Hello everyone, welcome to the last session, session 16 of the Ephesians study for this part 1. Remember that next week we'll be taking a one-week break and then on June 2nd I will be posting the first session of the part 2 of Ephesians and so that session is going to be nine weeks long and we're just going to go week to week straight through.

If you would take a moment to bow with me and pray as we jump into our study for tonight. Let's pray. Our God we want to thank you for your precious Word. We again want to thank you so much Lord that because of your incredible and inexplicable love, that because of your parental love, you desire to see in us a growth, you desire to see in us a maturity and a transformation to the likeness of your holiness to God the measure and stature of your Son and we just again want to thank you for that and pray that your Spirit would all the more challenge us in our hearts and our mind but also God challenge us in our daily living.

We thank you Lord for your precious Word it's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Okay so we're going to be studying this last paragraph of chapter 4. Let me take a moment to read it for us and it says, "Therefore laying aside falsehood, speak truth to each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

Be angry and yet do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give the devil an opportunity. He who steals must steal no longer but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.

Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth but only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ has forgiven you." Okay as we take a look at this passage, it is also again for an inductive study like this a little bit lengthy and so we should do an overview.

Okay remember that this passage has for us a specific application that's been building since the verse one of chapter four and so what we realize actually is this is a more specific application of the various principles we've learned already. The principles that were found in verse 17 through 24 which told us to stop living like the Gentiles in both thinking and in desire and so it said to put off your old self but rather to put on, to put on the things that we know are true of us.

What's more in verses 7 through 16 there was lots of principles but essentially what God desired for us is that we would all attain to this unity. Essentially this unity would be the growing maturity to the measure and stature of Jesus Christ so what he expected was that every single one of us in every single way would grow towards Christ and in so doing we'd be responsible for ministry.

We'd be growing closer and closer together and what's more, previous to that remember in chapter one there is a walk worthy principle which essentially taught us to walk worthy of this incredible calling that we reviewed all the way from chapter one through three and so the idea is this great incredible salvation we have, this great and incredible completeness that we have in Jesus Christ is supposed to now take effect in our walk.

Okay, taking a look at this passage as an overview then there are very specific things outlined for us in this passage. I have some blanks for you there on your packet just highlighting what we're supposed to put off. The passage tells us to put off falsehood from our lives.

It also tells us to not sin in our anger. Okay, to not let the sun go down on our anger so it deals with anger. What's more, the passage teaches us to not steal anymore. Steal no longer. Right, it also tells us to put off unwholesome words that our speech needs to be careful and then also renewed so unwholesome words put off.

Okay, it also tells us to stop grieving the Holy Spirit so stop grieving and then it tells us to put aside everything related to bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander that all these things including malice must be put away. And so I have this outline for you as an overview that this passage has, you can count, six things that we need to be putting away and if you include all the various things included in the letter F that's actually a lot of other things.

So again, as you can see there's a lot to cover in this passage and we're not going to be able to dive into each one fully in just the hour that we have but again for us it's up to us to make sure that we're asking the right questions.

What does that mean then? And if we're supposed to be putting off certain ideas and concepts, what is included in that concept? So let's at least make sure we go through each one and we begin with making sure that we put off falsehood and put on truth. So therefore laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor for we are members of one another.

Now we ask this question, what are some examples of falsehood? And what I like to do is rather than giving you all the various examples of meditation or meditating through that, I leave that for your discussions in your small groups and also I leave that for you to actually answer.

What are the many forms, many scenarios in which we exercise falsehood? Now right now with our BAM ministry, our Strangles Adult ministry, we are going through this seminar called Own Your Fears. And what's really interesting about this is that I realized after not only just looking at scriptures but examining life, our fears cause us to lots of silly things whether it be to run away but one of those things that it causes us to do is lie.

It almost feels so instinctual for us to lie to get out of bad situations, to lie to get ahead in fear of either getting in trouble then or losing out on an opportunity. We are so tempted to lie all over different circumstances and places and even in something as neutral as basketball, even on the court, there are temptations to lie.

So as we think about this, I recognize that this challenge for us to lay aside falsehood could be a difficult one. And take a moment to observe that the command then actually includes an interesting compound idea here, which is that you should be laying aside, which is a participle.

That is an ongoing activity and the imperative is you should be speaking truth. And then so you realize sometimes when we think about our own struggle, right? In order for us to speak the truth in a certain moment, man, we have to pull away the already, I guess, dirty clothes that we have, right?

In this whole analogy of putting off and putting on, the already dirty clothes that we have and the instinctual kind of knee-jerk reactions we have to lie to save face. We need to make sure that the knee-jerk reaction, I mean, sometimes we don't have to be even creative to lie.

It just comes out in the moment, right? And what we have to do is regularly fight those temptations. It is a difficult thing to do. And I ask you to meditate. Why is it sometimes so difficult for us when someone asks us even an opinion, a personal opinion, we are calculating certain things.

And then we always try to give a safe, safe answer. Whether it's just to appease the person who asked, why is it so difficult for me to even expose what I'm actually thinking? We have to meditate on these things. And we realize that speaking the truth sometimes is a lot more difficult than we think it is.

And so this is a huge challenge for us. But also I want us to notice within this passage that there is motivation. And what he says is, "For we are members of one another." And so we have to ask the question. We observe the rationale clearly that because we're members of one another, we have to speak truth to each other.

But how does our membership motivate my honesty? Why is it that as members, we have to speak truth to one another? Well, in order to just kind of meditate about this, I have an example, which is I think about our church and I'm so grateful that the departments, I guess you could say, or the service teams that we have.

I mean, we have close to, I think I counted was 27 different service teams. Now, some of these service teams, they're not like big teams and they're not doing a whole lot of like every week activity, but these teams exist to help support all the various ministries of the church.

And if these teams didn't exist, there'd be something that would be neglected. Okay? But then you can imagine amongst 27 teams, and also we have, you know, four different affinities. We have the education department, college, youth, and all this kind of stuff. Right? When you think about that, there is potential there for competition amongst departments.

And what's really interesting is that if each service team lead, each affinity group leader was not godly, but actually competing with each other, and maybe they were competing for budget, maybe they're competing for personnel. And they started to say, well, I want that service leader. Maybe it's Matt Chong.

Like I want him on my team. And the other person says, no, I need him for youth. And another person says, no, I need him to build stuff at church or whatever it may be. Right? Now, as soon as you have that kind of motive of competition, there has to be a rationale.

So what ends up happening? You sometimes exaggerate your need. We have nobody. Right? And then so sometimes even with budget, people do this. They realize like, oh my gosh, we have leftover budget. Then pizza party for all, and we're going to give gifts to. Why? Because you're trying to bump up your budget to make it seem like you have all these expenditures.

Do those kind of things ever take place? It can if we don't check our hearts. And so I just want to give that example. Why? Because if we're members of one another, if one piece is just as important as another, if the education department and the college department and the welcome team are all elements of the body like the scripture says, that's the eye and the nose and the ear.

Think about how ridiculous it would be that the eye would compete against the nose. Think about how ridiculous it would be for your arm to compete against your thigh. I mean, those kinds of examples just are a little bit silly, but that's how ridiculous it would be. We are all a part of the body and therefore rely on each other, not compete with each other.

And that kind of competition, a threat to each other is sometimes a great motive behind the lying. Okay. Let's go move on to the next one. Number two, put off anger and put on what was tough. Sometimes I wish it was just clearly spelled out for you, but clearly there's some things we're supposed to put on in the whole pattern of the teaching.

But this passage says, "Be angry and yet do not sin and do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give the devil opportunity." Now this exhortation and admonishment has a lot of questions. Hey, wait a minute. Why does it say, "Be angry"? Shouldn't it say, "Don't be angry," right?

Because am I supposed to actually be angry about stuff? And why is it that in personal experience, I always feel guilty whenever I get angry, you know? And also it just seems very contrary to expectation here. And what's more, what is this principle about not letting the sun go down on your anger?

Now, what's very clear is you notice I highlighted for you guys that there is a repetition of the do nots. So clearly what you find here then is you're supposed to, at some points, you're allowed to provision for, you're supposed to be angry in the sense that there are things that anger us.

But there are cautions and warnings that clearly tell us that it can go wrong so fast. Okay? Now I ask this question again, but what are we supposed to put on? Like, are we supposed to put off anger and also then put on anger? What are we supposed to do here?

Now, I want us to think about this, and this is a great opportunity to do a word study. If you're looking at a term that says, "Be angry," and you're like, "Well, I understand the word angry, but clearly there's kind of more than meets the eye," or at least, "I need to know what he's talking about specifically," do a word study.

And what we find is that there are two different words for anger in this passage. Notice it says, "Be angry," the Greek word is "orgie," yet, "Do not sin." Do not let the sun go down on your, and it doesn't actually repeat the same word, but it uses a different word, "paragizmo." Now, the idea here then, the translations are pretty similar.

It says, "Wrath, make angry, provoke," but the first term is passive, and it's used in lots of different contexts. However, the second word is to make angry to a violent or bitter anger, and is only found here. Here is the word dictionary of the New Testament, says this, "Although both paragizmos and orgie are translated wrath, they are not the same in meaning.

On the one hand, paragizmos signifies the kind of severe or violent anger which arises from direct provocation, an aroused anger, or seething exasperation. Such behavior is contrary to the Spirit and the Word of God. On the other hand, orgie refers to anger in general, and though it is used of sinful anger, it is also used of righteous indignation, such as certain passages." Okay?

So, take a moment to think about that, and you realize that what he's trying to say then is when you look at this passage, yes, there are times and moments where because of what you're getting angry about, and because of how you're getting angry, and because to what end, right?

Like what is causing you to do, all those things matter. So, if you're getting angry in righteous indignation because of the blasphemy of God, or some kind of dishonor to the Lord, or some kind of injustice towards the oppressed and the helpless, that clearly is a kind of anger we've seen within Scripture.

But is there an ungodliness in you that is self-righteously angered because you didn't get honored? Is it controlled? Is it a controlled passion where there's clear thinking, there's still truthfulness of words, or is it violent, uncontrolled, raging, right? But what's more, there's this interesting kind of caveat here that tells us, "Do not sin, do not let go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity." So, here are the warnings.

The warnings of not doing this, and not doing that, and not doing this. Now, this part of it I thought kind of funny because I remember reading some books about anger, and in one book, I remember it saying, "Man, you have to resolve anger then and there." So, it was actually one of the marriage books that I read that talked about how you have to resolve then and there.

Now, I am one that has a hard time doing that because I have to think through, "Why am I feeling this way? What am I actually even feeling? How do I put it into words?" And it takes me a while, okay? So, I'm not good with resolving then and there.

What's funny is that through a story the book was trying to teach, like, you have to resolve it quickly though. Husband and wife, husband and wife gets in a fight. It's late into the evening. Perhaps the gentleman says, "You know what? I don't want to fight like this anymore.

Let's talk about it tomorrow." He goes to bed. He wakes up and he realizes his wife is now four times as mad as before because she's thinking, "How could you sleep?" Right? She stayed up all night. "How could you sleep? Don't you even care?" Right? Now, what's funny is I read another book that said, "Hey, don't take this literally, okay?

If you're fighting at 2 a.m., you don't have sobriety. You're tired. You don't have the motivation to be cautious with your words. This is not some literal wooden principle where you have to make sure that the sun doesn't go down because if you start fighting at 10 p.m., the sun's already down, right?

It's not literally supposed to be taken. So, there's some kind of wisdom there, but the wisdom simply is this. If you allow anger to grow, it gives fuel for such other vices. Whether it be judgment, resentment, bitterness, hatred, Satan uses that as a means for scheming. And so, as a challenge to you, you have to think about, does your anger fuel more godliness?

Does it fuel truthful words that helps the other individuals? Or does it fuel some kind of retribution, some vindictiveness? Okay? All right. Moving to the next point here, number three, the put off and put on principles. It says, put off stealing and put on generosity. Passas says, "He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need." Okay?

As a reminder, this is kind of interesting because, you know, I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of you out there aren't going to the liquor store and stealing candy like we used to when we were kids, right? Maybe it was just me, you know, guilty I did that because there was a lot of adrenaline when you're a kid.

But when you're older, obviously you don't steal. However, however, this passage is speaking to the general public, it's teaching churches. Yes, it's written to Ephesus, but it was meant to be circulated. And what we find is that these are major areas of life that we struggle with. And it's some, it's kind of like a universal pattern.

And there's a lot of questions like, "Wow, what can we learn about the nature of stealing that entices so many people? And what are the different forms of theft that perhaps we struggle with even to this day?" And again, I want you to think about it and meditate. Why is it that even as adults sometimes, I mean, think about how many get rich quick schemes there are, and it's been around for ages, and yet they still somehow capture people's, you know, tempts people.

And perhaps because the demand is already right here. And what form of stealing is there? Whether it be taking credit for something that's absolutely not yours, at work taking credit for things, at work stealing work property. Like, is there stealing that happens within the workplace now that it's a little bit more sophisticated as opposed to at the liquor store?

Perhaps. Copying and pasting when you're studying. I mean, there are many forms that we can think about, but you can take time to think about that. All I want to say is this, what's really interesting here, if you notice, is he who steals must steal no longer. Is that stealing actually in terms of the selfishness and the rationale of a thief that's there, it is so enticing, it typically becomes a pattern.

It typically becomes a pattern, it typically becomes a way of life, and it's not just reserved to sticking something in your pocket. And so what I'm saying is we have to be warned against this temptation. Now, when we think about the put on, please observe that there are actually two things that Apostle Paul challenges us to put on in order to put off our former self in the selfishness that we have.

And the very first thing he says is actually to labor. He says, "Rather labor, performing with his own hands what is good." Okay, what is good? And so I want to give this admonition. Notice that when there is a pattern of perhaps the flip side of what it means to labor, which is to be a free bird, kind of an individual who likes to get things for free, an individual who likes to maybe write off the work of others, an individual who has expectations that everybody else is supposed to parent their lives and provide for them and carry their weight, an individual who does not know how to carry their own burden.

These are the rationale of the individuals who perhaps may be tempted with stealing. Now, on the flip side, remember that Apostle Paul, he said in scripture, whether it be in 1 Thessalonians, he says, "I work day and night not to be a burden to any of you." Right now, we don't have to go the extreme.

If an individual gives you a gift, receive it with gratitude. However, do not go around expecting that people is going to always provide for you your needs. Why? Because that kind of rationale lends to temptation. What's more, he says, "Put on generosity." He says, "You may not be necessarily having this gross pattern of stealing where you're going to the store and grabbing stuff, but an individual who steals, in order to combat that, you have to actually put on an intentional giving that you would actually not only work, but that working, you would not just raise money and say, 'Now, I took care of myself,' but now you have to be so intentional and say, 'I worked and I deserve the fruit of that, but I'm going to now take that and give and sacrifice.'" And what you realize is, man, generosity is not something you have an arbitrary standard by.

How much should you give? Generosity doesn't have the kind of logic that the thief has, which tries to maximize. If I work this few hours and can get this much reward, then of course, that's the rationale. But this generous individual says, "I could work this much hours, but I could give this much." It's not a logic of cost-benefit analysis.

Rather, it's a kind of love that comes from the wealth that we have in Christ. And so that's a huge challenge for us. Next, number four, "In the pattern of the put-off of the unwholesome words and to put on words of edification and grace." Okay. Here, he says, "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear." Now, this is a big, big challenge because in our regular than daily social life, this is something we have to make sure like we're on top of.

Because scripture actually says, "You know what? We all stumble in many ways, but man, if you could keep a rain on your tongue, that's huge." Okay. I mean, read James chapter three. Remember how the scripture talks about your mouth as one of the most powerful weapons you have. I mean, you think about something with power, right?

Like a ship has a little rudder and that thing changes course, right? I mean, think about the spark that ignites a fire in the forest. I mean, the power contained in our mouths is so much. Here, the challenge is to put aside all unwholesome words. And here, we could take some time to think about some questions.

Yeah. What does this unwholesome words mean? What's practically included in that? And a big, big question that a lot of us are going to ask is, "Does this include joking? Like, can I be sarcastic? Is it okay to kind of be witty and go back and forth with my bro?" Now, that's something actually to think about, right?

Because you could have an honest debate about that. Let's do a quick word study again, because sometimes if we're confused about what does this concept include, it's good to do a word study. Now, I'm just going to show you this. Here, it talks about words that are rotten or putrid.

It is a very descriptive word. Words that decay. Word that causes this stench. And so, even in our modern terms, we have a modern way of saying, "Man, that guy has a potty mouth, like a foul mouth," right? So, clearly this passage is not talking about like, "Hey, you said something slightly insensitive.

Now, should you do that?" No, the answer is no. But this passage is more so talking about things that are vulgar, right? Things that are distasteful and real putrid, okay? Now, as we think about this though, it doesn't just stop there. When it tells you to put on the kind of words that you should be speaking, please observe that it says, "Your words should be good for edification.

Your words should be meeting the need of the moment. Your words should give grace." Wow. Now, some of us, we're so intuitive. I mean, we look at our brother and sister and we can sense their need and we can give them words of encouragement. And to me, that's just, when I see people doing that, I'm like, "Man, that's so good." Why?

Because scripture says that is such a valuable thing. Proverbs 25 verse 11 says, "Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances." Okay? And I want you to observe something, right? It is difficult for us in every scenario in life to work through some kind of process where we're thinking like, "Is this good for them?

Is this good for them? Is this like meeting their needs? Is this edifying them?" But I want you to think about that. Yes, that could be a bit cumbersome, but that is the kind of intentionality that God wants us to have. Here, He doesn't say, "Put off unwholesome words and remember to always say thank you." Right?

He doesn't give you the specific word and a formula, but what He gives you is an admonition for an intentionality of heart. Your words need to be good for stuff. Your mentality needs to be meeting needs, and your intent should be to give grace. So that means if your heart is always poised in the right direction, you're not sitting there constantly wondering like, "Is this right?" You're already intended on doing that.

And so even in the area of joking, right? Because I asked the question I should address a little bit. If you're witty, good for you. Right? And I'm going to say something. You know all the guys at church who are like super good at puns? Thank you. Right? To all the masters that pun out of our church, it's a quick shout out to Dean.

You're a master. Kevin Osako. Yeah. Chris Fonga. You're like a legend. Like we have so many people who are good at puns. You know why I love them? Because the point of direction of the fun is the pun and everybody could look and laugh at it. But when it's not so funny is when the joke is directed at a person and everybody is laughing at a person.

Why? Because direction matters is what I'm saying. Intentionality matters. What's the purpose of your wit? What's the purpose of your humor? Right? The question you really should be asking like, are you trying even to give someone grace by giving them joy and making them laugh? Or are you trying to give yourself a good laugh at their expense?

Okay. Now again, I for one, I mean, some of you guys might be thinking, Pastor Mark, but you make fun of us quite a bit. I apologize. You know, like this is an area that I think I'm taking a little time on because I need to hear it. Right?

Like I'm going to be honest. There are times when I just try to be funny. And what I realized is because my direction is off, I find myself apologizing afterwards quite a bit. Okay. Now in the context of certain relationships, even if I make fun of somebody, we're on good terms or even making fun of each other, we could both laugh because we have that relationship and we could both laugh together.

Right? And I could make fun of myself and we could both laugh together. Again, I hope you guys understand that from the passage, what's pretty clear is what you're putting on is an intentionality, even of the very words that you say, that it's going to make sure that it's edifying, it's meeting needs and it's giving grace.

Okay. All right. Next. Okay. Next. Here is an interesting challenge for us. It says putting off grieving of the Holy Spirit and putting on, and it doesn't specify again. Look at the passage. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Boom. What a challenge. By whom you are sealed for the day of redemption.

We have to ask some questions. How can we grieve the Holy Spirit? What are we doing that's grieving him? Right. And I'm not going to necessarily do a word study on grieving the Holy Spirit because I think it's translated well that the word doesn't need a whole lot of other synonyms because we understand what that means.

Like you're making him sorrowful in a sense. Right. And the, but the question is why is this general command inserted here amongst the list of very specific commands, like being careful of your words, being careful that your hands aren't greedy and lazy. These are very specific challenges that we need to apply into our lives here.

This challenge is a bit broader. And so a lot of commentators that think about this saying, you know, why it's broad is because after giving some of these specific challenges, he's making us understand the motive. We need to do those things because we're grieving God. Right. And that, that, that makes sense.

But also I have to ask the question, like, how are we to perceive this? Like, what are we, if this is a motivation and let's really get that motivation, right? Stop grieving the Holy Spirit. Okay. And the way I want to make sure that we're getting to that motivation is asking this specific question.

Why does my rotten mouth, why does my lazy and selfish hands of, you know, tempted to steal, why does that grieve my God? And so here we need to take a moment to meditate and think, okay. So I want us to think about these ideas, about again, those specific commands.

Why does it grieve our God? And I think what you naturally already get a hint at is that there is such a tie between us and the Holy Spirit emphasized in this passage. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit. Right. We're not talking about, we're not talking about just the, when they say seal, like a stamp, right.

We're not talking about just simply an inanimate force. And whenever we talk about the Spirit of God, we're definitely not talking about something like air or water. Okay. Just flowing down from all over the place. We're talking about a relational being who abides in us and with us and who has covered us and resides within.

And when we think about these relational aspects, we recognize that in certain relationships that are so close and so intimate, if one person hurts, the other hurts as well. Right. So I want you guys to take a moment to think about those relationships where you care about an individual so much that for you, I mean, when it comes to yourself, yeah, you could just absorb certain pains and you can make sacrifices.

But when it comes to a point where someone that you love is threatened, oh no, we can't have that. So some of you like, you know, nude fathers out there, I know I sometimes talk to you guys who have little kids and stuff like that. Before when we were single, we never cared about getting ring monitors and like camera systems and stuff like that.

But now we have things that alert us right away. We talk about home defense and some of us have little bats at home and stuff like that. It's something, right? Why? If it's just ourselves, it's okay. Someone we care about, if ever they got hurt under our watch, that would kill us.

But I want you to think about this. For us, our relationship is not just any relationship that's close. Our relationship with God is one of father to child. We have to consider the depth of God's love. Why does my potty mouth, why does my stealing grieve God, the spirit of God?

Because if any single one of us were to see our child speak vulgarities from their mouth in public, that would disturb us to the point where perhaps immediately we would move to discipline. What are you saying? I taught you better, right? What's more on the flip side, if we saw our children hurting other people with their words, like what are you doing?

But on the flip side, if some of you, especially those of you guys who have older children, maybe those of you who have children who are in college, you reared them from they were a baby, an infant, you've took care of them, you taught them and instructed them, you modeled for them, you gave them good examples, you send them off to college, and then you watch them from afar and you hope that they're doing well.

And then you visit them only to find that they're living in rags, they're living in filth, and they're stealing from their neighbors. That would break your heart. Why? Because it's not just them sinning against rules, but it's not just them sinning against, transgressing against cold, hard facts. It's not even just like, "Oh, I wanted you to contribute to the society." No, because that's your child living like they're wretched, living so far and distant from everything you wanted for them, all the good you prepared for them.

Notice how this passage says, "By whom," it's not just the law, but it's the person of God, "you were sealed for the day of redemption." God has prepared for us glory. God has prepared for us magnificent gifts of holiness, incredible treasures of things of God, right? He's prepared for us to be like Him.

But for us to live like that, that grieves the heart of our God. Take a moment to think about that and appreciate the love of God and the parental love that He has, where to see us not necessarily even being afflicted, but to see us in any kind of unrighteousness and sin would grieve His heart.

That's the love of our God. And so we're thinking about this challenge that we're supposed to put off and put on, what are we supposed to put on? If we are supposed to be putting off the grieving of the Holy Spirit, we should be putting on the desire for His good pleasure.

We want to make sure that we understand the will and heart of God and to make sure that we're abiding in that. Now lastly, we move forward to this last exhortation where it says here, "Put off all evil and put on the love of Christ." Okay, there's a lot.

I mean, if we wanted to, we could have just taken this one verse and then chopped it up and then started thinking through what is bitterness, what is wrath, what is anger? I'm going to leave that for you to do. You take time to meditate. Do I struggle with bitter thoughts?

The lasting sourness. If you guys have ever felt bitter resentment for somebody and there's this lasting sourness where you fantasize about your hatred towards somebody and how horrible they are. Is there wrath? Is there anger? Is there clamor? Is there slander? Now what I'm going to just say is I do believe there is some kind of build toward this.

Like there's a bitterness, there's a wrath, there's an anger that moves typically for you curses or for you slandering, for you gossiping, for you speaking ill of them and wishing ill of them. But what's all interesting is that this term for malice, again, malice is an intent of wickedness.

Malice is a term that actually is used in so many variety of ways in scripture. It talks about all kinds of evils. It talks about all kinds of vices that people have. And so essentially the intent of the heart is towards damage, inflicting harm, or some kind of hatred towards an individual.

These are the things that sometimes, yes, we are all tempted with. And sometimes we're tempted with those sentiments towards the people who are even within our own household. And what we have to do is overcome these things, putting them aside and putting on the love of Christ. The passage tells us that we need to put on the kindness, the tender heartedness, and the forgiving intention of Christ.

Now I want you to think about that. There are times when you run into somebody who's just like, "We don't click." Right? It's just like, I cannot stand that guy. Right? Now, to some degree, that's all understandable because I don't think the scripture calls us to be accountability partners, one-on-one, best friend forever with every single person in the church.

Not only is that, it's not possible with like 600 people at the church, but neither is it the expectation that every single individual is always going to be buds for life. Okay. However, we have to exercise a certain kind of control by the love of Christ, right? The love of Christ controls us.

Earlier, there was a passage that challenged us to put aside anger and to make sure that we're not allowing it to have a foothold. That I believe was challenging us to put on control. Why? Because in control, there are limits so that although we are angry, we do not sin.

There are limits so that although we are angry, we do not let it reside in our hearts forever. And there is some kind of control so that we do not allow it to be fueled even further and allowing the devil to fuel other kinds of schemes and revengeful type of thoughts.

Here, likewise, what we're supposed to be controlled by is the kindness, tender heartedness, and forgiveness that we've received from Christ. Right? I want you guys to ask yourself the question, to those individuals who just annoy you like crazy, do you show irritation or are you controlled enough that you're still tender?

Right? Do you show this kind of stiff arm wall or do you show a kind of like kindness, a gentleness? Even to the level of being cordial, like, are you able to do that with an individual who has hurt you? You know, one of the qualifications of a leader, it says that an individual is able to absorb when he is wronged.

A lot of us, if we're wronged unjustly, if we're even accused of something wrong unjustly, right? It's difficult for us to exercise self-control. The challenge here is for us to put on, like actively put on the love of Christ, especially in those scenarios when perhaps we have rationale, reason, perhaps we have like evidence as to why it all makes sense that I should hate this person.

For you, it all makes sense because you receive the love of Christ to put on kindness, tender heartedness, and forgiveness. And that's what I want to conclude with. Notice how scattered throughout this passage, there were various motivations. You see, broadly speaking, for us to be able to put off these elements of our former selves, it just goes to prove that we have been made new by Christ.

It just goes to show who we are, the dying self is now being crusted and we're able to peel off the withering away of the old life. And what we're supposed to do as those who have been sealed for redemption, forgiven by Christ and shown your incredible mercies, we're supposed to change.

And that's been kind of my exhortation, right? My exhortation hasn't been like, you guys need to, you know, go find your niche and bloom, right? It's the whole idea is from where you are, are you in whatever way God is showing you, changing and transforming to the image of Christ, right?

What I'm saying is you don't have to go out and do fantastic, marvelous, like awe-inspiring things for the Lord to prove who you are. What needs to happen? You need to daily change. You need to make specific applications of especially these patterns that are so common amongst all of us, that we are showing the Lord has affected in us, his great power.

Let's take a moment to pray. God, we thank you so much for your word. Lord, there were many challenges within this passage that I ran through pretty fast and God, we recognize that we should take time to meditate in what areas of my life am I exhibiting so many of these former life past earthly patterns.

And I pray by the power of the spirit in us, by the motivation of all that you are and all that you've done for us, God, that these things would become a joyous walk of growing and maturing in Christ. I know Father Lord, that some of us are struggling and weak.

And sometimes the pressure to, to strive for Christ likeness is, is, is daunting and feels sometimes maybe even impossible, but we trust you. We have faith in you, God, what you have called us to do, you will lead. The spirit you have given to us is a guarantee. And I ask God that within the hardships of trying to walk after you, we would also exercise incredible trust.

Lord, we have you as our example. We have you as our power. We have you inside of us. So Lord, we thank you and we praise you. It's in Christ. Let me pray. Amen.