Take Off Death. Put On Life. | Ephesians 4:17–5:20

Transcript is automatically produced. Errors may be present.

Good morning, South Good morning It’s good to see you all this morning. if you’re new around here, my name’s Aaron Bjorklund. I’m one of the pastors here. And, if that is you and you are new, I encourage you to drop by the New Here wall out in the lobby. That’s a space for you to just see what it might look like to plug into a church like this. Because, what we do here on Sunday morning is amazing.

It’s a really critical part of being this church family. When we gather in this room to worship, we share in common worship, we share a common vision. We learn what it looks like, as Alex teaches the word and other pastors here teach the word, and teach us what it looks like to live in the way of Jesus for the heart of Jesus. But the rest is sort of this invitation to a journey where our church goes and lives that out all throughout the week. And so if you’re new, I’d encourage you to figure out what that part looks like, because that’s really what it looks like to be the, a church. so check that out.

I haven’t mentioned this in a little while, but we have a podcast. if you didn’t know that, we have the, it’s called the Red Couch Theology Podcast. It’s redcouchtheology.com. Alex and I, or whoever preached, jumps on that podcast and answers your questions. So if you have questions about today’s sermon, like, “Where in the world were you going, Aaron?” you can write that question in, and we will try our best to straighten it all out. Alex can make sense of whatever I preach today. or you just have questions about theology in general.

You can send it there, and we’ll do our best to grapple with that in the podcast. yeah, we’re continuing in our series through the Book of Ephesians today. But before we actually dive into that, I just would like to pray and, give us a moment to settle. So if you’d maybe bow your heads. Take a deep breath Pastor Jessica this morning, just pointed out maybe a little bit of spiritual warfare going on as we’ve continued this series. Alex felt it a couple weeks ago.

She felt it last week. I felt it this week. There’s been technology challenges already today in various different ways. And I don’t know, I’m not a big, like, demon under every single, corner and dark corner kind of a guy, but I suspect that the message of the Book of Ephesians would like to transform this church family And the enemy wants none of it. So maybe just ask the Spirit, if you’re a follower of Jesus, to not just quicken your hearts, but to give our whole church family ears to hear Holy Spirit, would you move today?

Would you make this church a new kind of people? A kind of people that goes a different direction than the rest of the world. A kind of people that exhibits and lives inside of and out of your great love Give us ears to hear and eyes to see. Amen. In case you didn’t get the clue when children showed up on your doorstep last night in costume asking for candy, last night was Halloween. or yesterday was Halloween.

How are we doing? We can pray for the kids ministry team because it’s Merge Sunday. That’s why there’s, not a bunch of our students over here. The students are leading the kids in worship and teaching today, and they probably are all nursing massive candy hangovers. So it might just be complete mayhem over there.

So let’s just keep our leadership in prayer today. Halloween is not one of my favorite holidays. it never really has been. It kinda overshadows Thanksgiving, which is one of my favorite holidays. but it’s grown on me. It’s grown on me because Clara loves it. our other girls, our older girls really never got into the, like, spooky stuff or something. Like, they were creeped out by it.

But Clara, like, doesn’t mind it at all, and we don’t know why, we didn’t teach her this, but she loves her some Halloween. This is Clara. Aww. This week at school, the, her school had a parade. Like in, when you’re little, kids have a, sometimes there’s a parade at school where the kids all dress up in their Halloween costumes, and then they do a little parade around the courtyard, and the parents take pictures, and this was Clara’s little photo.

She went, as you can tell, as Elsa, the Princess of Arendelle. And she was so excited. so much so that she got up early. She always gets up early, but she got up extra early, and she wanted to go to school right away at 6:00 AM, or then 7:00 AM, and then 8:00 AM, and she doesn’t start till 9:00 AM. And so she was just, like, so excited. And as you can see, she had this Elsa wand, and when we finally, eventually got in the car and she was sort of trying to get her car seat on, she’s waving this wand around, and I thought I’d be a fun, playful dad, and so I said, “Oh no, you froze me.” And so I froze in place.

And she goes, “It’s okay, Daddy. It’s not a real wand.” And I was like, “All right, fine.” trying to be playful here, but you see, even at four years old, Clara knew that it was all fake. It was all this garb was just pretend, right? She knew she wasn’t actually Princess of Arendelle who could freeze stuff with her magic wand. Have you ever woken up to yourself one day and realized, “I think I’m pretending”?

I think I’m… Something’s fake. It’s not working Maybe you have a wand like Clara did, and you’re trying to make life work, and it, it’s just, it’s just pretend. It’s not functioning the way you’d hoped it would Maybe for you want security and safety and comfort, and so you work harder and harder and harder and harder to make money, ’cause that’s what the world tells you gives you security and safety and comfort, and you shake that wand. And maybe you even get the money, and it’s empty, and it doesn’t work.

Or maybe you want just a little rest, and so you grab the next Netflix show. You reach for the next glass of wine, or you reach for the Amazon cart. And you shake that wand, and it’s just not working. It doesn’t create the life you were hoping for. Today’s text is kind of like that little voice of Clara for us today.

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s not a real wand.” But then Paul doesn’t just say it’s not a real wand. The efforts that you’re going to to create meaning in life isn’t a real wand, but he he’s gonna offer us a new way, a real wand, one that actually can bring life. How’s that sound? We ready to dive in?

Yes. All right, let’s dive in. So we are continuing in this Book of Ephesians. If you weren’t here last week, I’d encourage you to go back and listen to Jessica’s message, because it’s a pretty important pivot point in the Book of Ephesians. Here’s where we are so far, just so you can catch yourself up on what’s going on in the book.

Paul spent three chapters telling us who we are. The first three chapters, he’s, he articulates in some of the most majec- majestic words ever penned, the love of God, and the grace of God, and the beautiful identity and adoption that we have in Christ. And he goes on, and on, and on about it with the best possible words he can come up with to make sure that we don’t miss it. And then, in chapter four, what we, where Jessica pivoted us last week, he starts to say, “Well, okay, how then…” Now, he tells us how to live like that identity.

So the rest of the book, Paul is gonna say, “That stuff’s true, and because it’s true, this is now how to live like it’s true.” So that’s where we find ourselves in the book today, and so let’s dive right in, and we’ll just work our way through this passage and see, maybe it will give us some wisdom into how to set down the fake wand, the pretend wand, and pick up something that actually works. Verse 17 says this: “So I tell you this, and I insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.” It’s helpful to know that many of the believers in this little church in Ephesus, that Paul is writing to, were Gentiles.

And so, he he’s talking to them, but pay attention. He says, “This is who you were. Before you met Jesus, this is who you were back then.” And anyone who’s yet to embrace the way of Jesus and embrace the gospel, that’s still who they are, but he’s talking primarily to who, about who they were. And he says, “This is who you were. You had futility in your thinking.” That word, futility, is this little Greek word metanoeites.

It’s futility, emptiness, and purposeless. The reason I highlight that in the Greek is because this is the word that the Septuagint used to translate another word in the Old Testament. So the Septuagint, if you don’t know what that is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. So the the Old Testament’s written in Hebrew, and then, in, before Jesus’ time, a bunch of people wanted it in Greek, so they translated it from Hebrew to Greek, and when they made that translation, they used this word to translate another word in the Book of Ecclesiastes I’m just gonna read this passage from Ecclesiastes 4:8 just to give you an example of what that looks like.

“There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. ‘For whom am I toiling,’ he asked, ‘and why am I depraving myself of enjoyment?’ This too is meaningless.” There’s that word. That’s the word they, that, is the same Greek word that we are talking about today. “And a miserable business.” The Hebrew version of the word is hevel, vanity, futility, breath, vapor, meaningless. It doesn’t work.

It’s a wand that doesn’t work. It’s empty. You can shake it as hard as you want. You can swirl it. You can do whatever you want.

It won’t work. It’s empty. It’s vanity. It doesn’t function. So our passage says, “This is how you were in the futility of your thinking.” It doesn’t work, right?

So moving on. He says, okay, we’re gonna jump to eight, verse 18. “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance in that is in them, the hardening of their hearts, and have lost all sensitivity. They have given themselves over to sensuality so that, so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.” There’s this progression that takes place in this passage, and it actually is a little counterintuitive. It’s not actually top to bottom progression because he he gives us the reason all of this darkness, this futility exists, is because of, due to the hardening of their hearts.

So there’s a hardening of heart, a callousness of heart that then results in darkness and a lack of understanding, and a loss of sensitivity, a dullness. I wanna talk briefly about this idea that comes out of this. They are darkened in the understanding, and they are what? Separated from the life of God. So back then, before they met Jesus, before they encountered the way of Jesus, this was the state that they were in.

They were separated from the life of God, and that phrase there actually carries this sense. They’re separated from the fountain of life. It’s a pretty, some pretty harsh words, aren’t they? Harsh words for what used to be But I’m not so naive to think that maybe in this room there’s someone who doesn’t follow the way of Jesus, and who may have yet to encounter, his way. And in that case, these words may fall a little heavy on you.

They may sound a little bit shaming to you. But I’m here, if that’s you, and you’ve made your way into this room, and I don’t know why you’re here, and you don’t yet follow the way of Jesus. Paul is trying to communicate something to you. He’s trying to say, “It’s not gonna work.” All of your other efforts, all of the other attempts the world’s gonna tell you about how to live the human life well aren’t going to function well, and they are going to separate you from the fountain of life. You can keep trying.

Maybe you’re halfway down, like you’ve, you’ve tried that one and it didn’t work, you tried this one and it didn’t work, and you still got a few more on your list. Paul’s here to tell you none of them are gonna work. So if that’s you, maybe after service you can just sneak up here. We’ll have a prayer team. And maybe, just maybe, after you hear an alternative way, you can join with the, Ephesian church and join with others of us who have already embraced the way of Jesus into a new way of being.

The rest of this message is really targeted those who already have made that journey, and an invitation into what that looks like for us. So I’d encourage you, if that is you, we’d love to talk to you about that. And you can jump into this new way. Moving on. Life without God leaves you empty, numb, and in the dark.

And maybe some of us, even if we follow Jesus now, we know that that’s true. We remember that day when we didn’t have Jesus, or maybe you’re still in that place. Or maybe you met Jesus and he transformed you. You felt that fountain of life and that hope, and then now you’ve started to drift back to some of the old methods and it’s leaving you empty, dark, and numb. This is a reminder today, a reminder from the Apostle Paul, both to the Ephes- church in Ephesus and to us today, that there is an alternative way An interesting study came out of, the Harvard, Human Flourishing Program, and this is an interesting finding they had from the study.

One of the study’s most provocative findings is a negative relationship between a nation’s wealth and its citizens reporting, reported sense of meaning and purpose. listen to this, “Economic progress, it turns out, does not automatically translate into lives that feel meaningful.” And I think we know that, but do we know that? Do we live as if that’s true? Paul’s here to just remind you it doesn’t work. Pursuit economic progress doesn’t produce life. the methods of the world don’t work. It’s just a wand.

It’s, it’s a pretend plastic wand that doesn’t work. So as a reminder, life without God leaves you empty, numb, and in the dark Okay, I wanna just take one moment and talk about this hardening idea, because I think I sense this creeping up in me from time to time, and maybe it’s creeping, crept in for your, you as well. You’re a follower of Jesus, and you sense sort of a hardening or a sort of a weakening of your zeal for God or connectedness to Jesus or whatever, and it’s a hardening. The word there is actually this idea of a callus.

It’s a callused heart. Like a guitar player who plays on the strings and they develop calluses. it protects their fingers, but as far as hearts are concerned, you need tenderness. You need to be able to feel. And the rest of the passage actually talks about that. Look at what he says.

I didn’t put this on the screen, but he says, “They’ve lost sensitivity.” And when you lose sensitivity, and maybe for you it’s like the scrolling on the, on the phone, it used to produce the dopamine hit, and it doesn’t produce the dopamine, so you need more. And instead of 15 minutes, you need 30 minutes. You need four hours. You need something else. You gotta reach for this technique or that technique. that’s exactly what he’s talking about.

He says, “They’ve lost sensitivity so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they’re full of greed.” Like, they’ve gotta fight and hunt and do something to try and recreate that feeling of life, and it doesn’t work, does it? It’s a callousing. Your soul needs to be tender in order for you to be able to absorb life. And if you’re feeling that callus start to wear, build up in you, today’s an invitation back to the soft-hearted life where you can absorb life from the God and the fountain of life.

Paul Brand, who was a doctor who worked with, patients who’s suffering from leprosy, was the first doctor to discover that leprosy doesn’t actually make your appendages fall off as a disease by itself. He actually discovered that the lack of feeling in their appendages caused them to, hurt and injure their finger or their toes or their limbs, and they couldn’t feel it, and then they would injure it again, and then they would injure it again. And so their bodies just couldn’t ever heal, and eventually the injuries got so bad that they would lose fingers and toes and limbs and so on and so forth.

And so in an interview, and later in a book, The Gift of Pain, Philip Yancey wrote this book, and he interviewed him. He and this is what Paul said: “If I held in my hand the power to eliminate physical pain from the world, I would not exercise it.” Pain is functional for a human being. It protects us. So the numbness that Paul talks about in this text, that numbness is a callus that’s building you up, and yes, it protects you. Like part of the reason you’re doing that is ’cause you have some pain in your life.

You’re trying to avoid some of your problems, and I get it, but some of that pain is a warning sign that you’re supposed to run to the fountain of life. Life without God leaves you empty, numb, and in the dark. Is that what you want? Do you wanna be numb? Because, yeah, you may be numbing the pain, but you’re also numbing the life.

So what’s the alternative? What’s the alternative to that way of being? Well, I’m glad you asked. That’s what the rest of the passage is about. Let’s dive into that.

He goes on and he says this in verse 20, “But that is not the way you learned Christ.” I like this in the ESV because it actually uses this awkward phrase that I think is actually intentional in the Greek. “Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus.” You learned Christ. Just by way of reminder, he’s saying all of that stuff, all of that way of being, all of the empty wand stuff, you’re not that. You’re already not that. There’s a mirror passage in the Book of Colossians that used very similar language, and he says, “You’ve already learned this.” This is…

That way of existing doesn’t exist anymore. You learned Christ. And the this is an awkward phrase because, he probably would’ve been more natural to read something like, you learned the way of Christ, or you learned the teachings of Christ, or the personality of Christ, or the character of Christ, or the attributes of Christ. That would’ve read more naturally. But no, he wants to articulate this intimate knowledge.

The knowledge is Christ. It’s an encounter with him. It’s an actually experiencing Jesus kind of knowledge. But that is not the way you learned Christ. To learn Christ is this.

To learn Christ is not simply learning about him or about his teaching, it is experiencing him. A couple weeks ago, Alex articulated this from chapter 3, sort of the pinnacle. Alex called this sort of the emotional center of the entire book, in Ephesians… Or in Ephesians 3:16-19, and I just wanna remind us, this is what it means to learn Christ. And I’m just gonna read this to you, because if we don’t have this, we can’t proceed into the rest of the book.

If we… We need to center on this. I’m gonna just read this passage to you. This is what it means to learn Christ. “I pray that out of, out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in…” What? Love. “May have power, together with all of the Lord’s, holy people.” To grasp how wide and how long and how deep is the what? Love of Christ. And to know his what?

Love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. So Paul is praying from the depths of his soul, “Please, God, help this church know and experience the love of Christ.” Because that’s what it means to learn Christ, is to experience it, to encounter a love that changes everything. So the next natural question is this, how do we step into that kind of knowing? Glad you asked. Moving on.

Let’s jump down to verse 22. You were taught with regards to your former way of life to put off It’s sort of a clothing kind of a language, to take off the clothing of the old self. In other words, to set down the wand, to say, “This doesn’t work.” You were taught to take off the old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. We talked about those deceitful desires. They don’t function.

To be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on. To put on a new self, to put on the love of Christ, to put on the adoption that we find in Christ, to put on the grace of God that all of chapters one, two, and three has been harping on. And Paul so much can’t get over it. He’s trying to move to some practical application, and yet he keeps depositing that grace all throughout his practical application. To put on the new self created by to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

So, when I was in Bible college in my undergraduate program, I went to Moody Bible Institute, and for about three years while I was there, I was a security guard on campus. I was a overnight patrol shift supervisor. And I’m aware that when I say that I was a security guard, this is what you all have in mind Paul Blart, the mall cop. ‘Cause everyone teased me about this all the time when I was a security guard, but I’d like to think I was a little cooler than that, and that I was a little bit more serious than Paul Blart was. and so, this is my serious…

It’s sort of fun seeing younger Aaron, right? Can you believe that’s me? Ooh. The beardless… I don’t know why I’m sitting in an empty auditorium, but man, don’t I look cool, right?

Pretty hot stuff. No. not quite. But I thought I was cool. And the reason I think I was a that it was a little bit more intense than Paul Bloart, Blart was because Moody Bible Institute is located right in the heart of downtown Chicago at the corner of Wells and Chicago Avenue, meaning there’s city streets that cross right through the campus. And it’s not only that, it’s two blocks from Cabrini-Green, which is the projects of downtown Chicago.

Now, that is the epicenter of a lot of the violence that took place in the city of Chicago. And just to sort of put that into perspective for you, the City of Chicago has long time been known as the murder capital of the United States. And so, just to put that into perspective, there were more murders in the time that I was an overnight shift supervisor in Chicago than in New York, which is a bigger city, and LA, which is a bigger city, combined So it was a pretty violent area, and the epicenter of a lot of that violence and gang, activity was two blocks off of campus.

And so, we… I’ve had people ask me, “Okay, you’re on a shift supervisor on the overnight and you’re patrolling the campus right in the middle of city streets. Did you carry a firearm?” And the answer is no, we didn’t. But all we had was a, was a baton and some military-grade pepper spray, some handcuffs, and a bulletproof vest. So why am I telling you this story?

Well, it’s because I noticed as the years progressed and I continued to put on this uniform, that something happens to you when you put on a bulletproof vest underneath a uniform with a shift supervisor badge on it, and you strap up your pepper spray and your baton and your handcuffs. And you go to training, and you learn how to do certain pressure point holds. Because we didn’t have weapons, we had to actually learn pressure holds to sort of, control a violent suspect or someone who was under the influence of drugs or whatever it may be.

Something happened in my head. Like, I had to put on an identity, an identity that unlike the average student on campus who, when alarms went off, they ran away from danger, I had to put on a new identity that ran into danger. And you put it on every single day, and you go to training, and you learn how to, to deal with difficult situations and difficult people, and on and on it went. And over time, I actually became a different kind of person. You were ready at any given moment to face some of the most hostile situations.

And we were the first on the scene at gang fights. I had to cuff a kid who was fighting in, on our facility with another kid, and these sorts of things happened, and I had to put on this identity. And it changed me. Now I think about danger differently as a result of it. That’s part of what Paul’s saying here.

It’s a putting on of a new identity that actually changes you. But You take that uniform off, and then you put it back on, and you put it off, and you put it on, and you put it on, and you put it on, and you put it on, and over time, it transforms you. So the next thing we can learn here is you can’t put on life while you’re still wearing death. There’s a taking off of the old self, the play costume, the plastic wand. There’s a putting on of the new identity, the love of God, the adoption that we have in Christ, the grace of God.

You can’t put on life while you’re still wearing death. You don’t become new by trying harder. You become new by getting dressed in who Christ says you are every morning. So maybe that’s just a practical tip for you. This has to be consistent.

It has to be a rhythmic transformation of the way you think. Over and over again in this passage, Paul is talking about thinking, thinking because he wants you to transform your thinking to the place where you actually live out the new life that he says you already have, by the way. You can’t put on life while you’re still wearing death. Did you know, so far in our passage, there have been no commands in this text? That may be a little surprising, especially given the way it sounds in verse 17.

“So I tell you this and I insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live.” That’s actually not in the imperative. That’s not a command. Now, it carries some command weight to it, ’cause he wants you to think this is serious stuff, and all of the, what he’s telling, the putting on, the taking off, none of that’s in the imperative. That’s not a command in the Greek, but it carries some of that force, and I think what Paul is trying to do is he wants to make sure people realize this is serious stuff.

This is really important, taking off an old identity and putting on a new identity. But he doesn’t want us to get the order mixed up in our minds. Identity comes before instruction. Because if we don’t get that wrong, what you’re gonna hear today is that, “I’ve gotta try harder and be a better Christian,” and that is a technique of the old self. Instead, if you wanna see the transformation, the life that this text promises, instead you have to ground yourself in chapters 1, 2, and 3, in the love of God, the adoption of God, the grace of God.

And then once that’s secure, oh, then the commands can come, and they’re coming in this passage. Identity comes before instruction. With an identity fixed and secure, what do we do now? Well, I’m glad you asked. That’s what the rest of the text is about, and we’re gonna just fly through this section of really deep practical application.

And just remember, as we do this, your identity’s secure. You are in Christ. If you’re a follower of Jesus, that part is settled. So now the rest of these commands, and they are commands, they’re in the imperative, are invitations to the way of life. Okay?

Can we stay in that place? All right. Let’s move into this. “Therefore, having put away falsehood,” again, taken off falsehood, “let each of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin.

Do not let the sun go down on your anger,” these are all imperatives, “and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, and rather let him labor, do on, doing honest work with his own hands, and so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” And there’s more imperatives to come. We’ll get those, to those in just a moment. Every command, I want you to notice in this, is for the community. This command is not just for you.

This isn’t personal spiritual devel- development advice. They are all connected to the rest of the church family. look at this. “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor,” meaning your fellow follower of Jesus, “for we are all members of one body.” So this is part of what Paul’s saying here. He’s saying, “One of your responsibilities as a member of a church community is to remind people of their identity in Christ.” All of the stuff we’ve read in chapters one through three and the early parts of chapter four are trying to help us identify ourself with Christ.

Remember that we’re new creations and all these sorts of things. He says, “One of your jobs is to also help your neighbor remember that about themselves.” Remember, you are no longer like the Gentiles who pursue empty things. You are a new creature. You’re a new kind of human being. Remind them.

This is what he means by speaking the truth. He goes on, “Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” There’s several imperatives there, or commands in there. One of them, interestingly, is be angry. That’s a command.

Very strange to me, and there’s scholars have debated and have a couple different theories. I think what’s going on here is anger actually does have some utility in the among the people of God. When you see injustice or the brokenness, or when you see one of your your fellow followers of Jesus living outside of the system and trying to do one of these deals with their life, there might be a little bit of anger that’s designed to draw you in and care for that person, or to reach in and create righteousness out of an unjust situation.

So, and then it says, “But don’t, do not sin.” So he’s warning you, like, anger is a dangerous, toxic material that’s meant to do something, and if it doesn’t move from anger to doing something about it really efficiently, it really quickly festers and breaks the whole community. Let me illustrate with this great quote from, Brené Brown. She says this: “Anger is a catalyst. Holding onto it will make us exhausted and sick. It’s an emotion that we need to transform into something life-giving: courage, love, change, compassion, justice.” In other words, anger can be useful when it’s about protecting the community, but it can be toxic if left undealt with.

And that’s why he says you must– oh, that’s the next section. That’s why he says, “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” It’s not necessarily meaning the literal 24-hour day. It’s a deal with it quickly. When you experience righteous anger, you need to deal with it quickly so it doesn’t fester and become toxic to the system. Otherwise, it’ll break what it was intended to heal, all right?

The next invitation is this one who has been stealing must steal no longer and must work doing something useful with their own hands that they may have something to share with those in need. In other words, no longer a consumer, but a giver So not many of us are thieves necessarily. Like, you’re not maybe stealing actively right now, and if you are, his invitation is to stop that. Instead, get a job, make something, create something good in the world, give it back to your community. But I think it goes beyond that.

I think he’s saying, if you’ve come to a church community and a family, and you just receive, you come and you sit under teaching, you receive some instruction, these sorts of things, that’s the posture you have. No, no, he says that’s the old way. Receive, receive about me is the old way of being human. The new way of being human is to, become the kind of human that then gives back to the community, brings your gifts, brings your money, your resources, your talents, your passions, your heartbeat, and then contributes them back to the people of God.

By the way, did I mention all these commands are designed to care for the entire community? All right, just don’t want you to forget that. All of these commands are for all of us, right? It’s for the whole community. Let’s move on.

He goes into the next series. There’s a bunch more commands. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you are sealed for the day of redemption.” Some of what Paul’s trying to communicate, and maybe most of what he’s trying to communicate in this whole practical command-ridden section of the Book of Ephesians, is this: Your development depends on your neighbor’s development, so don’t harm them with your words Your formation, your walk with Jesus, your experience, your capacity to absorb life is connected to your neighbor’s capacity to absorb life.

It’s connected to their capacity to live in the identity, in this new identity that they have in Christ. Your formation’s not just for you, it’s for them And so we have to go on this journey of formation together. We’re a healing people, we’re not a healing person. And if we don’t do it together, then it’s not gonna work. He made the church as an entity that not only heals the world, but heals those as that are members of it.

So your new self makes the whole body whole Your formation is mission critical for your neighbor Your spiritual development, your ability to give back, your capacity to use your words wisely is a gift to those around you. So I’m gonna ask this question. What grieves the Holy Spirit is when God’s people harm one another with their speech That’s interesting to me. Church, what Paul is saying is, since your development is contingent upon the health and wellbeing of your neighbor in Christ, we have to use our words only to build up, like he says.

If your words, if you gossip about your fellow followers of Jesus, if you speak poorly about them, if you say anything about them that tears them down and doesn’t build them up, you’re breaking the people of God. You’re fracturing the vision that God has for his church. Stop it. You’re damaging them, and when they’re damaged, your life is weakened Our speech must build one another up, must turn to our neighbor and say, “Neighbor, you are adopted. You’re loved by Jesus.

I know you made a mistake, but I see you. I see the real you, the real you. The real you is transformed by the love of Jesus. That’s who I see.” That’s the kind of speech that builds people up, and it grieves the Spirit when we don’t do it. By the way, did I mention-… all these commands are designed to care for the entire community?

Okay, so what happens when we do screw up, and we speak poorly, and we damage our fellow neighbor? Well, the next section’s about that, and I’m going too long here. I’m getting all amped up. I’m preaching. Be careful.

All right. “Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another. Forgive each other, just as Christ forgave you.” What he’s saying here is this: All right, when we do screw up, and we speak poorly, or we steal from our neighbor, or we damage them, or if you’ve been damaged, quick to forgive Because that’s what breaks the cycle. It’s people trying not to damage one another, and then when we do, we’re quick to forgive, we’re compassionate, we’re kind.

And then he grounds it in what? Just as Christ forgave you. When someone wrongs you, fight bitterness with forgiveness, the same forgiveness Christ gave you. Your new self makes the whole body whole. And so this is, this whole passage can be summarized in this statement, so if you wanna write this down, I’d encourage you to write it down.

Take off death. Take off the old thing, the dead wand. Put on life. Your neighbor needs it. I’m gonna invite the band up as I move to a conclusion, and we’re gonna sing this great song, and then we’re gonna take communion together.

In 1940, this small mountain village in France, as Nazi Germany is sort of ravishing Europe, Andre and Magda, this husband and wife, pastor’s wife, advocated in their little church for their people to care for those who needed help He said it this way, “It is our Christian duty to resist violence. We will do so without fear, but also without pride and without hate.” And so he made this statement in the pulpit, and he taught his little congregation what it looked like to put on the new life.

And he taught it consistently, and then he modeled it, and he let that, those words transform his life and his wife’s life, and so much so that, one day, a a Jew showed up on their doorstep, and his wife opened the door and said, “Come on in. I’ll harbor you and keep you safe.” She didn’t have to think about it because she’d been transformed so deeply by her identity And then they didn’t tell their congregation they had to do this, but the rest of their congregation started following in suit.

And over the course of the next several years, it’s estimated that somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 Jews were protected by this one little church. And they didn’t have to talk about it necessarily. It, there was no, like, mandate from the pulpit. It was just him teaching the way of Jesus, teaching the way of Jesus, and this little church putting on the way of Jesus so that when the moment came, they didn’t have to think about what to do. They lived from the place of their identity, and they cared for people.

That’s the kind of church I wanna be more of, South. A church that doesn’t have to calculate, “Is this right or is it wrong?” It’s just so much who I am, that I don’t even think. I just obey the way of Jesus. Should I say this or not say… Oh, that’s not Jesus.

I’m gonna say the kind thing, and on and on it goes. So take off death and put on life. Your neighbor needs it, and guess what? So do you. You need to take off death and put on life.

We’re gonna move to communion, and as the band plays this song, this incredible song that paints a picture of the throne room of God and all of, the people of God worshiping Jesus, we’re gonna come and take the elements. We did communion last week, and it was a reminder of our fellowship in Christ, and we’re doing it again because this whole thing has been all about the community together on a formation journey. And so as you come forward, I want you to… The band’s gonna play. Come up and forward and collect the elements, and remember, the same, drink, and, that represents the blood of Jesus, and the same bread, the calories that are going into your body is going into your neighbor’s body.

It’s like we’re united in this feast. We’re united under the love of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God, the kindness of God, and it’s gonna enable us to be a new kind of people. So first, take the bread and take that yourself right away, and then once you’re done with that, would you stand as we continue to worship together, all in one unity. And then at the end, we’re gonna take the cup together, and we’re gonna look at each other and we’re gonna declare that we’re a new kind of people in Jesus.

Go ahead and come take the elements.