Ephesians 4:31-32 (The Church On the Inside) Dr. Lloyd Scott 8/23/26, 10:00 AM

Good morning, everyone.

I greet you in the only name that really matters, and that is the name of Jesus.

The Bible declares that it is at that name that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.

Let me say, Brother Ron, thank you for the invitation to come.

Um, my second time here, and uh I've had me a good time with these fellas over here.

I hope the gumbo didn't kill you.

And hope you were blessed by that.

And I was just blessed to be a part of that.

Uh Antioch East, uh, you are an amazing church.

And uh 176 years is nothing to frown at.

And I think you need to give yourself a hand and give the Lord a hand that after 176 years, that you are still together and growing strong.

When many churches in the rule are drying up and literally fading to the past, you are yet strong.

It suggests to me that there is purpose in the work that's going on in the house of God.

My friend blessed us with a song today.

First met him at the conference, he was the praise and worship leader there.

And at 84 years young, you're looking good and going strong.

And it's not that you forget, literally, you just have too much to remember.

So thank you for that.

Uh to the brothers that met with us last night, and to the sisters that's fuming over last night.

Got a word for you.

Your turn is coming.

We did the gumbo last night, and that for you we're gonna do the possum.

I am blessed to be paired with my friend and brother, brother Jim.

We have uh we have sat next to each other in a boat, we have stood next to each other and skint deer, but the greatest joy is to be paired with him in preaching.

Uh, he is an awesome preacher that God has his hands on.

Jim Moss is the Lord's preacher, and we thank God that our paths crossed almost 25 over 25 years ago, and it has been a blessing to me ever since.

Uh, I'm like Elizabeth Taylor, I will not hold you long.

Uh, you know, she had 11 husbands, you know.

Some of the sisters can't find one you might want to take some lessons from.

But today I want to begin this journey that we have and to conclude it on tonight.

Um the focus this morning is on the church within the inward church, what the church should be on the inside, and tonight we want to focus on the outward church, what the church does on the outside, and what happens on the inside affects the outside after a hundred and seventy six years.

My, that's a long time.

Before the Civil War, before World War I or World War II, before the Korean conflict or the Vietnam War, before the Gulf War, the Gulf War now, you guys have been kicking the pig on this corner for a long time.

And so what I want to do is I want to read your poem and see, and maybe suggest to you there might be some things that we can even yet still do better.

That God would lead you to greater greater heights.

If you would turn to Ephesians four, please.

Ephesians four verses thirty-one and thirty-two, Ephesians four.

And while you're turning, I was in the symphonic band of the El Dorado High School, the Wildcats.

And the I was in the band, and we went to All State, and we got Division Ones every year.

That was just an expectation because we were a symphonic band.

But the greatest symphony to me is to hear the leaves of the Bible being turned.

You'll get that on the way home.

Now, if you fellas don't know when a shout point is, I can't help you.

And I may need to go out to my car and get my pistol to help y'all along.

But I'm but knowing this crowd, I wouldn't make it to the car.

But we'll do the best we can.

Verse 31.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.

And be ye kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Let us pray.

Father, we pray afresh that you would do what you've been faithful to do, to give ears to hear and hearts to receive.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

If I were to tag a text this morning, I want to speak from this subject.

A report card on relationships.

A report card on relationships.

Because I'm across the track.

Normally, brother, brother Ron, we end somewhere around E-Flat, you know, you know, but I think I would scare y'all with my E flat preaching.

So I'm gonna tone it down.

But I am used to an Amen, and that's in no flat.

So if you would throw me an Amen every now and then, let me know that you're still awake or you're ready to eat, we'll get her done.

A report card on relationships.

I went to Washington Junior High School, my seventh grade year.

Could have done better in school, but lazy, taking shortcuts, didn't want to do the work.

My first report card didn't look good.

And all the good girls, you know, we did have some good girls in school, uh, some of them worked in the office as clerks where they kept the blank report cards.

And uh one one of the girls gave me some blank cards because I had failing grades, didn't want to take them to my mama, and my partner in crime, I called her this morning to tell her that I was going to use her name, telling this story.

Her name was Glendine, and Glendine filled out the blank cards, put in the grades that I knew my mama would be satisfied with, and I took the blank card, the fake card to my mama, and I she signed the real card to give back to the teachers.

It worked until the second semester when I finally got some good grades on the real card.

And guess what this fool did?

He took the real cards, and I gave the real cards to my mama, thinking she would be happy over the good grades that I made, but she wasn't just looking at the present, she was looking at the past, and she saw signatures that she didn't identify.

And boy, if a fella ever needed grace, I believe that if they had uh protect child protective services, then my mama would still be doing time.

Here it is, she was not satisfied with what was on the report card, and this morning I want to speak from this subject.

A report card on relationships, a report card on relationships, and after East Antioch, after a hundred and seventy-six years, there oughta be something you got right by now Have you excelled on relationships?

Her name is Cornelia Arnelda Joanna Tinboon.

We know her as Cory Tinboon, Corey Tinboon who survived the Holocaust in a Jewish concentration camp, a German camp.

She and her sister Betsy abused, misused.

Betsy died, but Corey survived, and she became one of the great Christian authors and motivational speakers.

She was sharing how the love of God overshadowed her and gave her oof to forgive.

And at the end of her speaking, a familiar face came down the aisle.

It was a German soldier who had been a guard at one of the camps, and she knew him by his abuse.

And when he came with tear-stained eyes and stuck his hand out and asked her for forgiveness, and she said, you know, in her memoirs that she had a flashback of all that he had done, possibly in the hand of causing her sister's death, and everything natural in her said, You have no reason to forgive.

But the grace of God overshadowed her.

And she extended her hand and her heart, and she offered godly forgiveness to this man.

Can I ask y'all a question?

Have you ever forgiven anyone?

And I don't mean I think I forgive you, but don't you do it again.

Because forgiveness does not come with limitations.

It comes with liberty.

Let me put it this way.

Does anyone know about unforgiveness?

When you lock someone in the dungeon of your heart, you're the guard that abuses them.

You're the warden that denies them.

And you're the parole boy that refuses them.

But the problem is you have them locked up, and you are locked up too.

Are y'all with me?

And if you cannot forgive, you hold yourself hostage.

Matter of fact, the best gift that you can ever give to yourself when you indulge yourself, it ought to be with forgiveness.

Because Luke 638, we quote it when we take up nickels and dimes.

But it has nothing to do with money.

Give and it shall be given.

It sounds poetic, don't it?

It has a nostalgic sound to it, and it shall be given.

Good measure pressed down and shaken together.

Shall men give into your bosom.

It be running over y'all, but it ain't got nothing to do with money.

It's about relationships.

Can you forgive?

And when you forgive, this is the return for your forgiving.

And since you're gonna indulge yourself, why don't you just go overboard and break the bank?

Have I got a witness in here?

The hardboard of your heart is hijacked by heaven when you learn how to forgive.

It can only happen when you have been touched, tamed, and transformed by the grace of God.

And if you are not a possessor of grace, you are gripped by grief, guilt, and grudges.

You hurt me.

Well, you've hurt someone.

You've said something about someone.

Grief.

Guilt.

Everybody has made a mistake.

I don't care how long her dress is.

Everybody has made a mistake.

Can I take y'all down memory lane?

Somebody in here knows what the back of a 64 Shibby look like at one o'clock in the morning.

A 57 Ford.

A 48 Hudson, a 34 Packard, a wagon.

All of us have made mistakes.

That's right.

Grief, guilt, and grudges.

We all have somebody done me wrong some.

When I was pastoring, one of my secretaries got notice that their 60th class reunion was coming up.

And when you can live to see 60-year class reunion, that's something to look forward to.

And she got the notice and she was reading it, and she says to the other secretary, I'm not going.

I'm coming through, and I'm ear hustling.

That's just another way of saying, being nosy without, you know, involvement.

And she said, I'm not going.

So I finally had to ask the question.

Now, why don't you want to go?

She said, Well, the person who's over the uh class, the class president for the reunion, I'm mad at her.

Why?

Because she took my boyfriend.

When?

In school.

How many years ago?

I said, Well, didn't the Lord bless you to marry a man who took care of your needs?

And you only work because you want to work.

You drive in a Lincoln and uh you got a Mercedes in your driveway, and you living in a grid, big old brick home.

And you know, didn't I say she's well, you know, Pastor, you're right.

I'm going to the reunion.

You can find yourself holding grudges against folks who really have been a blessing to you, but you're so caught up you don't even know it.

But if you don't have grace, you can't forgive.

The Latin word for grace is charisma, but you get the Greek word charis, which simply means the grace of God.

It's not about money, it's about mercy, it's not about resources, it's about relationships, it's not about prosperity, it's about partnership.

And I told you, don't lock yourself in the prison of your own heart.

Well, let me get to the text and give me about four more hours, and we'll be all right.

When you read Ephesians 1 through 3, it reminds us of what grace extended has done for us.

If you're a recipient of grace, it means grace has done something for you.

In chapter 1, verse 7, Paul says you have redemption through his blood and forgiveness of sin according to the riches of his grace.

Now that's a shout point right there.

That's what you have with grace.

Chapter 2, verse 8 says, By grace are you saved, by faith, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

Chapter 3, verse 8, for unto me, to whom less than the least of all saints is the grace of God given to me by the effectual working of his power.

And so Paul is saying, God has given me grace to preach a gospel.

And if anybody didn't deserve it, Paul didn't deserve it.

But it's amazing to what grace can do.

In chapter four, the record is flipped from one side to the other.

Chapters 1, 2, 3 is what Grace has done for us.

And chapter 4 begins telling us what grace expects from us.

Paul said, because you got grace, have grace, you're to walk worthy.

Paul said, because you have grace, you're to forbear one another in love.

Forbear, put up with one another.

Put up with one another.

Ladies, put up with one another in love.

Are you with me?

Paul said grace keeps the unity of peace.

Paul said, Grace speaks truth with love.

Well, I'm gonna just tell you the truth.

You may, but you need to be like a surgeon and not a butcher.

Anybody can cut something up.

But there is a cutting that leads to healing.

It's in chapter four, he said, be angry, but sin not.

Righteous indignation is right.

But we need to know how to channel that righteous anger so that it won't be an offense to the kingdom of God.

In the old testament, when they got angry, they just took you out and stoned you.

It was it.

But we not we have to learn how to extend the blood of the cross and learn how to help someone else.

Are y'all with me?

Well, I ain't got but 19 more.

It's in chapter 4.

Paul says, let he who stole steal no more.

That's kind of late for Piggly Wiggly and me.

Because I tell you, if it was in there, it wasn't safe.

I could get it out of there, but I can't apologize to Piggly Wiggly here no more because they're gone.

I just won't steal no more.

He said that we should not grieve the spirit.

We should not grieve the spirit.

That does not mean that you sit there and sit on your shout and don't say man.

Grieving the spirit is when you don't do what the Holy Spirit is commanding you to do.

Now, let's look at the text.

What is the report card for relationships?

Now, Paul is talking to a church that has been saved and have been in business for possibly a hundred and seventy-six years.

They have ambience, they have aesthetics, they've got their budget is comfortable.

But he said, I don't want to talk about budgets and bodies in the seat.

I want to talk about relationships within the body.

He says, Verse 31, put away.

Put away what?

Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, malice.

Here's the first point in your report card.

The first report card is on your restraints in relationships.

Your restraints, those things that restrain you.

Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, malice.

Bitterness, best defined, is just another word for ongoing, undying aggravation.

We're bitter because there's some stuff that we're holding on to that we just won't let die.

Aggravation.

We see someone and we have a flashback and we draw up, and bitterness can be contagious because we can only operate around people who are bitter like us.

So it causes aggravation.

Wrath is when bitterness moves to intensification.

We have to spread it like cancer or covet.

I got it, and I'm gonna give it to everybody else.

Are y'all with me?

Anger is our desire for retaliation where we begin to ponder and think about what am I gonna do to get somebody back?

And you know all of us have some get back in us.

We live for that.

We have a word for a word.

Are y'all with me now?

Clamor is when we ready to go to fisticuffs.

That's the escalation.

I say that to the policeman all the time.

Can we de-escalate?

Can we can we lower the temperature?

Okay, let it go.

Are y'all with me now?

Ladies, let it go.

They heard you the seventh time.

Let it go.

And then Paul says, Let all malice go.

And malice is uh maybe that person sitting next to you that lives in the arena of agitation, always keeps some stuff going, always urging and nudging and pushing.

Y'all sure is quiet up in here.

I'm not talking about y'all, I'm just talking about what I'm talking about.

Are y'all with me?

But Paul says, here's the key word in these restraints of relationships.

He said, let it be put away.

And the the Greek word to be put away is there must be eradication.

And how he do how how does that happen, Paul?

He says that word the word is this destroy it.

Set it afire, shred it, burn it, thrash it, put it away.

Put on your big boy breeches.

The restraints of relationship.

Verse thirty-two A.

He gives us the requirements for relationship.

Be kind, tender-hearted, forgiving one another.

To be kind is that you have to live with consideration.

If you never see me where I am, you will never identify with me.

But if you don't stand in my shoes, you will never know.

Have I got a witness?

That has to be consideration.

Paul says, be tender-hearted.

There has to be compassion.

Yes, sir.

There has to be some heart in the situation.

And then Paul says, forgiving one another.

I got a three-dollar word.

There must be capitulation.

To forgive.

That really means to surrender to one another.

Well, she did me wrong.

And sometimes for the sake of the body, you have you have to learn how to say, forgive me when you've done nothing wrong.

For the sake of peace, of letting some stuff go to getting on with relationship.

There has to be capitulation.

Well, y'all quiet.

The restraints of relationship, the requirements of relationship, but it concludes in verse 32 with the restoration of relationships.

Even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you.

Even as God talks about the initiation of the restoration of relationship, it starts with God.

It is extended through Christ.

And it is given to us by grace.

And when we share it, we understand that we have to get, we have to forgive because God forgave.

Are y'all with me?

He did it for Christ's sake.

So you move from the initiation of grace to the propitiation of grace.

Somebody had to pay for it.

Share this story.

My mom and daddy had 12 children.

They were sanctified.

They believed what the Bible said, your quiver be full.

So I had a sister and her, three boys.

My dad had some paint.

And one day these boys got in that paint.

And they had paint all over them, paint all over the back of the house.

And when my sister found out it about it, boy, she just she went left on.

I was in the other room listening to licks.

And I just couldn't stand it, you know.

But she was that was her business.

I wasn't in it at the time.

And the next day, them the same three boys got in the same paint again.

And I know what happened the day before.

So I can only imagine what's gonna happen now.

And guess what?

My foolish self said to my sister whip me instead of them.

And she obliged me.

You know, I was ready to fight, but I put myself in that position to say that I would take on the stripes of my nephews.

And when she finished, I said to them, This will never happen again.

If you get in this pain again, you own your own.

But I serve a God who gave his only begotten son.

That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

And he was wounded for my transgression, bruised for my iniquity.

The chastisement of my peace was upon him, and with his strikes on him, that's propitiation.

Jesus paid it all.

It ends with liberation.

He hath forgiven us.

Right here in Columbia County, 79 North, between here and I believe McNeil, is Camp Logolai.

And before integration, all of the black troops had to go to Logali the last week of camp.

We couldn't go with y'all before integration.

And they had the white camp workers who hated us and we hated them.

One fella in particular from Fordyce, his name was Jay.

Redhead, freckle face.

I couldn't stand him, and he couldn't stand me.

Friday was the day for to work for your merit badges.

And the first thing on the list for Friday was the swim for the merit badge.

That Thursday night, me and a few fellas, I'm not gonna call their name because statute limitation is not up.

We went down.

We broke into the commissary.

Do you remember the old soda machines where the bottle stood up?

You know, you had so supposed to put money in, but a big pair of Wi-Fliers could get the job done.

And we stole sodas, went back to the camp, and early that Friday morning, one of the guys came running in and said the camp director and the staff were looking for evidence of thievery.

I had two sodas left, didn't want to throw them away, so I ran down, I eased down the hill behind a tree, and I drunk one and was trying to drink another 16-ounce knee highs.

Y'all don't know what I'm talking about.

And 20 minutes later, I'm jumping in the lake for my mild swim, my swim merit badge, full of hot soda and cold water.

It doesn't mix.

And I was struggling in the lake.

Jay was a lifeguard.

He was standing on the dock watching me.

And I'm thinking to myself, you see me struggling, why don't you help me?

He didn't move.

I struggled some more.

He didn't move.

And at the point of going under, I cried out, help! And the white boy who couldn't stand me, and I couldn't stand him, dove in the water and saved my life.

Amen.

I never said thank you.

At Brother Jim's conference, some years later, I was sharing this story.

One of the brothers, brother and Andy Kinart, who's from Fort Ice, knew Jay.

He said, Man, I know who you were talking about.

And I said, I want to meet him.

I would love to go and meet him and tell him thank you.

Because I never said thank you for saving my life.

He said, Jay died two years ago.

Cancer ate him up.

And so I live with this regret that I never said thank you to the man who saved my life.

But saints, I will never forget what Jesus done for me.

And every chance I get, I'm gonna tell him thank you for saving my life.

I rest my case, yo.