[0:00] Take your Bibles, go into the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 4, Ephesians chapter 4. As you're turning there, I will let you know that tonight it's 6 o'clock, and I was asked by some on Wednesday if I would do this again.
[0:11] I do it occasionally. We've just changed books from 2 Samuel into 1 Kings on our Sunday nights and Wednesday nights and just preaching through Scripture. And quite often when we come to that transition, we do a Q&A time.
[0:23] I didn't do it because last Sunday evening I wasn't quite ready for that. But this Sunday evening we will be doing a Q&A time. So we will gather together, questions and answers.
[0:33] Some of you have done it. I've asked if you can email me your questions in advance. Hey, my email is really easy, okay? It's billyjoecalvert at gmail.com. If that's too hard for you, it's wartracebaptist at gmail.com.
[0:46] Either one of them, right? And you can send me your questions. I will hopefully take time later on this afternoon to look at it before we get together. Some of them already have. If you come and you have a question and you didn't send it to me, then we'll work through the answers together with one another, okay?
[1:01] It's not that I have all the answers, but I do know the one who does have all the answers and he's given us a book which we can go to with one another and we can sharpen one another. So we will be doing that this evening.
[1:13] Those services tend to run a little bit longer, but we'll start right at 6 o'clock. And we'll get started right at 6 and we'll get right into it and we'll go as long as we need to and can allow to this evening.
[1:24] You have your Bibles open. I'm going to ask if you'll join with me if you are physically able and desire to do so as we stand together and we read the Word of God found in Ephesians chapter 4. Starting in verse 17, I'm going to read to the end of the chapter.
[1:35] It says, And so this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.
[1:52] And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you do not learn Christ in this way if indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him just as truth is in Jesus.
[2:08] That in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
[2:25] Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor. For we are members of one another and 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.
[2:38] 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 the 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.
[2:57] 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.
[3:08] Be kind to one another, hearted, forgiving each other, just as God and Christ also has forgiven you. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for this day. God, we thank you for your word.
[3:21] We know there's so much there. Lord, we pray that by the power and presence of your spirit that you would help us to understand it. Lord, that we would do so much more than grasp it mentally, but Lord, that we would understand it to the very depth of our being and our lives would live according to it.
[3:35] And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. I want you to see this morning what it looks like to be raised to walk new.
[3:46] If any of you have been baptized recently here at this church over the last several years, those being baptized, and along with those performing the baptism, wear the same shirt.
[3:57] Those being baptized take the shirt, and my shirt is hanging up back here in the back. It says on the front, we are buried with Christ in the likeness of his death, and on the back says, raised to walk in the newness of his life.
[4:11] Baptism is such an important step of obedience. So let's stop right here and say, if you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and you've never followed him in believer's baptism, I encourage you to do that not as a legalistic manner, but just as an obedient manner.
[4:26] There's joy in obedience, right? Taking that step of public profession and obedience. But it also has the symbolic manner of his death and resurrection. And we are reminded in that, that we have the ability, not as Nicodemus says, to enter into our mother's womb and be born again, but we have the ability to live a different life, a new life.
[4:48] For those of you that have been with us as we've made our way through the book of Ephesians, you know that Paul deals with theology and doctrine in the first three chapters and deals with practice in the last three chapters. I know we've said that over and over and over again.
[5:00] But each aspect of the second half of the book deals with an aspect of the first half of the book. And he's working his way backwards. He's went from personal redemption and salvation and how we are new in Christ and the impact it has on our personal life and the doctrine to how it puts us in the body of Christ.
[5:19] And then he began talking about how we ought to walk. It tells us in Ephesians 4 in the very first verse to walk accordingly, right? The favorite verb or favorite wording that Paul has in the second half of the book of Ephesians is walk.
[5:33] That is, the theology and the doctrine, the truths that we learn should lead to and ought to lead to something we do. Because if not, we're not living out authentic Christianity.
[5:44] They're a collection of information and gaining of facts that is never applied to a life that is lived. It's really just a gaining of useless information because if you're not gonna do anything with it, it's useless.
[5:56] And Paul says, it's great that you know what you believe and you believe what you know, now do what you believe. Walk accordingly. And he started that walking accordingly with your interaction with one another called the church.
[6:11] That's the first 16 verses really that we have in the fourth chapter, just how important the church is. It gives both my job description and your job description there in the first 16 verses of Ephesians chapter four as a member of the church.
[6:27] If you've accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, he has sealed you, he's redeemed you, he's forgiven you, he's renewed you, and he's equipped you. And he didn't equip you so that you could go out and live your best life on your own.
[6:40] He equips you so that your life could make an impact in the body of Christ, which is the church. And you have a reason for your existence within that body. Therefore, if you are failing to be a part of that body, you're not only doing yourself harm, but you're doing everybody else harm.
[6:55] You're trying to live on your giftedness alone, and you need others. You need their grace, their mercy, their forgiveness. And then he makes this transition in the 17th chapter.
[7:08] Now, we are in the church, because one of the problems we find in the church is too often, everybody's not like us. As a matter of fact, nobody's like you, because you are unique.
[7:20] I'm so thankful there's no other Billy Joes around here. I had a retired church planter, missionary, tell me one time, and I don't think he meant it this way, but it just settled this way.
[7:31] He said, I make it my ambition that by the time I die, there's a lot of little, and he said his names, running around. And he said it, and I kind of passed it, and I was his pastor at that time, but deep in my heart, I go, oh, I hope there's no more than one of you running around.
[7:47] Because while I loved him dearly as a brother, I did not need more than one of him within the church. And you don't need more than one of me, and I don't need more than one of you, which causes conflict sometimes.
[7:59] Paul is writing to the believers at Ephesus. And he challenges them to walk differently. He's writing to believers. He's not writing to non-believers. Some say that he's writing to the Gentile believers.
[8:10] In Ephesus, you would have both Jew and Gentiles, and you'd have this conglomerate of people. He's really just encouraging them. No, he's doing it for all. He's encouraging all believers to live differently than they used to live.
[8:21] And he's telling them to walk in who they are, because they know who they are. He's just told them that. If you want to see what this passage is really applying, it would be Ephesians chapter 2, starting in verse 1 and going down to about verse 10.
[8:35] So Ephesians 2, 1, and 10 are the truths that relate to this passage, and this is the application of that truth. Aren't you thankful that God just doesn't tell you what you need to know?
[8:46] He tells you what you need to know, and then he tells you how you ought to live. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful that God in his word and in his sovereignty tells us the great truths that we must grasp.
[8:59] But then he's so moved by the spirit of God, the hand of man, to tell us that once you have this truth, this is what it looks like. He doesn't give us a lot of rules of list and regulations.
[9:11] These things are lived out in relationship, right? Because if we try to follow these legalistically, we forget what happened relationally in Ephesians 2, we're not going to take time to go there, but you can go back there and you can see it again, that we are raised to walk new.
[9:30] The first part that we see in this walk, this new walk that we have is that now, and it is an amazing thing, and it is something that should cause us to shout hallelujah, and it is something that should move us to the very depth of our being because it is something that in all of our life, until we came to Christ, we had no ability to do, is that now that in Christ, you have a choice.
[9:54] The Bible says you have a choice. Paul declares to them, so this I say, and affirm together with the Lord. Other translations say, and testify alongside the Lord.
[10:06] That is, Paul says, it's not only me that's urging you to do this, it's also the Lord that's urging you to do this. By the way, just stop right there for just a moment. I love that. It is the Lord who is urging you to do this.
[10:19] Lordship involves a rightful position to tell me what to do. There are a lot of people that love the name Jesus, but they didn't just make him Savior. He also made him Lord and Savior.
[10:31] He is both Savior and Lord, the word says. That is, he saves you and redeems you, but he also, my friend, listen to me, he has Lordship over you.
[10:42] You say, oh, nobody has Lordship over me. Well, then you haven't met my Savior. Because he is both Savior and Lord. And it is he who has purchased us off the auction block of sin that now is along with Paul urging this reality upon us.
[11:01] So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk. Gentiles is everybody else, but a non-Jewish person.
[11:13] He couldn't really point to the Jewish people here because they claimed to walk differently. They had a law, the law of God, the law of Moses. They had the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, which they lived legalistically.
[11:25] They had over 650 oral laws known as the Mishnah. They knew how far they could carry a teacup on a Sabbath and get away with it. They knew exactly what they could and could not do.
[11:36] They had all the washings that they would, when they came back from the marketplace, before they could eat, how they could legalistically wash. Jesus said, they had all the rituals and doctrines of man, but none of the spirit of God.
[11:47] And so they could say, well, we live differently. What Paul was saying, don't just live the way everybody does. But what's astounding here, and what's so moving here, is that Paul says, you don't have to do that anymore.
[12:01] You now have a choice. See, what Paul is urging, he says, you need to pay attention to how you walk, because naturally, you couldn't do it.
[12:11] In Ephesians 2, Paul reminds us, that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. But through faith in Christ, we have been raised to walk in the newness of life. He says, that also in Romans chapter 6, that we were once enslaved to sin.
[12:27] We were dead to this world. We had to do what sin called us to do, because we were enslaved to it. But through faith in Jesus Christ, we have now been set free. And Paul says in Romans 6, therefore, what Christ has set free, we should no longer make it a slave to sin, but a slave to righteousness.
[12:44] Friend, do you understand that before Jesus Christ, as your Lord and Savior, you didn't have a choice? You didn't have a choice. We've said it over and over again. We're not surprised when sinners act like sinners, because that's all that they can do.
[12:59] The surprising thing is when saints act like sinners, because they're choosing to do it. You have a choice. The word of God declares to us that we don't have to do it anymore.
[13:12] Why? Because that old man has died, and in Christ, you have been raised to walk new. You say, oh, well, I still have all these feelings, and these passions, and this temptation, and all these things.
[13:25] I'm not telling you that you are going to be sinless. I'm just telling you that you can sin less, right? I'm telling you that now, you have the opportunity to at least choose, and if you don't pay attention to it, and you're not really giving it an intentionality about it, then the choice would go, all of a sudden, revert back to what is comfortable, and it will revert back to what is normal, and it will revert back to what you've always done naturally, and if you're not intentional about your spirituality, then you will always go back to the natural, and the natural will always do with that, which only the natural can do, and that is sin, but you have a choice.
[14:05] Look at what the word of God says. He says, you don't have to do that anymore. You don't have to live that way anymore. Why? Because it is in the futility of their mind. Now, pay attention to this, and I know I'm going fast. Don't apologize so much for going fast.
[14:16] I have a lot I want to get in, but I'm going fast. It's the futility of their mind. Notice where sin starts. Sin starts in the mind. Say, well, sin is a heart problem.
[14:29] It is, but it starts in the mind, in the futility of their mind, and what happens is being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart, so that which begins in the mind, the darkness of the mind invariably leads to the hardness of the heart.
[14:52] They're ignorance. Before Christ, ignorance is not a bad word. It's a bad position. They just don't know. Before Christ, you didn't know why, because it says that Jesus is the truth.
[15:08] He doesn't say he has truth, or he knows truth. He says he is the truth. What did Jesus say? For I am the truth, the way, and the life. And apart from Christ, you don't know the truth.
[15:20] You may know some truths, but you don't know the truth. Therefore, your mind is darkened. Your mind is incapable of comprehending certain aspects.
[15:35] Many people believe that when you come to faith in Jesus Christ, that you have to just throw your mind out, and you have to cast everything off, and they have a misunderstanding of what faith is, and a misunderstanding of what hope is.
[15:46] It's all the way. You're basing your life upon a hope, and you're absolutely right, I am. But it's not like I'm hoping that things get better. It is the hope that is the confident assurance that what God has promised will come about.
[15:57] My hope rests in a promise, and that promise rests in a reality, and that reality is an unfailing God who controls all of the universe. So if you say that I'm foolish for resting in that hope, I'll say that you're more foolish for resting in anything other than that.
[16:13] Because apart from that, you have nothing to rest upon. Even that you, maybe that you hope that your own circumstances, or by your own power, by your own abilities, that you can manipulate all of time and space and energy, and that you can control not only what you do, but what everybody does about you.
[16:28] See, my hope is found in the one who does hold the hearts of the kings in the palm of his hand, and he turns them to and fro however he desires. My hope rests in the confident assurance that what God has promised, it has not degraded my intellect.
[16:40] As a matter of fact, it has exceeded my intellect. It has called me to think of things higher and set my mind on things above, not on the things below. For his ways are greater than my ways. And what we understand, friend, listen, sin is a reality of a darkened mind, and a darkened mind hardens the heart, and a hardened heart soon becomes calloused.
[17:01] Look at what the next verse says. It says, And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. See, it doesn't take very long for a calloused heart to give themselves over to everything and anything.
[17:16] And you say, Well, what does greediness have to do with this? It's not just a desire for more money, but it is the greediness that wants to do things their own way. Well, I'm going to do it because I want to do it.
[17:29] I don't care who says it's wrong. I don't care who says I shouldn't. I don't care who it bothers. I am so greedy that I'm going to do it that way. But friend, listen to me. The word of God declares that as a believer, you don't have to do that.
[17:40] You have a choice. And the reason we have a choice is because that's who we were naturally. But as Paul declares in Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ.
[17:53] It is no longer I who lives, but it is Christ who lives in me, who gave himself up for me. I've been crucified with Christ. If we relate in the likeness of his death, the word of God says, we should also live in the likeness of his life.
[18:07] Oh, one of the greatest glorious things of the faith of Christ is that now we are given the ability to choose. Well, how do you do that?
[18:19] Paul declares in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 that we fight a spiritual battleground. We fight warfare not of the world around us, but you're fighting a warfare in your mind.
[18:30] He declares in the 10th chapter of 2 Corinthians that we take every thought captive, every thought that raises itself up against Christ, and we take it captive, and we disarm it by the word of God.
[18:41] And the reason we need to take captive our thoughts is because, friend, listen, sin starts in the minds. And he said, and when that thought comes up and it raises itself up according to Christ, and it wants to confront Christ, and it wants to be an affront to Christ, we take that thought captive.
[18:57] Paul doesn't say those thoughts don't come. Paul just says that now when those thoughts come, we are fighting a battle because we know that Satan's trying to build a spiritual force in our mind, that Satan wants a stronghold over us, and he starts it in the mind so that the heart can become callous.
[19:13] He goes on and he says here, but we did not learn Christ in this way, but you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard him. He doesn't say if you've heard about him. He says if you've heard him and have been taught in him just as truth is in Jesus, that in reference to your former manner of life, you lay it aside.
[19:33] How do you lay it aside? Lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance to the lust of the saint. Look at this, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Do you want to know why you need to learn the things of Christ?
[19:44] You need to be renewed in the spirit of the mind. You know what repentance is. Repentance literally means to have a change of mind. It is to have a change of mind. To live a truly repentant life is to have a mind change.
[19:56] Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. To understand the things. Take captive those thoughts that raise themselves up as a fortress to Christ.
[20:08] He says in Romans chapter 12, verse 1, that we are being renewed in our minds so that we can do the things that practice. There is a choice to be made, and friend, only you in Christ are challenged with making that choice.
[20:24] I cannot choose what you think on. You cannot choose what I think on. We learn in Christ, and we take these thoughts captive. There is a choice to be made. Number two, there is a character to be fashioned because once the choice is made and the mind is being renewed, a character will be developed, and God has called his people to develop these characters within him, these character traits.
[20:45] He goes on. He says that we lay aside that old self. Hey, the old you. He had all kinds of character traits. And one thing that I love about Christ is that when Christ redeems us, he redeems all of us, right?
[20:56] So he didn't call me to lay aside my personality traits. He redeemed my personality traits, okay? I'm kind of a goofy guy. I'm kind of an outgoing guy. I try to remind myself of that when I'm in the pulpit, and I kind of have, sometimes people don't always know how to take me, and they don't know how to read me, and some of you are a lot more serious than me.
[21:14] You know, like, Ducks Don't Wear Socks. Some of you know that book. You're like, you're real serious on Ducks Don't Wear Socks, and you just don't know how to take things. You're going to go look up that children's book. I know, I'll say it one more time. Ducks Don't Wear Socks. Good book, right?
[21:25] So you don't want to be that serious girl that's all moping around. I'm the duck. That's who I am in that book. So, and you don't know how to relate to that, right? You don't know how to understand that. And so I try to remind, but you know what I love about Christ is Christ is okay with that because that's how he formed me in my mother's womb, right?
[21:41] He gave me my personality traits. He gave me who I am. He knit me together. The Bible says perfectly. God don't make junk is the way it's said around our house. He made us perfect, right? The world kind of tears that up and takes it and does other things with it.
[21:54] And he created all these traits and he redeems them. That is, he uses them for his glory. So what may have been used for my own glory or may have been used for the glory of the world now is being used for his glory.
[22:04] But he causes us to renew our mind. And in who we are, it begins to develop different character traits, right? And he begins to reform us and to renew us. He says, therefore, we lay aside all falsehood.
[22:15] He's writing to believers. He's telling them not to lie. That should astound us, but the problem is we know believers. Some of you got that.
[22:26] Some of you are lying to yourself right now saying that doesn't apply to me. Right? He's writing to believers. He said, therefore, lay aside all falsehood. Don't need to tell a lie anymore.
[22:38] We don't need to be like that. But speak truth, each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. So he's actually telling the church not to lie to one another. Did you notice that?
[22:48] We are members of one another. So he's saying, don't be lying to your brothers and sisters in Christ. That's why some of you this week, I've loved it. You've come up to me. I say, how are you doing? You say, well, I'm doing well. Because you learned last week, right?
[23:01] Well is a good answer. You know, I'm always doing good. And you don't want to lie to the pastor because he preached a sermon about it. So you've checked your message and said, I'm doing well today. I said, great. It's awesome. At least we're not lying.
[23:12] You say, pastor, that's just a little lie. Everybody wants to hear good. Nobody wants to hear our problems. Just stop right here. If you don't really want somebody to be honest with you about their problems, don't ask them how they're doing. I mean, that's a genuine thing, right?
[23:26] And I had to learn that because my personality trait is like, hey, I'll move on to the next person. So I had to learn that real quick. I'm just being transparent. That if I ask, it's because I really want to know.
[23:37] And so don't do anyone else the disservice by asking them how they're doing if you don't legitimately want to know how they're doing. You can just say, hey, and go on.
[23:49] Then I know you don't really want to know. But if you say, hey, how you doing? Now you're opening the door, okay? Just saying. Don't lie to one another, but keep the truth of one another.
[24:00] And he says, okay. And then he goes on, so no falsehood. And he says, okay, be angry yet do not sin. The Bible doesn't say we can't be angry. It says be angry and yet do not sin. He's quoting the Old Testament here.
[24:10] You know, God's talking about it. Anger's not bad. Anger's bad when we allow anger to come to the place of sin. There are many things in the Bible that tells us we can be angry at sin, right? We don't have to be angry at the sinner. We can have a righteous, man, I'm about to have me some righteous indignation up in here.
[24:24] I love that, right? We're about to get mad about something. And there's nothing wrong with that. We ought to be, but do not sin. And it says, do not let the sun go down on your anger. A little old word study there on that passage.
[24:34] Isn't that one verse? Literally, what it's implying is don't let the sun set on what you're angry about, on that thing that is angering you. So if you are angry over sin, then deal with that sin today.
[24:48] Don't just go to bed being angry at the sin. If you're angry with the evidence of sin in another person's life, then talk to that person that day about what is upsetting you. Not that you're, not you're angered.
[24:59] Don't like, well, I'm gonna make this right. No, this isn't, you know, wrath belongs to the Lord. We understand that judgment belongs to the Lord, but also deal with the problem that's causing it that day. It's a good character trait to have, right?
[25:12] And do not give the devil an opportunity. Why? Because Satan's opportunities come in our anger and we allow those things to fail. Again, just testify. Again, verse 28, look at what he says here. Look at this character trait. He who steals must steal no longer.
[25:24] This is the church, right? Those of you in the church that are stealing, quit stealing. That's what he's saying, right? Develop this character trait. Renew your mind.
[25:35] You don't have to steal anymore. So quit stealing. Develop this character trait. Go to work. Work with your own hands. That which is good. Go to work. Why? Because it was just such a common practice so often there.
[25:46] He says, don't do that. And then he goes on, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth. That is, clean up your speech. Shh. Don't talk unbecomingly to one another or about one another or even listen to that about one another.
[26:01] Wow, that's a hard one, right? That didn't just apply in Ephesus, by the way, all the way back then. That applies to war traits right now, right? All of these do. This is character trait. Watch your words.
[26:13] Your words and your work and your witness and all these other things. He said, and do not let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you. I know y'all might throw things at me, but the wording there that he's giving is like the picture of a bar fight, right?
[26:32] Don't act like that when you come to church. Build a different character trait within you. So we have this character to be fashioned by the renewing of our mind.
[26:45] Now, I love this. I said that wording, right? To be fashioned. It's not gonna happen instantaneously. I like the fact that Paul's writing to the church and he's giving them these challenges because he's reminding them that even though they came to Christ, they still have problems.
[26:59] But he didn't let them stand those problems. He's encouraging them to be renewed in their mind and to move beyond those problems, right? There were believers there that were lying to one another, stealing from one another, fighting with one another, right?
[27:11] Talking down to one another. And Paul says, you don't have to do that. We can find that in the rest of the world. All the other Gentiles live like that. We're gonna look differently in here. So let's make the choice and let's do something different.
[27:23] Let's develop this character and that's third and finally. I promise I'll be done. Look at the concern to be matured. So this is this concern. This is where we get to maturity, right? We're so, okay, well, I'm gonna be a better person.
[27:34] If Christianity was all about just being a better person, then you can go do that and any other things in all the world, right? You can go be a better person. There are a lot of self-help books out there and a lot of things that tell you how to be a better person. A lot of times tell you how to clean your life up even though you're gonna have a hard time doing that without the truth of Jesus Christ.
[27:49] But we look at, you'll never find this concern here. He says, don't lie to one another. So cast off the lying. We really get into this concern when we start talking about the man stealing, right?
[27:59] Or the person stealing. He says, he who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good. Yeah, that man, the Bible tells us in the church, in the early church, if a man didn't work, he didn't eat.
[28:12] Right? That was very, a man should work. And so we read that, we're like, yes, he ought to work. And that's just kind of one of the rules around our house, right? We work. You work to eat. And we understand that it's in scripture.
[28:24] Well, that man needs to provide for himself. Well, the concern goes further than that. Look at this. It has been elevated. He'd go get a job and work with his hands what is good so that he will have an opportunity to give to someone in need when they need it.
[28:40] Did you see that? That he labors and works in order to give away. He was stealing to provide for himself. Now he is to work not only just to provide for his needs and his family needs, but also so that he can give some of it away anytime somebody has a need.
[28:57] That's an elevated concern. That's maturity. That is laboring and working in order to provide for the needs of someone else. And not only that, the words, we ought to clean our words up. Yeah, I need to watch out what I say.
[29:08] Why? 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. That is, not all edification is good for every moment. So you need spiritual discernment to tell you at this moment this is what I should say.
[29:22] Why? Let's elevate it. Let's bring a concern so that we'll give grace to those who hear. You don't need to clean your words up so you sound better. You need to change our words, change how we talk so that we can build others up.
[29:34] Again, we're working to give away. We're changing our words to build others up. It's a greater concern. And it says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
[29:45] Friend, listen to me. Our eternal destiny rests in the sealing of the Holy Spirit, but our temporal effectiveness rests in development of these characters and the concern for others.
[29:57] That is, we can be useless on this side of eternity when we're self-focused and still spend eternity having suffering loss, but as we are told in Scripture, entering as through fire.
[30:11] And he ends it this way. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. You say, Pastor, I don't think I can live this way.
[30:21] I don't think I can do it. Well, our relation with others should be a mirror image of what we've experienced, not from other people, but from Christ. from how God has treated us and the forgiveness we have received from a holy God in Christ.
[30:40] And we're called to live and to walk in a raised manner of life. We ought to make the right choice. We need to develop the right characters and we ought to foster a greater concern for those around us.
[30:53] Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for this day. God, I thank you that we've had an opportunity to gather together. Thank you for all the things that we've seen and heard and thank you for the word. Lord, it penetrates to the very depths of our being.
[31:05] Lord, I pray that as we've heard it, Lord, that you call us to a commitment to follow it for your glory and we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
[31:31] Thank you.