back to indexEphesians Bible Study Lesson 16
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Hello everyone, welcome to the last session, session 16 of the Ephesians study for this 00:00:14.920 |
part 1. Remember that next week we'll be taking a one-week break and then on June 2nd I will be 00:00:22.880 |
posting the first session of the part 2 of Ephesians and so that session is going to be nine weeks long 00:00:30.440 |
and we're just going to go week to week straight through. If you would take a moment to bow with me 00:00:36.080 |
and pray as we jump into our study for tonight. Let's pray. Our God we want to thank you for your 00:00:42.320 |
precious Word. We again want to thank you so much Lord that because of your incredible and inexplicable 00:00:50.480 |
love, that because of your parental love, you desire to see in us a growth, you desire to see in us a 00:00:58.440 |
maturity and a transformation to the likeness of your holiness to God the measure and stature of 00:01:06.280 |
your Son and we just again want to thank you for that and pray that your Spirit would all the more 00:01:13.040 |
challenge us in our hearts and our mind but also God challenge us in our daily living. We thank you 00:01:20.920 |
Lord for your precious Word it's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Okay so we're going to be studying 00:01:28.880 |
this last paragraph of chapter 4. Let me take a moment to read it for us and it says, "Therefore 00:01:36.040 |
laying aside falsehood, speak truth to each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one 00:01:47.960 |
another. Be angry and yet do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give the 00:01:54.440 |
devil an opportunity. He who steals must steal no longer but rather he must labor, performing with 00:02:01.000 |
his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. Let no 00:02:07.280 |
unwholesome word proceed from your mouth but only such a word as is good for edification, according 00:02:13.920 |
to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy 00:02:19.840 |
Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and 00:02:25.800 |
anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Be kind to one another, 00:02:32.000 |
tender-hearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ has forgiven you." Okay as we take a 00:02:40.960 |
look at this passage, it is also again for an inductive study like this a little bit lengthy 00:02:46.640 |
and so we should do an overview. Okay remember that this passage has for us a specific 00:02:55.680 |
application that's been building since the verse one of chapter four and so what we realize 00:03:01.000 |
actually is this is a more specific application of the various principles we've learned already. 00:03:07.000 |
The principles that were found in verse 17 through 24 which told us to stop living like the Gentiles 00:03:14.200 |
in both thinking and in desire and so it said to put off your old self but rather to put on, 00:03:20.240 |
to put on the things that we know are true of us. What's more in verses 7 through 16 there was lots 00:03:29.000 |
of principles but essentially what God desired for us is that we would all attain to this unity. 00:03:34.640 |
Essentially this unity would be the growing maturity to the measure and stature of Jesus 00:03:40.720 |
Christ so what he expected was that every single one of us in every single way would grow towards 00:03:46.280 |
Christ and in so doing we'd be responsible for ministry. We'd be growing closer and closer 00:03:50.840 |
together and what's more, previous to that remember in chapter one there is a walk worthy principle 00:03:57.560 |
which essentially taught us to walk worthy of this incredible calling that we reviewed all the way 00:04:03.960 |
from chapter one through three and so the idea is this great incredible salvation we have, this 00:04:10.360 |
great and incredible completeness that we have in Jesus Christ is supposed to now take effect in 00:04:16.000 |
our walk. Okay, taking a look at this passage as an overview then there are very specific things 00:04:22.600 |
outlined for us in this passage. I have some blanks for you there on your packet just highlighting what 00:04:28.560 |
we're supposed to put off. The passage tells us to put off falsehood from our lives. It also tells 00:04:35.080 |
us to not sin in our anger. Okay, to not let the sun go down on our anger so it deals with anger. 00:04:41.560 |
What's more, the passage teaches us to not steal anymore. Steal no longer. Right, it also tells us 00:04:48.840 |
to put off unwholesome words that our speech needs to be careful and then also renewed so unwholesome 00:04:57.280 |
words put off. Okay, it also tells us to stop grieving the Holy Spirit so stop grieving and 00:05:03.720 |
then it tells us to put aside everything related to bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander that 00:05:09.600 |
all these things including malice must be put away. And so I have this outline for you as an 00:05:15.880 |
overview that this passage has, you can count, six things that we need to be putting away and if you 00:05:22.960 |
include all the various things included in the letter F that's actually a lot of other things. 00:05:27.680 |
So again, as you can see there's a lot to cover in this passage and we're not going to be able to 00:05:32.840 |
dive into each one fully in just the hour that we have but again for us it's up to us to make sure 00:05:39.920 |
that we're asking the right questions. What does that mean then? And if we're supposed to be putting 00:05:44.960 |
off certain ideas and concepts, what is included in that concept? So let's at least make sure we go 00:05:52.400 |
through each one and we begin with making sure that we put off falsehood and put on truth. So 00:05:59.360 |
therefore laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor for we are members of 00:06:05.960 |
one another. Now we ask this question, what are some examples of falsehood? And what I like to do 00:06:12.280 |
is rather than giving you all the various examples of meditation or meditating through that, I leave 00:06:18.120 |
that for your discussions in your small groups and also I leave that for you to actually answer. 00:06:22.600 |
What are the many forms, many scenarios in which we exercise falsehood? Now right now with our BAM 00:06:33.280 |
ministry, our Strangles Adult ministry, we are going through this seminar called Own Your Fears. 00:06:38.640 |
And what's really interesting about this is that I realized after not only just looking at scriptures 00:06:45.360 |
but examining life, our fears cause us to lots of silly things whether it be to run away but one of 00:06:52.560 |
those things that it causes us to do is lie. It almost feels so instinctual for us to lie to get 00:07:00.520 |
out of bad situations, to lie to get ahead in fear of either getting in trouble then or losing out 00:07:07.280 |
on an opportunity. We are so tempted to lie all over different circumstances and places and even 00:07:13.560 |
in something as neutral as basketball, even on the court, there are temptations to lie. So as we 00:07:23.480 |
think about this, I recognize that this challenge for us to lay aside falsehood could be a difficult 00:07:31.200 |
one. And take a moment to observe that the command then actually includes an interesting compound 00:07:38.200 |
idea here, which is that you should be laying aside, which is a participle. That is an ongoing 00:07:44.920 |
activity and the imperative is you should be speaking truth. And then so you realize sometimes 00:07:52.160 |
when we think about our own struggle, right? In order for us to speak the truth in a certain 00:07:58.960 |
moment, man, we have to pull away the already, I guess, dirty clothes that we have, right? In this 00:08:06.440 |
whole analogy of putting off and putting on, the already dirty clothes that we have and the 00:08:11.280 |
instinctual kind of knee-jerk reactions we have to lie to save face. We need to make sure that the 00:08:20.120 |
knee-jerk reaction, I mean, sometimes we don't have to be even creative to lie. It just comes out in 00:08:25.600 |
the moment, right? And what we have to do is regularly fight those temptations. It is a difficult 00:08:31.720 |
thing to do. And I ask you to meditate. Why is it sometimes so difficult for us when someone asks us 00:08:37.720 |
even an opinion, a personal opinion, we are calculating certain things. And then we always 00:08:43.000 |
try to give a safe, safe answer. Whether it's just to appease the person who asked, why is it so 00:08:50.440 |
difficult for me to even expose what I'm actually thinking? We have to meditate on these things. And 00:08:56.560 |
we realize that speaking the truth sometimes is a lot more difficult than we think it is. And so 00:09:03.920 |
this is a huge challenge for us. But also I want us to notice within this passage that there is 00:09:09.880 |
motivation. And what he says is, "For we are members of one another." And so we have to ask 00:09:16.560 |
the question. We observe the rationale clearly that because we're members of one another, we 00:09:22.040 |
have to speak truth to each other. But how does our membership motivate my honesty? Why is it that 00:09:29.480 |
as members, we have to speak truth to one another? Well, in order to just kind of meditate about 00:09:35.080 |
this, I have an example, which is I think about our church and I'm so grateful that the departments, 00:09:43.720 |
I guess you could say, or the service teams that we have. I mean, we have close to, I think I 00:09:48.600 |
counted was 27 different service teams. Now, some of these service teams, they're not like big teams 00:09:55.440 |
and they're not doing a whole lot of like every week activity, but these teams exist to help 00:10:00.600 |
support all the various ministries of the church. And if these teams didn't exist, there'd be 00:10:04.800 |
something that would be neglected. Okay? But then you can imagine amongst 27 teams, and also we 00:10:10.720 |
have, you know, four different affinities. We have the education department, college, youth, and all 00:10:15.120 |
this kind of stuff. Right? When you think about that, there is potential there for competition 00:10:20.080 |
amongst departments. And what's really interesting is that if each service team lead, each affinity 00:10:27.600 |
group leader was not godly, but actually competing with each other, and maybe they were competing 00:10:32.520 |
for budget, maybe they're competing for personnel. And they started to say, well, I want that service 00:10:38.480 |
leader. Maybe it's Matt Chong. Like I want him on my team. And the other person says, no, I need him 00:10:43.320 |
for youth. And another person says, no, I need him to build stuff at church or whatever it may be. 00:10:47.720 |
Right? Now, as soon as you have that kind of motive of competition, there has to be a rationale. 00:10:55.400 |
So what ends up happening? You sometimes exaggerate your need. We have nobody. Right? And then so 00:11:02.000 |
sometimes even with budget, people do this. They realize like, oh my gosh, we have leftover 00:11:06.320 |
budget. Then pizza party for all, and we're going to give gifts to. Why? Because you're trying to 00:11:10.720 |
bump up your budget to make it seem like you have all these expenditures. Do those kind of things 00:11:17.000 |
ever take place? It can if we don't check our hearts. And so I just want to give that example. 00:11:23.480 |
Why? Because if we're members of one another, if one piece is just as important as another, if the 00:11:30.600 |
education department and the college department and the welcome team are all elements of the body 00:11:39.320 |
like the scripture says, that's the eye and the nose and the ear. Think about how ridiculous it 00:11:45.480 |
would be that the eye would compete against the nose. Think about how ridiculous it would be for 00:11:51.560 |
your arm to compete against your thigh. I mean, those kinds of examples just are a little bit 00:11:56.160 |
silly, but that's how ridiculous it would be. We are all a part of the body and therefore rely on 00:12:02.120 |
each other, not compete with each other. And that kind of competition, a threat to each other is 00:12:06.840 |
sometimes a great motive behind the lying. Okay. Let's go move on to the next one. Number two, put 00:12:14.560 |
off anger and put on what was tough. Sometimes I wish it was just clearly spelled out for you, but 00:12:23.080 |
clearly there's some things we're supposed to put on in the whole pattern of the teaching. But this 00:12:28.520 |
passage says, "Be angry and yet do not sin and do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not 00:12:35.000 |
give the devil opportunity." Now this exhortation and admonishment has a lot of questions. Hey, wait 00:12:40.720 |
a minute. Why does it say, "Be angry"? Shouldn't it say, "Don't be angry," right? Because am I 00:12:47.000 |
supposed to actually be angry about stuff? And why is it that in personal experience, I always feel 00:12:53.160 |
guilty whenever I get angry, you know? And also it just seems very contrary to expectation here. 00:12:59.320 |
And what's more, what is this principle about not letting the sun go down on your anger? Now, 00:13:05.960 |
what's very clear is you notice I highlighted for you guys that there is a repetition of the do 00:13:11.560 |
nots. So clearly what you find here then is you're supposed to, at some points, you're allowed to 00:13:20.760 |
provision for, you're supposed to be angry in the sense that there are things that anger us. But 00:13:25.880 |
there are cautions and warnings that clearly tell us that it can go wrong so fast. Okay? Now I ask 00:13:32.840 |
this question again, but what are we supposed to put on? Like, are we supposed to put off anger 00:13:37.000 |
and also then put on anger? What are we supposed to do here? Now, I want us to think about this, 00:13:43.720 |
and this is a great opportunity to do a word study. If you're looking at a term that says, 00:13:49.000 |
"Be angry," and you're like, "Well, I understand the word angry, but clearly there's kind of more 00:13:54.520 |
than meets the eye," or at least, "I need to know what he's talking about specifically," do a word 00:13:59.400 |
study. And what we find is that there are two different words for anger in this passage. Notice 00:14:05.400 |
it says, "Be angry," the Greek word is "orgie," yet, "Do not sin." Do not let the sun go down on 00:14:12.280 |
your, and it doesn't actually repeat the same word, but it uses a different word, "paragizmo." 00:14:17.320 |
Now, the idea here then, the translations are pretty similar. It says, "Wrath, make angry, 00:14:22.840 |
provoke," but the first term is passive, and it's used in lots of different contexts. However, 00:14:29.400 |
the second word is to make angry to a violent or bitter anger, and is only found here. Here is the 00:14:37.720 |
word dictionary of the New Testament, says this, "Although both paragizmos and orgie are translated 00:14:42.840 |
wrath, they are not the same in meaning. On the one hand, paragizmos signifies the kind of severe 00:14:49.560 |
or violent anger which arises from direct provocation, an aroused anger, or seething 00:14:54.840 |
exasperation. Such behavior is contrary to the Spirit and the Word of God. On the other hand, 00:15:00.440 |
orgie refers to anger in general, and though it is used of sinful anger, it is also used of 00:15:05.880 |
righteous indignation, such as certain passages." Okay? So, take a moment to think about that, 00:15:13.480 |
and you realize that what he's trying to say then is when you look at this passage, yes, there are 00:15:20.920 |
times and moments where because of what you're getting angry about, and because of how you're 00:15:26.440 |
getting angry, and because to what end, right? Like what is causing you to do, all those things 00:15:31.960 |
matter. So, if you're getting angry in righteous indignation because of the blasphemy of God, 00:15:38.520 |
or some kind of dishonor to the Lord, or some kind of injustice towards the oppressed and the 00:15:43.160 |
helpless, that clearly is a kind of anger we've seen within Scripture. But is there an ungodliness 00:15:50.520 |
in you that is self-righteously angered because you didn't get honored? Is it controlled? Is it 00:15:58.520 |
a controlled passion where there's clear thinking, there's still truthfulness of words, or is it 00:16:03.880 |
violent, uncontrolled, raging, right? But what's more, there's this interesting kind of caveat 00:16:12.040 |
here that tells us, "Do not sin, do not let go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an 00:16:19.480 |
opportunity." So, here are the warnings. The warnings of not doing this, and not doing that, 00:16:25.240 |
and not doing this. Now, this part of it I thought kind of funny because I remember reading some 00:16:29.400 |
books about anger, and in one book, I remember it saying, "Man, you have to resolve anger then and 00:16:36.200 |
there." So, it was actually one of the marriage books that I read that talked about how you have 00:16:40.920 |
to resolve then and there. Now, I am one that has a hard time doing that because I have to think 00:16:46.440 |
through, "Why am I feeling this way? What am I actually even feeling? How do I put it into words?" 00:16:51.640 |
And it takes me a while, okay? So, I'm not good with resolving then and there. What's funny is 00:16:56.200 |
that through a story the book was trying to teach, like, you have to resolve it quickly though. 00:17:00.280 |
Husband and wife, husband and wife gets in a fight. It's late into the evening. Perhaps the 00:17:05.960 |
gentleman says, "You know what? I don't want to fight like this anymore. Let's talk about it 00:17:08.680 |
tomorrow." He goes to bed. He wakes up and he realizes his wife is now four times as mad as 00:17:14.040 |
before because she's thinking, "How could you sleep?" Right? She stayed up all night. "How could 00:17:20.360 |
you sleep? Don't you even care?" Right? Now, what's funny is I read another book that said, "Hey, 00:17:26.040 |
don't take this literally, okay? If you're fighting at 2 a.m., you don't have sobriety. 00:17:32.920 |
You're tired. You don't have the motivation to be cautious with your words. This is not some 00:17:38.200 |
literal wooden principle where you have to make sure that the sun doesn't go down because if you 00:17:42.920 |
start fighting at 10 p.m., the sun's already down, right? It's not literally supposed to be taken. 00:17:47.800 |
So, there's some kind of wisdom there, but the wisdom simply is this. If you allow anger to grow, 00:17:54.040 |
it gives fuel for such other vices. Whether it be judgment, resentment, bitterness, hatred, 00:18:03.240 |
Satan uses that as a means for scheming. And so, as a challenge to you, you have to think about, 00:18:09.000 |
does your anger fuel more godliness? Does it fuel truthful words that helps the other individuals? 00:18:16.440 |
Or does it fuel some kind of retribution, some vindictiveness? Okay? All right. 00:18:24.040 |
Moving to the next point here, number three, the put off and put on principles. It says, 00:18:30.520 |
put off stealing and put on generosity. Passas says, "He who steals must steal no longer, 00:18:36.680 |
but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something 00:18:42.520 |
to share with one who has need." Okay? As a reminder, this is kind of interesting because, 00:18:49.320 |
you know, I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of you out there aren't going to the liquor store 00:18:55.640 |
and stealing candy like we used to when we were kids, right? Maybe it was just me, you know, 00:19:00.760 |
guilty I did that because there was a lot of adrenaline when you're a kid. But when you're 00:19:05.080 |
older, obviously you don't steal. However, however, this passage is speaking to the general public, 00:19:11.880 |
it's teaching churches. Yes, it's written to Ephesus, but it was meant to be circulated. 00:19:17.800 |
And what we find is that these are major areas of life that we struggle with. And it's some, 00:19:23.160 |
it's kind of like a universal pattern. And there's a lot of questions like, "Wow, what can we learn 00:19:29.560 |
about the nature of stealing that entices so many people? And what are the different forms of theft 00:19:36.280 |
that perhaps we struggle with even to this day?" And again, I want you to think about it and 00:19:40.920 |
meditate. Why is it that even as adults sometimes, I mean, think about how many get rich quick 00:19:46.920 |
schemes there are, and it's been around for ages, and yet they still somehow capture people's, 00:19:52.760 |
you know, tempts people. And perhaps because the demand is already right here. And what form of 00:20:00.040 |
stealing is there? Whether it be taking credit for something that's absolutely not yours, 00:20:04.280 |
at work taking credit for things, at work stealing work property. Like, is there stealing that 00:20:12.920 |
happens within the workplace now that it's a little bit more sophisticated as opposed to at 00:20:17.080 |
the liquor store? Perhaps. Copying and pasting when you're studying. I mean, there are many forms 00:20:22.920 |
that we can think about, but you can take time to think about that. All I want to say is this, 00:20:27.560 |
what's really interesting here, if you notice, is he who steals must steal no longer. Is that 00:20:34.920 |
stealing actually in terms of the selfishness and the rationale of a thief that's there, 00:20:40.680 |
it is so enticing, it typically becomes a pattern. It typically becomes a pattern, 00:20:45.080 |
it typically becomes a way of life, and it's not just reserved to sticking something in your pocket. 00:20:50.280 |
And so what I'm saying is we have to be warned against this temptation. Now, when we think about 00:20:57.640 |
the put on, please observe that there are actually two things that Apostle Paul challenges us to put 00:21:04.600 |
on in order to put off our former self in the selfishness that we have. And the very first thing 00:21:11.240 |
he says is actually to labor. He says, "Rather labor, performing with his own hands what is good." 00:21:22.040 |
Okay, what is good? And so I want to give this admonition. Notice that when there is a pattern 00:21:32.520 |
of perhaps the flip side of what it means to labor, which is to be a free bird, kind of an 00:21:39.000 |
individual who likes to get things for free, an individual who likes to maybe write off the work 00:21:44.280 |
of others, an individual who has expectations that everybody else is supposed to parent their 00:21:49.240 |
lives and provide for them and carry their weight, an individual who does not know how to carry their 00:21:54.600 |
own burden. These are the rationale of the individuals who perhaps may be tempted with 00:21:59.880 |
stealing. Now, on the flip side, remember that Apostle Paul, he said in scripture, whether it be 00:22:07.320 |
in 1 Thessalonians, he says, "I work day and night not to be a burden to any of you." Right now, we 00:22:12.840 |
don't have to go the extreme. If an individual gives you a gift, receive it with gratitude. 00:22:17.640 |
However, do not go around expecting that people is going to always provide for you your needs. 00:22:26.200 |
Why? Because that kind of rationale lends to temptation. What's more, he says, "Put on generosity." 00:22:35.560 |
He says, "You may not be necessarily having this gross pattern of stealing where you're 00:22:40.840 |
going to the store and grabbing stuff, but an individual who steals, in order to combat that, 00:22:45.320 |
you have to actually put on an intentional giving that you would actually not only work, 00:22:50.760 |
but that working, you would not just raise money and say, 'Now, I took care of myself,' 00:22:55.000 |
but now you have to be so intentional and say, 'I worked and I deserve the fruit of that, 00:22:58.760 |
but I'm going to now take that and give and sacrifice.'" And what you realize is, man, 00:23:05.400 |
generosity is not something you have an arbitrary standard by. How much should you give? 00:23:12.360 |
Generosity doesn't have the kind of logic that the thief has, which tries to maximize. 00:23:19.480 |
If I work this few hours and can get this much reward, then of course, that's the rationale. 00:23:25.640 |
But this generous individual says, "I could work this much hours, but I could give this much." 00:23:31.640 |
It's not a logic of cost-benefit analysis. Rather, it's a kind of love that comes from 00:23:37.800 |
the wealth that we have in Christ. And so that's a huge challenge for us. 00:23:42.200 |
Next, number four, "In the pattern of the put-off of the unwholesome words and to put on words of 00:23:50.840 |
edification and grace." Okay. Here, he says, "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, 00:23:58.760 |
but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it 00:24:05.160 |
will give grace to those who hear." Now, this is a big, big challenge because in our regular than 00:24:11.960 |
daily social life, this is something we have to make sure like we're on top of. Because scripture 00:24:19.320 |
actually says, "You know what? We all stumble in many ways, but man, if you could keep a rain on 00:24:24.440 |
your tongue, that's huge." Okay. I mean, read James chapter three. Remember how the scripture talks 00:24:30.920 |
about your mouth as one of the most powerful weapons you have. I mean, you think about 00:24:34.840 |
something with power, right? Like a ship has a little rudder and that thing changes course, 00:24:39.960 |
right? I mean, think about the spark that ignites a fire in the forest. I mean, the power contained 00:24:44.600 |
in our mouths is so much. Here, the challenge is to put aside all unwholesome words. And here, 00:24:51.640 |
we could take some time to think about some questions. Yeah. What does this unwholesome 00:24:55.960 |
words mean? What's practically included in that? And a big, big question that a lot of us are 00:25:03.160 |
going to ask is, "Does this include joking? Like, can I be sarcastic? Is it okay to kind of be 00:25:09.000 |
witty and go back and forth with my bro?" Now, that's something actually to think about, right? 00:25:13.720 |
Because you could have an honest debate about that. Let's do a quick word study again, because 00:25:18.840 |
sometimes if we're confused about what does this concept include, it's good to do a word study. 00:25:24.200 |
Now, I'm just going to show you this. Here, it talks about words that are rotten or putrid. 00:25:30.600 |
It is a very descriptive word. Words that decay. Word that causes this stench. And so, 00:25:38.440 |
even in our modern terms, we have a modern way of saying, "Man, that guy has a potty mouth, 00:25:44.120 |
like a foul mouth," right? So, clearly this passage is not talking about like, "Hey, 00:25:48.760 |
you said something slightly insensitive. Now, should you do that?" No, the answer is no. 00:25:53.800 |
But this passage is more so talking about things that are vulgar, right? Things that are distasteful 00:25:59.480 |
and real putrid, okay? Now, as we think about this though, it doesn't just stop there. When it tells 00:26:06.200 |
you to put on the kind of words that you should be speaking, please observe that it says, "Your 00:26:10.840 |
words should be good for edification. Your words should be meeting the need of the moment. Your 00:26:18.600 |
words should give grace." Wow. Now, some of us, we're so intuitive. I mean, we look at our brother 00:26:26.280 |
and sister and we can sense their need and we can give them words of encouragement. And to me, 00:26:31.880 |
that's just, when I see people doing that, I'm like, "Man, that's so good." Why? Because scripture 00:26:37.080 |
says that is such a valuable thing. Proverbs 25 verse 11 says, "Like apples of gold in settings 00:26:44.280 |
of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances." Okay? And I want you to observe something, right? 00:26:51.640 |
It is difficult for us in every scenario in life to work through some kind of process where we're 00:26:57.720 |
thinking like, "Is this good for them? Is this good for them? Is this like meeting their needs? 00:27:04.040 |
Is this edifying them?" But I want you to think about that. Yes, that could be a bit cumbersome, 00:27:09.560 |
but that is the kind of intentionality that God wants us to have. Here, He doesn't say, 00:27:16.760 |
"Put off unwholesome words and remember to always say thank you." Right? He doesn't give you the 00:27:21.560 |
specific word and a formula, but what He gives you is an admonition for an intentionality of heart. 00:27:28.280 |
Your words need to be good for stuff. Your mentality needs to be meeting needs, and your 00:27:34.520 |
intent should be to give grace. So that means if your heart is always poised in the right direction, 00:27:40.760 |
you're not sitting there constantly wondering like, "Is this right?" You're already intended 00:27:45.320 |
on doing that. And so even in the area of joking, right? Because I asked the question I should 00:27:51.160 |
address a little bit. If you're witty, good for you. Right? And I'm going to say something. You 00:27:56.760 |
know all the guys at church who are like super good at puns? Thank you. Right? To all the masters 00:28:02.040 |
that pun out of our church, it's a quick shout out to Dean. You're a master. Kevin Osako. Yeah. 00:28:07.880 |
Chris Fonga. You're like a legend. Like we have so many people who are good at puns. You know why 00:28:13.880 |
I love them? Because the point of direction of the fun is the pun and everybody could look and laugh 00:28:19.320 |
at it. But when it's not so funny is when the joke is directed at a person and everybody is laughing 00:28:27.800 |
at a person. Why? Because direction matters is what I'm saying. Intentionality matters. 00:28:33.720 |
What's the purpose of your wit? What's the purpose of your humor? Right? The question you really 00:28:41.960 |
should be asking like, are you trying even to give someone grace by giving them joy and making 00:28:47.160 |
them laugh? Or are you trying to give yourself a good laugh at their expense? Okay. Now again, 00:28:52.760 |
I for one, I mean, some of you guys might be thinking, Pastor Mark, but you make fun of us 00:29:00.120 |
quite a bit. I apologize. You know, like this is an area that I think I'm taking a little time on 00:29:05.720 |
because I need to hear it. Right? Like I'm going to be honest. There are times when I just try to 00:29:09.720 |
be funny. And what I realized is because my direction is off, I find myself apologizing 00:29:14.840 |
afterwards quite a bit. Okay. Now in the context of certain relationships, even if I make fun of 00:29:20.040 |
somebody, we're on good terms or even making fun of each other, we could both laugh because we have 00:29:26.680 |
that relationship and we could both laugh together. Right? And I could make fun of myself and we could 00:29:31.640 |
both laugh together. Again, I hope you guys understand that from the passage, what's pretty 00:29:37.640 |
clear is what you're putting on is an intentionality, even of the very words that you say, 00:29:43.880 |
that it's going to make sure that it's edifying, it's meeting needs and it's giving grace. Okay. 00:29:48.840 |
All right. Next. Okay. Next. Here is an interesting challenge for us. It says putting off 00:29:59.160 |
grieving of the Holy Spirit and putting on, and it doesn't specify again. Look at the passage. 00:30:06.760 |
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Boom. What a challenge. By whom you are sealed for the day 00:30:13.000 |
of redemption. We have to ask some questions. How can we grieve the Holy Spirit? What are we doing 00:30:21.480 |
that's grieving him? Right. And I'm not going to necessarily do a word study on grieving the Holy 00:30:26.520 |
Spirit because I think it's translated well that the word doesn't need a whole lot of other 00:30:30.600 |
synonyms because we understand what that means. Like you're making him sorrowful in a sense. 00:30:35.000 |
Right. And the, but the question is why is this general command inserted here amongst the list 00:30:40.520 |
of very specific commands, like being careful of your words, being careful that your hands aren't 00:30:45.800 |
greedy and lazy. These are very specific challenges that we need to apply into our lives here. 00:30:51.480 |
This challenge is a bit broader. And so a lot of commentators that think about this saying, 00:30:57.800 |
you know, why it's broad is because after giving some of these specific challenges, he's making us 00:31:03.320 |
understand the motive. We need to do those things because we're grieving God. Right. 00:31:08.840 |
And that, that, that makes sense. But also I have to ask the question, like, how are we to perceive 00:31:15.160 |
this? Like, what are we, if this is a motivation and let's really get that motivation, right? Stop 00:31:20.920 |
grieving the Holy Spirit. Okay. And the way I want to make sure that we're getting to that motivation 00:31:26.040 |
is asking this specific question. Why does my rotten mouth, why does my lazy and selfish hands 00:31:32.920 |
of, you know, tempted to steal, why does that grieve my God? And so here we need to take a moment 00:31:39.960 |
to meditate and think, okay. So I want us to think about these ideas, about again, those specific 00:31:49.960 |
commands. Why does it grieve our God? And I think what you naturally already get a hint at is that 00:31:59.080 |
there is such a tie between us and the Holy Spirit emphasized in this passage. We are sealed by the 00:32:08.120 |
Holy Spirit. Right. We're not talking about, we're not talking about just the, when they say seal, 00:32:16.280 |
like a stamp, right. We're not talking about just simply an inanimate force. And whenever we talk 00:32:22.920 |
about the Spirit of God, we're definitely not talking about something like air or water. Okay. 00:32:27.400 |
Just flowing down from all over the place. We're talking about a relational being who abides in us 00:32:33.960 |
and with us and who has covered us and resides within. And when we think about these relational 00:32:40.760 |
aspects, we recognize that in certain relationships that are so close and so intimate, 00:32:45.640 |
if one person hurts, the other hurts as well. Right. So I want you guys to take a moment to 00:32:53.080 |
think about those relationships where you care about an individual so much that for you, I mean, 00:32:59.960 |
when it comes to yourself, yeah, you could just absorb certain pains and you can make sacrifices. 00:33:05.800 |
But when it comes to a point where someone that you love is threatened, oh no, we can't have that. 00:33:11.960 |
So some of you like, you know, nude fathers out there, I know I sometimes talk to you guys who 00:33:16.600 |
have little kids and stuff like that. Before when we were single, we never cared about getting ring 00:33:21.640 |
monitors and like camera systems and stuff like that. But now we have things that alert us right 00:33:26.040 |
away. We talk about home defense and some of us have little bats at home and stuff like that. 00:33:30.520 |
It's something, right? Why? If it's just ourselves, it's okay. Someone we care about, 00:33:37.240 |
if ever they got hurt under our watch, that would kill us. But I want you to think about this. 00:33:46.280 |
For us, our relationship is not just any relationship that's close. Our relationship 00:33:52.840 |
with God is one of father to child. We have to consider the depth of God's love. Why does my 00:34:01.720 |
potty mouth, why does my stealing grieve God, the spirit of God? Because if any single one of us 00:34:13.080 |
were to see our child speak vulgarities from their mouth in public, that would disturb us 00:34:21.320 |
to the point where perhaps immediately we would move to discipline. What are you saying? 00:34:25.560 |
I taught you better, right? What's more on the flip side, if we saw our children hurting other 00:34:32.760 |
people with their words, like what are you doing? But on the flip side, if some of you, 00:34:37.320 |
especially those of you guys who have older children, maybe those of you who have children 00:34:41.160 |
who are in college, you reared them from they were a baby, an infant, you've took care of them, 00:34:46.520 |
you taught them and instructed them, you modeled for them, you gave them good examples, you send 00:34:52.280 |
them off to college, and then you watch them from afar and you hope that they're doing well. 00:34:56.920 |
And then you visit them only to find that they're living in rags, they're living in filth, 00:35:02.280 |
and they're stealing from their neighbors. That would break your heart. Why? Because it's not just 00:35:12.840 |
them sinning against rules, but it's not just them sinning against, transgressing against cold, 00:35:19.960 |
hard facts. It's not even just like, "Oh, I wanted you to contribute to the society." No, 00:35:26.840 |
because that's your child living like they're wretched, living so far and distant from 00:35:35.800 |
everything you wanted for them, all the good you prepared for them. Notice how this passage says, 00:35:41.640 |
"By whom," it's not just the law, but it's the person of God, "you were sealed for the day of 00:35:48.760 |
redemption." God has prepared for us glory. God has prepared for us magnificent gifts of holiness, 00:35:56.760 |
incredible treasures of things of God, right? He's prepared for us to be like Him. 00:36:05.400 |
But for us to live like that, that grieves the heart of our God. 00:36:11.960 |
Take a moment to think about that and appreciate the love of God and the parental love that He has, 00:36:20.600 |
where to see us not necessarily even being afflicted, but to see us in any kind of 00:36:26.280 |
unrighteousness and sin would grieve His heart. That's the love of our God. 00:36:32.280 |
And so we're thinking about this challenge that we're supposed to put off and put on, 00:36:41.880 |
what are we supposed to put on? If we are supposed to be putting off the grieving of the Holy Spirit, 00:36:48.600 |
we should be putting on the desire for His good pleasure. We want to make sure that we understand 00:36:54.520 |
the will and heart of God and to make sure that we're abiding in that. Now lastly, we move forward 00:37:01.000 |
to this last exhortation where it says here, "Put off all evil and put on the love of Christ." 00:37:08.120 |
Okay, there's a lot. I mean, if we wanted to, we could have just taken this one verse and then 00:37:12.200 |
chopped it up and then started thinking through what is bitterness, what is wrath, what is anger? 00:37:16.840 |
I'm going to leave that for you to do. You take time to meditate. Do I struggle with bitter thoughts? 00:37:23.160 |
The lasting sourness. If you guys have ever felt bitter resentment for somebody and there's this 00:37:28.840 |
lasting sourness where you fantasize about your hatred towards somebody and how horrible they are. 00:37:35.800 |
Is there wrath? Is there anger? Is there clamor? Is there slander? Now what I'm going to just say 00:37:40.120 |
is I do believe there is some kind of build toward this. Like there's a bitterness, there's a wrath, 00:37:44.280 |
there's an anger that moves typically for you curses or for you slandering, for you gossiping, 00:37:50.360 |
for you speaking ill of them and wishing ill of them. But what's all interesting is that this 00:37:55.000 |
term for malice, again, malice is an intent of wickedness. Malice is a term that actually is 00:38:04.040 |
used in so many variety of ways in scripture. It talks about all kinds of evils. It talks about all 00:38:10.600 |
kinds of vices that people have. And so essentially the intent of the heart is towards damage, 00:38:18.600 |
inflicting harm, or some kind of hatred towards an individual. These are the things that sometimes, 00:38:24.200 |
yes, we are all tempted with. And sometimes we're tempted with those sentiments towards the people 00:38:32.200 |
who are even within our own household. And what we have to do is overcome these things, putting 00:38:37.800 |
them aside and putting on the love of Christ. The passage tells us that we need to put on the 00:38:43.640 |
kindness, the tender heartedness, and the forgiving intention of Christ. Now I want you to think about 00:38:50.680 |
that. There are times when you run into somebody who's just like, "We don't click." Right? It's 00:38:57.000 |
just like, I cannot stand that guy. Right? Now, to some degree, that's all understandable because 00:39:03.240 |
I don't think the scripture calls us to be accountability partners, one-on-one, best friend 00:39:07.320 |
forever with every single person in the church. Not only is that, it's not possible with like 600 00:39:12.440 |
people at the church, but neither is it the expectation that every single individual is 00:39:17.080 |
always going to be buds for life. Okay. However, we have to exercise a certain kind of control by 00:39:24.200 |
the love of Christ, right? The love of Christ controls us. Earlier, there was a passage that 00:39:29.960 |
challenged us to put aside anger and to make sure that we're not allowing it to have a foothold. 00:39:37.080 |
That I believe was challenging us to put on control. Why? Because in control, there are 00:39:43.240 |
limits so that although we are angry, we do not sin. There are limits so that although we are 00:39:48.280 |
angry, we do not let it reside in our hearts forever. And there is some kind of control so 00:39:53.160 |
that we do not allow it to be fueled even further and allowing the devil to fuel other kinds of 00:40:00.360 |
schemes and revengeful type of thoughts. Here, likewise, what we're supposed to be controlled by 00:40:07.720 |
is the kindness, tender heartedness, and forgiveness that we've received from Christ. 00:40:13.480 |
Right? I want you guys to ask yourself the question, to those individuals who just annoy you 00:40:20.600 |
like crazy, do you show irritation or are you controlled enough that you're still tender? 00:40:26.600 |
Right? Do you show this kind of stiff arm wall or do you show a kind of like kindness, a gentleness? 00:40:35.800 |
Even to the level of being cordial, like, are you able to do that with an individual who has 00:40:42.280 |
hurt you? You know, one of the qualifications of a leader, it says that an individual is able to 00:40:48.120 |
absorb when he is wronged. A lot of us, if we're wronged unjustly, if we're even accused of something 00:40:57.800 |
wrong unjustly, right? It's difficult for us to exercise self-control. The challenge here is for 00:41:04.280 |
us to put on, like actively put on the love of Christ, especially in those scenarios when perhaps 00:41:10.920 |
we have rationale, reason, perhaps we have like evidence as to why it all makes sense that I 00:41:16.440 |
should hate this person. For you, it all makes sense because you receive the love of Christ to 00:41:22.360 |
put on kindness, tender heartedness, and forgiveness. And that's what I want to conclude with. 00:41:26.040 |
Notice how scattered throughout this passage, there were various motivations. 00:41:32.760 |
You see, broadly speaking, for us to be able to put off these elements of our former selves, 00:41:39.400 |
it just goes to prove that we have been made new by Christ. It just goes to show who we are, 00:41:46.040 |
the dying self is now being crusted and we're able to peel off the withering away of the old life. 00:41:53.000 |
And what we're supposed to do as those who have been sealed for redemption, forgiven by Christ 00:41:58.680 |
and shown your incredible mercies, we're supposed to change. And that's been kind of my exhortation, 00:42:05.640 |
right? My exhortation hasn't been like, you guys need to, you know, go find your niche and bloom, 00:42:13.400 |
right? It's the whole idea is from where you are, are you in whatever way God is showing you, 00:42:19.480 |
changing and transforming to the image of Christ, right? What I'm saying is you don't have to go 00:42:25.160 |
out and do fantastic, marvelous, like awe-inspiring things for the Lord to prove who you are. 00:42:32.440 |
What needs to happen? You need to daily change. You need to make specific applications of 00:42:39.560 |
especially these patterns that are so common amongst all of us, that we are showing the Lord 00:42:45.320 |
has affected in us, his great power. Let's take a moment to pray. God, we thank you so much 00:42:52.920 |
for your word. Lord, there were many challenges within this passage that I ran through pretty 00:42:58.680 |
fast and God, we recognize that we should take time to meditate in what areas of my life am I 00:43:06.280 |
exhibiting so many of these former life past earthly patterns. And I pray by the power of 00:43:13.720 |
the spirit in us, by the motivation of all that you are and all that you've done for us, 00:43:18.680 |
God, that these things would become a joyous walk of growing and maturing in Christ. 00:43:26.760 |
I know Father Lord, that some of us are struggling and weak. And sometimes the pressure to, 00:43:33.560 |
to strive for Christ likeness is, is, is daunting and feels sometimes maybe even impossible, 00:43:39.240 |
but we trust you. We have faith in you, God, what you have called us to do, you will lead. 00:43:45.080 |
The spirit you have given to us is a guarantee. And I ask God that within the hardships of trying 00:43:51.560 |
to walk after you, we would also exercise incredible trust. Lord, we have you as our example. 00:43:59.240 |
We have you as our power. We have you inside of us. So Lord, we thank you and we praise you.