People Don’t Change… Or Do They?

Welcome to the Islands Christian Church podcast.

Subscribe to hear a new episode every week.

Thanks for joining us. We are in part three of our

series Make Room, creating space for the life Jesus offers.

And over the past couple of weeks we have been in Paul's

letter to the Romans. So we've been talking about what

he said to the Romans, and now we're going to swap and go over

to Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

So if you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, or if you

have your phone, go to Ephesians chapter 4 is where we're going

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

to be Ephesians chapter 4. And in this part of the letter

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

where we're going to be reading, and actually, most of the

Ephesians is really about the unity of the church.

Paul's writing a letter. I know you guys may find this

surprising, but a lot of the letters that Paul writes are

dealing with churches that have some conflict in them.

Is that surprising to you that people get together in a

community and don't get along sometimes, right?

I know, shocking, right? And what I love about the Bible

is the Bible doesn't hide that fact.

The Bible is clear that, hey, humans have a hard time getting

along sometimes. And so Ephesians in the in the

letter to the Ephesians, he's dealing with unity and the

church coming together, but he's talking about it in terms of

sanctification. Like this whole series, we've

been talking about sanctification, the process of

the Holy Spirit growing us up into Christ likeness over the

course of our lives. He's calling these Ephesian

believers into being sanctified to being more like Christ

because he does. He says, hey, when you're

sanctified, when you're more like Christ, you as the church

will be unified. Believe it or not, here's the

thing about the church, the church at this local church and

every local church around the world, The more of us who are

following Jesus and pursuing Christ and letting the life of

Christ work at work itself out in us.

In other words, we're becoming more like Christ.

The more of us who are doing that, the better our churches.

Isn't that surprising, right? That's shocking.

And that's basically Paul's argument in Ephesians is that,

hey, the more of you who are, who are walking and following

Jesus and the life of Christ is coming out of you, the better.

So last week we talked about the role the Holy Spirit plays in

our lives. We said that if you believe in

Jesus, the Holy Spirit is governing your life.

Not might be and I could not, could be, not maybe is.

If you believe in Jesus, God's Spirit lives inside of you and

governs your life. And we said that your role in

that process is that you are setting your mind on the things

of the Spirit, the truths about who you are in Christ.

Remember, we said you are adopted, you are accepted, you

are not condemned. And as you set your mind on

these truths, you begin to operate out of that identity.

Christianity calls us to operate out of our identity, not behave

our way into our identity. There's a difference, OK.

And so last week I said this. I said sons do not obey in order

to become sons. They obey because they are sons.

They they, they obey because they are sons.

They're not trying to become a son.

So today, what does all this actually look like in everyday

life if I set my mind on these these truths, if if I'm setting

my mind on the Holy Spirit, what does this look like in your

Monday through Friday in your in your everyday life at your house

with your kids, with your spouse?

Like what does this look like inside of our church?

What would my life begin to look like?

What would your life begin to look like?

If I really set my mind daily on the truth about who I am in

Christ, if that became a habit of mine daily that I'm loved,

I'm accepted, I'm not condemned, there's nothing I can do to earn

God's favor. I've been given that as a gift

through Christ. If I actually set my mind on

that every day, how would that change things?

What would my life begin to look like?

And here's one of the premises of the gospel, and this may, it

sounds silly that I have to say this out loud, but I think I do.

One of the premises of the gospel is or the assumptions of

the gospel is that people can change in, in our culture, you

know, you hear people, people never change.

If you ever heard that before, people never change.

If you're a believer in Jesus, those words can never utter off

your mouth. They never can utter off your

mouth because the, the, the premise of the gospel is that

people do indeed change. Otherwise none of us should

believe this stuff, right? We do change because of the

gospel. People do change.

Now the Christian life, you becoming a Christian is not

about you trying harder to become someone new or trying

harder to change. You know, the Christian life is

about learning to live out the identity that God has already

given you in Christ. You see the difference?

I'm trying, I'm being determined to be different or I'm just

learning who I am in Christ and living from that place of

identity. These are two very different

ways to live your lives. One is white knuckling and one

is hands open, right? And this is the invitation that

you have. We're going to see this in

Ephesians chapter 4, verses 20 through 32.

Ephesians 4:20–32

I know it's a lot of verses, but you guys buckle up.

I mean, it's time change Sunday. I'm not mailing it in either,

brother. All right, so chapter 4, verses

20 through 32, we're going to read all this chunk of Scripture

and then we're going to break it down into three ideas.

You ready? All ready to go.

All right, here we go. Verse 20 of chapter 4 it says

that, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard

about Christ and we're taught in Him in accordance with the truth

that is in Jesus. You were taught with regard to

your former way of life to put off your old self, which is

being corrupted by its deceitful desires, and to be made new in

the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self created

to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

There each of you, therefore each of you must put off

falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all

members of 1 body. You hear that?

We're all members of 1 body. In your anger, do not sin.

Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not

give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing

must steal no longer, but must work doing something useful with

your own hands that they may have something to share with

those in need. 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 might

benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy

Spirit with whom you were sealed over the day of redemption.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger and brawling and

slander. I love the word brawling is in

here. Like what was going on in this

church, right? Like they have some like I've

been, I've been in some, I've been in some rough church

meetings. I've never seen any brawls break

out, right? But that has happened that I

could tell you stories about people.

I know where some people been popped in the jaw at deacons

meetings, all right, at churches, along with every form

of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one

another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave

you. All right, there are three ideas

in this passage. If you're a note taker, I want

you to write these three days, these three things down.

If nothing else, it tells you where we're going and tells you

how close we are to being finished.

All right, so number one, number one, we learn Christ.

We learn Christ. That's going to be verses 20 and

21. We learn Christ #2 we take off

an old self. Verses 22 and 24, we take off an

old self. And then, believe it or not,

verses 25 through 32, you might want to guess what the third one

might be. If 2 is we take off an old self,

3 is we put on a new self. Look, you guys are writing this

sermon for me. This is easy, right?

Easy. So let's talk about the first

idea first. Verses 20 through 21.

And I'm going to do something I normally never do.

I'm going to reread verses 20 and 21 in a different

translation because I think the English standard version

captures this translation absolutely beautifully, nearly

perfectly. All right, so we're going to

reread this in the ESV, verses 20 and 21, and this is what it

says. But that is not the way you

learned Christ, assuming that you have learned about Him and

we're taught in Him as the truth is in Jesus.

Go back to verse 20 there. There we go.

Let's let's look at this if it's on your screen there in front of

you, but that is not the way you learned Christ exclamation

point. Now this is not how we normally

talk, is it? Right.

That is not the way you learned Christ, exclamation point.

Normally we don't normally we don't learn a person.

Paul's like, Hey, you, you learned a person.

Normally, what do we learn? It's not a person, but a what a

subject. We learn math.

Well, some of us struggle in math, but we try to learn math,

right? We, we learn English, we, we

learn a skill, we learn how to Weld, we learn how to be a

mechanic. We learn how to fix stuff.

We, we, in other words, we learn a subject, we learn a skill.

But Paul says, and he's talking about us coming to faith.

He says, you learned a person, you learned Christ.

Now that's that is that is an interesting thing to me.

And the word that Paul uses here for learned you learned Christ

is the Greek word Montano Montano.

And that means more than like sitting in a classroom and

getting information. This would be like hands on

learning that you learn through practice and through experience,

through becoming accustomed to something, right.

Anybody ever taught you anything about like throwing you in the

deep end and saying, hey, sink or swim, figure it out and

they're kind of on the sidelines watching you, making sure you're

safe, but you kind of feel like you're in the deep end.

This is the image that Paul's using when you become a

Christian is that you learn from Jesus himself.

You learn Christ himself, and you learn it through experience

and through time with Christ so that you become accustomed to

Christ. So the Christian faith is not

just about learning facts about the Bible or about Jesus.

And so some of you like the reason you don't feel like a

very good Christian is you don't feel like you know the Bible

very well. I don't know much.

I don't know the Bible that great.

But the Christian faith is more than just learning facts about

the Bible or learning facts about Jesus.

Now, it's certainly not less. It's not less than that.

OK, So don't misunderstand me. This is still very important.

The Christian faith is not learning facts, simply learning

facts about Jesus or learning information about Jesus.

The Christian faith is actually learning Christ, learning

Christ. Now how do we learn a person?

Like, how does that even happen? Will you learn a person by being

in relationship with a person? I mean, you know this, right?

You would. If you think about spending time

with a person, if you spend a lot of time with the same person

over and over and over again, will you find yourself picking

up their mannerisms? Yes, you will.

There's a lady who's attending our church.

He only attends during the when Her and her husband only attend

during the winter months. They live up north and they come

down here for the winter months. And I love her to death.

They've been coming for 10 years.

We have lunch once a year with them.

They're amazing people. But one of the, the common

things she says is whenever someone says something around

her that she agrees with, she says this is true.

This is true. Anybody else say that this is

true? Well, I've, I've just seen her

on Sundays and one lunch with her and her husband and I have

picked up that phrase. And so that Marianne has said to

me, you sound like Margaret, this is true.

Somebody else, I say this is true.

Well, how did that happen? Because I'm just spending time

around her, right. And this is the image that

Jesus, that Paul's painting about Jesus, that what

Christians are called into his relationship with Christ, so

much so that we actually learn a person.

Now think about it this way, like a child who was adopted

into a family. OK, imagine with me a family has

adopted A10 or a 12 year old little boy or little girl.

And that child when they they come out of the foster system,

they come out of maybe their family of origin.

They do not know the rhythms of the new home.

They don't know how the new home works.

And every family has its own rhythms, that's for sure, and

its own way of living. Every family has certain ways

they talk to each other, how they handle conflict and what

they value. Now imagine with me that this

child who's been taken out of the foster system or out of his

family of origin, he's been popped into this new family that

he's been adopted into and he's legally his name has been

changed. Her name has been changed.

She's a part of this family. That child over time has to

learn the culture of that family.

Now, is that child trying to become part of the family?

Or is that child already legally part of the family, already

accepted by the mom and dad, already brought into the family

and has a place at the table, has their own bedroom?

That that child's already part of the family.

But what is that child trying to learn?

Even though the child is objectively, legally and

emotionally part of the family, That child's rhythms and that

child's style of living, that child's, how that child deals

with conflict, how that child talks, all of that, that child

is having to learn. They already belong.

They're not trying to become part of the family.

They already belong to the family.

They're simply learning the culture of this family.

They're learning the mom and dad.

They're learning the other siblings.

They're learning what it means to live in this family.

The Christian life is the same way.

You're not trying to earn your place in the family.

You're simply trying to learn the rhythms of a house you

already belong to. You already belong to the

family. You just got to learn the

rhythms. You got to learn the rhythms and

this is when Paul says we learn Christ.

We're adopted first and then over time we learn the ways of

our Father's house. Now if you think about verses

verse 21, if you let's just glance down at it.

He says that when you enter into this relationship with Christ,

it's a relationship of learning. He uses he uses school language.

He uses learning language. He says you were you here and

we're taught the truth that is in Jesus.

That's in verse 21, you here and we're taught the truth that is

in Jesus. In other words, you begin to

learn how Jesus thinks. You begin to respond to people

the way Jesus responds to people.

You begin to trust the hope that your heavenly Father the way

Jesus trusts his heavenly Father.

This learning with Jesus where yes, there is learning

happening. You are being taught by Jesus.

He's your teacher. It's more than just information,

it's formation. Here's the thing, and I love

this idea. You were in the family already

adopted. And in this family there is, to

use our language, there is a biological son and you're the

adopted son or daughter. And the biological son isn't

envious or jealous of your presence.

The biological son is actually the one who's I who went out to

get you and found you and took you out of the system and said,

mom and dad, we need to adopt this, this person, this child,

and like a very good older brother, yours, your savior

Jesus is like an older brother to you.

He is your, he is your older brother because he is a son in

the family. You are adopted into the family.

And your older brother, like good, like any good older

brother is showing you the ropes.

He's teaching you the ways. Hey, this is what it's like in

dad's house. This is what it's like in mom

and dad's house. This is how we live here.

This is how we talk to each other.

This is how we walk. This is how we deal with

conflict. And this is what Paul means when

he says we learn Christ. We're learning from our older

brother how to live in the home that we've been placed in.

What a gift. This is the gospel.

Now when you begin to learn Christ like that, something

begins to shift inside of you. As you could expect, it begins

to shift and shot inside of you. And Paul moves to from learning

Christ to a picture that helps us understand the the learning

process. In other words, Paul gives us an

analogy to help us understand this whole learning Christ

thing. And that's the point #2 this

morning we take off our old self.

So number one, we learn Christ #2 we take off our old self.

Let's reread verses 22 through 24.

It says you were taught with regard to your former way of

life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its

deceitful desires, and to be made new in the attitude of your

minds and to put on the new self.

Comma created. That's an important word there.

Highlight it, underline it in your Bible created to be like

God in your in true righteousness and holiness.

Now Paul's using the language of clothing here.

And we all, we all understand clothing.

We all understand what it means to to take off a piece of

garment and to put on a new piece of cloth.

Like we get it right. We understand even if you go

shopping today and you're going to go try on a new shirt or try

on a new pair, you're going to, you can't put a new shirt on top

of this shirt. I got to take this shirt off in

the dressing room and I got to put on a new shirt, right?

I got to try it on. And so Paul's using language of

taking off and putting on. And notice that in this

language, and this is important, this isn't something that you're

trying to do. You're not trying to put on a

new self or take off an old self.

Now, this is something that has already happened for you.

When you came to Christ, when you came to faith in Jesus, God

did something radical in you. The old life that had to find

you was put away and the new life was created in you see,

Christianity is not you trying to modify your behavior.

Christianity is you receiving and having faith in the new

creation that was given to you. And let me show you this is a

little thing you are going to miss, especially if you grew up

in a very religious kind of environment with lots of

legalism. In verse 23, and I told I

pointed it out to you when we read it the first time in verse

23, Paul says that we put on the new self comma created to be

like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Who created the new self according to Paul's words, not

me, but God. God created the new self.

In other words, I don't manufacture the new self.

I don't try to come up with the new self.

God is the recreator of the new self.

You see the old self was corrupt and falling apart under the

power of its desires, but the new self is created and he goes

on to say after the likeness of God in righteousness and

holiness. Now listen, please don't miss

this. If I told you to go out today

and you had to become righteous and holy, that would be very bad

preaching because I would be telling you to do something you

cannot do. You can't do it.

It's dangerous preaching. It's hurtful preaching.

But if I say God has created a new self, he's given you

something new. He's created this.

And you, your new self, given to you by God, is made in the

likeness of God. It is righteous and holy.

That is what's true of you as a gift from God.

In other words, what God gives you in Christ is not just

forgiveness for your bad deeds. He also gives you a brand new

humanity, a brand new new creation, a new self. 2nd

Corinthians 517 Maybe you know this passage, right?

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has

come. Maybe you grew up hearing it

like this. If any man is in Christ, he is a

new creation. The old has gone, the new is

here. That's a moment in time.

That's a declaration by God when you come to Christ.

Then the old goes away and the new comes.

That's already true of you. But Paul places something right

in the middle of these two ideas of taking off the old self and

putting on the new self, and that's in verse 23.

Look at what he puts in the middle of taking off the old

self and putting on the new self.

Verse 23 says to be made new in the attitude of your what minds.

And this is where Christianity's actually lived.

In Pauline theology, Christianity's lived between the

ears. In the Gospels, Christianity's

lived in the heart. Jesus talks about our heart.

What does he say? That the overflow of our heart

is what the mouth speaks. And the mouth is just a

metaphor, right? It could be the overflow of the

heart is, is what my hands do. The overflow of the heart is

where my feet go, right? It's not just the mouth, it's

every part of me is. Motivated by what's in here.

So for Jesus, it's, it's what's guiding your heart for pause,

what's guiding your mind. And so the, what's Christianity?

We tend to think Christianity is all about the walk.

We're walking and you know, the hands, what they're doing.

And we, we think it's all about the actions.

But your actions as a Christ follower are simply the

outpouring or the outcome of what's going on in your mind and

what's going on in your heart. Period.

That's all. And so Paul says that the

Christian life is lived here between the mind, and that the

Spirit of God is what renews our thinking.

The Spirit of God is what creates us into a new creature.

And as he renews our mind, the attitude of our mind, and he

changes our thinking, the rest of our laws begin to follow

suit. So when you come to Christ

supernaturally as a gift, you are made into a new creation.

Your old clothes are put off from you and your new self is

given to you and created it in you.

That's a fact given to you. But how does that live itself

out? Like, how do we begin to see

that? Well, it shows up in the

everyday life as we consistently renew our mind through the Holy

Spirit. In other words, I have the new

clothes, but it's through the renewing of my mind, the

thinking of the truth of the Scriptures, of thinking of the

truth of the gospel, that those new clothes come to bear in my

life. So the Spirit of God will

reshape the way you think. The Holy Spirit reminds you who

you are, reminds you whose you are.

He reminds you that you are already a new creation in

Christ. And as that truth settles deeper

into your thinking, something begins to change.

The old ways of living begins to feel like a stranger to you.

They just do. And you don't even understand

it. And it is it's, it's not even

perceived. You don't know when you cross

the Rubicon. You don't know when it happened.

But at some point it happens where the old, the old self

feels like a stranger. The reactions that you used to

have, they don't, They no longer feel normal to you.

The attitudes that you used to have about people, they no

longer feel natural to you. They start to feel like clothes

that don't fit. They start to feel like clothes

that are uncomfortable because they were clothes that God has

removed from you to give you brand new clothes.

And so the new life that God has created in, in you begins to

feel more and more like who you really are.

So the Christian life isn't like you going to the closet and

saying, OK, I got to put on new clothes or God's going to be mad

at me. And as this is not going to be

good and I better, I better put on new clothes.

The Christian life is me bringing my mind to God and

renewing my mind with God consistently in a, in a lifelong

process. And then God undressing the old

nature, the old self off of me and putting brand new clothes on

me. The new self has already been

given to you and so that the old ways begin to fill out a place

in the new life God is created in you begins to feel like who

you are. You're slowly becoming the new

creation that you already are. So you're not slowly becoming a

new creation. You're slowly beginning to live

out the new creation that you already are.

You're learning how to live in the family that you've been

adopted into. Through the renewing of your

mind, the Spirit slowly aligns your hands and your feet with

what God has already made true about you.

Which leads us to the next part of this passage.

Because Paul does not want to leave these words in the

abstract. He wants to give us something

practical. And so verses 25 through 32, we

put on the new self. So we learned Christ, we put off

the old self and through the renewing of our mind and then

three, we put on the new self. Like here's the thing about

getting new clothes. If you buy me a new shirt, you

buy me a new pair of pants. I cannot put them on unless I

take these off, right? I have to take these off.

I mean, if you buy me super big ones, then maybe I could put

them on. But if I'm, if I'm putting on

clothes that fit me correctly, which is what the new, the new

clothes are from God, they're the clothes that fit correctly.

I've got to take these clothes off and I got to put on the new

clothes. And so part of putting on new is

that the Holy Spirit, through the renewing of our mind is

taking off the old clothes. And we begin to see our

behaviors change in practical ways.

We do because in our mind and in our hearts these things are

shifting towards God, and slowly our hands and our feet began to

shift towards God's ways as well.

We're learning the nature of our new home.

In verses 25 through 32, Paul gives us examples, and in each

one of these examples he tells us to take something off and to

put something on, and he gives the reason to do this as rooted

in the gospel. Now that's important.

If you didn't write that down, you missed it.

OK, He says to take this off and to put this on.

And the reason you should do this is rooted in the gospel.

The old life comes off, the new life begins to show up.

And interestingly, this is super interesting to me as well.

In every example Paul gives, it has to do with relationships.

So he gives all these examples about the new self, the new

clothes, and it's all surrounding relationships.

So, friend, we're all really good at following Jesus if I

don't have to interact with other humans, right?

Amen. But that's what the Bible,

especially in the epistles by Paul, are talking so much about

relationships, because God and his wonderful wisdom knows we're

pretty good at doing this Jesus thing if you don't get in my

way. But the problem is, is that

people. Problem is people.

And I'm one of those people for you, and you're one of those

people for me. So in the context of

relationships, that's where sanctification happens and how

we live with other people. And so Paul gives us several

examples. I'm going to go through these

quickly. I'd encourage you to go back and

reread the whole passage later. But first, he says for us to put

off falsehood and to speak truthfully.

Put off falsehood and speak truthfully well inside of a

community of believers, inside of a family.

If a family's lying to it, to each other, that family's not

going to last long, is it? But if that family speaks truth,

that family's going to be unified.

The members of that body are going to be together.

They're they're going to be built up.

So Paul says, hey, people who have the new clothes, who are

setting their mind on the spirit, they're going to be

people who speak truthfully. They don't tell white lies.

They don't twist the truth to make themselves look better.

They speak the truth, the whole truth.

Paul talks about anger. He says don't let anger control

us. Don't let anger linger.

He says, don't give the devil a foothold.

Anybody ever given the devil a foothold with their anger?

Yeah, me, I have. Paul says don't do that.

Well, because the new clothes, the new clothes are more

interested in the relationships with other people than they are

in holding a grudge over people. That's what the new clothes do,

Paul says. This is what this is what it

begins to look like when you're putting on the new clothes.

You let things go. I tell my kids, get some duck

feathers, man. Get some duck feathers.

Let that stuff go off your back. Don't worry about it.

And most of the time they look at me like I don't know what I'm

talking about. What is a duck feather?

Next, he talks about work and generosity.

He says the thief must, no, must no longer steal.

And this is important. He, the Bible calls people to be

workers, to work, to produce, to to go to work, to make things

happen. And that doesn't necessarily

mean outside the home, but everybody's productive, that

we're doing something useful with our hands.

And Paul goes one step further than that.

He says, hey, go to work and don't steal.

But he goes even further than that.

The goal isn't just for a person to stop stealing.

The goal is to become the type of person who gives to others in

need. That's the goal.

That's the goal. Now listen, listen, I wrote, I

wrote this. You got to hear me say this.

Only Christ can transform a thief into a giver.

Paul's assuming that people change.

He's also assuming that in this church there are thieves, which

means tells us that if our church doesn't have a few

thieves in it, we're not reaching.

The lost in this church are some thieves.

And Paul says that change is so possible through the gospel that

thieves will go from takers to blessers.

Wow, only Christ can bring that kind of change.

Next, he talks about our speech. He says don't let any

unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only words that

build others up. Words have power, friend.

They can wound other people. They can build other people up.

Paul says a person who's led by the Spirit is a person who

thinks about their words carefully and then he gets to

the heart of it. He says, and do not grieve the

Holy Spirit of God. And this, you need to hear me

say this. This is probably a whole sermon.

I should preach on this, just this line.

The Spirit who lives in you, who's working in you to renew

your mind to, to bring your new clothes to bear, that spirit is

not an impersonal force. This is not like an the force is

with you. That's not what the Spirit is.

This text makes this really clear.

Impersonal forces don't grieve persons grieve the Holy Spirit.

He, he is a person in the Spirit of God.

He has sealed you for the day of redemption, and he's also the

one though he has sealed you, he's also the one who is

bringing about the new creation out of you.

So you've been made a new creation.

The old has gone, the new has come, and he's the one that's

bringing it to bear. He's the one that's working

inside of you to bring about this new truth of who you are.

And so when you and I returned to the old patterns of

bitterness, rage, slander, and malice, when we go back to those

things, Paul says we're grieving.

We're grieving he who was working in us so hard to bring

about rhythms and lifestyles that fit in the Father's house.

This matters to your Heavenly Father.

It matters that you wear your new clothes, not because he

somehow needs you to like, oh, I wish these people would wear the

new clothes I bought for them. I would feel better about

myself. No, God is not his.

His sense of self is not riding on us being obedient to him.

No, God calls us to wear new clothes because it's good for

us, it's better for us, and it's better for the community that

we're part of. And so Paul says, instead of

giving in to rage and slander and malice and brawling, he says

instead be kind and compassionate to one another.

Forgive each other just as in Christ God forgave you.

And there it is again, a gospel reason.

Hey, forgive each other is Christ.

Forget. What's the gospel reason?

Well, God forgave us. We hold out kindness for one

another instead of malice because God himself held out

kindness towards you instead of malice.

We forgive one another because Christ himself, God himself

forgave us in Christ. And we're learning from our

older brother how to forgive. The new life that God created in

US will begin to show up in you. It will, because He began this

good work in you, and he will see it to the end.

And it will begin to show up in you in practical ways,

specifically how you treat people.

Pay attention to how you treat people.

That is the evidence of the new life of Christ working itself

out in you. Pay attention to how you treat

people. And that's what this whole

series has been about. When we make room for the

Spirit, we are setting our minds on the truth of the gospel in

the life that Jesus lives, who our older brother is, his

identity, his actions, his attitudes.

The life of Jesus begins to show up in our lives in ordinary,

everyday places. Places like our dinner table

with our family. Places like our cubicle or our

job. Places like our anger.

Places like our relationships. Friend, the Christian life is

not self improvement. It is simply living out the new

clothes that Christ has already given you.

What's already true about you? So here's the hopeful news this

morning. Change is possible.

And if you're a follower of Jesus, it's more than possible.

It's probable not because you're trying harder, but because

something has already really happened inside of you.

The old self has already been removed and you have already

been given a new set of clothes. And now the Holy Spirit is

renewing your mind daily so that the life God has already created

in you is beginning to show up and how you live.

And that's what we mean by making room.

You return your mind and your heart to these truths about who

you are over and over and over again.

I am loved, I am accepted, I am not condemned.

Christ gave his blood for me. I am adopted in the Father's

house. That's where I am.

I'm just trying to learn the new rhythms of this new house I live

in. And as you keep your mind set on

those things, the life of Jesus begins to show up.

And we learn Him, we learn Him, we learn his ways.

Making room for the Spirit simply means making room for the

life God has already put inside you.

It's already true. So this week, my friends, will

you remember who you are in Christ and trust that the Holy

Spirit is already at work in you?

He has already removed your old clothes.

He's already given you new clothes.

He is simply teaching you to love and trust those new

clothes, that they are indeed the best way to live.

Will you stand with me as I pray for us?

Father, thank you for the truths of Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Really, the whole letter is beautiful, but thank you that

that Paul has made such a clear argument here that our behavior

does not come from white knuckle willpower.

Our behavior comes from trusting our identity and what's true of

us. That that any person who has

come to know your son Jesus is a new creation.

The old is gone, the new has come.

That is what's true of us and God living that out in a

sanctified way. Living that out in a sanctified

way is simply about remembering daily who we are.

And then slowly those new clothes will begin to feel

normal, and the old patterns in the old clothes will feel like

they don't fit. And slowly over time, we'll

begin to manifest or see your life, Jesus, coming out of us.

And this is what our hope is, Father, that in our church,

people will be drawn here, not because we're such good people

or kind people or welcoming people, but because Christ

himself embodies us, that Jesus himself is the magnet as we lift

him up in our lives and trust his ways in our lives.

Men and women flock to be around us just the same way they flock

to be around Jesus. Lord, you're doing this work in

our lives. I praise you for every bit of

fruit we get to see. Do even more among us.

In Christ name we pray, Amen. Thank you, friends, I love you.

We'll see you back here next Sunday.