Living Holy Lives

When I was at university, I was in a hall with about ten or twelve bedrooms and we were amongst

! some other halls as well, similar size, and we got a real community between us. We were

! all on different courses, we had sports, science, physiology, related arts, all sorts,

but somehow we formed this great sense of friendship and we would do a lot together,

we'd support each other from the highs and lows of university life and relationships starting and

failing and it just was a really kind of harmonious group and one of the group was less integrated.

His friends were elsewhere and he'd usually be away and not so much around with us as a little

community. And one time he went out and he left his music on with his massive stereo pumping out at

really high volume so none of us could sleep. So I broke into his room and turned it off and we went

to sleep and said the next day, hey can you not do that? It's a bit irritating. So he did it again.

So I broke into his room and stole the fuses out of his stereo. And so we had about five days of quiet

until he worked out what was wrong and got some new fuses. And he did it again and wasn't back until

you know very very late in the morning and we couldn't get into his room or you know he had another

key or something. So what we did the next time was we broke in when he was out and we removed his whole

room. We put it on the roof. And now all credit to him is that when we came out in the morning we got

up to go to lectures he was in bed on the roof which I thought was pretty impressive. Which is better than

a friend who had a friend whose story was this that at university in Birmingham I think it's Aston

there's a bit of a tower block quite a few floors a few stories. And when one of their friends came

back incredibly drunk that they decided to put him in a room on the ground floor when his room is on

the sixth floor put some of his things around him and in the morning rushed in woke him up when he was

confused and threw him out the window. That's quite a prank. Anyway so we had this community and it was a

really key part of our time through those four years of college. And there's something of that story here

in Ephesians about community and the importance of community and being the body of Christ together.

So it's a book widely viewed to be the apostle Paul writing to the church in Ephesus and this is once a

Greek colony but now the capital of Rome in the region of Asia. And it's often thought to be sometimes

described as the gospel of the church. It's a almost an intercessory book and there's an incredibly high

view of what it means to be church to be the body of Christ. And essentially there are four themes

throughout the book. One, a new life in relationship with Jesus Christ. A new community as those together

as the body of Christ, the church. A new way of living and behaving that's really required

an expression of being the body of Christ as you heard Catherine just reading. And a new relation that's

in harmony with God and is hostile to the devil. And we're going to look through those first three.

An encounter with Jesus. What does it mean to be community? And what does it mean to then have the

fruit of the spirit in our lives? Now I've read a paper in which there's a theme of people who have

coronary heart disease, have had a heart bypass operation, who are then told by the medics,

if you don't change your lifestyle, you will be dead certainly within five years and probably two.

But if you can change your lifestyle, you could live for 10 years or longer, certainly over five.

So if you were told this by your medic, do you think you'll change?

Yeah, we think we would. However, it turns out that this particular paper written by the CEO of John

Hopkins University and the Dean of the medical school said one of their biggest challenges was

90% of people don't change. The threat of death is not enough to change behavior.

So here in this reading today, we have quite a lot of do not, do this, you must.

And the issue is, being told this doesn't really tend to change our behavior.

And the psychology of this is that most of our behavior is driven unconsciously,

really established by patterns from the early years of our life that become unconscious,

unconscious, like an unconscious operating model that just spins. And so it's not enough to say,

do this or don't do that. More must be required if we're actually going to change our behavior,

not just a list of instructions. It's very hard to move away from don't do this,

from a set of behaviors, unless we know what we're moving towards.

And there's a really helpful psychological pattern, which is understanding the routines and some of

these unconscious drivers of our behavior. One of these is called away from or towards. And we are

at different places on that continuum, depending on the early years. If we're a towards person,

we really know what we want and we go after it in a very focused way. If we're an away from,

we typically try and avoid and create circumstances that that doesn't happen. You'll notice it in

marketing. The marketing for sports car is adventure, passion, beauty, drama, thrill, adventure,

and it costs you a lot. But you don't worry about the money because you're going to get this

incredible experience. Marketing for a Kia car is away from, typically, seven-year warranty,

all service included in the price. And so which one appeals to you more might be a reflection

of that meta program that's running for you. What I think this means for us is it's really

important to know what is it we're moving towards that might make it possible then to think about how

our behavior could flow out of that. And at the start of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul is writing about

what are we moving towards about life in Jesus Christ, in the acceptance of the love and grace of God,

and then the miracle of forgiveness and the capacity to be reconnected to the living God.

And we read this earlier in Ephesians. In 1.3, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

1.5, In love he predestined us to be adopted as sons and daughters through Christ Jesus.

1.7, In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. And the redemption here

really does mean the clearing of a debt. 1.13, And you were also included in Christ when you heard the

word of truth and the gospel of salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal,

the promised Holy Spirit. 1.18, I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened,

in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious

inheritance in the saints, and the incomparable great power for us who believe. And it goes on and on.

And we hear this incredible description of what is the towards, encounter with the living God.

grace, which means there's forgiveness for sin, and empowering and resourcing to the Holy Spirit to

live the kind of life that God is calling us to. In 2.22, and you too are being built together to

become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. I became a Christian when I was 18 and had a really

profound encounter with God. And then shortly after I was baptized in the church I became a Christian.

We did a sort of full immersion, like we do here in the old paddle pool at the front. And I remember

giving my story about having met with God and the sort of incredible miracle of knowing I could be

forgiven and experience the love of God in a very profound way daily. I shared this and then I was

baptized in the freezing cold water as it was. And then just afterwards, a friend of mine was there,

who was I think a solicitor at the time, stood up and said, I want to get baptized as well.

And he was in this very fine suit with quite expensive brogues. You look like a solicitor,

don't you, and dressed like that. Sorry, solicitors. Actually, I worked with quite a few

and they're a bit more casual now, I think. And so when we said, do you want to take your shoes off? No,

no, he said. I want all of me and every aspect of my life to go into that water and come out again

and to give it all to God. It's an incredible story of he just knew what he was moving towards,

an encounter with God, a sense of relationship, the experience of forgiveness and of life.

So if we have a sense of what we are being drawn towards, this incredible truth about knowing the

love and grace, life, forgiveness of God, then that's key to us beginning to think about,

well, how might my behavior reflect that? So let's think a bit about church community.

For the recipients of this letter in Ephesus, they would have given their lives to Jesus on the whole,

and then been baptized as well. And it was quite ceremonial. Often they would be given a white robe

after being baptized. And this letter is intended to remind them and encourage them as they start to

fall away from a way of life that reflects this encounter with Jesus. Actually, this is what you've

been called to. This is what it means to know the love and grace and forgiveness of God. And this is

what it means to be the community of Jesus in Ephesus. So if you go back to those who are facing heart

disease, surgery, and then being told if you change your lifestyle, you could live for much longer.

What medics started to do in the late 90s, early 2000s, was start to create little groups,

help groups of all the people who might have been through surgery or were trying to avoid surgery,

but needed to change their lifestyle, that have a shared purpose, that have shared content around

how to live your life and how to eat healthily, that have a little bit of support. And this profoundly

changed the results. Rather than 90% failing to change and dying prematurely, it went up to 80% to 90%

changed and lived a longer, healthier life. You can hear this description of the power of a community

with a shared purpose and focus, meeting together with intent. And there's a really strong description

here in Ephesians about being the body of Christ, about being the church, about being the society

of God and meeting together with shared purpose. And what that might mean in terms of being the hands

and feet of Jesus. We read it there as Catherine read, do not let any in the wholesome talk come out

of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs,

that it may be a benefit to 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, and anger, brawling and slander,

along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another. Forgive 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 for us as a fragrant offering

and sacrifice to God. There's a theme throughout the Bible of this, in Isaiah 35 8. And a highway will be

there, it will be called the way of holiness. It will be for those who walk on that way. And in Psalm 24

as well, the one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false

God. A story of in an encounter with God, then in community, actually a way of being, a fruit of that

needs to be evident. So with this sort of new status of not only meeting and encountering Jesus,

but then a new status of being the body of Christ, the church in a community requires some new standards

of behaviour. And there's a strong metaphor from Paul here, where he talks about taking off the old

and putting on the new, a bit like clothes. You can imagine you see prisoners in films often,

I don't know if they still do this in prisons, but wearing the prison clothing. And they come to the

end of their term and they're released, take off that clothing and put on their own clothes. There's

something here very powerful about dressing in the conduct, the way of being, the encounter with God,

that reflects the new life, not the old life.

An old friend of mine called Jim, I'm out of touch with him now, once he told me this story,

he said he had a cleaner. He's a wearlot with a pretty important corporate job. He said one of his

cleaner was actually a practicing witch. And he just prayed for her, wasn't particularly worried

about it. And one day she said to him, look, see all these books you've got there. He said,

oh, which books are those? These books about God, about Christian faith. Can I borrow one of those?

He said, yeah, sure. Help yourself.

A few weeks later, he happened to be at the house when she was there. And he said, oh,

how'd you get on? She said, oh yeah, really well. Thank you. And I've got it with me to give it back

to you. And actually, I prayed the prayer at the back of the book. He said, what was the prayer?

He said, well, I gave my life to Jesus. He said, that's fantastic. That's so good.

You'll never regret it, he said. And also, I'd really encourage you to maybe find in local church that

you can share this with. And you'll be in community to help you as you find this new

journey with knowing God. She said, yeah, I'll do that. Thank you.

Then she said, look, I've got all my old books on witchcraft, and I was wondering what to do with

them. I mean, I was thinking about maybe giving them to a friend or giving them to someone else.

He said, well, did they do you any good? She said, no, not really. He said, well, no point

giving them to anyone else then. She went, that's a good point. I wonder what I should do.

And he said, oh, maybe you could burn them. She went, do you know what?

That's exactly what I'll do. Paul describes this process of becoming a Christian as experiencing

being a new creation, and then receiving a new mind and a constant renewal of that mind.

So as we consider this challenge and encouragement in this book of Ephesians to

encounter the love of Jesus, a new relationship, to be in a new community where we are sharing together

and the new standard of behaviours that then reflect that love and grace of God.

God, I think we're helped by being really clear about what we're moving towards.

the grace of God, forgiveness, this experience of salvation, of knowing we are in a new chapter of our lives.

The old has gone and the new has come. We're into a new adventure, a new mystery to explore.

And Isaiah 64, 8 says, yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay. You are the potter. We are the work of your hand.

So my question for you is, do you know the love of Jesus in that way? Have you given your heart to God and asked God to be in your life?

Or do you need to re-engage with God and reconnect at a deeper level?

If so, what will you do about it?

And when will you do it? So time just doesn't slip by.

The second insight here is that we are helped by being in a community. We're called to be the body of Christ, the hands and feet of God in our community with a shared culture, with encouragement, with support, with empathy, with grace for each other.

We read in Acts 2, 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

All the believers were together and had everything in common.

Not that we create some holy huddle. This is just for ourselves.

But actually we strengthen each other to be an expression of God's love to those around us, our neighbours and those in Clevedon.

Those who don't yet know the love of God.

So my question for you is,

how could you be more a part of this community?

through your home group?

By investing in your relationships?

By taking time to pray together?

To meet up?

To support?

So what will you do?

And when will you do it?

So the time just doesn't slip by.

And third,

we're helped by being filled

and led by the Holy Spirit,

the presence of God

on earth with us.

Throughout our series,

from September to November,

we explored

what does it mean to be filled,

equipped,

and enabled by

the tangible presence and love of God

with us.

To become a temple

in which the Holy Spirit lives.

In Acts 1,

we read Jesus' last words

to his disciples.

Do not leave Jerusalem,

but wait for the gift

my Father has promised you,

which you have heard me speak about.

For John baptized with water,

but in a few days

you'll be baptized

with the Holy Spirit.

You'll receive power

when the Holy Spirit comes on you

and you will be my witnesses

in Jerusalem,

all Judea,

Samaria,

and Clevedon.

So have you been baptized

in the Holy Spirit?

Or have you recently

allowed the Spirit of God

to fill you afresh?

What will you do about that?

And when will you do it

so time just doesn't slip by?

Okay.

Now,

I don't do very well

being told what to do.

I'm pretty stubborn.

But actually,

as I think about this passage

and knowing what I'm being

drawn closer to,

this incredible description

in Ephesians

about what it means to know

the love of God,

forgiveness, grace,

involvement in our lives.

when I think about

actually I need you,

we need each other,

together we can encounter

more of God's love

and life

and truth

together.

As I think about

it's not

through my effort,

it's through grace

and through the Holy Spirit.

I feel like

maybe I could be

a bit holier.

Maybe I could be

more of a highway

for the Holy Spirit

to land.

And as

Paul wrote

in chapter 2,

for we are God's

workmanship

created in Christ Jesus

to do good works

which God has prepared

in advance

for us to do.

So let's just

pause and pray

in response to that.

Lord, we thank you

for the miracle

that as we give

our lives to you,

we are a new creation.

And that,

Holy Spirit,

you meet with us

and help us

spread off the old

and live in the new

in relationship

with you.

We thank you,

Lord,

that you designed us

to work in a community,

your body,

each of us together.

we thank you

that in you

we can start

to be more

of you

to our community.

We ask,

Lord,

that you would lead us,

stir us this week

to be a very tangible

expression to others.

We ask,

Holy Spirit,

you would lead us

and keep in our minds

what our response

might need to be

from what we've heard

in Ephesians today.

In your name,

Lord Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.