204 ~ SET APART ~ PART 4

Hi and welcome to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.

We are a local church based here in Chennai, India.

We are so glad you are with us and hope that this will

encourage, inspire and instill fresh faith in you.

We begin our new year with the theme for the year 2024, which

is set apart. We look at how each of us who

follow Jesus can live lives that are consecrated and separated

for Him, both privately and publicly, with His help and

leading. We pray that as you listen, you

would be challenged to live such a life of victory and peace.

Hello everybody. It is good to be back.

Feels like it's been a while, but I am grateful to be back and

sharing with you today. We are in the middle of our

series called Set Apart. That's our theme for this year

and that is the theme for the starting sermon series as well.

You would have heard Gershom and Tina share on this theme the

past couple of messages and today I am sharing about being

set apart by the Holy Spirit. So that is what the focus of our

message is today. I'm going to go ahead and say a

word of prayer, and then we will get on with it.

OK, Father. We thank you, as always, that we

can come to you. We come to you right now, Lord.

And I ask you, Lord, that you would give me the words to

speak. I know that people are hearing

and I want them to hear from you, Lord.

So I ask that you would give me the words to speak.

Give me the words to speak that are right, that are true, that

are meant for the people that are hearing me and hearing this

message, Lord. So, Father, we trust that you

will speak, Lord, that it is not anything that I have conjured

up, Lord, but it is something that is from you to your people.

So thank you for speaking to your people, and thank you for

giving me the words to speak. And Lord, as always, we

remember, Lord, the people around us, the people across

this world that are not able to gather as we are, that are not

able to be in community as we are Lord, because of the

situation they're in, because of governments and powers that are

under Lord that prevent them from gathering and worshipping

you, Lord. But we ask that you would change

the situations, that your Kingdom would continue to be

established in those areas, but then that you would bring a Time

Lord where people can gather in the safety and security in

peace, Lord, and that they can worship and praise you once

again. Lord, we trust that what do you

want will be spoken here and that this is from you to your

people. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. Yep.

So sticking with our team of being set apart, the focus today

is being set apart by the Holy Spirit to kind of talk on that

focus. The passage we're going to and

read today is Ephesians chapter 4, verse 17 all the way till

Ephesians 4:17

Ephesians 5, chapter 5, verse two.

So this is a passage for today. I will approach this passage in

three sections or three chunks, OK?

And then I will read each section and then we'll talk

about it and move on to the next one.

One thing to understand is through these verses, through

these sections, there is a sequence here.

Paul is like building an argument.

So the first part kind of deals with your old self, your old

life. The middle part kind of deals

with how you came to your new life, how you are no longer your

old, but you're new. And then the third section deals

with now that you're new, what now, right.

What does that mean to your current life?

That you're new. But I also want you guys to look

at these passages through the lens of our theme, which is set

apart. So the first section could be

what life was before we were set apart.

The middle section is we are set apart, we are called to be set

apart, and then we are set apart because we have we are in this

new life, therefore we are set apart.

And the third section can be looked as.

Now that we are set apart, what does that mean to us?

What does life look like now that we are set apart?

So this is the kind of lens through which we want to view

this passage, all with the lens of being set apart.

So I'm going to read the first section, verses 17, all the way

to 19. So I tell you this and insist on

it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do,

in the futility of their thinking.

They are darkened in their understanding and separated from

the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to

the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity,

they have given themselves over to the sensuality as to indulge

in every kind of impurity. And they are full of greed.

And the first thing I want to draw attention to is like Paul

or scripture is not giving us like this cheap Christian

advice. It's not something like this is

my opinion. You can take it or leave it

here. It's very clear that Paul is

giving us instructions. Scripture is giving us

instructions. Instructions that are not an

option where they take it or leave it.

Instructions that are to be followed, OK.

Instructions that when followed would lead to life.

So first thing to keep in mind, these are instructions being

given to us so that we can follow these instructions.

So, and as we look at the first section, we see that Paul

focuses a lot on thinking, right?

He talks about thinking in our old set before we set apart.

Our thinking was futile, right? Our thinking did not lead to

anything. Our thinking was darkened.

So all this was before we were set apart and as a result of

that darkened thinking or that futile thinking right?

All our actions was very self focused.

All our actions were to gratify our self.

All our actions were selfish in a sense.

So this futile thinking thinking that really leads to nothing,

beneficial thinking that has no end, right?

Futile meaning doing something without really any result.

So this useless thinking right kind of leads to actions that

are fully bent towards self, that are fully self focused,

self gratified right? And it is the way he ends it,

right in the NIV it says they were full of greed.

It kind of misses the mark a little bit, I think, to get a

better saying of what he really means, you can look at another

transition like ESV or most other transmissions kind of get

this. It talks about how it's not full

of greed per SE, but it's an attitude of greedily they

pursued impurity. So it is they pursued these

selfish actions with greed. Not that they were full of

greed. So like in our old self, in the

futility of our thinking, this was our state right?

The actions that we pursued were all to gratify our self and

then. But keep in mind this idea of

thinking right kind of stems from this futile thinking right

from our mind that is not renewed as we will see in the

next passage. So now this is verse 20 till 24.

That, however, is not the way you learned when you heard about

Christ and were 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, 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.

In this next section we kind of get like this, very emphatic,

very pronounced start from Paul. It kind of difficult to bring it

across in the English, but what I read is that the best way to

say it is like but you this is not how you learned Christ.

It's probably very emphatic way to look at it.

He is telling them, reminding them this is not how you

learned, as in the description he made of their old self is not

how they learn Christ. What they learn in Christ is

that you put on in yourself, your mind is renewed.

So and because of your mind is renewed, you put on your new

self. He's also probably trying to

remind them of the moment that they were set apart, as in when

they chose to follow Christ, as in when they heard the gospel

and accepted it and chose to follow Christ.

It's reminding them of that moment, the pivotal moment in

their life where they became set apart, where God set them apart.

Now, again, the focus on the mind, the mind being renewed,

right? The attitude of our minds, the

mind being renewed so that that affects the actions that come

after. Now we see the old self, or

before we are set apart and we see the act of us being set

apart, putting on our new self. So we are set apart now, and now

we move on to this section, kind of like, OK, we're set apart.

What now? They said this is verses 25 all

the way till chapter 5, verse two.

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak

truthfully to your neighbor. For we are all members of one

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

their own hands, that they may have something to share with

those. Indeed, 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 may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy

Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of

redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage,

anger, brawling, and slander, along with every form of malice.

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other

just as in Christ, God forgave you.

Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children and

walk in the way of love. Just as Christ loved us and gave

himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God,

Now that your mind is renewed, your actions are to change.

And so we're moving on to the actions right now.

Paul gives us a list of do's and don'ts here.

It seems like A and, but it's not an exhaustive list.

So this does not contain every single action that would set us

apart. It does have a good many of them

that we can judge our actions against us to see now what our

what a set up our life looks like.

But it's not an exhaustive list. Now also, again, these are

commands. These are instructions that we

are to follow, not opinions. And just because it's not

exhaustive doesn't mean that it's not binding or anything

like that. It is a list of commands that we

are to follow. A list of instructions that we

are to take heed, right, And that inform what our life that

is set apart looks like. So we start out with do not lie

and speak truthfully to your neighbour, right so.

Speaking truth to people in our community so this idea of

speaking truth and not lying is set in the context of our

community. Truth builds up.

Our community lies and deceit. They tear it down so.

Truth. Truth binds us together.

Lies divide us. So first thing is speak the

truth. Do not lie and we will add some

more clarity on to speaking the truth when we go and read verse

29 because they're connected. Next we move on to in your anger

do not sin right. So anger is an emotion that we

all experience that we all feel. Some of your translations may

say be angry and do not sin or sin not right.

When it says be angry, it is not a command to be angry.

It's not a command to stay in the state of anger all the time,

right? The in this case, when it says

in your anger, right, That's more the tone of this.

If you are or if you happen to be angry, do not sin.

Again, the focus here is really not on anger itself, but on sin.

Anger is an emotion that has a high tendency to lead to sinful

action. So it's not that you can't be

angry. Sure, we experience anger.

There are situations in our life that we experience anger, but we

are called to deal with that anger quickly and deal with it

in a way that does not lead to any kind of sinful action,

right? So deal with your anger and deal

with it in a way that you do not sin.

So the focus again is not on the anger per SE, but the focus is.

Anger has a tendency to lead to this, so be careful and deal

with it quickly. Now next one is very pretty much

straightforward, right? Do not steal work.

So acquire things the right way. Do not take something that

doesn't belong to you. If you want something, work for

it and acquire. So do not steal work, but also

in what you receive from your work.

Share with the people around you.

Share with those who need it. OK, now we come to verse 29.

I'm going to read it out again because it has some words that

are very useful for us. It says do not let any

unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, right, But only what

is helpful for building others up according to the needs that

it may benefit those who listen. OK, so there's a good list of

expectations here for our speech.

Our speech is supposed to be wholesome for building up, not

for tearing down to benefit the hearer.

Right. Full of grace based on their

needs. Timely right?

These are other words that some of your translations might be

using. Right?

So speaking to somebody else, right, Is for building them up,

right? So in this case, when we talk

about speaking truth, right? Speaking truth is not this free

licence to speak whatever you think is true.

As in, let me give you a silly example, but it can be true.

I find my neighbour annoying. To me it's true that I find him

annoying, so I'm going to tell him that he's annoying.

That is not the idea of speaking the truth that we have, right?

So it is not that and wholesome and for building up doesn't also

mean that we hold back things that should be set, truth that

needs to be spoken. It is prayerfully and with

discernment, finding the best finding or being LED to share

things in the right way, share things in a way that the hearer

can listen so that it can lead to building up.

Right. So we get a good example when

Jesus is talking to the Samaritan woman, right?

She gets some water and then she says I have no husband.

But he reminds her, no, that's right, you haven't.

It's not that you have no husband, it's you have 5, right?

He spoke the truth, but you're not in a demeaning way, right?

He did speak the truth, but it was fully out of love, right?

And when he spoke the truth, the response, right, it built her

up. And many around her came to know

that who he was, they were exposed to the truth because of

the truth that he shared with her and the way in which he

shared, she was open to it and built her up, and it brought

people around her to Christ. So this is not to say again that

we can say whatever we think is true and just get it out or we

hold back when we do need to speak, right?

It is prayerfully considering how to speak truth to someone so

that when they hear it, it is for building and not for tearing

down, so that when they hear it, it is grace in their lives,

right? It is wholesome for them.

And so that's kind of how we want to view speech in our

Christian community. And also when we speak truth,

how we want to view that. Now Next up is verse 30.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Praise the seal for the day of

redemption. I will come to this at the very

end. OK, so I'll circle back to Do

not grieve the Holy Spirit. The next one is get rid of all

bitterness, rage and anger and brawling and slander along with

every kind of malice. You know, many of these things,

if you think about it, are results of anger, right?

When we are angry and it goes unchecked, that can be

bitterness, that can be rage, that can be brawling, That can

be slander, right? And many of these, in terms of

anger also have to do with our speech or our uncontrolled

speech. Speaking things do hurt.

So these said things that we are not to be part of, these are

things that are not part of our life that is set apart.

So and again here you see anger is under the thing of get rid

of. So again, it is not something we

try and hold on to, right? If you're angry, that's OK, but

it's something that we are working to get rid of it, for it

to not be a constant part of our life.

So these things that mentioned here do not belong in this life

that is set apart. Now after these lists of kind of

like do nots, we move on to very important lists of dues, right.

And the main things that I mentioned that we do need to do

is we need to be kind and compassionate, we need to

forgive others and we need to walk in sacrificial love, right.

If if we focus on the dues, many times the don'ts kind of just

line up and kind of go out the door when we are kindly,

compassionate right? Is can.

When we are angry, will that lead to sinful action?

Very unlikely, right? When we forgive, can we hold on

to bitterness and rage? No.

When we walk in sacrificial love, can we still continue

holding on to these things? And not likely.

So the do's here really do kind of take care of the don'ts if.

We live out these things of being kind and compassionate, of

of sacramential love, of forgiving others.

So now I kind of want to draw attention to a couple things,

right? When you look at verse 24 and

you look at the end of verse 2, they're like bookends.

OK, Verse 24 kind of ends with like God be like God in holiness

and righteousness, right? So it's this idea of being like

God. And then verse two ends with

loving like Jesus or being like Jesus.

So between this, both kind of sandwiched between these

thoughts of like God and like Jesus, we have these lists of

things that are expected of us, these commands that we have,

things that we are to do, things that we are to do right.

The only reason we can do this is because we have this new

life. The only reason we can do this

is because we are truly set apart now.

Set apart as in we are no longer separated from God, we are in

God, and in God we have been set apart and so we can do this.

So now going back to our study, it says do not grieve the Holy

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

The only reason we can do this is because we have the Holy

Spirit. He is in US, right?

We are changed by Him. We are set apart by Him.

We are sealed by Him, so he So this life of being set apart is

only possible because of the Holy Spirit, because He has

sealed us for the day of reduction, and because He gives

us the strength and the power to live out this new life, living

out this new life, constantly making sure that we're putting

off our old and putting on our new.

It's probably frankly, impossible without the power of

the Holy Spirit, right? So him being in US is the force

is the power that is necessary in our life so that we truly can

live this life that is set apart.

OK, now this idea of grieving the Holy Spirit, right?

So even though we are part of this new life that is set apart,

we choose to act in ways that are lining up with our old self

and not our new self. And when we act in ways that are

aligned with our old self, right, it grieves the Holy

Spirit. There is a response from the

Holy Spirit when we take part in actions that are all about our

old self and have nothing to do with our new self.

This, this grief, right? It really should be viewed

seriously. It is this deep sorrow.

It is almost like this mourning, right?

It is he feels grief. He experiences grief as a result

of our actions. So he is.

Thing is, you can only experience grief when you're

like in relationships. So there's just he's in

relationship with us. He is ever present.

He lives in US. He sees everything, He knows all

things. And as he's in relationship with

us and he's in us, when we take part in these things, right when

we give into the desires of our old life and not our new life,

he is grieved. It's it is really sobering to

think that our actions can get this response from him.

Whenever our actions don't line up with his desire for our lives

to be righteous and holy. There is this response, right?

I think we really have to focus on the part that he is so

relational, right? He is so relational with us that

what we do elicits a response from him, right?

It is this. I almost think that it hurts him

when he sees us do things that don't line up right with our

life of being set apart by him. Now I can only imagine the

constant state of grief. The Holy Spirit is probably in

looking at my life, right? The things that I choose to do,

the things that I choose to think about, the motives and

attitudes towards certain things right?

All of those things. He must constantly be in a state

of grief. However, that grief doesn't keep

him from being with me, so I find consolation in that as

well. We go through life right making

choices so that we prevent other people from being hurt.

We make, we intensely make choices so that we don't hurt

other people or that other people can avoid grief.

So be it. Our spouses, our children, our

parents, our friends, our bosses, our Co workers, whoever

it may be. We intentionally make choices so

that we prevent them from getting hurt by our actions.

So if we can do that with our important human relationships,

shouldn't the Holy Spirit be on the top of that list?

That we make sure that the actions that we take part in do

not grieve him, do not hurt, do not fill him with sorrow.

So I think just like we gauge our actions around other people,

it's time to think about the Holy Spirit, that we engage our

actions based on what pleases him and what grieves him.

Now the reason we're talking about this in the context of

being set apart is it is really not our labels that clearly set

us apart, but it is our actions that clearly set us apart in

this world, right? We have the label of Christian,

right? And that can set us apart

somewhat. But with our label of Christian,

if our actions are lining up more with the world around us

rather than with Christian faith, that's really not being

set apart. It is our actions that really

set us apart. It is when the world does one

thing and we choose to do something different that sets

its apart. When the world lines up its

actions with its values. But we say no, we're going to

line up our actions with our values as Christians.

That is where we are set apart. So it is our actions that set us

apart. So if it is our actions that set

us apart, so when we engage in actions that do not line up with

being set apart, they do not line up with the desires the

Holy Spirit has for us. Do not line up with our

Christian values. We have to ask the question,

why? Because we've seen in the first

two sections, right? Our thinking is heavily tied

with our actions, right? Our actions stem from our

thinking, the futile thinking or renewed thinking, right?

So our actions stem from our thinking.

So when we find ourselves engaging in actions that grieve

the Holy Spirit, we need to ask the question, why did I do that?

What was the reason I did that? And then kind of figure out if

the thinking was futile thinking or if it was renewed.

But I'm guessing most of the time, not most of the time.

Sorry. All the time.

Things that grieve the Holy Spirit kind of stem from our

futile thinking. So I'll kind of give you an

example of what I mean and I hope this will make things clear

for you. A couple months ago I was at

work and it was a period that I did not have a class or I wasn't

talking to anyone at that point and have an appointment, so it

was time to. It is meant for work at school.

However, I chose to work on the sermon right And then a few

minutes into working on the sermon, I knew what I did.

I knew what I was doing was not right, but I chose to do it.

So few minutes into working and I asked myself, I know this is

not right, but why am I doing this right then?

The reason I came up with this I don't think I have enough time

to finish it. So I need to spend this time

finishing it. And after I had, I kind of

pondered the reason I had this thought in my head.

And I really believed this was the Holy Spirit speaking to me.

And the thought was, do you not trust me?

And do you not trust me enough with your time?

Do you not trust me to provide you with time?

And that really gripped me. At that moment, of course I

stopped working. I didn't go back to the sermon.

I worked on work stuff after that.

But that idea of my action, right?

Even though I seemed like I had a good reason for it, I would

just. I don't know if I have enough

time. I was willing to step out of my

value of integrity and do something I knew was not right.

I chose to steal time from work, to do something that I wanted,

but then find the root is that I simply did not want to or choose

to trust God that he would provide me with time or he would

help me accomplish what he has called me to do.

He would help me finish that sermon.

So this is kind of what I want to leave you guys with today,

right? If you reflect and think of the

times you you did something you knew was not right.

You did something that you knew clearly did not line up with our

values of our Christian faith. Right?

Did something clearly that grieved the Holy Spirit.

We kind of have to ask ourselves the reason, right?

What thinking, what pattern of thinking, led to this action?

And then you kind of have to find where that pattern of

thinking, that reason intersects our trust in God.

Like like me, for example. I felt that I didn't have time.

So in terms of trusting God, I didn't trust that God would

provide me with enough time to do what I needed to do.

If your reason is I did this because I'm lonely, then the

question is do you trust God enough to provide you with

companionship when you're lonely, or that he is your

companion? If you are lonely, right?

If your reason is I'm not satisfied with something, then

do you trust God enough to satisfy you or do you not trust

him to satisfy you? So once we have able to identify

these areas right, where trusting God is difficult, then

we invite the Holy Spirit into these areas so we He can help us

trust Him and he can help us change the way that we think.

So He can start this process of renewing our minds so that we're

not caught in the same patterns anymore, so that we're not

caught up in the same things anymore.

So the goal here is not behaviour modification.

OK, it's not. Jan is saying something.

I kind of try it out for a couple of days and then move on,

right? That being set apart is way

beyond just behaviour modification, right?

That might work for a week or two, but in the long run being

set apart is about transformation.

It's more than just behaviour modification, it is about

transformation, right? It's a constant work of thinking

through why we do things that grieve the Holy Spirit and then

inviting him into that space, right?

And then asking him to help us trust God and asking him to

renew our mind, renew, transform the way we think so that we are

no longer trapped in those old patterns of thinking so that we

can truly see change in our actions.

So I think this is where that we can start.

One is understanding that being set apart, for many of us, when

we came to Christ, there was a singular event where we chose to

be set apart. But living this set apart, life

is a continual daily thing that is continually transforming us,

right? So it is a process, It is our

journey. But we are to intentionally take

part in this, right? Just because it's a process or

something that's long term doesn't mean it gets neglected,

right? Our actions warrant our

attention because they are important.

They are part of our life that is set apart.

So I think this is kind of how we should start one.

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you ways in which you have

grieved him. So start out by asking the Holy

Spirit to reveal to you in reveal to you ways in which you

agreed them. I assure you, He surely will

reveal to you the ways in which you agreed them.

And when those things come to light, the first step is

repenting, right? Anything that's going to grieve

him is sinful. So we want to start out with

repentance. We repent for those sinful

actions. We repent for those sins, right?

And once we repent, we reflect on why did we do it, what did we

do and why did we do it. We find out that risk.

And then we invite the Holy Spirit into that space, right,

so that in areas where we are lacking trust, he will help us

to build trust and he will renew our mind to think of these

things in a different way, so that they're no longer the

patterns that we've seen before. So it is a continual

transformation from our old self to our new self, continually

putting off the old, putting on the new right, continually

choosing to be set apart. And we are able to do this

because we have the Holy Spirit. We're able to do this because He

sets us apart. We're able to do this, that even

though our actions grieve him, He stays.

He does not leave our side and he is faithful to continue to

help us, to transform us into living a more, into living a

life that is more and more set apart each day.

So as we end, I invite you to start a conversation with the

Holy Spirit. Ask him and ask him how have you

grieved him? Start the conversation, right

Repent, and then reflect and see how you can invite him into that

space so that he can truly transform us, that he can truly

transform you. So I'm going to go ahead and end

with the word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you

for this time. We thank you that your spirit

lives in US, and it's the power in us to live a life that is set

up hard. For we know and we believe that

our actions are of utmost importance to you, to the point

that our actions, when they do not line up with you, Lord, that

they grieve your spirit. Lord, we no longer want to

grieve your spirit, Lord. Lord, if our hearts are hardened

and we are not moved by the fact that we grieve the Holy Spirit,

Lord, soften our hearts, have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on

us, and soften our hearts. Lord, we want our hearts to be

softened so that we are moved when we grieve your spirit.

Lord, we don't want to be indifferent, Lord, when we

grieve your spirit, but we want to be moved as well.

Lord, when your spirit is filled with grief because of something

that we have done, so right now we ask, Lord, that you soften

us. That is something only you can

do, Lord, soften our heart and hearse so that we are moved when

your spirit is believed by us. And Lord, help us to be open and

vulnerable with your spirit so that we are open to Him,

renewing our minds, transforming our thinking work so that we no

longer are taking part in these patterns that we used to, but

that we are truly living a lifeblood and in our actions

that is truly set apart by you and for you.

Lord, we love you. We thank You for the mercy that

You have shown us. We ask that again.

Be gracious to us, be merciful to us and soften our hearts.

We want to feel when your spirit is grieved.

We want to know that when we have grieved, we love you.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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