9/13/2009
Living your faith
Ephesians 4:17-28
Introduction
It is great to see Teri and Ron Orendi here today. I believe they are an example of what I want to address this morning.
People living their faith.
People where God put a burden on their heart, and they put feet to it.
Kindness seems to be a thing of the past. Everyday we read or hear about how mean and cruel people are to each other. Inner anger, people hurting each other because they skipped in line or looked at them funny.
What does the Bible say about it?
What is the correct way for us to live as professing believers in Christ?
What image are we sending to those that are struggling to find their relationship with God?
Ephesians 4:17-28 read.
The first thing that Paul shows us is that there is a difference between those who have a relationship with Christ and those who don’t.
One group is separated from God because of darkness, ignorance, hardening of their hearts, and their lack of understanding of the things of God.
The other one is being children of light- Jesus being the light. They were taught the way of Christ, and that you have to put off the old way, and put on the new way.
One you have no sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, and you continually lust for more of the impure things of this world.
The other you should be lead by the Holy Spirit in regard to getting rid of the corrupt and deceitful desires and be more in the image of Christ.
If we are going to live for Christ, have a relationship with Christ, we have to do two things:
1. Put away the old way
2. Put on the new way.
What does that mean?
You have to get rid of your old way of life that is not pleasing to Christ.(v25) “therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully.”
The problem today is some are trying to hold unto the old life .
Those things that they are not willing to get rid of and they continually are having a battle between Christ wanting to make you more like Christ and your self nature rebelling.
Part of throwing out the old ways is to put it in the spiritual garbage can and leave it. We have a lot of Christians doing “Dumpster Diving”. Going after things the Lord has told you to throw out.
Your former life , though you should not forget it, it is not a trophy case. Whereby like a athlete you keep looking at it and “Oh, the good old days” “What Memories” I’m not able to do that anymore, but boy I remember”
losing sensitivity by allowing the world to influence you instead of you influencing the world.
Throw them out And stop picking them back up. Stop throwing out the same bag of garbage every week. The old man (the old you) has a problem processing God’s truth.
Illustration-
July 15, 1993 the port authority of New York and New Jersey ran a help-wanted ad for electricians with expertise at using Sontag connectors, it got 170 responses even though there is no such thing as a Sontag connector. The authority ran the ad to see how many applicants falsify resumes.
We get dubbed into catchy saying and phrases:
Famous Fibs (nice word for lies)
The check is in the mail.
I’ll start my diet tomorrow.
We service what we sell.
Give me your number and the doctor will return your call.
Money cheerfully refunded.
One size fits all.
This offer limited to the first 100 people who call.
This hurts me more that it hurts you.
I need five minutes of your time.
You get it. James Buchanan makes the comparison:
What if the things that should change your life doesn’t?
1. What if you got married and after the wedding the bride goes back to her parents and the groom does the same thing.
2. You get a promotion and they give you a beautiful corner office, and you say no thanks, I’ll just stay in my basement cubical.
3. College graduate- you don’t take the new job because it involves talking to new people.
We think, I’ll never do that.
That is exactly what it is when you do not throw out the old ways and put on the new things in Christ.
You always live life at a level less than what Christ wants you to.
Okay enough for a moment of what the old man looks like.
Truth be told, a lot of us know what that man looks like because we struggle with it everyday.
So what does the new man look like and how do we get there?
Paul tells us to throw down, get rid of, take off the old, and put on the new self.
One created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
As a Nazarene, we should understand holiness not to mean perfection, but one that is set apart, one that is different than the world. One that is accomplishing the purpose that God had intended for them.
One way that he says to do that is to change our attitude and our thinking.
The old person had an attitude of me and my family.
The new under Christ is about Christ and others.
They are opposites. One is corrupt and one is divine.
Paul tells us that we should of been taught v22 to throw off the old and put on the new.
Here is where some of the problems lay:
your not in church to learn and be taught, the message that would of helped you is the Sunday that you stayed home.
God’s people that are going to have a growing relationship must have a teachable spirit.
If you are not willing to throw off the old, you cannot put the new over the old, and expect it to fit properly.
Distractions keep you from applying God’s word. 5 minutes before service you should be in your seat not thinking about what is for lunch, but preparing your heart to receive God’s Word.
“That Christ may strengthen us in our inner being”. “In your spirit, in His strength”
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever Amen.
Let me bring this thought home.
you will constantly be throwing things off that the Lord wants out of your life.
You will constantly be putting on things the Lord wants to put into your life as you mirror the things of Christ.
the last thing(I think) is that as you become more like Christ- you will be in service for Him.
God doesn’t allow us to sit on our hands.
Jesus was in service for others and so should we.
I’m not talking about salvation as you quote this verse. “ For it is by grace that you are saved , through faith, and not from yourselves. It is a gift of God. I say Amen But it also says:” we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Gentile by birth- citizen of heaven by faith in Jesus Christ.
You are not what you were.
You are not yet what you could be.
Jesus who you were once far away has been brought near through the blood of Christ.
He puts all of us in service.
Every single one of us who profess Jesus Christ is a vessel that God desires to use for the kingdom of God.
Bountiful Blessings mission statement states that it is to get along side the working poor. Not to enable them that they don’t work or better themselves. But to help them move forward in life.
Paul is telling each of us, those that have been helped are to move forward and help others.
“That we have been taught the way of Christ”
What is my job as pastor of this church It is the same job you have, but on a different level
.Ephesians 3:12
“To prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the full measure of the fulness of Christ”.
That we would not be tossed around by the waves, blown here and there by every wind of teaching.
Closing:
your spiritual success does not come without work or without sacrifice.
In the dictionary is the only place that success will come before work.
Our service is a confirmation that we are followers of Christ. The world around us sees Christ in our service.
Service can change our world. One person at a time. One family at a time. One church at a time.
When it comes to the junk in your life. Are you holding unto things you should once and for all throw away?
Illustration
A mother and her four year son were looking through an old family album. The boy pointed at a picture of a handsome young man with dark, curly hair. He asked, who’s that? She told him, that’s your father. The boy looked confused. Then who is that bald guy who lives with us now?
This life is called a rat race for a reason. Get rid of the garbage.
As Christians, everything that we do, we must do it as unto the Lord- Because we are Col 3:23.
Like a few weeks ago, I don’t want to simply shipwrecked, I want it to be an example.
Altar call:
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