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Living With Integrity in My Community (Ephesians 4:17-24)
55 Plays2 years ago
Living With Integrity in My Community (Ephesians 4:17-24)
Ephesians: Growing in Christ
Sunday Message recorded 26 February 2023
by Senior Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
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Transcript
Introduction to Ephesians 4
00:00:06
Speaker
Good morning. Would you turn with me to Ephesians in the New Testament? Find the letter of Ephesians. We're at chapter four. We're going to begin with verse 17. Just want to say a word of thanks to Marcia and others for the birthday wish. Let's keep it quiet, OK? We don't want to tell people the pastor getting older. But I do remember sometime after I took my first breath, they asked my mom, what's his name going to be?
00:00:36
Speaker
And she said, well, his name's going to be Victor. And that name means the winner. But I want to tell you that I hadn't won anything when I received that name, Victor.
Meaning of Victory in Christ
00:00:50
Speaker
But the testimony of my life is 1 Corinthians 15, 57. But thanks be to God.
00:00:57
Speaker
who gives us, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so if you're looking for victory today, I want you to know it's found in Christ. He's still the only source of victory that I have. But 35 times in this letter of the Ephesians,
00:01:16
Speaker
you'll find this phrase in Christ, in Christ. It's all through there, over and over again. And the reason it's all through there is it's the core of our identity. Do you get your identity from your work? Do you get your identity from your health? Do you get your identity from something else? Or do you get your identity from who you are in Christ, that Christ laid down his life for you?
00:01:45
Speaker
Ephesians, chapters 1 and 2 and 3, it's all about that. It's all about our position as believers in Jesus Christ. It's about our position in Jesus. It's about what He's done for us in the spiritual wealth, the spiritual riches, not material or financial riches, but the spiritual riches that we have available to us in Christ all because of who we are in Him.
Identity in Christ
00:02:13
Speaker
Well, when you go into this chapter, chapter four, especially when you look at chapter four, verse one, I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
00:02:30
Speaker
It's just like you walk through a doorway, because now based on everything he's done for Paul, based on everything he's done for me, for you, for all of us, we look back at that and we say, you know what? He is worthy. He's worth my best. He's not worth leftovers and scraps of my life. He's worth the very best. And that's why the Apostle Paul says, based on who you are in Christ,
00:02:58
Speaker
This is how you should be living every day of your life. And so that's why he says, walk in a manner worthy of the calling. The word walk there is used eight times in this letter to the Ephesians. And it's talking about our lifestyle, the way we live. How do you live? Not on Sunday morning.
00:03:18
Speaker
How do you live on Monday morning? How do you live on a Friday night or a Saturday night? How do we live on a Wednesday afternoon? That's what I think he's talking about.
00:03:31
Speaker
Whenever he goes down into verse 2, for a while he's talking about walking in the direction of unity with the body of Christ. Other disciples saying, look, we have so much that we have together that we share in common in Christ. But then he moves from talking about walking in the direction of unity to walking in the direction of maturity.
00:03:52
Speaker
growing up, being who God wants us to be. And we saw last week that we can't be who God wants us to be all by ourselves. We need a church family. We need a Sunday school class. We need a father and a mother who will show us how to live for the Lord. But now when we go into chapter four, verse 17, now we're going to start looking at how to walk
00:04:16
Speaker
in integrity before our community.
Transformation in Conduct
00:04:20
Speaker
The way we live every single day at school, at work, in the neighborhood, on the road where you live,
00:04:27
Speaker
And that section is going to actually take us all the way down through chapter five, verse 21. So we're going to be talking about that for a while. But you see, here's the thing. The Lord changes us on the inside. But the more He changes us on the inside, you know what? It just shows up on the outside. And people begin to say, I grew up with Him. I grew up with her. They didn't live anything like they're living now. Their whole life has changed.
00:04:57
Speaker
The transformation is noticed by those who are on the outside, our conduct, our conversations, our commitments. And so people in this community, Columbus, Colorado County, and beyond, they should be able to see a difference between a follower of Christ and someone who's not made that decision yet. They should be able to look at our lives and say, they're so different from the others that I'm around the rest of the week.
00:05:27
Speaker
I want to show you something on this next slide that puts up here some pictures of people who are wearing some uniforms. Can you tell the difference between someone who is say a soldier and someone who is a law enforcement officer? What if you were to go downtown and let's say you go to one of our eating establishments and you see someone dressed in a certain outfit and you would say, I know what she does. She's a nurse.
00:05:56
Speaker
If you were to go down into Houston and go around NASA, you might see people and you say, I know what he does. He's an astronaut. Can people look at our lives, our behavior, our conduct, our attitudes, our words, and could they say, you know what? I know who she is. I know who he is.
00:06:16
Speaker
He's following Christ. She's following Christ. That's what I think today is about. It's going to contrast the stark difference between who we were before we became a Christian and who we are now that we're a Christian.
00:06:33
Speaker
The Holy Spirit inspired this author, the Apostle Paul, to contrast the old self had a certain way of living, right? And the new self, who we are in Christ. And there's a whole way we're supposed to live that we're gonna look at. The verbs that he led the Apostle Paul, the Holy Spirit led the Apostle Paul to use to refer to our new life in Christ and our old life before Christ. All of that is described in verse 22 as
00:07:03
Speaker
Put off. Put off your old self. You don't live like that anymore. Put on the new self that's created after the likeness of God. You see, that's who we're supposed to live, that new self.
00:07:18
Speaker
So we're gonna look through here and I want you to watch for a word that's gonna stand out to you, learned. You learned Christ. So it's like we entered a new classroom because before we were in the classroom of the world and the world was telling us, this is how you behave. This is how you act. This is how you have different ways of relating to other people. This is how you dress. This is the songs you listen to. On and on and on, the world was teaching us, but now,
00:07:48
Speaker
He says, you didn't learn Christ like that. So it's going to be a new classroom, but also you're going to see new clothes, new clothes that the Lord is going to give us whenever we turn from sin and turn to Christ. And you're going to see at the end that we, everyone who is in Christ, we are a new creation. He talks about that we are created after the likeness of God.
Learning and Renouncing for Christ
00:08:16
Speaker
So I want you to pay close attention to who we used to be and how we used to live, who we are now, and how we're supposed to live now. Would you stand? There's not very many verses here. I won't have you standing long. But I would like for you to stand as we look at God's word, Ephesians 4, 17 through 24. We're standing in honor and reverence of His word. It's different than other words that we read. Here's what it says in Ephesians 4, verse 17.
00:08:45
Speaker
Now this I say in testifying the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do. In the futility of their minds, they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.
00:09:13
Speaker
They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that's not the way you learn Christ, assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him.
00:09:34
Speaker
as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self
00:09:52
Speaker
created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Let's go to the Father in prayer. Oh Lord, make this come alive. Let us hear the voice of the Holy Spirit who inspired these words. Lord, I know that your word will not come back to your void. And so Lord, let it be alive in each life today. There may be adjustments that we need to make.
00:10:19
Speaker
drastic adjustments. And so help us to be willing to make those. Help us be submissive to you, to the authority of Christ, and to what we read here. This is the objective word of God. And so help us to learn from it and to live it in everyday life. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated.
00:10:42
Speaker
Well, let's look at four different concepts that I want to give you today. The first one is renouncing. The second one is repenting. The third word is renewing. And the fourth word is refilling. So let's go look at these verses as we think about those four concepts. The first thing that happens whenever we decide to follow Christ is we get fed up with
00:11:10
Speaker
the way the world's been leading us. We get fed up with the decisions we've been making. And so what happens is we begin to say, you know what, I'm tired of that. And so it's like we renounce it and we make a declaration spiritually of saying, you know what, that's the way I used to live.
00:11:28
Speaker
But I'm not going to live that way anymore because Jesus has set me free from that. I'm not going to live that way. I declare myself free of that. And so we begin to disown that lifestyle. We begin to dismiss that lifestyle. That was a part of our past, but it's not going to be a part of our present. It's not going to be a part of our future because we're following Christ.
00:11:50
Speaker
There was an evangelist from the past that some of you may have read about or heard about named D.L. Moody. And D.L. Moody used to tell his generation, I think it's the same for our generation.
00:12:03
Speaker
If I walk with the world, I cannot walk with God. If I walk with the world, I cannot walk with God because God's going this way and the world's going that way. So we have to decide which one am I going to follow. And so as followers of Christ, we say, we declare it. We say, Lord, I'm going to follow Jesus for the rest of my life until my very last breath.
00:12:27
Speaker
You know, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 2, maybe you'd say, I've never heard that word renounced. Well, let me give you a verse, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 2. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 2. Here's what Paul said, because remember, there was a time when Paul wasn't following Christ, but this is describing his decision to follow Christ. He says, we have renounced.
00:12:54
Speaker
disgraceful and underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth." Hear what he's saying? He's saying, God has spoken into my heart and life, and I'm done with that.
00:13:12
Speaker
I'm following Christ. I want to live out the truth of God's word. And so when I read verse 22, I thought, there it is, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.
00:13:31
Speaker
So I thought to myself, you know, that matches. That matches exactly what the whole Bible has been trying to say. All you've got to do is go to Romans chapter 5, Romans chapter 6, Romans chapter 7, Romans chapter 8, those four chapters.
00:13:48
Speaker
It gives way more detail on all that we're reading right here in Ephesians 4, 17 through 24. As a matter of fact, in Romans chapter six, verse six, it says, our old self, get this, our old self was crucified, was crucified. Our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing.
00:14:15
Speaker
That's a truth. That's a biblical truth. That's a reality that Jesus has done that for us. So why do we want to go back to old patterns and old habits?
Repentance and Renewal
00:14:26
Speaker
Colossians 3, 9 says, you put off the old self with its practices.
00:14:31
Speaker
I remember one time our associate pastor, Josh, you told us Galatians 2.20 is one of your favorite verses. I love that. Galatians 2.20, I'm crucified, he says. I'm crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives through me. And so that's exactly what we're talking about whenever in verse 22, he says, to put off your old self.
00:14:57
Speaker
which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires." Maybe it's say, I'm not sure I want to do that. Nobody else is doing that around me. Well, let me give you from this verse two good reasons why you should do that. Why should you put off the old self? Well, there's two very good reasons here in this verse 22. The first one is because the old self
00:15:22
Speaker
was crucified. You're following a dead man. You're following something that's dead. He said, that was the former manner of life. And all these other verses that are read a while ago, they're all saying that old man is dead. And so we're still trying to live based on somebody that's already gone. You know, the other reason he says is because the old self was only just crucified. The old self was corrupted.
00:15:50
Speaker
Wouldn't you rather be in a new place with everything functioning correctly and so forth? Well, he says here in this verse that the old self, remember it was corrupt through deceitful desires. Don't you remember how your old self used to trick you? That's why the Bible says the heart is deceitful. It's deceitful above all things. We can't trust our own heart. We have to come back to the objective truth in the word of God. And the word of God tells us
00:16:20
Speaker
Put the old self away. As a matter of fact, the day you trusted Christ, the old self was crucified because the old self was so corrupted. You don't want to follow that anymore. So what about your past? What is it that you're renouncing?
00:16:36
Speaker
Well, in the interest of time, let me just review verse 17, 18, and 19. If you've never said this to the Lord, if you've never spiritually made this declaration of saying, you know what? I've renounced these things. These things were a part of my past. I'm done with that now.
00:16:54
Speaker
then you may want to consider doing this. For example, in Christ, we've renounced emptiness. We've renounced meaninglessness. That's why he says in the futility of their minds. But we've also renounced darkness. He said they're darkened in their understanding.
00:17:13
Speaker
And they're also dead because they are alienated. They're cut off from the life of God. So we are to say, Lord, in Christ, I've already said with my will, I'm done with the meaninglessness and the emptiness. I'm done with that darkness and that deadness. And I'm done with the foolishness. He says, because of the ignorance that is in them.
00:17:37
Speaker
I want to clarify something. I'm not saying that those who have a PhD, I'm not saying that those who work hard with their hands and they know how to build things. I'm not saying that airplane pilots and all these different ones who are unbelievers, that they're stupid. I'm not saying that at all. I'm not talking at all about intelligence.
00:17:58
Speaker
What I'm talking about is a foolishness that says they use all of that intelligence and they come to the conclusion, you know what? There is no God who created this heaven and this earth. And I'm thinking, really? How did you come up with that? And I look at the Word of God and it says it's the ignorance that is in them.
00:18:17
Speaker
So what I'm talking about is that spiritual understanding that they're still unable to get it with all their books, with all their degrees, with all their experiments and everything they're trying, they still can't get it. And so those of us who have, we're saying, you know what? I renounced that kind of foolishness the day that I surrendered to Christ. I renounced the hardness of my heart. You remember how you used to? You didn't care about anybody but you.
00:18:46
Speaker
It was just you. I was the same way. Man, whenever somebody passed me legitimately on the road, and I was 16 or 17 years old, I passed them back. No matter how dangerous it was, I was like, I took it personal. I'm like, really, you got the audacity to pass me on the road. You're gonna pay for that, buddy. And it's like, boy, God was saying, I gotta spare this guy's life. He's a toe head, you know, but I got plans for him in the future. I'm so glad he did that.
00:19:13
Speaker
But you know what? It was just the hardness of my heart because I wasn't concerned about anybody but me. Before I trusted Christ, I was callous. But now I renounce that part of my life and God's made me tender. I lived in uncleanness before Jesus washed me and made me clean. But I've renounced uncleanness. If you only knew how greedy and how selfish I used to be,
00:19:38
Speaker
when I was without Christ, but now I renounced all that. Have you made that decision with your will? Have you said, you know what? I know who I'm following, and I know who I'm not following, and I'm not following that dead man. I'm not following who I used to be apart from Christ.
00:19:54
Speaker
I'm going to follow the Lord. So that leads me to that decision you made back there. Every person on the face of the earth has to make a decision. And that is, who are you going to follow? And so if you've been following self,
00:20:09
Speaker
If you've been following the world, if you've been following the evil one, the devil, you've got to do a 160 and you've got to say, you know what? I'm turning and I'm going in the exact opposite direction because I'm going to start following Jesus. You know what you call that?
00:20:24
Speaker
repentance. You see renouncing is more like your will. It's when you give this declaration, you know what, I see how wrong that is. I don't want to do that anymore. But repentance is when you say, I'm not only saying it, I'm not only declaring it, I'm going to live it out. I'm turning, I'm going that way.
00:20:45
Speaker
That's repentance. James says, friendship with the world is hostility toward God. Once again, they're so incompatible. The Apostle John says, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2.15. Jesus said in Mark 1.15 that everybody needs to repent and believe in the gospel. Repent and believe in the gospel.
00:21:10
Speaker
It's that whole idea of saying, I'm done with the sin and I'm professing Christ. That's who I'm following now. Luke records in Acts 20, 21, the message the Apostle Paul used to give whenever you go to places like Ephesus. It says that Paul said, I used to give a message of repentance toward God
00:21:31
Speaker
and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. It's that simple. But we have to do it. We have to do it. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
00:21:47
Speaker
So I want to give you from verses 20 and 21 just a quick slow motion. Let's slow it down and let's see what does it look like when you're saying I'm turning now and I'm going that way. I'll give you three things from 20 and 21. The first thing is the calling to follow Jesus. He says in verse 21, assuming that you've heard
00:22:09
Speaker
about him and were taught in him. Why should you have your children? Why should the teenagers be in Sunday school? Why should they come to youth group? Why should they go to Awana? Because you know what they're hearing? They're hearing the truth about Jesus.
00:22:25
Speaker
And in that truth, one of these days they're going to hear the Lord saying, come to me, come to me, come to me for salvation. And so the call of Jesus is the first thing you hear when you're going toward your sin and he says, come this way. But the second thing that happens is you say, you know what, I'm going to let this go and I'm going to follow him. So the change, the change that happens through Jesus
00:22:51
Speaker
You can't do it all by yourself. But when you hear him call, you must say, you know what? I'm done with this. And that's where we see in verse 20, but that's not the way you learn, Jesus. It's like all that you've been learning, suddenly you become convinced. And you're like, you know what? I'm changing my direction. I'm going to start following him.
00:23:13
Speaker
That's why 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says that every man who's in Christ, he's somebody new. He's a new creation. Old things passed away, healed all things become new. If you're looking for a fresh start, a new start in life,
00:23:29
Speaker
It's only found in Christ, but it comes whenever you hear the Lord saying, come over here, follow me, trust me, turn from sin. And you say, you know what? I'm changing. I'm going to turn from that and I'm going to start walking toward the Lord.
Daily Renewal through Scripture
00:23:43
Speaker
And then there's this centering.
00:23:46
Speaker
Centering upon Christ. I learned how to say, I used it in Tennessee, we said center. But if I said center, you'd be thinking S-I-N-N-E-R, center. But I'm saying C-E-N-T-E-R, the center. And so anyway, the Canadians, they had to sand my accent down for six years before I ever got it right.
00:24:04
Speaker
But I remember one time DK Hill's dad said, wow, Vic, I never heard of a man from Tennessee saying, set it down here in the center. You know, he said, man, you're coming a long way. So just know it took a long time, too. But anyway, all I'm saying is the center.
00:24:21
Speaker
of our lives changes, right? It changes whenever we come to know the Lord and say, now the truth is found in Christ. Did you notice how often he mentions? He said, but that's not the way you learned Christ. There's one reference. Assuming that you have heard about him, that's the second reference. And we're taught in him, that's the third reference, as the truth is in Jesus. That's a fourth reference. Four times in two verses.
00:24:50
Speaker
You see what he's trying to say? When I was a student at university, I remember memorizing scriptures. And that verse that I shared that Josh loves, Galatians 2.20, that was one of the first ones. But the navigator topical memory system had a title at the top of every verse. And the title above Galatians 2.20 was this.
00:25:13
Speaker
Christ is the center. Christ is the center. If Christ is not the center, then either you're not yet a Christian or you're a Christian, but you've backslidden. Something else has become the center, and you need to put Christ back in that core central position in your life.
00:25:34
Speaker
Well, we've looked at renouncing the past without Christ, repenting and professing Christ. But let me go to a third thing that's found in verse 23. To be renewed in the spirit of your minds is what the Holy Spirit gave Paul to write. So renewing into the pattern of Christ. If I was going this way, and now I'm going to turn and go that way, then how am I going to keep knowing which way he's going?
00:26:04
Speaker
I'll tell you how you'll know right here, the Bible. The Bible will continually renew your mind and my mind so that we know which way the Lord is going, but just be aware of something.
00:26:19
Speaker
That's a process. Look at the words carefully and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. That word is, it started happening at one point in your life, the day you became a Christian, the day you surrendered to Christ, the day you said, I'm done with sin, I'm repenting. That's when it began. But you know what? It still means you're still being renewed every single day, renewed in the spirit of your mind, but renewed to do what?
00:26:49
Speaker
to be just like Jesus, to that pattern of Christ. Do you know that's actually the process of renewal the Lord's working on? We love to quote Romans 8.28, God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him or called according to His purpose. But we leave off verse 29 because verse 29 says that we are
00:27:12
Speaker
predestined. We are scheduled to be conformed to the image of Christ. That's the plan. Sometimes we're going, why don't things work out for me? Why is life so hard? You know what God's saying? Because you're not moving toward Christ. And so the Lord tries to help us to move toward Him by arranging our circumstances so that we get back
00:27:37
Speaker
to becoming more like His Son. If you check it out, it's right there in Romans 8 and verse 29.
00:27:45
Speaker
but also got to thinking about the power for renewal, the power for renewal. You know, if you were to look at 2 Corinthians, it's not too far from Ephesians, but we'll be right back if you wanna stay there. But in Ephesians chapter, 2 Corinthians chapter three, verse 17 and 18, here's what it says. 2 Corinthians chapter three, verse 17 and 18. Now the Lord is the Spirit.
00:28:14
Speaker
and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom. And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image
00:28:27
Speaker
from one degree of glory to another degree. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." So the Spirit of God is going to take the word of God, and He's going to help us in that process, because that's where the power is with God's Holy Spirit. And His Holy Spirit, Titus 3.5 says, when did the Holy Spirit start making me and you new? When did that renewal start?
00:28:55
Speaker
Titus 3, 5, the day of salvation. That's when the renewal of the Holy Spirit began. God began to say, I've got way better things for you than the flesh, way better things for you than the world can ever offer.
00:29:10
Speaker
What's the point of this renewal? Where is it that it really comes down to this is where the battle is? There was a man named Tim LaHaye who wrote a book called The Battle for the Mind. That's where the battle is. The battle in our thinking, because if you start thinking, well, I want to be like everybody else,
00:29:33
Speaker
then you're already going to veer off because the point of renewal is the spirit of our minds. That's where it all happens. No wonder in Romans 12 too, whenever we're encouraged to surrender our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, it says, be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
00:29:56
Speaker
So it's vital that you and me that we every day put the Word of God into our minds because it recalibrates our thinking. It readjusts our thinking. Colossians 3 verses 5 through 10 is almost word for word identical to what we're reading in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 17 to 24.
00:30:21
Speaker
But in that passage in Colossians 3, 5 through 10, one of the things he says is, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator. He's saying, put off the old, put on the new. And so constantly, that's the decision we make every day.
00:30:40
Speaker
Every day I wake up, I've got to decide, am I going to live like I used to live before I trusted Christ?
Spirit-Filled Living
00:30:47
Speaker
Or is this day I'm decided already? I'm going to follow Him. So you know what I call that? Refill. Just like you got to go back to the gas station and refill. You got to refuel.
00:30:59
Speaker
Every single day we have to refill. And so that's what I think he's talking about in verse 24 now, where he says, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in the true righteousness and holiness. So to constantly go back to the Lord. Do you know the best way to displace the problems that you have in the present?
00:31:26
Speaker
The problems you have in the past is to say, OK, Lord, I'm going to fill my life with the Spirit of God right now today, with the purity of Christ. That's why he's saying, put on the new self. I don't know if you watch any of those Marvel movies of heroes, but on one of those movies, there was a prince.
00:31:48
Speaker
And this prince was being challenged on whether he was going to become the king or not, or prince or not. And at this point in the movie, he's actually losing. He's losing the battle. And so a contender has the prince down. And his mother, who's the queen, she yells one thing that made all the difference for the prince who was down.
00:32:10
Speaker
She said, show them who you are. Show them who you are. That's what I think verse 24 is all about. The Lord is saying, why are you letting the world push you around? Why are you letting the flesh push you around?
00:32:26
Speaker
Show them who you are in Christ. Put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. In other words, find your identification with Christ. He says, created after the likeness of God.
00:32:42
Speaker
Say, Lord, you've made me to be like you, not like everybody else. That's why I don't wanna give in to peer pressure. I wanna be like Christ. I don't care what others are gonna do, but my identity, my identification is to become like him. That's why I'm created, to be more like him.
00:33:01
Speaker
but also we need that appropriation, the appropriation of Christ. He says, put on the new self. Do you remember when we were in chapter one? Didn't we read that we were blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places?
00:33:16
Speaker
I want to share with you a verse that can make all the difference if you'll just remember this. 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 3 and 4. It's powerful. What is promising me and you? It's power. It's off the scale powerful. It'll transform your life, that's how powerful. But 2 Peter 1, 3, and 4 says, his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life.
00:33:44
Speaker
and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire." So basically, to just sum it all down, what He's saying is,
00:34:13
Speaker
Show them who you are. Show them what you have in Christ. That's the Holy Spirit wants to show you so badly, wants to show me so badly. All that is ours in Christ. Read through the Gospel of John. That's one of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to show us all that belongs to us in Christ.
00:34:33
Speaker
And so say, Lord, I want to appropriate all that I have in Christ. I want to live it out. I want to use those resources that are available to me. And of course, whenever we do, whenever you see this, I want you to say, that's somebody that's walking with the Lord. They manifest Christ. What does it look like when somebody manifests Christ, when someone is living based on those resources available in Christ? Well, look at the end of verse 24.
00:35:01
Speaker
created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. They may call you holier than Joe. They may make a bunch of jokes about your walk with the Lord. But if it's real, if it's true,
00:35:16
Speaker
You know, I was reading this week and I found out where one scholar says the righteousness there is our life before others. That our life is kind of like Daniel. It's such a life of integrity, people say, there's nothing I could really say that's ungodly or wicked about that person's life. That's the righteousness. It's manward, but holiness.
00:35:40
Speaker
Holiness is different. It's God-ward. It means God's watching my life. It means God's watching my life when nobody else is watching my life. And so it's saying, God can help me through this new self, this new man that the Lord has given me in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit to live it out. This morning at 6 o'clock, my mom sent me a text. She said, happy birthday.
00:36:07
Speaker
As she said, here's what I'm praying for you today. I want to share it with you. Romans 15 verse 13. It talks about what should my life be filled with today. I think my mom had it spot on. May the God of hope fill you with all joy.
00:36:26
Speaker
and peace in believing so that by the power of the Spirit, you may abound in hope.
Living Faith with Integrity
00:36:33
Speaker
You ever see anybody that doesn't walk around discouraged, doesn't walk around down and so forth? I'll tell you what they're full of. They're full of the Spirit of God. Because God's doing something counter-cultural. It's counter-circumstances. It's like they're not going off of what's happening around them. They're going off of what's happening within them.
00:36:54
Speaker
The Spirit of God moved in a powerful way in the community of Ephesus. 10 years before Paul wrote the words that we just looked at, 10 years prior,
00:37:06
Speaker
Paul, before Paul wrote Ephesians 4, 17 through 24, Luke recorded what happened whenever Paul was evangelizing, making disciples in the community of Ephesus. In Acts 19, 18 through 20 says that those new disciples, many of them, you know what they decided?
00:37:27
Speaker
We're going to live this out. We're not going to just be a Christian in name only. We're going to live this out in transparency and integrity. And so you know what these verses say that they did? What it says they did was they renounced the sins from the past. It says they were confessing and divulging their practices, but they didn't just talk about it.
00:37:50
Speaker
They repented of evil deeds and practices like messing around with magic. So what they did, they took all their magic books and they put them all in a pile and they lit it and they burned it. They thought, I just want the Lord's power. That's repentance. When now it's not, you're not just talking about something, you're doing something.
00:38:11
Speaker
They also renewed their minds in the word of the Lord. It says they continued to increase in Ephesus. It's like, man, whenever God's people get serious, it's like suddenly it just keeps growing because they were refilled.
00:38:27
Speaker
They were refilled by the Spirit of God. And so the worldliness, that was poured out. The flesh, that was poured out. And so what did they refill? The Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why it says, they began to prevail mightily. The word of God prevailed mightily in their community. Why? Because they were living in integrity in their community.
00:38:55
Speaker
So as we approach the invitation and the close of the service, I just wanna ask you these questions. Number one, is there any remaining area of sin that you are retaining rather than renouncing? Number two, is there a sinful habit, something that's a stronghold in your life that you've allowed to reign?
00:39:20
Speaker
And you're saying, you know what, I care more about what other people think than about what you think. So you've allowed that habit to reign. Have you repented of that habit? Number three, is the world still running your mind? Or is your mind being renewed daily in the word of God?
00:39:41
Speaker
Is your life being ruined by the old patterns or are you being refilled and refueled by the indwelling Christ and His Holy Spirit?
Invitation to Faith and Commitment
00:39:54
Speaker
Show this community who you are. If you are born again, you're like royalty.
00:40:02
Speaker
You're like nobility. And so live up to who you are in Christ. He's our king. So why do we hold our head down? Why do we follow the world? Why do we follow old patterns of living? Live it out for the Lord and let this community see what happens when God's people are on fire in our commitment for him. Let's stand together. I want to give you an opportunity to respond
00:40:28
Speaker
in faith and repentance and surrender. I don't know what may be on your heart, what it is. Maybe you'd say, I don't need to go up in front of people. No, you don't. You just need to be with the Lord and say, God, please work in my life.
00:40:43
Speaker
It may be a private quiet prayer of surrender and repentance. Maybe you need to renounce something. I don't know what it is, but you go to the Lord yourself. You can do it up here, of course, but you can also do it where you are. But it may be that you say, no, I need to receive Christ. I need to turn from my sins and follow Him. And I don't know how to get there. So I need your help. I need Pastor Josh to help.
00:41:10
Speaker
I need somebody to meet with me this week. So I'll be down here after we pray and as we sing and you come and just tell me we can set a time up. But let's go to the Lord in prayer.
00:41:22
Speaker
Lord, I thank you so much for your word. It's so living. It's not out of date. No, I would say more than ever before your word is so applicable. It's so relevant right now, right now, 2023, in this day in which we live. And what really is needed is for us to obey it, for us to apply it, for us to live it out, and to live it out, not just here on Sunday morning, no, to live it out through the week. But those who are watching,
00:41:52
Speaker
Lord, help them to see Jesus high and lifted up through our lives. So you be Lord over a time of invitation. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.