Ephesians 4, Part 2 | Wade Branch

Well, good morning, everyone. It is great to see a crowd today

that is full of some visitors, some local, some maybe from

another town, some brothers from another place.

We're excited to see you all and happy to have you with us as we

worship this morning and is our number one goal to worship God.

But we hope that you feel welcome and built up in the

process and that and our goal will be accomplished For today.

I'm excited to study through the second-half of what we started.

Last time I taught in Ephesians Chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

So if you want to turn with me there, that's where we're going

to focus our time today. Ephesians Chapter 4 and we

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

stopped at verse 10 last time. And if you haven't been with us

in this book of Ephesians, we've basically got two parts.

We've got a first three chapters of the book of Ephesians that

deals with all the teaching and the doctrine.

Basically a general encouragement to Christians.

Do you realize who you are? Do you realize what you have

been blessed with and called to and redeemed from and welcomed

into? And because of that, in chapter

four we started last time the call to action.

So there is no beautiful benefit without our own stake in this.

And that's not just a bad thing, you know, Sometimes people think

I have something to do now that that should give you a sense of

purpose, This should give you a sense of belonging and

usefulness. Because when you're not active,

you're not useful and really anything in life.

But when you're active, you're useful for a 'cause.

This should be an encouraging section of the letter for us,

and hopefully a challenging section as well.

If it's not challenging to you, and if it's not challenging to

me, there's probably an issue with our heart that we're not

seeing something that we're responsible to see.

So maybe we have open minds to understand as we go through

this. So the call to action he started

with in the first verse was to walk worthy and we talked a

little bit about what that meant.

And he gave us some specifics as to what does it mean to walk

worthy. You know, with this great thing

placed ahead of us that is our salvation and our membership and

the heavenly Kingdom. You would think it's some

grandiose things. And he really listed some very

simple tasks for us as Christians, To walk humbly, to

be patient, to be gentle, to be unified and to build one another

up, That's part of what it means to walk worthy.

But that's not the whole gambit. And we talked more about those

things, but maybe we didn't talk as much about the command

itself. To walk worthy, the command

itself is a mindset and sometimes we get caught up and

you know, I'm just, I'm never going to be worthy and there's

that that self criticism that he's not dealing with here.

There's other passages that deal with self criticalness or

needing to move on from the past, but here it's a call to

action that basically says step up to the plate, walk in a

worthy way. It's a decision.

It's a it's a mindset that says I'm determined to live up to

what I've been called to, to live up to both him who called

me. If the God of this universe is

is calling me, I should walk according to His will and not my

own, and also to what he called me to.

If he called me to the service of the work of his Kingdom, I

should be honored by that. He didn't call me to bad works,

to evil things. You know, some religions around

the world would ask you to do some things that are harmful to

yourself and others. Our God is a good God and he

does not request that of. Us, we are called to a great

work and we are called by a great one.

So I hope that we in the in the deciding all these things that

it does mean. And about the specifics we don't

lose that we have a call to action.

Now let's just get some momentum coming up from last time we

start in verse one saying I. Therefore Paul speaking, the

prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of a calling with

which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with

long-suffering bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to

keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called

in one hope of your calling, 1 Lord, one faith, one baptism,

one God, and Father of all who is above all and through all and

in you all. So He gave us the call to

action, how to be worthy, And then He gave us the principles

of unity, how we walk together in that unity.

Verse 7 But to each of but to each one of us grace was given

according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Therefore he says when he ascended on high, Speaking of

Jesus, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.

Now this he ascended. What does it mean?

But did he also first descended into the lower parts of the

earth? And here's where we're getting

into where we left off Last time.

We talked about how Jesus descending into the lower parts

of the earth could mean several things and probably does mean

several things. He came down to earth from

heaven. He also died and went down into

the grave. He went down into the depths of

the earth, which during that time they likely understood to

be Hades. They went, Jesus came down in

every sense of the word. But he all He who descended is

also the the One who ascended far above all the heavens.

He's above the the heavens, the earth, and He is actually seated

at the right hand of the Father. He's at the top of the heavenly

Kingdom. So in every sense of the word,

He is ascended, He is raised up, He is lifted up, He is powerful.

Why did he ascend to the throne to then come back and to just

knock out everybody who was against him?

We will learn that all enemies will be put under his feet and

have been put under his feet. But his purpose is not here

spoken to simply just be a a, a vindictive judge.

His purpose in ascending is because he has to fill all

things. We learned that without him

nothing was made that was made in In John we learned that he is

part of the creative force of this universe as the Godhead,

and he is the one who sustains and upholds all things.

Hebrews chapter one, verse three, he upholds all things

Colossians one verse 17. In him all things hold together

according to the ESV. You may have seen this before.

I know some people have in here, but I like to throw it in any

chance I had got because it's so exciting to see as science

delves into the depths of the universe.

This is a black hole in a Whirlpool Galaxy, I don't know

how many light years away. They zoom in with a Hubble

telescope and they see what looks to me to be a cross.

You go down into the depths of our cellular makeup and you find

this cell adhesion molecule that literally what it does is it

holds your body together and it's in the shape of a cross.

I I'm not going to say that scripture, that's that's exactly

what that's pointing to. But we do know that in him, in

Jesus, all things hold together, in him all things consist.

And so Jesus had to come and be raised from the dead, that he

might continue to fill all things.

When Jesus was crucified, it was no accident that the earth

shook, that the very foundation of the ground they stood on

quaked and shook. It's no accident that the sun

that was in the middle of the day giving them light, that sun

was darkened. Now, I do not believe for a

second that Jesus or the Godhead had a lapse in power.

There was no gap in authority there.

But I do believe it was a sign. It was a it was a symbol.

Do you? Realize what you're doing.

You are crucifying the one who's upholding everything you see

around you. The very sun that's lighting

your earth, the very ground you're standing on is shaking as

you're crucifying the Son of God.

He didn't just go back and and ascend though to fill all things

and to uphold the earth, but he also did so in verse 11 of

Ephesians chapter 4 to fill all things in the church.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

And that's the next kind of point he's going to start

making. He himself, Speaking of Jesus,

gave some to be Apostles, some prophets, some Evangelists, and

some. Pastors and teachers, he told

his disciples. I will not leave you or forsake

you verse 12 to equip the Saints for the work of ministry.

He gave all these rules to give the Saints as was prayed this

morning that they will be equipped.

That would be that they would be armored or given the tools to do

the job. Do you have the tools to do the

job? And if you don't have the tools,

is it because you are willing to use them to pick them up?

Or is it because you're not being given the tools?

I believe God has given us through spiritual leadership

through His Word and. We're going to talk in a minute

how I do believe this is more focused on His word in the setup

of the early church. But we as the body of Christ,

not just the evangelist, not if there's an elder and a

congregation. It is the work of the body to be

doing the work. Of the Church, he says to equip

the Saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying or

building up of the body of Christ.

The word edify means to build up.

We are to be doing the work as the members of the Church to

build one another up. It's not just the responsibility

of these spiritual leaders in the Church, it is our

responsibility and I cannot hammer that home enough.

Now, I do believe in these verses right here as he's

talking about the equipping. It applies in multiple ways, but

I do believe based on what he's going to say next, he's talking

about the early church. He's talking about how things

needed to be set up miraculously, especially in the

in the early church by giving apostles, the apostles delivered

the word. Prophets help teach the word and

confirm the word. Some evangelists who were in the

early church delivering the word.

Pastors and teachers. I believe a lot of this he's

talking about is miraculously, but I do also believe it applies

today, even if you can't completely justify it one way or

another. And here's why He says verse 13.

Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the

knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure

measure of the stature of the fullness in Christ, and that's

from the that versus from the ESVI.

I use it there. Sometimes it's easier to read

verse 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to

and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine,

by human cutting, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

Here's why I believe this is specially talking about

miraculous set up of the early church.

This is the same kind of language that's used in First

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 13, verse eight.

In the context, he's talking about how they should desire

certain gifts and how in chapter 12 they should use those gifts

of different miraculous ability. In the early church, because

they were still building the word, they did not have the full

completed word of God yet. They didn't have this Bible all

completely laid out. And so they needed special

assistance from the Holy Spirit to make that happen.

And as he's talking about these prophecies, he then transitions

and says, but you should first desire love.

Love is the greatest because love never fails.

But whether there are prophecies, they will fail.

There's going to be a time, he was saying when the prophecies,

the miraculous prophecies, those are going to stop.

Whether there are tongues, they will cease, whether there is

knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part these

apostles and different ones did not get the whole scripture

revealed to them. Paul had to write a lot of the

New Testament. But then there are other writers

who read out of their pieces. They knew in part they did not

each have the complete knowledge of God's word, and they

prophesied or taught in part. But when that which is perfect,

that word perfect, means complete, has come, then that

which is part in part will be done away with.

I believe that completeness is talking about the completed word

of God, He goes on to say. When I was a child, I spoke as a

child. I understood as a child.

I fought as a child. But when I became a man, I put

away childish things. I believe in the context he's

talking about the need for the miraculous abilities to build up

the church. In its infancy, the church was

an infant stage and so it needed childish support.

It needed childish or immature supports to uphold it.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face to

face. Now I know in part, but then I

shall know just as I am known. OK, back to Ephesians 4.

Here's the same language he's using, Ephesians chapter 4 so

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

that we may no longer be children.

I do believe this applies to spiritual maturity as well.

All these principles do apply, but we should not be children in

our understanding of God's word. And God has made a plan and has

given these early church supports, the apostles, the

prophets, the teachers, the evangelists, all these things

because we don't have any excuse anymore to be immature and not

have the full knowledge of God's will, to not have the full

foundation for what the church is built upon.

And especially during this day and time, if you did not have

the completed word revealed, it might be tough to not be tossed

to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of

doctrine. There were ones who have right

when the church was set up that people criticize them just years

later and said man, Jesus isn't back yet, or Jesus already came,

You missed him. There was your shot.

There are people who are throwing these doctrines and

these ideas around and it could easily throw around a Christian.

In the early church we talk about how man we wish we were a

Christian. In the early church where they

had all those miracles, you know why they had the miracles?

It's because the church was undeveloped to where they may be

able to be tossed around by these doctrines.

When I don't have the completed word, how do I know what to

follow completely all the time? So they needed that support, but

now we don't. We have no excuse for being

carried around by doctrines because.

We have the whole word. We don't have to have somebody

come in here saying, hey, I have a prophecy, I have a teaching.

God gave it to me and you need to listen to me.

And that makes us waver. Well, is that true?

We don't have to do that because the church is now in its state

of maturity, in God's infinite plan to design A church and to

support that church with the proper teachings and doctrine,

he says. These these doctrines and waves

that that carry Christians around when they're unstable,

they're from human cunning and craftiness and deceitful

schemes. Now, have you ever thought about

the fact that as you consider the work of the devil?

Or the work of people in the world who are trying to deceive

others. Often times those people are

themselves deceived. That's the nature of sin and the

nature of the devil's work. So sometimes it's easy to say,

you know what these people are just evil and deceitful.

But we have to remember that they are themselves deceived.

The difference between someone who is deceiving others and

somebody who's teaching others truth is the correct.

And that's why it's so important, the next verse, that

we should speak the truth in love.

If we don't speak truth, it could be so easy to get off

kilter and to be leading people in deceitful ways.

I believe a lot of people who are deceiving others are not

trying to do it. That's the nature of evil.

That's why truth, when it's convoluted and my truth, your

truth all the time, you can't have that and have God's ways

because there is a specific pattern to follow.

Otherwise there's no unity, he says, verse 15, rather speaking

the truth. In love we are to grow up in

every way into him who is the head into Christ.

So there is truth, but there's also a way to speak truth.

Have you ever been told the truth in an unleading way?

There's no need for that. There's no, there's no edifying

or building up in that. May we speak the truth with love

in our hearts, and we're to be building up into Him who is the

head into Christ. The flow of thought he's given

as the Holy Spirit and Jesus instituted these leadership

positions. He did all this work to build it

up, and it's our personal responsibility to be growing in

that the Holy Spirit aided and Jesus aided the development of

the Church. And if he did so much work to do

that, what about personally? Am I?

Are you growing up in every way into Him?

Who is the head we? Have an intense responsibility.

We should be doing our part. To grow up and to grow for the

church. So whether this is speaking

specifically only about the early church or even about

things today, they both apply. The leadership of the Church

today should be edifying the members to then build one

another up that we should do the work and we should.

Not be carried about because we have no excuse now because we

have the completed word of God. Where are you at in your

Christian stages of maturity? Are you a child?

Are you an infant? And there's a time for each one

of those stages. But have you stayed in one of

those stages too long if you are a boy or a child or a?

Young girl, how long have you been there?

That's the question. And I'll refer you back to the

survey we took in January. It's now been nine months ago,

nine complete months since we took that survey.

And my question will be maybe if you have that still as as a high

school teacher, what I would do is I would say, OK, pull those

back out, we're going to do that self-assessment again and see if

there's growth. I don't expect you to have that

in your Bible still, but hopefully you have it somewhere

at home that you can go back nine months after we did this

original self-assessment and you can see did I grow?

In nine months in 360, that's not the right.

In all that time, did I grow in prayer?

Do I pray God's word back to Him, His plans and his will?

Do I leave my time of prayer with?

Am I constantly in prayer? Do I carry responsibility in the

congregation? Do I share accountability with

someone in the congregation? Do I discuss and study the Bible

with someone else in the congregation?

Do I serve others by identifying ways I can help and actively

seek opportunities to use them? Do I give?

Do I serve and give benevolence in the contribution?

Cheerfully and generously? Do I show benevolence in my

personal life and in general? Do I step out of my comfort zone

for God's work? Am I actively befriending people

who are lost? Am I working spiritual matters

in the conversation? Having patience with others?

Patience with yourself? Perseverance.

Am I rejoicing publicly and alone?

Am I finding new ways to grow? Even if it doesn't come from a

source I want to hear it from? I encourage you to revisit that

survey. Revisit your own self-assessment

of where you're at 9 long months from last time we took it.

Are you growing in every way verse 16 from whom the whole

body joined and held together? I missed a point.

Let's go back one second. As we think about the growth we

are supposed to have, I think about the the verse in First

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 4. Where it said even though our

outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed

day by day. There was a flaw with this

visual if you're taking it spiritually.

Because at some point the human body starts to decay and you go.

Backwards, but spiritually that should not happen, Paul says The

in the outward man is perishing, but the inward man is being

renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which

is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and

eternal weight of glory. I we have older folks in here

that are an example of this. We have an older a group of

older folks in here that are wonderful and they continue to

be renewed and show what it looks like to be renewed in

their faith. Because no matter what happens

to the body, no matter what happens to your your flesh or

even maybe the the circumstances in your life, you can continue

to be renewed day by day. I as I thought of this, I

thought of this brother in Peru. He's an older man.

He's hunched over walking one day to services.

This guy rides his bike. That was to a different

congregation because we were visiting, But normally he rides

his bike about. I think it was 10 miles one way

to church in the morning. He lives in the Andes mountain,

some 10,000 feet up. The inward man can be broken

down, destroyed, discouraged. But God's word and God's way

should be renewing us day by day to where there's no there's no

downslope. As a Christian, when you get

older, it should continue to grow as we get old.

Verse 16 from whom the whole body joined and held together by

every joint with which is equipped when each part is

working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up

in love. There it is again.

Not so that the preacher or the elder can do all the work for

the congregation, but so that the.

Body can have all of its pieces doing the work.

And you might say, you know what?

I'm not very strong. I'm not very sturdy.

You wouldn't think of me as one. He's going to build up this

body. Sometimes something strong and

sturdy and hard cannot work properly without a joint.

Think about a bone. A bone can be as strong and

sturdy and unbreakable as you could want, but you'd put 2

bones together Without a joint, without cartilage, and without

the proper fittings, you get no function out of your body.

That's what happens when you got to have to have surgery.

If you're If you get torn meniscus, man, that hurts.

That's just a little piece of cartilage in that joint.

Bone on bone does not work too well.

Every joint equips the church, and if every joint is working

properly, the body will grow. It doesn't say you need to be a

different body part. We covered that in other studies

in First Corinthians. You don't need to be a different

body part, but you need to be equipped for the work you can

do. Otherwise this body will not

function properly and it won't build itself up the way it can

value what you offer, because God does and because this

congregation values what you offer, one man said.

Some people think of the church as a pyramid with a pastor or

the preacher at the top. Others think of the church as a

bus driven by the pastor or the preacher who takes his passive

passengers where they should go. God wants us to see the church

as a body where every part does it.

Share verse 17, Ephesians 4. Now this I say and testify in

the Lord. That's a lot of boldness.

I testify this in the Lord that you must no longer walk, as the

Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.

So he's talking about calling us to a worthy walk.

He's called us. He's told us what he's done to

build us up as a church and how we have a responsibility to do

our job. And he's saying some things that

we have to do to clean up our walk, to live a worthy walk.

The first thing is we cannot walk like the rest of the world.

The Gentiles, there's Jew and Gentiles.

You're either God's people or you weren't, he says.

Don't walk like people who are not God's people.

And the reason is it's futility. Ecclesiastes, Vanity of

vanities. All is vanity.

Everything is empty. It's futile.

There's no point in this life. It doesn't mean people can't do

good things. In the world.

But ultimately, it's futile. It's empty.

Especially when sin is rooted. Because when you and I rely on

our own minds and our own feelings and and desires to what

to do, it's empty. It's futile.

It's pointless. We should no longer walk.

And the futility of their minds. Verse 18, They're darkened in

their understanding. We talked earlier about what it

means to be enlightened. It just means to have the true

reality brightened up so you can see what's there.

As Christians, we want to see the true reality of our hope and

of our faith. We need to see evil for what

evil truly is. We need to see good for what

good is and rejoice in good and and be disappointed by evil.

Because the people who are stuck in that, they're darkened.

Most people are walking around blindfolded, walking in a world

of illusion with a blindfold, one man called it.

They're darkened in their understanding.

And sometimes we can think of it like man.

Those people have in different points in my life.

I wish I could just whatever. This seems like they have

everything the Bible says. They're alienated, they're

strangers from the life of God. That's a scary line.

Alienated, separated strangers from the life that God has to

offer. Why?

Because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of

heart. You know, there's two different

types of ignorance, and I think one is much less common the

other. There's ignorance that just

says, I don't know it, something.

And that's I think a very small portion of our world.

And although atheists and others might try to challenge your

faith and say there's so many people don't know anything about

the word of God, this just this type of ignorance makes me

excited to see what God can do. I've heard of some amazing

stories where people were not thought to have ever heard the

gospel before and some far out countries and they had heard

about the gospel. So we never really know how

ignorant people are. God can handle that, God can

take care of that, and we could do our part in getting the

gospel there. But I think the more common

ignorance, the ignorance he's pulling out here, is an

ignorance that is willingness and it's a hardness of heart

that we choose that when we will reject truth, that when people

reject truth, they will have a hardened heart.

They have become callous and have given themselves up to

sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

It is amazing to me how our bodies work.

Our bodies will adjust to anything it seems like.

If you do hard work and it would mess you up to have hands that

are soft your body makes harder skin.

It's that it's it's amazing what our body will do.

The calluses purpose is to block out things that are going to

hurt the body. You're if you're not going to

use your conscience if. People are going to use their

conscience. It's going to develop a callus

because there's no purpose for it.

There's no purpose for having a conscience if you're not going

to use it, if you tell your body or if you tell your mind.

I'm not going to, I'm not going to follow that conscious God has

given us. A conscience would say OK, if

you're not going to use it, then it's not going to hurt anymore.

Are there areas, even if it's not a general callus across

everything you believe in, are there areas in your life, in my

life that we have a callus spot that we would think, oh, that

doesn't really matter, it's not that big of a deal.

I would encourage us to have surgeons hands when it comes to

our conscience because a surgeon's hands, Our surgeon

needs every kind of dexterity they have softer hand because

they need to be able to, to manipulate their tools in a very

precise way. And as Christians, we should be.

Sensitive in our conscience that we would be quick to respond to

something that is brought to our attention.

That God would direct us in through His Word and the Holy

Spirit to prick our hearts and we'd be quick to respond and not

be calloused. Maybe we would avoid a sensual,

A sensual lifestyle. Sensuality is living for

pleasure. It could be easy, even if it's

not in a specific sin, to live just for pleasure in general.

There's a lot of ways that we can do that and the things we

watch, the things we think about, the things we give our

time to or we're just chasing the next pleasure, the next

thing that will feel good to us. Verse 20.

But that is not the way you learn Christ.

That is not the way that you learn Christ.

Verse 21, assuming that you have heard about him and we're taught

in him as the truth is in Jesus, he's going to continue to give

us some put offs and some put ONS.

He says verse 22 put off your old self, which belongs to your

former matter of life and is corrupt through deceitful

desires. He says put off your old self.

Sometimes people say things like you need to love yourself just

the way you are, and there's a whole conversation about that

and what that does mean and doesn't mean.

That's just a very broad statement.

We should not love the parts of our self that are against God's

will. We should put that off and be

ready to throw that into the past and to close the door on

it, because we have. No place in that old life, he

says. Your former manner of life that

is corrupt through deceitful desires.

There's that phrase again, that deceitfulness of desires.

Desires will trick our minds into thinking that something is

good for us when it's really not.

And that's the sad part about sin.

You know, these people sometimes fall into two camps.

They're either. A lot of times people say things

like, oh, there's just so much evil out there.

There's no good. Everybody's evil and they're all

just terrible and can be. We can be really cynical about

that. And then on the other hand,

there's people who say, man, there's so much good in the

world and and all these people there, they have good

intentions. They're not really in sin, are

they? They have good.

And that's the problem with sin is it's deceitful there.

People aren't all bad, and yes, people have good intentions, but

it doesn't mean they're not sinning.

Paul says I would. I lived in all good conscience

persecuting Christians. So we should be compassionate

enough with people who are in sin that we would understand

that they're they're deceived, they don't see it.

So now they feel like, how can you not see this?

It's because they don't. They don't see it at all and be

renewed into the spirit of your minds.

We should be renewed as Christian.

We should be built up day by day.

A lot of times you ask people how they're doing.

They say same old, same old. As a Christian the better.

Hope is not same old, same old. If it's same old, same old,

something is wrong and broken. We should be made new in our

minds and returned to the source of our newness, created after

the likeness of God and true righteousness, not in deception

and and smoke and mirrors, but in true righteousness and

holiness. Therefore, having put away

falsehood, there it is again putting away that deceit, that

falsehood, that fakeness. Let each one of you speak the

truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

If the brain tells the the hand that fire is not hot, the body

is going to be damaged. We we are affected by one

another. We have to be able to teach to

tell truth with one another and to speak truth because we depend

on one another. Verse 26 Be angry and do not

sin. Do not let the sun go down on

your anger and give no opportunity to the devil.

OK, we're closing up here. Just a minute.

But let's break down this verse. Be angry and do not sin.

The first thing to do and dealing with anger, he says, is

to handle it without sinning. So he's affirming the emotion of

anger. The Bible gives us plenty of

examples where God was angry with the children of Israel.

Anger is an emotion, and every motion has a purpose, but it

does not have a place. And our life, always every

emotion has a purpose. And the purpose or the first

thing we should do with anger is to contain it.

Anger you might describe as a fire, and I think, I think anger

as a fire works in a lot of these analogies.

And the first thing is to be angry, but kind of draw a

boundary as to where you're not going to go.

And then when you're fighting fires, what they'll do is

they'll dig out a fire line to where the fire is.

No fuel there. The fire will not go outside of

that. If you go out to the woods and

just start spraying on a fire, the fire is going to go the

other way and you will get no more containment.

You have to first draw a line around that fire that says

you're not going to go anywhere outside of here.

And as Christians, we have a responsibility to set our minds

and to handle our anger in a way that first make sure we don't

sin, that we don't lash out with vengeance or violence, violence

physically or emotionally or reputationally.

Reputation violence as a huge response to anger, but anger can

also be a very positive motivator, he says.

Be angry because there's a place for the motivation it gives you.

Because if conflict is difficult for some people, it's more

difficult than others. Some people are very conflict

averse. Some people are really

comfortable with it. As Christians, we shouldn't be

overly anxious to have conflict, but we need to use anger when it

needs to bring a conflict to pass.

That we would address an issue that when there's some wrong

being done, that when there's something that would anger us,

that we would address it so it has a purpose, he says.

Use that. But it can't spill over into

gossip, backbiting or violence. The second thing he says to do

is to not let the sun go down on your anger.

There's the old phrase don't go to bed angry.

And there's actually some some science behind that.

They did a study recently where it showed that they took a bunch

of men and they anyway, I won't go through the whole study, but

they basically proved that if you go to sleep angry, you wake

up the next morning. It is more difficult to get the

negative images out of your head before sleep you it's it's like

you can you can move past them easier.

They do brain scans as to where the the the stimulus is going on

the brain scan and this brain scan will move depending on

what's happening in your own emotion.

It's kind of fascinating but anger sends adrenaline through

our bodies and it clouds the prefrontal cortex, which is the

decision making part of your brain and that can make it hard

to make good decisions. That's why he says, first of

all. Watch out that you don't sin

because it's going to cloud your vision, cloud your decision

making skills, and if you let it sit in your mind during rest,

your brain goes through a process of kind of sorting out

everything that's happened in the day.

It sorts out your memories in the short term, long term, and

it deals with things. It's a place of rest, but

chemically, that's what's happening.

And they prove that it starts to disperse into the whole cortex

if you just let it sit in your mind.

So he says, don't let the sun go down on your anger.

Maybe more practically speaking, handle something when you're

angry. If you just let it Stew and sit,

things don't get done. It was a pointless emotion.

But if you let that anger drive you to have a conversation that

needs to happen, to address an issue that needs to happen,

that's productive and that's useful, but then work through it

because you have to go to sleep sometimes.

So we have to work through it. Once that fire is contained,

then we work on putting that fire out.

And maybe that's the hardest part, is figuring out how do I

get this anger out of my mind and out of my body.

And there's a lot of things that could be said about this.

Maybe you have all your own tricks, strategies for getting

through it, but number one, we know it's never going to be

about explaining why you're wrong to feel that way.

You you're not going to be less angry for someone to tell you

why you shouldn't be angry, or by telling yourself I shouldn't

be angry about this because we we can get worked up about any

number of things. I can get worked up on the road

driving, of all things, you're you're just going to work.

You're going to get there maybe 10 seconds slower.

There's no reason for us to get angry driving.

But then there's always, well, this happened and this happened.

OK, you can always explain why you might feel angry.

So the answer is not to explain why it's wrong, but we have to

have another reality that supersedes our own perspective

on something. And here's the perfect one.

It's later on this chapter where he says be kind to one another,

tender hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave

you. Matthew 18 verse 23 says,

Matthew 18:23

Therefore the Kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who

wished to settle accounts with his servants.

But when he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him

10,000 talents. And since he could not pay, his

master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and

all they had and payment to be made.

So this servant owed an amazing and massive debt.

So the servant fell on his knees imploring him.

Have patience with me and I will pay you all that I owe.

And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released

him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went

out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100

denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, pay

what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down

and pleaded with him. Have patience with me and I will

pay you the same thing, he said to the person he owed money to,

But he refused and put him in prison.

They should pay everything he owed.

This helps reset my perspective. I might be angry with somebody

or something that happened, but when I look at what God has

forgiven me in light of this analogy, this passage, my anger

in that problem just shrinks. It just kind of dissolves

because it might be it's there, it's there.

But it's much smaller. When I look at what God has done

for me, when I look at this is me right here, this is my place.

That's what I'm guilty of. We sing songs that say things

like Odyssey, My Name written in the wounds.

For your suffering, I'm free. There's a song that talks about

can you still feel the nails every time I fail?

That's why He was crucified. The song, my crown.

It was my sin. It was my crown, my robe, my

cross that put the Savior there. It was my sin that drew God's

wrath. He bore for me.

I could have never had a life with Him eternal.

It is my sin, so it's not always the anger that's wrong, but it

needs to be much smaller in comparison with the reality we

deal with. This third thing he says in that

verse is and give no opportunity to the devil.

We have to realize that anger can be a wedge with a very small

point where the devil can start to work his way in and give a

place for a lot of other things to happen.

So may we not give him a place? We have to identify who the real

enemy is. We've talked a lot about deceit.

Anger can be blinding and we have to be watchful so that we

don't misidentify the enemy. If I'm mad at any number of

people in this room, well, let's say let's say I'm mad at

someone. I cannot let them become the

enemy. They are not the enemy.

I may have a conflict with them that we have to work through,

but they are not the enemy. The enemy is the one who's

trying to split us up to cause division, to cause anger.

That would create a wedge in our lives and we must defend

ourselves in case something in our anger could enter into our

heart that would be sinful and cause damage.

So three things, contain the fire.

Work on putting out the fire and focus on identifying and

defending against who the real enemy is.

If we are ever at odds with someone and we don't have their

best interests at heart, and that's the root of sin, whether

it's violence, whether that's tearing down the reputation,

that is a sinful attitude. Verse 28 Let the thief no longer

steal, but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own

hands. So that he may have something to

share with anyone in need. Thieves can be very frustrating,

but I feel bad for thieves because it's most of the time

it's thieves who are poor and who don't have anything.

And I love the word of God because it always gives us a why

the thief who doesn't maybe have enough to survive or to live on,

he's given the instruction to turn that into his why to his or

her reason, or why? For why they work hard that they

will have something to give to someone else who's impoverished.

God's basically saying, I get it, you're in a hard spot, but

turn that into motivation to help somebody else who's in your

same place by working with your hands.

Now we think of theft like stealing something off the

shelf, but there's also white collar theft. 4 or 90% of all

significant theft losses come from employees.

That is a scary number. These are taken from the US

Department of Commerce. 4.5 hours of time Theft per per

employee per week is what the national average is.

That's things like being on your phone at work when you should be

getting something done. That's things like clocking in

at a time where you're not really in work.

Different things, but in my business ethics class I took it

was billions and billions of dollars.

They say $50 billion in theft comes from their own employees.

Time theft is a massive issue, so maybe you don't steal things

off a shelf, but are you a trustworthy and reliable an

honest employee? One of four people admit to

lying on their time cards. There's white collar lies.

There's not. I guarantee not one of four

people steal things off shelves, but there's theft in other ways.

Verse 29, Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths.

No corrupting talk, but only such as is good for building up,

as it fits the occasion. So our job again, is to edify

one another. And we have to have a little

tap. We need to be very intentional

as to what our goals are, is to build others up with our

communication. And we have to be very skillful

and tactful as it fits the occasion.

That may give grace to those who hear and do not grieve the Holy

Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of

redemption. We're almost done here.

The only time I remember my parents being really grieved,

just like flustered and like, is when we were arguing too much

and just kept fighting with each other for no reason.

Move on. It's the same thing with the

Holy Spirit. I believe He has given us so

much and has done so much to build this church and to develop

us as Christians. May we not be once to tear it

down when we're just fighting amongst each other for no good

reason because he has sealed us for the day of Redemption.

It hurts the Holy Spirit and grieves the Holy Spirit when

that is present. When that division and anger is

present, that divides verse 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and

anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all

malice. If we are contrary to the

well-being or best interests of others, that is a selfish

attitude. We may disagree with somebody or

want to go against what they have in mind, but if we are

trying to go against their best interest as a sinful attitude,

be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one

another as God and Christ forgave you, there is the

perspective for everything he asks of us.

He's already done it himself today.

That's the that's the study. If you are a member of this

body, it is a wonderful thing and it should be.

If you're not a member, you can be added.

Today, after hearing the word repenting of your past life.

Changing you can and you believe in the Son of God.

You're repent of your past life, confess that Jesus Christ is the

Son of God. You can be baptized and added to

the church for the remission of your sins.

We had a new brother, Chris. We're so excited to have him as

a member here, as a member of the family of God.

You can do that too. Today.

You don't have to be voted in and all this stuff you can.

You can do that today, if you're ready.

And if you're a member of this, the body already you can.

You can come for if you have something you need prayers for,

if it's a public sin or something you need support in.

We can take care of either thing while we stand and while we see.

We thank you for listening to our podcast put on by the Church

of Christ at 2215 Plans Rd. in Bakersfield.

If you would like any additional information or you would like to

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