Social Virtues for Healthy Churches

I'm sure you have as well, but I talk frequently to to men and

women that young and old, rich and poor, that struggle with

what Paul describes in Romans 6 and seven.

They profess and you profess just like Paul did, that I am no

longer under the law, but under grace, and sin has no dominion

over me. I've died to that which held me

captive, and I'm called to serve in the new way of the Spirit.

And then Paul immediately goes in the next breath and says, But

I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to

carry it out, for I do not do the good I want.

I delight in the law of God and my inner being, but I see in my

members another law waging war against the law of my flesh and

making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in me.

And he confesses in verse 24, wretched man that I am, who will

deliver me from this body of death.

And our church members, in our context, they'll phrase it like

this. How am IA man of God, a woman of

God, still not able to put away my childish things?

How am I, after these months and years, not able to kick these

addictions? And how can I not move past

these foolish things? How can I continue to say these

things? How can I continue to act so

foolishly? And the answer is because you're

not Jesus Christ. And maybe this is your

opportunity. If you're asking that to figure

that out, you are not him, especially if you grew up in the

church, especially if you've gone to OBU and you've seen

mature Christians that are ahead of you and you've seen faithful

churches. And what a, a, a wonderful and

and terrifying thing refined Christian can be in the hands of

God. You could see by looking into

the future, looking at these individuals, what your life

could look like and what you could accomplish.

And then you wonder as an 18 year old, as a 30 year old, as a

40 year old, why am I not there yet?

And there are several things to see even from Paul.

He goes on immediately to say God has done what the law could

not do by sending His own Son. He condemned sin in the flesh in

order that the righteous requirement of the law might be

fulfilled in us. This is where we insert the

glorious gospel into this. There is grace.

If you are a Christian, when you fall short, the there's not a

righteous standard that you're trying to meet.

It's already been met by the Lord of glory.

He died in your place. There's only one sinless Son of

God, and it's not you. You needed Him.

And Paul's glorious gospel continues despite the addictions

and the weaknesses and the failures.

Not only does God give you grace when you fall short, chapter 8

moves on to say He actually helps you in your weakness.

He doesn't help you in your strength.

He helps you in your overwhelming weakness.

And the chapter teaches that the Holy Spirit comes in your life

and he's your live in contractor that begins to do his perfect

work and he begins to make You Beautiful from the inside out

and he renews you and he strengthens you in your war

against sin and temptation. And then he adds to this amazing

list, more than just extending grace, more than just

strengthening you, He says the Spirit prays for you and he

intercedes for you and your weakness.

Romans 826 with groanings that are too deep for words.

And that's why Paul asks at the end of that chapter, if God is

for us, who can be against us? No, and all these things, we are

more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

For I'm sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor

rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor

height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be

able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our

Lord. How could it with this list?

And this is the background to what Paul is asking of you in

the conclusion of Ephesians 4, and you can turn there.

We just spent three full chapters understanding what God

has done for us and the new identity that He's given to us.

He says that God has prepared good works for you in eternity

past, that you might walk in them.

It says that the Father has predestined his church, and

predestined is always unto something.

And we saw that predestination was unto adoption, that he might

be our Father, and that we might be called sons of God.

It's by grace that we've been saved through faith.

It's the gift of God, not a result of works.

And we saw that it's God's nature to abound in mercy and

grace. And he's united his church under

Jesus Christ. He's given this local body and

all local bodies, pastors and teachers to, to guide them and

to walk them. And through the faith and he

ascended into heaven. A wonderful and beautiful

thought that Jesus ascended into heaven, not that he could take

tribute from the world, but that he could give, as is his nature,

gifts to His church. That we can continue the work

that he began while he was here. And you come all the way up to

our context. RJ taught last week from

Ephesians 424. And he brought us this reminder

that you were created in the image of God, in righteousness

and in holiness. And having brought you to this

point, a transition is going to happen.

And he sits you down like a father would sit down his own

son or his own daughter. And he says, and this is this is

specifically practically how you can do that.

This is what it looks like to live, considering all of these

glorious truths from Ephesians one to three and even 4.

And this is for all the people who are frequently surprised by

their own immaturity. And this is for all the people

who are still struggling with addiction and for all the people

who can't seem to put away their childish things, You have to

remember you are not Jesus Christ.

And knowing that Paul's just said there's no condemnation for

those in Christ, but only grace. And then hold that thought

because he says, but now by the strengthening of the Holy

Spirit, there is effort required.

And so now in response to that grace, not in order to gain the

grace, but in response to that grace, we add hustle.

We have to hustle and there's a continual taking off and putting

on. And this happens over the days

and over the weeks and over the decades.

There's a a sanctification that happens, a lifetime of

sanctification of our being renewed in the new man after the

image of God. And this is really the first

section of Ephesians. We've said that there's an

overwhelming amount of commands and we haven't really seen any

yet. We saw back in chapter 2, verse

11, he commands us, you know, remember where you came from so

that you can appreciate where you are now.

And then he comes, he says walk according to the high calling

that God has given you in Christ.

And now if you look with me to Ephesians 425 to 32, you get 12

imperatives in eight verses. He leans in.

It's a barrage of commands. They're all grounded in identity

and calling and grace. And what he's doing with the

commands that he gives you, they're for a purpose.

What he's doing is he's showing you what is meant when he says

put off the old self and put on the new self.

He's teaching you what sorts of behaviours ought to flow out of

your new identity. Calvin says it poetically from

the righteousness of the new man.

All godly exhortations flow like streams from a spring.

Read with me the streams in Ephesians 425 and continuing,

Paul writes to the all the local churches around the area of

Ephesus. And he says to them, Therefore,

having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth

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

Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on

your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

But 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. Let no corrupting talk come out

of your mouths, but only such is good for building up as fits the

occasion, that it 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.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be

put away from you, along with all malice.

Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another

as God and Christ forgave you. Best accent in the church goes

to Ian Hamilton. He says Christians are not only

defined, but what we're against. We are defined by what we are

for. Ephesians teaching us what we

were for. And there's a long list of the

church. The world looks at the church

and they categorize, categorize us by what we're against.

We say we're not defined by what we don't do.

But we are against premarital sex and cohabitation and

homosexual lifestyles and adultery and pornography and

egalitarianism and autonomous self definition and divorce.

And we are against recreational drug use and alcoholism and

gambling and materialism and addictions of every kind.

And we are against racism and partiality and slavery.

But we have to manage what we've put off and what we're against

with what we were for. Because if you look at Jesus

Christ and you think if he just took away our sin without adding

the extra imputation of giving us his righteousness, then we're

still lost. It's not just that he took away

our sin, it's that he's added to us his own righteousness.

And the same is true. We're not defined by all of the

things that we put away, but we're defined by the

righteousness that we put on. We're being renewed.

And so God doesn't tell us just to take the weeds out of our

garden, but he says, you plant beautiful flowers in their

place. And this is the Christian life,

a continual pulling up the weeds even as you plant the flowers.

And so we're defined in this passage by what we're for.

We are for, as Christians, truth.

We are for purity of mind and body and speech.

We are for diligent labour and a strong work ethic and

generosity. We are for edifying talk that

builds one another up. We're for tender hearts.

We're for kindness and we're for forgiveness.

And every commandment or exhortation that Paul gives in

these 8 verses surround the same theme.

These are about social virtues, social virtues that exist in and

for healthy churches. And these are moral excellence

of characters as it's patience and humility and kindness and

honesty and faithfulness and courage and gentleness and

justice. Not just to have them, but that

they may be used for the good of other people.

And this is the lifestyle of a new person.

It's all aimed at establishing and preserving the unity and

witness of local churches the world over.

This is the worthy walk that Paul's describing, but the

worthy walk in the social sphere, the the worthy walk with

respect to other people. And as we go through each of

these cycles of taking off and putting on these replacements, I

want you to see that there's a pattern that Paul establishes.

And it's a three fold, three-part structure.

And he gives, he gives a negative command and then he

gives a positive command. And then he gives a reason for

the positive command. And it's, it's, he's doing this,

it's designed to motivate you to do these things.

You have every reason to pursue these things.

And we'll say it this way. First he's going to give you a

social vice that you are to put away.

And then he's going to give you a social virtue to replace it

with, and then he's going to give you a reason for that

replacement. And we're going to follow that

pattern. 5 * 5 substitutions that you have to make #1 Truth

must replace falsehood #2 righteous anger must replace

controlling anger #3 generosity must replace stealing #4 the

language of blessing must replace the language of cursing.

And 5th and finally #5 kindness must replace animosity.

We'll go through these one by one.

The first replacement that has to happen in your life.

You have to replace truth, or truth must replace falsehood.

And speaking personally, this is one of my favorite verses in

Scripture because 30 years ago, Conchita Hansford taught me

Ephesians 425. This is the first verse I ever

memorized. And now all these years later,

decades later, I get to teach her this verse as her pastor.

And so it's a glorious thought. I had to look up this week.

You can read it with me. Look with me.

You gave it to me in the NIVI. Had to look it up to see even

how I had it memorized. But it says, therefore, let each

of us put off falsehood and speak truthfully to our

neighbor. For we are all members of 1

body. Yours may say we are all members

one of another. And if you memorize Ephesians

425, the best people do, then you will see you're also

memorizing Zechariah 816. It's it's quoting from the

prophet Zechariah. And it's significant when you

look back to that context, because this isn't in this

ancient context. We've already read it together

this morning as a church. It's a promise that God is going

to restore his people. He says, I've brought judgement

on you. I've removed your play.

I've removed your old age. I've brought punishment and

chastisement and refinement. But he says after this difficult

season where he was going to punish them, he prophesized of a

future day where he will bring blessing.

It came in verse 11. He said, But now I will not deal

with the remnant of this people as in the former days declares

the Lord of hosts. For there shall be a sowing of

peace. The vine shall give its fruit,

and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall

give their due. And I will cause the remnant of

this people to possess all things, And as you've been a

byword of cursing among the nations, O House of Judah and

House of Israel, so I will save you, and you shall be a

blessing. And then he gives some

exhortations, and he says, And on that day this is how you are

to live. This is how you are to deal

socially with one another. He says, this is what Paul

quotes from in Ephesians 425. Speak the truth in love.

Zechariah says render true judgments, do not devise evil in

your hearts, and do not love false oaths.

And so apparently the the beauty of this passage is that Paul

sees the Ephesian church that he's preaching to, that he's

writing to as this new community that Zechariah was prophesying.

And even by extension, it would be us.

We are the redeemed new creation the God is forming, and we along

with them are fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah.

And he continues the promise that many peoples and many

strong nations are going to seek the Lord of hosts and entreat

the favour of the Lord. And they will say, let us go

with you, we pray they will say of our church, let us go with

you, because we see that God is with you.

And how do they see? And how do they know that the

Lord is with us? They see our virtue, they see

our love for one another, they see our speaking the truth and

love, they see our building one another up.

And that's what Paul is getting at.

Even in in Zechariah back in verse 3 of chapter 8, he said

that the new Jerusalem is going to be called by a different name

in the future. He says Jerusalem is going to be

called the city of truth. And so we see that this taking

off of falsehood and putting on, of truth is an eternal taking

off, an eternal putting on eternally putting off falsehood,

eternally putting on truthfulness.

And, and it's because honesty is essential for the flourishing of

any community. You have to have a church that

speaks the truth to one another. There has to be a freedom to

come to church. And if you're coming to church

with a smile on your face while your life is in shambles,

there's a disconnect. You're not being truthful.

You can't try and engage a church community with a, a fake

hope and a fake smile. And there has to be an honesty

between the congregation and their pastors.

You have to speak truthfully to us and the information has to

flow from us truthfully and honestly to you and has to free

flow from the whole congregation, from the deacons

to the elders to the church. And there has to be perfect

communication, perfect honesty. Because without this there is no

trust and there is no health. You cannot have a healthy church

without honesty. And as is typical in this in

this section he gives the reason why do we make this replacement?

He says because we are all members of 1 body, we are all

members one of another. And you see that deception

doesn't just harm the individual, we think it does.

A simple lie or a simple piece of gossip that comes into the

congregation will soon leaven the whole lump.

Deception flows through the congregation.

There's a famous expository preacher from the early church,

John Chrysostom. He wisely asked, rhetorically

asks if the eye sees a serpent, does it lie to the foot?

If the nose smells a deadly drug, does it lie to the mouth?

If the tongue tastes something bitter, does it lie to the

stomach? Neither does 1 member of a local

church seek to deceive another because we are all members of 1

body. And as we move through all of

these replacements, I want you to see it feels almost

proverbial as you go through it. It feels like this skill in

living. There's this wisdom.

And so I want to couple the wisdom of Solomon and the

Proverbs with the wisdom of Ephesians as we go through to

inform us as well. Solomon says in Proverbs 12/19

Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is only for a

moment. Proverbs 12/22 Lying lips are an

abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his

delight. Proverbs 1612 to 13 It is an

abomination to kings to do evil, for the throne is established by

righteousness. Righteous lips are the delight

of a king, and he loves him who speaks what is right.

You can search your own heart and your own relationships and

say, what relationship do I need to to confess the truth in?

What's a relationship that I've not been honest and I need to

replace lying and deceitfulness with honesty.

Paul says each of you must put off falsehood and speak

truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of 1 body.

Second command, second cycle. Righteous anger must replace

controlling anger. Read with me in verses 26 to 27.

Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on

your anger and give no opportunity to the devil.

Psalm 26 quotes again. If we look at Psalm 25, it was a

quotation of Zechariah 816. You go to Psalm 26.

It's not quoting the prophets, but the Psalms.

This is a quotation of Psalm 4 which says be angry and do not

sin. Ponder in your own hearts and on

your beds and be silent. Offer right sacrifices and put

your trust in the Lord. Peter Craigie is a famous Psalm

commentator and he says this. The psalmist advises his

adversaries to keep their rage within themselves and to

maintain control of their actions and of their evil words.

Because you have to be able to control your body.

You have to be able to control your emotions and the point is

not to not be angry. The the point is to replace the

anger that controls you with a righteous anger that you are in

control of. That's the that's the ask.

He's saying avoid sin in situations where your anger is

present because as Christians, we can't not be angry.

If we love God, then by nature we hate evil.

And if we love justice, then we hate injustice.

And so we we're angry at these things be saying in your anger,

do not sin. Paul says steward your anger and

shepherd it as one who is in control of it.

Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ who

fashioned a whip in the temple and cleaned it out probably

twice. And the same Christ got angry

with the Pharisees and their hypocrisy and he, he records,

Matthew records 7 woes that he pronounces on them.

The point is not to be angry. The point is to to be in

control. And that makes anger different

from the other vices on the list, because it's the only one.

That is not inherently wicked, and as you move into verse 27

from 26 you you move into an extremely short verse. 6 words

in my ESV 5 in the original give no opportunity for the devil.

What Paul's saying is that if you have prolonged anger in your

heart, Satan will use it. This is opportunity for the

devil. He will gain a foothold in your

life. You know this, you've seen it,

you've lived this. Satan will ruin the life of a

perpetually angry person. Paraphrases Do well with these

two verses. 1 commentator offers this translation.

Be angry if you must, but stop sinning by continuing your empty

false speech or the message here says, go ahead and be angry.

You do well to be angry, but don't use your anger as fuel for

revenge. Don't go to bed angry.

Don't give the devil that kind of foothold in your life.

And he brings in strategically, you'll see why he brings in the

principal power of darkness. It's it's the devil, the

slanderer. He brings up Satan in this

context. And the, the word devil here

means literally one who engages in slander.

And you can think back just to the to the last command.

We were to speak truthfully to our neighbor for we're all

members of 1 body. We were to image Christ who is

the truth, not the slanderer who speaks lies.

I think that's why he calls him the devil here literally.

And he adds the, the article, the in from it in front of it.

It is the devil. It's the slanderer, the one who

speaks lies. It's the evil one himself.

And Jesus taught us that the devil in John 844 has nothing to

do with the truth because there is no truth in him.

He lies because he is the father of lies.

And so there is no room in the truth for error.

But there's a lot of room for error that got that backwards.

There's no room for error in the truth.

But as Satan likes to to convince us that there is much

room for truth and error, and he comes as a, as a looking like a

disciple or an Angel of light. And so remember that he's just

called us to truthfulness and to walk into the light and to image

Jesus. And you have to choose today

whom you are going to serve. Are you going to allow the

bitterness and the anger to dwell in you and be a son of

your father the devil? Or are you going to choose to

image the Lord of glory to control your anger and be used

as a force for good and a unifying presence in your

community? Again, the Proverbs instruct us

with skill and living. Proverbs 1429 Whoever is slow to

anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper

exalts folly. Proverbs 1518 A hot tempered man

stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.

In Proverbs 1911 good sense makes 1.

Slow to anger and it is His glory to overlook an offence.

So we're going to continue this. Paul's going to pick up on the

theme of anger again. But first he moves to 1/3

substitution. He moves and continues in verse

28 and he says generosity must replace stealing.

Read verse 28 with me. Let the thief no longer steal,

but rather let him labour doing honest work with his own hands

so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

The devil lies and deceives Christians.

Our heads hit the pillow at night knowing that we are

morally pure. I used to watch my grandpa

Ellen. He would every time he'd lay

down on the couch or lay down in bed, he would immediately fall

asleep. It was insane how fast this man

could fall asleep. And so one day I asked him,

Ellen, how do you go to sleep so fast?

And his words were Sun. I have a clear conscience.

So it's amazing the blessings that God brings when you're not

lying, when you're not bitter, when you're not angry, when

you're not deceiving, you can fall asleep.

It's a blessing. Your conscience is clear.

And stealing here is, you've probably heard it before.

Stealing is the word klepto. And it's not a robbery.

It's not just overt, you know, stealing from people.

It's, it's more private than that.

It's sneakier than that. This is this is secret stealing.

And we see it in our own. Context in a a number of ways.

We see labourers stealing from their employers.

We see employers stealing from their employees.

We see people stealing time. Probably most commonly we see

employers cheating their customers for profit.

The new year is coming, which means it's time for W twos and

1090 nines and K ones. It's going to be your annual

test of am I going to be honest with my government or am I going

to skirt the truth? And so I used to be involved

when I think of not stealing. I, I, I remember of, I used to

do non-emergency medical transportation and drive this

wheelchair van and had a route on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday

that started at 4:45 in the morning.

Praise God, those days are behind.

And there was a lady that I always, I would always pick up

first in the morning and I would always be picking her up as her

son would be coming in from a night's work.

He was a professional thief. And I remember getting to

overhear the conversations of this dad to his own son of, of

him just saying, how, how much longer, how much longer are you

going to live like this? How, how much longer you could

see that the shame that the, that the mom and the dad felt

for their own son. It's it's a shameful way to

live. He would burglarize his.

Homes and come in in the wee hours of the morning Paul and is

the opposite. He didn't even want to take a

salary from the church because he was so afraid that he they

would think that Christianity is trying to take something from

the world. Paul wanted you to understand

Christianity is a religion that gives and gives and gives and

even Jesus Christ again seats at the right hand of God the Father

so that he might give gifts to men.

We don't even want to give the appearance of lying and of

stealing. A thief steals.

Satan is a thief and he's a murderer and he comes to steal,

kill and destroy. But Christians, the Bible says

we are to lend without interest, lest there even be a hint of

immorality in US. And we are to give in generosity

and we are to give with cheerful hearts.

And that's why stealing is a huge issue, because you're

approaching the very religion and the very God that you're

professing. It's a, it's a violation of the

8th commandment. Do not steal. 2 words in the

original posted. No stealing.

Don't do it. And so Paul?

Adds a positive aspect to this. Our goal is not simply to take,

to not take other people's things, but following after our

Lord. We are to give, to go and give.

He says put on generosity and then he gives the reason.

He says go and work with your hands that you might share and

participate in new Kingdom life. Satan is going to to steal and

kill and to take, but you are going to give.

We share the fruit of our. Diligent labour.

We go and we have the what? What?

We preach all the time as a Protestant work ethic, we work

harder than everyone else in the world.

I love this church. You work harder than any church

I've ever seen, and you work hard so that you can fill

yourself with resources, so that you can give them to somebody

that did not labour for them. That's the call of the

Christian. We share the fruit of our labour

for those who did not labour. Proverbs 10 For a slack hand

causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. 1125

Whoever brings blessings will be enriched, and one who waters

himself will be watered. I wonder if that was in Isaiah's

mind. As he says, as you pour yourself

out for the vulnerable, Isaiah 58 he says You will be yourself

become a watered garden, a refreshment to other people, and

yourself refreshed by God. Proverbs 2125 The desire of the

sluggard kills him, for his hands refused to labour all day

long. He craves and craves, but the

righteous gives and does not hold back.

John Stott says powerfully. Only Christ can turn burglars

into benefactors for substitution.

Language of blessing must replace the language of cursing,

read verse 29. Let no corrupting talk.

Come out of your mouths, but only such is as good for

building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those

who hear. Let no corrupting talk.

The word corrupting is a colorful word.

It's a rare word in the ancient world or even in scripture.

The basic meaning is putrid or rotten.

If you look at its usage, it means or describes rotted wood,

diseased lungs, rancid fish, withered flowers, and rotten

fruit. So Clinton Arnold says what Paul

is doing with this image is he's creating a gag reflex in you for

the things that you should not say, to say these words that you

ought not to speak. He's he's saying they're,

they're meant to be repulsive. It's it's meant to gag you.

And the opposite of that is the word good.

It's the antonym to filthy. He says we are to speak

encouraging and helpful words. It's beautiful metaphors in

Colossians 46, beautiful language where he says let your

conversation always be full of grace and seasoned with salt.

He says let it be a ministry one to another.

So every word that comes out of your mouth, God says you have to

give an account for every careless word that you speak.

But he says that every word that comes out of your mouth is to be

wholesome, is to be marshalled for the purpose of of building

up believers. We lack enough in the church.

And Paul says it's your very words that can build up what is

lacking in other people and some of that need and the reason that

he gives that we replace foul language with the blessing

blessed language is is given. We're not just trying to not

harm other people. Again, the the point is not just

to not be angry and not lie and not steal and not harm, but he

says your speech is for grace. Your speech is.

Going to be used to manifest God's grace to other people in

the world. Your words are instruments.

And you can see the the. Power of a negative word is one

word of gossip comes into the church, it spreads and it

leavens the whole lump. And what you need to understand

as a Christian is it's the same with with powerful edifying

words. One word spoken in season can

equally and likewise build up a church and build up a community.

That's why Toby Mac says speak life.

We can turn to heart with the words we say.

Mountains crumble with every syllable and hope can live or

die. The application is so speak

life. Proverbs 12/18.

There's one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the

tongue of the wise brings healing.

Proverbs 154A. Gentle tongue is a tree of life,

but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Proverbs 1624. Gracious words are like the

honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

Finally, the 5th commandment brings up anger again. 5th

replacement taking off and putting on.

He says kindness must replace animosity.

Read these final words with me starting in verse 30.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God that was we

studied that at length in Isaiah 6363.

You can go back and and listen to those words again.

He says, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be

put away from you along with all malice.

Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another

as God in Christ forgave you. And you're going to see in this

even this small section within a section of a progression that

starts in the the disposition of your heart where he says your

anger and your bitter and it moves to turns up the heat and

he says now there's anger and wrath that is within you and it

moves to clamour. What, what's internal comes

external, and then it moves to to words that are harmful

against your brothers and your sisters.

And the vice begins here with bitterness.

There's bitterness in your heart.

The word is picria, a state of being bitter.

It has to do with the feelings and the mood.

You're in a bad mood. You're in a bitter mood, and as

you dwell here and you allow the sun to go down on your anger,

here then comes the power of this Greek construction that

we've already seen. There's the word pass or all,

and he adds A substantive after it, which means all sorts of or

every form of, every kind of anger, every kind of clamour,

every kind of wrath, every kind of bitterness.

Put it away. There's no room for this in the

Christian life and there's no room for it in your heart

because from it come. Here's 2 words that get used all

the time together in the ancient world, in an ancient literature,

they mean the same thing. Anger and wrath.

Wrath being a state of intense displeasure and anger, strong

displeasure. And as you allow this to, to

dwell in your heart, next comes clamor.

Because out of the abundance of the heart, what happens?

The mouth speaks. When you open your mouth, the

only thing that comes out is what's already inside of you,

and if you have anger and bitterness in your heart, your

mouth will open and out will come clamour.

It means angry and abusive speech.

It means crying aloud and screaming and shouting.

And Paul says there's no place. For this among God's people,

there's no place for this in your marriages.

There's certainly no place for that in the local church.

And you can see Jesus is the king of Salem.

That's his title. It means the king of peace.

We just came out of the Christmas season reading Isaiah.

He's the Prince of Peace and the vice list ends with the word

literally. The word blasphemia means

slanderer. Remember what Devil means.

He is the slanderer. We do not follow after Satan.

He is not our father. No defamation and abuse of

speech. That's what blasphemia means.

And so harsh words can. Inflict incredible damage and.

According to God's word. Without without ever being

touched physically by another person, all of this, all of this

feelings can can come. You can produce in another

person with your words, a broken spirit.

Job 17 one Psalm 51. You can create in another person

a crushed spirit, a sad heart for Samuel 1/8 Pain of heart

Isaiah 65 a broken heart or anguish of heart 2nd Corinthians

2 four. You can do this with abusive

speech without ever laying hands on somebody else.

And there are those who will tell you who have been

emotionally and verbally abused. I would rather have experienced

physical punches than this. So we put this out of your.

Homes, you keep this out of your church, your pet, in your life

after Jesus Christ, who was gentle and lowly in heart.

Who was long? Suffering the words macrothumia,

it literally means long tempered, slow to anger and

abounding in steadfast love. And you can think back, go back

to Ephesians 211 and remember where you were and remember what

Christ has done for you, the grace, the the adoption, the

inheritance, that you're an heir.

And consider how he's dealt with you.

And then ask this question, why are you angry?

Why are you so angry? Why do you steal when God has

given you everything and abundantly more than all you can

ask or imagine, He says, consider the Sparrow and

consider all of these things. You, you have need of nothing.

He will provide every need for you.

Why do you steal? Why do you lie?

When you serve the God of. Truth.

Who deals honestly with you? Put off these things.

And then Paul adds here we don't just take it off, he says and

put off. Put on kindness.

Verse 32, Be kind to one another, be tender hearted.

Forgive one another as Christ forgave you or as God and Christ

forgave you. Deal with other people the way

that Christ has dealt with you. He dealt with you graciously,

forgiving when others fail because Christ has forgiven you

when you failed. And I want to read this parable

to you and let this parable wash over you.

This was Jesus in Matthew 1821 to 35, the parable that he

wrote, the unforgiving servant. Jesus said therefore the

Kingdom. Of heaven may be compared to a

king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.

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 that

he had, and for payment to be made.

So the servant fell on his knees imploring him, Have patience

with me, and I will pay you everything.

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, he 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. He refused and went and put him

into prison until he should pay the debt.

When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were

greatly distressed, and they went and reported their master

all that had taken place. And his master summoned him and

said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all the debt

because you pleaded with me. And should not, should you not

have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?

And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers

until he should pay all his debt.

So also, my Heavenly Father will do to everyone of you, if you do

not forgive your brother from your heart.

So ask of. Your own soul.

What atmosphere enters with you when you enter into a room?

Are those around you? Are they cursed because of your

presence, or are they in dread, blessed because of your

presence? Do they dread your presence, or

are they glad that you're there? Are they guarded?

When you walk in or are they hopeful?

Are they defensive or do they come alive?

Because here are the social. Virtues that are meant to, we

are meant to embody. These are the social virtues

that build and guard the integrity of this fellowship, He

says truth must replace falsehood, righteous anger must

replace controlling anger, generosity must replace

stealing, the language of blessing must replace the

language of cursing, and kindness must replace animosity.

And then here, all of the results that Paul has brought up

to this point, he says, And if you do that, you will be

unified. We'll be 1 member of 1 body, one

with another. And through our work ethic and

through our productivity, we will all have something to share

with those in need. And we build one another up and

we give grace to all who hear us.

We are full of the Holy Spirit and the church is blessed.

And this is not a sermon that says go and do better.

This is a sermon that says that where I want to say to you, you

are living these things. The Holy Spirit is here and he

is, he's working these things in our congregation.

I, I see you and I see you building one another up.

And I see the Spirit moving because our work ethic is like

nothing I've ever seen. I've never seen people who work

as hard as Heritage Church. And I'm, I'm grateful to be a

part of it. And we have fought to preserve

the unity that the Holy Spirit has brought here.

And with that. I want to invite the deacons to

come forward because this blood bought, Holy Spirit given and

preserved unity is why we take the Lord's Supper every month.

And so I want to pray for us deacons.

If you want to prepare the elements and begin to pass those

out, I want to pray for you. And you remember this unity that

we have and remember these replacements.

If there's any point that you need to to put something else

off or put something on. Replace a vice with a virtue.

Ask the Lord for His help to do that this morning.

Thanks for listening. To learn more about Heritage

Church or if you'd like to respond to this sermon, visit

our website at www.heritageshawnee.org.