dark things used to bother you but they don't bother you anymore because Satan wants you to be desensitized to wickedness to evil because if you lose your sensitivity you'll begin to embrace that what you allow in your home will begin to permeate in your life some of you you're allowing certain things to be watched on TV and you know it's wrong and you kind of lost your sensitivity to it but it's actually having this profound influence on you and even more on your family so as men we need to say you know what man it starts with me I'm not going to be desensitized to this I God would you renewing me a sensitivity to to the things of you Ephesians 4:19 says they have become callous and if you don't know what a callus is a callus is when you you do you work something I have calluses on my fingers from playing guitar when you first start playing Guitar it hurts so bad you're like why am I doing this I want to give up and then you do it enough and you get calluses and my fingers they're like hard on the tips and I can touch hot things and it doesn't burn so I'm always like that's hot grab it and I'm like whatever you know it doesn't burn me because I have a callous there I've lost my sensitivity because I've Overexposed my nerve endings to something to pain for so long that I don't feel the pain anymore they didn't feel pain anymore the culture they became callous callous takes time to develop but once it's there you don't feel pain when we don't feel pain we get hurt and we hurt other people and we don't even realize realize it we begin doing the things that hurt ourselves and others because what you're consuming now that used to bother you is actually hurting you and the enemy wants us to continue to walk in our old selves in our old mindset our old habits because he wants to keep us slaves so we need to walk in a in our new mind in a new way imitating Christ but what does imitating Christ look like and that's the question that we have to to wrestle with if if Paul's saying listen you need to walk in unity you need to imitate Christ we need to know Paul what does that look like and he has um gives us the frame for how we are to walk our new life out and it's found in verse 21 he says since you've heard about Jesus and have' learned the truth that comes from him here's what you're to do throw off your old sinful nature your former way of life which is corrupted by lust and deception instead let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes put on your new nature created to be like God truly righteous and holy Paul's saying there's some things on you that used to mark your life your old way of life and you can't leave them on anymore he uses this image of clothing that you're going to take it off that you have the ability to take some things off and put some things on that will Mark you so that you can be an imitator of Christ and we need to take a few things off if we're going to look more like Christ the first thing we need to take off is I need to take off my old habits and patterns and I've got some old habits I've got some things that are kind of ingrained in me and it it doesn't actually imitate Jesus it imitates how I was raised and how I used to be but it's not it doesn't line up with how God's calling me to walk and some of us if we were honest we would say man that's me I I have some some old habits some old patterns and you know what it is and if you don't know ask one of your friends ask your dad your mom or your spouse I say ask your spouse last cuz she'll give you something okay so and I want you to have heard it from a few other people before she tells you all right but Paul's saying throw off your old sinful nature your former way of life I love First Timothy because it's it's difficult for me to change who I am especially because I've lived this way for a while but he gives us this image he says don't waste time arguing over Godless ideas and old wives tales instead you need to train your body to be Godly this is me training to say God I want to I want to Bear your image well I'm going to train my body to be Godly physical training is good and y'all we need to do more of that you know what I'm saying but training for godliness is much better promising benefits in this life and in the Life to Come amen Paul then he goes on to summarize a list of things that we should be taking off he says we should stop lying said we shouldn't be angry anymore we should quit stealing we should no longer be marked by corrupt speech and bitterness and I love this part because if you're in the room you might be saying okay Brenan this is where you're going to tell me all the things I shouldn't do anymore and why I'm not a good Christian yada yada yada and I totally understand that I get that because for years Christians in the church have been going to non-christians and telling them that if they don't act a certain way they're going to go to hell and that doesn't work it doesn't work it's not about Sin management Paul's not saying hey this is all about Sin management it doesn't say we take these things off so that he will forgive us it says we take these things off because he's forgiven us man God because you've given me this great gift I'm taking this off it's not who I am anymore it doesn't line up with the fact that you've been bought with the price you're not bought with the price and then live in the world you go no I'm taking this off we do it because he's forgiven us it's our job as followers of Christ to love well and then God will lead people to repentance we don't need to step in and tell people how to live their life we need to tell them to get close to Jesus and then he'll do it I'll never forget I had a buddy of mine I met him years ago good friend he was in my wedding me and my wife just celebr celebrated our 9-year anniversary she makes me watch The Wedding Video over it's like 40 minutes I love her so I do it and she cries and I do get a little emotional you know um but I saw my friend who was in my wedding but before that years before that when I first met him we were at church in a parking lot and I saw a guy walk up to a 2007 Ford Ranger and he was breaking into the truck he had the antenna he had taken off the truck and he was like trying to get in and I'm like hey what you doing buddy and he's like um getting in my truck and I was like oh it's your truck and he's like yeah it's my truck and I said why don't you have your keys he's like I don't I leave my keys in there you can unlock every Ford Ranger with the anten let me show you so by the way if you need to know how to get into a Ford Ranger I'm your guy okay I'll help you out we're not going to steal it we'll joy ride it okay I'm just kidding we won't do that but anyways I'll never forget because I said well what are you doing here he said man this is my first time coming to church in a long time last night I woke up at the foot of my toilet and I knew I needed Jesus and I don't even know what it looks like so I came to church I live right down the street he began to tell me about his life he began to tell me about his drug abuse his how he every single night he was with a different girl a different person and um I said man can we grab coffee and so we connected and and as he's sharing more about his story you know inwardly what I wanted to do was tell him how to live I wanted to tell him like hey man you got to quit doing that that's bad for you you need to stop doing that but the Lord quickened my heart in a moment and said do not tell him how to live tell him to seek me and I I I literally I'll never forget it and here's why you might convince somebody to do something that only lasts a moment but if God gets a hold of somebody's life it's Eternal if God grabs somebody and says come on you're a new creation it lasts forever long longer than a week I can get anybody to do anything for a day okay cuz I'm a good like Communicator I can convince you but God will get you to change your life and you know what he did it didn't take 24 hours he picks the phone up and he calls me he goes Brandon I was reading the word and I picked up my phone I called every single person I knew that I used to use drugs with every girl that was going to come over I said don't come over I'm leaving this life behind I'm a Christian now everything I would have told him to do God led him to do I'm telling you this isn't about me this isn't Paul trying to tell you what to do and not to do it's about you responding to the grace of God in your life to live a life worthy of the calling you've received come on how many of you want to walk with God today I need to point one more thing out before we get into how we are to walk Paul he talks about taking off and I think for us since we understand taking off is not a law a law is something that defines you a law says if you don't do this you get in trouble Paul wasn't saying this was the law Paul was saying this is a right you have a right is a freedom it's something you have the ability to do whenever you want I need you to understand that you have actually been given the authority a spiritual Birthright to not live the way you used to live some of you you think you're slaved to Old patterns and old mindsets you are not God has given you a superpower so to speak to take off things that used to Mark you to take off insecurity to take off greed to take off anger it's not a law it's a right that you have God has given you the power so we need to take some things off and put some things on so now that you see that this isn't just about a list of things to not do and to do rather that you have a supernatural power to take things off remove generational curses Paul then gives us a list of a few things we should take off and I believe since Paul wrote it down we should probably read it right it's not exhaustive but it's five things I want to talk about today the first thing we need to do if we want to be more like Jesus is replace lying with truthtellah need to stop that you need to take that off and I need you to start telling the truth you actually need to be a truth tell not a liar some of you you think you're fine but you actually are deceitful more than you think you tell people what they want to hear and not the truth you think you're helping them but you're actually hurting them Paul says therefore each one of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor why because we're all members of one body you have the ability to speak life into people but you will not help people by lying to them you will build them up by telling them the truth whenever we tell the truth the spirit of God works because God is truth but whenever we tell a lie Satan goes to work because he's the liar lying hurts the body disrupts Unity by creating conflicts and destroying trust it tears down relationships but truth truthfulness opens the door to understanding and if God is truth and we to model him then we need to make every effort to walk in honesty even when it hurts others because Christ is truth amen I can promise you this deceit is more destructive than honesty the second thing Paul's asking us to take off he's saying I need you to replace unrighteous anger with righteous anger Ephesians 4:26 this is what he says in your anger do not sin do not let the sun go down while you are still angry and do not give the devil a foothold anger will make you do and say things you would never ever say otherwise left unchecked it has the destructive power of a tornado not only that it hurts you and it hurts other people Paul's not saying you can't be angry and I'm so thankful for that as a father because there are some things that when they happen I get angry and I have a right to be anger Paul is saying I want you to walk in righteous anger not unrighteous anger the main difference here that you need to know is that unrighteous anger listen to this it tears someone down righteous anger builds someone up so anytime you're angry and you desire to hurt someone that's unrighteous anger in your anger we manage that and we we learn to walk in righteous anger that desires to build the other up in the other truth is another reason we shouldn't be angry is have you ever tried to go to sleep angry let me rephrase it it's impossible to go to sleep when you're angry it's impossible but here's the key when you're in bed get out of bed and pray and go God I'm giving this to you man sometimes I got to do that sometimes I'm laying in bed and I cannot sleep and then finally I'm like all I'm getting to bed and I go out in the living room and I sit down I go God this is not outside of your control I'm surrendering this to you and I'm going to bed and you know what I fall asleep like a baby because God's got it he says vengeance is mine says the Lord amen so for that person you're angry with God's going to get him all right amen come on but we need to learn to manage our anger and learn how to handle righteous anger because unresolved anger always leads to bitterness and resentment and the truth is is is you'll never fix your marriage being angry you'll never do it you'll you'll never fix your child being angry you'll never solve that problem in Anger you'll never succeed in your company angry nobody wants to be around angry people the enemy comes to steal kill and destroy so every day that he takes is the day he wins and every day that you wake up angry and fester in it is a day you'll never get back a day that's been stolen from you and some of you like well I'm just mad right now I'm just upset right now I'm going to be upset too because that's what I do no no no no you just got robbed right now you just got robbed talk about generational curses some of you say I got my mama's temper watch out you don't need your mama's temper you need God's character that's what you need prover BS 15 a hot tempered person stirs up conflict but the one who is patient calms a quarrel the next thing you need to do is replace stealing with working and giving Paul said anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer but must work doing something useful with their own hands that they may have something to share with those in need stealing was so common in the first century and stealing is so opposite of the character of God do you want to know why stealing is so opposite the character of God because he gave his life he could have came and took your life but he gave his life God is a giver others focused so when you steal you aren't modeling The Life of Christ Paul's saying man we need to work if God gave his very best the absence of work is your ability to not give you know when you meet people who they never work and they don't have a job and they're they're literally depressed it's because there's something that happens when I have the ability to give and man the more money I make the more I can give the more God gives me the more I can give but you don't have the ability to give when you have nothing to give likewise when you steal and you Rob and sometimes you're like well I don't steal like some of you do like you're kleptomaniac that's what they call it s on day line NBC no I'm just kidding some of you you don't but you know where you do steal is on your expense report you steal from your work man God doesn't want you to do that that's not his character his character is not theft it's giving we need to replace correct talk with edifying talk Ephesians 4:29 sayso not let any UNH wholesome talk come out of your mouths but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that it may benefit those who listen the word UNH wholesome actually means rotten it it it translates to rotten fish rotten meat you know what happens when you consume something that's rotten something that's UNH wholesome you literally get sick you know when you're around someone who all they do is spew just negativity you literally feel what you feel sick and I've been around those people and I'm like dude I I I don't want to be around you and they'll be like why don't you want to be my friend and I'm like dude you are you're unhealthy healthy I'm going to be honest in love you're an unhealthy person and you're not happy and you need to seek the Lord but we cannot allow UNH wholesome talk to come out of our mouth Matthew 12:34 says out of the abundance of your heart the mouth speaks so if you want to take off un wholesome talk you actually have to address your heart first Pastor Jason had an incredible message on this last week you should listen to it he really talks about the language we use so we need to replace corrupt talk with edifying talk and lastly we need to replace bitterness and rage with kindness and forgiveness Paul says get rid of all bitterness rage and anger brawling and slander along with every form of malice be kind and compassionate to one another forgiving each other just as in Christ bitterness is anger is different than anger because bitterness is settled hostility that poisons your entire being anger is a reaction bitterness is something I've chosen to walk in in bitterness desires to break breaks someone down so Paul's saying man don't do that you need to be made renewed in that and he takes time to list out these five things we need to replace but truthfully Paul's talking about these outer things that Mark us but then he says that we need to take something else off if we're going to really walk in wholeness he says you need to take off your old way of thinking you need to take off your old way of thinking he says don't copy the behavior and customs of this world but let God transform you and this is how God transforms you he transforms you by changing the way you think then you will learn to know God's will for you which is good and pleasing and perfect and if we're going to do that we need to be renewed in the spirit of our minds if we need to change the way we think we need the Holy Spirit to renew our minds he says throw off your old sinful nature and he says let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes and the way we do this is in John 1717 God how do I renew my mind Jesus he prayed for his disciples in the garden before he was crucified he said sanctify them by the truth what's the truth the word of God is the truth he said sanctify them by this by the word of God and that's how you're going to renew your mind and so if we're going to renew our mind we need to do that and I don't know about you but I want a changed life I want God to renew me I don't want to walk in my old nature the last thing we need to do is you need to take off the labels that defin you and I really felt the Lord speak this to me some of you you're wearing a label that you need to take off and the label is something that someone put on you maybe you put it on yourself maybe you walked a certain way for so long that you started to allow that to Define you and you wear it like a label I'm an addict I'm a liar I'm angry I'm depressed I'm broken I'm lost Paul saying you can take that off you can take that off these labels have actually begun to identify you your character your your nature labels can sometimes be the hardest things to remove Paul's saying today take it off I don't know what's been spoken over you and I don't know the label that you're wearing today but we as a church we speak over you it's not who you are so every label we take every label we take it off and we take it to the Cross every label that somebody put on your life every label we bring it to the Cross we find Freedom and forgiveness at the cross you are not what has been said about you you are not what's been spoken about you receive it today receive the word of God we bring everything to the cross our struggles our addictions our battles all the labels maybe that you even earned maybe a label you earned or one that's been put on you but however they came to you we lay it down at the foot of the cross I can take it off and I can lay it down and give it to God I'm not wearing it anymore and this is what we do I'm taking it off and I'm putting on Christ likeness God this isn't who I am I'm a Son of God you're a daughter of Christ that's what you're wearing now we're taking the labels off 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul said if anyone's in Christ he's a new creation old things have passed and behold all things have become new you can walk as a new creation today and God wants to walk with you it's a journey there's a lot of things God can do in a moment and there are some things God has the patience to do in you over years he wants to walk with you and I hope that you want to walk with God today

Channel: Discovery Church

Views: 698

Keywords: God, Jesus, holy ghost, holy spirit, christianity, church, bakersfield church, bible, pastor, christian, gospel, preaching, word of God, prayer, salvation, bible verse, scripture, faith, born again, yeshua, religion, trinity, baptism, message on hope, message on depression, inspirational, heart brake, how to pray, healing, how to talk to God, Christian video, message on anger, sadness, joy, who is God, Christian short film, Pentecostal, Jason Hanash, Discovery Church, Discovery Church Bakersfield

Id: gWLVl4y_FFk

Length: 43min 57sec (2637 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 17 2024