Ephesians: Thoroughly Converted (How do we change?)

Alright.

Well, if you don't know me, my name is Ephraim, and I'm gonna read the scripture this morning.

We will be in Ephesians four seventeen through five twenty, so bear with me.

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, and 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 sensuality, so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

That, however, is not the way of life 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.

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 in need.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it 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 and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in cr just as in Christ God forgave you.

Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly love 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.

But among you there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people, nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking, which are out of place but rather thanksgiving.

For of this you can be sure, no immoral, impure, or greedy person, such a person is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Let no one deceive you because let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient.

Therefore do not be partners with them.

For you were once darkness, but now you are a light in the Lord.

Live as children of the light, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, and find out what pleases the Lord.

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.

But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.

This is why it is said, Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

Be very careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.

Instead be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs for the Spirit.

Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the word of the Lord.

You guys excited to study the Word of God?

Let's go, my kind of people.

You know, this uh this passage that we just read, that Ephraim so beautifully read, can we give it up for Ephraim?

Just read the whole Bible to you.

Yeah, this passage that we just read, the words that you just heard written by a man whose life actually transformed human history.

Like, transformed human history.

You know, the conversion of the Apostle Paul is one of the most significant moments in all of recorded human history.

Like, literally, the landscape of human history, landscape of the nations, were changed because of this man's conversion.

His life, his writings, his theology would go on to shape the future of the church and much of the Western civilization.

He obviously wrote a majority of the New Testament.

And what's most inspired, most awe-inspiring about Paul isn't just who he became and the impact that he made, but it's who he used to be, right?

If you know anything about the Apostle Paul's story, Paul was raised among the religious elite.

He was a Pharisee who despised Jesus and all who followed him.

He was literally trained and formed to despise anything that would go against the cultural and religious norm of the Jewish expectation, the status quo.

So he was raised to despise and oppose anything that would go against it.

And Paul grew up to be someone who was violently opposed to the way of Jesus.

The scriptures say that he breathed threats and was committed to killing the movement and all those who were part of it.

And the first time we actually meet Paul is earlier in the book of Acts when he oversees the stoning, the murder of Stephen, a servant of the local church.

So what happened to Paul?

What happened to this guy?

Like, I would, if I could ask Paul anything, if I could get face to face with him across the table, I would go, man, what happened on the inside of you that changed you from a violent Pharisee into this compelling disciple of Jesus?

You know, I think, I think for many of us, we've seen people slightly change behavior.

We've seen people have really good New Year's resolutions, we've seen people lose weight, we've seen people have have changes of habits that make them a little bit different as a person.

But but what is it that could absolutely change the internal nature of a person, completely transform the trajectory and the purpose of their life?

What is that that happened?

You know, looking at him, I'd be like, man, I've heard about your life.

I've read the words, but what actually happened on the inside of you?

You know, when we see the conversion of Paul, we know Paul was on his way once again to continue to persecute the church, to continue killing and opposing people of the way of Jesus, to continue to arrest people, to continue to invade homes and villages, breathing out threats against the church until he encounters the living Jesus.

But he does, it's not just that he encounters Jesus, it's not just that he sees him, it's not just that he meets him.

Something transforms on the inside of Paul, and in a matter of months, in a matter of years, his entire, his entire purpose and trajectory of life completely changes.

You've seen people maybe go to church and they stop cussing or they maybe get a little nicer.

The nature of Paul changed.

He became a completely different person.

So how did it happen?

I think a way to describe Paul would be that he was thoroughly, thoroughly converted.

Thoroughly converted.

He wasn't just partially converted.

He wasn't just partially changed.

He didn't just have a slight shift.

Paul was thoroughly converted.

The idea of conversion simply means that it literally changes the nature or the purpose or the intentionality of something so that they exist for a completely different purpose.

And this is what happened to Paul.

And it didn't just happen to him a little bit, it didn't just gradually happen.

It suddenly and dramatically and drastically happened.

He was thoroughly converted to be changed and made suitable for a new purpose.

You know, there's a quote by Walter Hooper.

He was C.

S.

Lewis's private secretary.

And he said these words when he was asked shortly after C.

S.

Lewis's death about the impact that C.S.

Lewis had made on his life and what was going to stick around with him as far as the legacy that Lewis left on him.

And he said, C.

S.

Lewis struck me as the most thoroughly converted man I ever met.

Christianity was never for him a separate department of life.

His whole vision of life was such that the natural and supernatural seemed inseparably combined.

Thoroughly converted.

What a legacy.

What a vision.

I want this.

I want this.

Walter Hooper was someone who saw C.S.

Lewis every single day.

Spent more time with him, likely than anyone else in the world.

And the legacy that C.S.

Lewis left on the person that saw him and encountered him the most in his life was that C.S.

Lewis wasn't a performer on a stage.

He wasn't someone whose writing or authorship was disconnected from the reality of his heart and of his life.

He said that C.

S.

Lewis was the most changed person, the most thoroughly converted person he had ever known.

You know, my wife loves me more than anyone else, I think, in the world.

And I don't think that she would describe me this way yet.

Like if I'm honest.

I think that there's aspects of my life and of my heart that still have so far to go.

I don't know that the people closest to me would say, despite my profession, despite what I get to do, despite what I spend my time doing, that they would say that Blake is the most thoroughly changed, most thoroughly converted, most deeply transformed person I've ever encountered, I've ever known.

But I want that to be my reputation.

I want that to be what the people who are closest to me and love me most think about me and say about me.

I want this to be my legacy.

I don't want to be one man up here talking to you and another man at home with my wife and son.

I don't want to be one man here on Sunday and another man on Monday.

I don't want to be one man when I'm surrounded in public and a different man when I'm alone in private.

I want to be thoroughly converted.

I want to be deeply changed.

I want to be such that my story, my purpose, the internal reality of my life and the external overflow of my life are completely changed and transformed and shift the trajectory of my life and the future generations of my family and hopefully a community and people around me.

And this is what's happened to Paul.

This kind of change, this kind of transformation, this is what's happened to Paul.

And this is what Paul desires for the Ephesian Christians that he's writing to in these Ephesian churches.

And this is ultimately what God desires for you.

But the reality is very few people ever see this realized.

Many people are content to experience a shallow form of quote unquote conversion that might be enough to separate them slightly from the world, but actually isn't enough to carry the power of the Holy Spirit or to lay hold of the inheritance Christ died for them to have.

They're content to give up the best of the world and the best of God, counting no cost, running no race, experiencing no freedom, having no power, making no impact, receiving no inheritance, and leaving no legacy.

And Paul is saying, I don't want that for you.

I don't want that for you, Ephesians.

And today God is looking at us and saying, I don't want that for you.

I don't want that for you, Kingdom City Church.

I don't want that for you.

I don't want that for your family.

I don't want that for the future trajectory of your generations.

I don't want that for your community or your series or your city.

I want you to be thoroughly converted, to be deeply transformed, to be deeply changed.

You know, as Paul to kind of backtrack on Ephesians and kind of what we've been tracking through is in Acts chapter 19, we see, we see Paul go on his third missionary journey and he makes a stop in Ephesus.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And he had stopped there very briefly before, but actually done really no deep ministry there.

And now Paul stays for multiple years.

It's the longest that he had stayed in any one place ever in Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And the reason he stays is because God does something supernatural in this community.

That Paul shows up and he begins to share the gospel with people who knew about Jesus but had not yet transformed or started following Jesus.

He shares the gospel with them.

It says that a group of people became disciples of Jesus and started and started listening under underneath the discipleship and tutelage of the Apostle Paul.

And then Paul starts a discipleship school in the Hall of Tyranus.

You can still visit Ephesus, modern-day Turkey, and see the ruins of the Hall of Tyrannis, where Paul started this discipleship school.

And he took a small group of men and over the course of two years multiplied these disciples until all of the region had been reached with the gospel.

And now the churches that have been birthed out of this discipleship movement, he's now writing this letter to as a father, as a spiritual father, to say, hey, I want to remind you of the calling of the Christian life.

I want to remind you of the life that Christ calls us to, of what's actually happened in you and now the transformation that is meant to occur in you.

And once again, Paul is not writing as a salesman, he's writing as a satisfied customer.

He's writing as someone who is evidence of what he's of what he's communicating to these people can happen and should happen in their lives.

So when Paul is writing about taking off the old man and putting on the new man, when he's talking about getting out of an old life and starting to live a new life, Paul isn't a hypocrite speaking about something that he hasn't yet experienced.

He's saying the Spirit of God can actually do this in your life, and this is the way you are meant to walk.

And so as we read this, we have to remember that we're reading human history.

We're reading someone who has actually experienced this.

We're reading someone who actually planted these churches and made these disciples and is now passing on to us the same information and the same opportunity to be changed in the same deep ways.

You know, as Paul is writing this letter, you can see that he's concerned about a few things as he's writing to the Ephesian church.

The first thing that I think that we notice in these letters is that Paul's concerned about the potential for compromise.

That Paul is afraid that people are gonna compromise on their faith and on their relationship with Jesus.

And when we talk about compromise, I mean, the literally the definition of compromise is an agreement or settlement reached by making concessions.

Right?

People may encourage this in premarital counseling that sometimes you're gonna have to compromise.

Sometimes you're gonna you're gonna have to go, you know what?

How can we meet in the middle here?

I'm not gonna get everything I want, you're not gonna get everything you want.

Maybe we can meet in the middle and we can both be disappointed and angry and unhappy about all this.

Or what often happens is I'll is I'll compromise, right?

So that you can be really, really so that one party's happy.

But no, like this is this is this is beautiful occasionally in a marriage.

It's beautiful occasionally in a business agreement.

This is not the reality of the Christian life.

You're not made to make concessions with the enemy.

You're not made to make concessions with your former way of life and who you used to be.

You're not made to concede territory to the enemy who wants to lead you to death to steal, kill, and destroy.

And this is what Paul is afraid of.

He's saying he's saying, look, the reality is you're starting to follow Jesus and it's costing you some stuff.

And my fear is that because of the pain and because of the toil and because of what you're going through, that you're now going to make compromises that you shouldn't make with people you shouldn't make them with.

With movements that you shouldn't make them with.

Do you have you noticed this temptation in your own life?

To compromise?

Why?

Because it's easy.

And we love to choose easy, right?

We just do.

It's human nature to go the way that has least obstacles, to go the way that has least resistance, to go the way that's easy, to make compromises and pick what hurts the least.

And Paul is saying, look, man, I'm concerned.

I'm concerned that that the territory that Jesus has taken up in your heart and in your life and the change and the impact that He's made, that you're going to start making concessions, you're going to start compromising on this, and ultimately you're going to drift.

Because have you noticed that most people who once walked very closely with God and then their life ended up a mess?

It didn't happen all of a sudden.

It happened one compromise at a time.

Right?

One compromise at a time.

It happened one little thing after one little thing after one little thing until eventually over time it multiplied and their life, their entire life had drifted away from what it once was.

And Paul is saying, look, don't give up any ground.

I don't want you to compromise.

The second thing is he's afraid of deception.

He's afraid that they're going to be deceived.

You know, consistently throughout these churches, what would happen is that is that influential people would would start to kind of whittle their way into these communities and begin to preach a message that was against the reality of the gospel.

And he's afraid that they're going to start being deceived.

And typically two things that would happen, the two kind of messages that would be preached to these to these two to these churches would be one of two.

Would be first and foremost, there would be a there would be deception through religion, that they would try to call them back to a to to a more Jewish kind of kind of rooted life where they would there where they would be enslaved to the law.

And so they would, they would try to they would try to drift them back to say, hey, it's not really by grace through faith that you're saved.

It's not really all about what Jesus has done.

It's about your works that you can earn your way to God.

And so that message would try to get in.

Or the other one would be that you know what, it doesn't really matter that you're holy.

It's because of grace that it doesn't matter how you live.

And something that we call antinomianism.

And what they and what he's ultimately saying is because of grace, God doesn't care how you live.

He's gonna forgive you.

So live however you want.

You don't really have to live in submission to him.

He doesn't really have to be king.

Do whatever you want.

You got grace.

And so these two messages would come in, and through this deception, these churches would be negatively impacted.

And it would completely change the culture and the impact of these churches.

And so Paul is concerned about their deception that they that they could be swayed by another party through illegitimate promises, because that's what happens, right?

Is you have another message that's not the voice of God that comes in and makes promises that it can't keep and has no intention of keeping.

If you go back to the garden, this is what the enemy did, right?

Eve, if you if you walk away from the Lord and trust in your own power, you trust in the word of the enemy, and you actually take this fruit and you begin to live life your own way, you're gonna be like God.

God's holding out on you, but if you listen to my voice, you'll get all that you're meant to have.

All you got to do is say no to the Lord and say yes to yourself.

And it's through deception that it makes illegitimate promises and people end up deceived and away from the Lord.

The third thing that he's concerned about is dishonor.

It's dishonor.

The idea of dishonor here is really bringing shame to your own reputation or to the reputation of Christ.

When you start to make it known and you make yourself known by the name of Christ, whenever you say, hey, I'm a Christian or I'm a follower of Jesus, you are now making your tying your reputation to the person of Christ.

And there's there's now an obligation, an obligation.

If you're gonna be known by Christ, you now have an obligation to live your life in alignment that reflects Christ.

But what would happen with these people is that they're now being is that they're now losing influence by looking like the world or looking like the religious and yet bearing the name of Christ.

And it completely, it completely ruins and stains the way that God wants to work in their lives and in these churches.

You know, as a as a follower of Jesus, you may have heard the term that that, oh, that could ruin your witness, right?

That's a good, that's a good southern southern term that maybe you grew up on.

Some of you might have just kind of got triggered a little bit.

You're like, ooh, okay.

But but like this idea that, man, you now bear the name of Christ.

And now you're living one way, and what does it do?

It stains the reputation of Christ.

It may stain your own reputation.

There's nothing more painful than someone coming up to you and going, Oh man, that really surprised me.

I thought you were.

Man, there's nothing that could hurt more than that.

And if you continue to live live this way in your life, you actually begin to lose power and influence in your life, and that's what Paul's trying to protect them from.

And then the last thing is I think he's just trying to protect them from powerlessness.

Like he's just trying to protect them from an ineffective life, an ineffective ministry.

You know, Paul emphasizes all throughout this text about the power of the Holy Spirit, not grieving the Holy Spirit, being filled with the Holy Spirit, living in alignment with the Holy Spirit.

Why is Paul consistently emphasizing this?

Because the Holy Spirit's feelings are gonna get hurt.

That's not necessarily what he's trying to say, look, no, no, no.

You Christ wants to give you life and life to the full.

The enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy.

And if you live your life for the sake of God, you're gonna experience his power, you're gonna experience his abundance in your life.

And he's saying, man, when you when you live out of alignment with this, you lose power.

You lose effectiveness in ministry, you lose effectiveness in your battle against sin and your battle against the enemy.

And all of a sudden, with this powerlessness, the enemy begins to take ground on your life.

And no one wants that.

No one wants that.

The reality is for the for the vision that you have and for the vision that God has for your life, you don't just need help.

You need power.

You need power.

You need power in your battle against sin.

You need power to lead and care for your family.

You need power to have influence in your job and at work.

You need power to make it in life and faith.

You need power.

And the reason Paul is consistently saying, don't grieve the Holy Spirit, don't live against the Holy Spirit, don't, don't, don't intentionally choose to live in disobedience to the Holy Spirit.

Don't do that.

Why?

Because you're gonna lose power.

You're gonna lose what you need to live this life that you're called to.

And as a result, you're gonna have an ineffective life.

As a result of consistently quenching or limiting the power of the spirit in your life.

So I think honestly, Paul's primary agenda in this text is I think he wants to, I don't think he wants to do a couple of things.

And I think I think one, he wants to, he wants to infuse into you the nature and the power of the Holy Spirit and what it means to live a spirit-led life.

And I think two, he just wants to, he just wants to teach you how to change.

Right?

I think, man, there's some of you in this room that maybe maybe we have people across a few different categories.

But man, there's some of you in this room that you have not yet come to Jesus because you know he will change you and you don't want him to.

Right?

I think there are some of you that have come to Jesus, and you're kind of in this weird middle ground where maybe you've experienced a little bit of change, but now he's calling you for more and you don't want to give it to him.

And so you're content to live in kind of this odd in-between space where, like I said before, you don't get the best of God and you don't get the best of the world.

There's no one more unhappy than a sinful Christian.

Right?

There's no one, there's no one more miserable than a person who names themselves according to Christ, but actually doesn't live in a posture of surrender, but also has enough conviction that they can't live in the in the world, in the ways of the world.

And so this person just ends up miserable because they don't get the best of God and they don't get the best of the world.

And some of you are stuck there.

And then I think there's some of you, man, like you deeply want to change and you just don't know how.

Right?

Like you got stuff that you genuinely Want out of your heart and out of your life, and you just don't know how.

Like you really want sin out of your life.

Like you really want to grow in your faith.

And I think Paul's agenda here is he wants that he wants to infuse into you the nature and the power of the Holy Spirit so that you can understand what God's agenda is, and two, that you can learn a little bit more of what it means and what it looks like for you to change.

So the first thing I think is honestly the nature and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And what I mean by this is simply that you would understand what the goal and the agenda of God is on your life.

That God has an agenda.

Like God has an agenda in your life, He has a vision for your life.

And here's what I want you to know is that the Holy Spirit is not content to partially change you.

The Holy Spirit is not content to partially change you.

When we talk about the Holy Spirit, we're talking about God.

We're talking about the person of God who indwells every single believer and then wants to increasingly take over more and more territory in the heart, in the life of a believer.

And so this is when Christ ascended to the right hand of the Father, he said, I'm gonna give you something.

It's better that I go away.

Why?

So that I can give to you, so I can give you my spirit.

And a spirit is poured out on the church and on the people so that they now have gifts that they didn't have before, power that they didn't have before.

But they also, they also have, they also have a consciousness of what God is trying to do in their heart and in their life like they never did before.

This is why Paul is, we're gonna hit on this in just a second, but this is why Paul is consistently talking about you need to have your eyes opened.

Why?

So that you can see and understand what God's trying to do in your life.

Like there's some of us, because we we don't really know what God's trying to do, we we we end up living this life of just like having zero discernment and zero direction, trying to guess our way through life because we don't understand who God is and what he's doing.

That only happens by knowing God more and more and more.

But but to sum it up, man, the Holy Spirit isn't content to partially change you.

If you if you go back to the very beginning, we know in and of our hearts, we know that there are aspects of us that are beautiful, right?

Like if you look around and you see, you see people made in the image of God, right?

That that you understand and you grasp, like, man, there's a lot of beauty and potential in all of these people, right?

Like, even the people who are the most messy in this life, you look at them and you go, like, man, I see potential there.

Like that's one of my favorite things about having the eyes and the mind of Christ is that you can see potential that where no one else sees potential.

I love sitting across from people who who someone has spoken over them in inevitability that they, that they are never going to experience the best that God has for them.

And I love being able to speak a new thing over their life.

It's my favorite thing about ministry.

When I take this microphone every single Sunday, my the thing I'm wanting to do in these next few moments is to preach a different message and a different story over your heart, over your mind, and over your life that aligns with the word of God and not with your own mind or what other people have spoken over you.

And this is this is what he's trying to do, he's trying to say, look, don't you understand, don't you understand that God has made you?

God has made you.

If you go back to the very beginning, God creates every single human being in his very own image.

And throughout the first six days of creation, God speaks and everything comes, everything comes into reality.

He speaks by the word of his power and everything, everything goes into motion.

On day six, he slows down.

Slows down a little bit.

And he decides to get his hands into the dust of creation and to form, form man out of the dust of the ground.

And then the most beautiful passage, one of the most beautiful passages in all of scripture, it says that he breathes his very own breath into what he's molded and shaped, and it becomes a living creature.

The reality of your life is that you have borrowed breath.

The reason you are breathing and living and active right now is because the God of all creation has chosen to breathe his breath into you and gift it to you.

This is this is what makes sin so egregious is the fact that you were using God's God's life that He's given you and God's breath that He's given you to curse the God who gave it to you.

This is why, this is why sin is rebellion.

It's because your life was given to you by the same God that you're running from and that you're resisting.

But the beauty of this is that God creates man, he creates woman.

Says that they're both created in his very own image to be like him, to be with him.

And then and then there's an attack of the enemy.

So before before we're created, there's a there there's a there's a war that breaks out in the heavenly places.

And then an enemy steps into the story to now tempt the very ones that God made and loves.

And so God has called them to himself and called them to life and called them to intimacy with him and called them to embody his own glory and to spread it and expand it throughout all of creation, to partner with him in what he's doing in the world.

And then sin enters the equation and it fractures what God had created.

So now they have a fractured heart and a fractured life and fractured relationships, and there's just brokenness that begins to ensue.

And rather than spreading the glory of God among the nations, they begin to spread brokenness.

Romans chapter 5 says that death spread through all men because all sinned.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

That the reality of us is that we are born now in sin and with these broken hearts.

And now rather than spreading the love and the glory and the image of God throughout the world, we actually spread brokenness.

But the reality of being an image bearer is that we spread a little bit of both, right?

That there's some beautiful things, there's some good things that you do.

Even people who do not know Jesus can embody him in ways that are beautiful.

But we also, because of our broken hearts, because of our sin, because of the stain and the muck and the mire of our lives, we also spread brokenness.

And what God, what the Spirit of God wants to do is to give you a new heart and a new life and increasingly transform you and conform you to the image of Jesus so that you spread less brokenness and more blessing and embody his glory and expand it to the nations.

That's what he's wanting to do.

But what has to happen?

You gotta be changed.

You have to be changed.

This is what Paul is saying is saying that something's gotta shift on the inside of you.

And where a lot of Christians go wrong is we think that this is a one-moment thing.

That we that some of you can go, oh man, I encountered the Lord at something or somewhere, and it's part of your story.

And it was the first time that God opened your eyes, but the reality is and and a relationship with the Holy Spirit means that He wants to He wants to experience deeper and more intimacy with you increasingly over time, and He wants to take up more and more of your heart and more and more of your life over time, which is why it becomes a relationship with the Holy Spirit where he can get more and more of you.

You can throw off more and more of your old self, experience more and more of his newness, and live more and more of his new life.

This is what Paul's talking about.

So, how do we change?

How do we change?

I honestly want to spend the last few moments.

There's a lot of text here, and I'm gonna not do it justice.

I'm just gonna let you know that.

This is why it's so important.

The beautiful thing is you get to take this word home.

Like, take this Bible home, study it, read it, devour it.

You got a Bible app.

If you don't have a physical Bible and you want one, we'll gift you one.

Go tell us.

Like, we got Bibles, we'll give them, we'll give them to you.

But but man, I'm about to I'm about to just hover over this passage to kind of give us a vision of what Paul is ultimately trying to communicate when he's talking about change.

So, how do we change?

First and foremost, there's an awakening that has to happen.

There's an awakening that has to happen.

In Ephesians, in Ephesians chapter one, Paul actually, Paul actually kind of writes about his his purpose and his goal in this letter.

He kind of gives us his thesis statement.

And he says in Ephesians chapter one, verse 17, he says, I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

He says, I pray 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 his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

That power is the same.

Say same.

As the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion in every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but also in the age to come.

So he says, He says, I want the eyes of your heart to be enlightened.

I want them to be opened.

Did you know that your heart has eyes?

Like when when when Paul is writing here in Ephesians chapter 4, what is he, what is he, what does he say?

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

He says that that they that they were ignorant in their understanding, that their minds were darkened, so that they were ignorant and could not.

What's he describing?

He's he's describing people who can't see.

He's describing people who are dead or who are asleep and can't see who God is and what he's doing, which is why Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 1 and says, My goal in all of this is to wake you up.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

I want you to be able to see.

Because you can't see.

Like, man, I when I'm when I get to sit across from people who don't yet know the Lord, that's the language I use.

Don't yet know the Lord.

But when I get to sit across from people, it's it's always so interesting because they literally just can't see.

It's not, it's not to be, it's not to be demeaning, it's not to be condemning.

They're just they're just kind of talking about it.

And it's like, man, I'm trying to understand what God's doing, but I can't yet see.

I don't, I don't quite understand it.

I was speaking to one guy, one of my favorite stories since we since we launched this church.

And he he's someone who started started coming to our church, and and and man, I was sitting with him one day at coffee, and he's trying to, he's like reading in the word, and he doesn't understand what's happening.

And he's like, I'm trying to figure this out, and I'm trying to figure that out.

Like, man, not read reading the Bible without being a Christian is really confusing.

And without Christians to kind of help you understand it, it's really confusing.

It can be a little dangerous.

But he's like, he's like, man, I just don't understand what's happening here.

And then the beauty of it is a few months, a few months later, I got to sit down with him.

And the dude starts to talk about the word of God.

And he goes, Man, I'm reading in the Old Testament right now.

And he said this.

And is he talking about Jesus when he says that?

Is he connecting that to Jesus?

I think he's talking about Jesus.

When Jesus steps into the story, is he the fulfillment of what this guy's talking about?

I'm going, uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

And he goes, like, and then and then when he starts talking about this.

We no longer have to live under the law because Jesus stepped in and took our sin and our shame.

And we're like, uh-huh.

Yep.

Mm-hmm.

And he's and he's going, like, oh my gosh.

And I said, hey man, would you call yourself a Christian yet?

And he goes, I don't know.

I was like, you're a Christian?

Like, you, like, yeah.

Like, dude, you're like you literally, you cannot see this without the Holy Spirit.

I mean, and his heart is alive, and he's going, is this what's happening?

I'm like, yeah, yep, that's what's happening.

Uh-huh.

And I'm like, I'm just getting excited, just listening to him talk.

Because he can see.

He can see.

He was like, man, I was dead, I was asleep, I was blind, but now I can see what God's doing.

And he's like, I can I can see that how he did it in human history and how he did it in this story, but I can also see how he's doing it in me right now.

I'm like, yes, yes.

I mean, you gotta, like, there's people in here right now, you have not been awakened yet.

You've not been awakened yet.

But I can tell you this the alarm of heaven is getting louder and louder and louder and louder.

And we will, and we will turn the volume up over and over and over again until you wake up out of your slumber.

That's what we're here for.

We want to find every sleepy person in this entire city and wake them up.

This is this is what Paul's when he when he writes in Ephesians chapter five, he says, this is why it is said, wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, so that Christ will shine on you.

He's saying, like, man, you've been darkened.

And he's saying, you need Christ to shine.

We want to wake you up.

That's what he's saying.

Want to wake you up.

And so, man, the first the first reality of changing is you got to wake up to the reality of God.

You got to be awakened to the reality and the beauty of God.

Notice this when when Paul writes in this passage, this is only beautiful if you love and desire Jesus.

Like if you read this passage and you don't yet love and desire Jesus, all of this sounds very restrictive to you.

Because he's saying, he's saying, look, take off this old life.

Saying, man, stop pursuing sexual immorality, stop pursuing these other things, stop living in impurity, stop desiring these other things, stop living in ignorance, stop, stop, stop cowering to the desire, stop living in greed, stop pursuing your own selfish ambition, stop doing and you're reading that and you're going, like, I I don't want to.

And can I lovingly tell you, if that's you, you're asleep.

You're asleep.

And that's okay.

We're just here to wake you up.

He says, Man, I want to wake you up.

But the reality of me, I I was this past week, you know, we've been we've been pressing hard in this whole church plant thing for about 60 straight weeks.

And I got to take my, I did I got to get away for the first time for like three days, three, four days with a group of pastors.

I was really thankful.

This uh, this community of churches called Engaged Churches, they they pay the way for some church planners to be able to go and experience things that they'd never be able to experience.

And so I got to go to Montana for a few days, never been there before.

And and man, there was just this day that I I can remember I was being I was surrounded by all of these great leaders who who had who had built great things.

And man, I I was I was writing in my journal one day, and what I noticed was this I did not care what they thought about me.

Like, I just remember going, like, man, five years ago, I would have been desperate for these people to be impressed with me.

And I just didn't care.

I was at the same table that they were.

We were going through the same things as each other, desiring the same things as each other, praying in loving churches, wanting to see people come to know Jesus, pursuing the same things together.

And I just remember looking and being like, I genuinely just feel set free from that.

And I literally wrote in my journal, I said, I said, God, thank you for crucified flesh.

Only a Christian can write things like that.

And what was I saying?

I was saying, God, thank you for killing the old me.

Like that's what I'm saying.

Because it feels good.

Like it just feels good to be free from those things.

And man, there's some of you in here today that there are things that you long to be free from, and that God's agenda is to free you from them.

And one day, Lord willing, you're gonna be able to sit down in your time with the Lord and write down, God, thank you for crucified flesh.

But it all starts with waking up to see what he sees and desire what he desires.

And this is how it began with Paul, and this is how it begins with us awakening.

The second thing is receiving.

Receiving.

So first you gotta wake up, and the second thing is receiving.

What Paul ultimately, when he starts out in in chapter four, verse 17, what's his first line?

He says this.

So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord.

And what's he he's literally saying here?

I'm compelling you and seriously calling you.

And he says these words, you must no longer live as the Gentiles do.

What's he talking about?

He's saying, he's talking about unbelievers.

He's just saying, like, man, you no longer live how you used to live in people who don't believe and follow Jesus.

He says, you no longer live that way.

And what's he rooted in?

He says, it's not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.

He goes on later on in chapter four and starting in verse five.

And he says, he says, 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.

He says, now you're you're children of light.

What is Paul doing here?

He's instilling new identity in this group of people.

He's saying, look, no longer live that way.

Why?

Because it's not who you are anymore.

It's not who you are anymore.

What's he saying?

He's saying, he's saying, man, now that you've now that you've awakened, you've got to receive the love of God and your identity as beloved child.

You've got to receive your identity as a person who is no longer in the dark but walking in the light.

He's saying, You've got to receive this.

You've got to wake up, but then you've got to receive.

Man, there's there's some of you here today that that maybe you've been awakened and you can see what God wants to do in your life, but there's a voice and an identity that's been spoken over your heart and over your life that you haven't freed yourself from, and it's restricting your ability to actually follow Jesus and live the life that he longs for you to have.

Anybody?

Like there's been something spoken over your life for a really long time.

Maybe it's from you, maybe it's the voice of another person, and it's become a blanket and a cloak for you.

It's become the reality of your identity.

And what Paul is trying to say is he's going, he's going, look, that's not who you are anymore.

You know, you no longer live as they live.

Why?

Because you're no longer who they are.

Your identity's been changed.

You know, you know, one of the most powerful, one of the most powerful things about following Jesus and fighting sin is when you're able to transform the conversation around conviction, right?

That it says con the scriptures tell us that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Condemnation's from the enemy.

And what condemnation always does is it speaks, it speaks a false word over your life.

And so what condemnation loves to do is it loves to speak that you are you are bad or you are ashamed or you are this.

Brene Brown, she says that guilt says, I've done something wrong, but shame says I am wrong.

Like I am, I am bad.

So guilt's, I've done something bad.

Guilt's good.

It's good to have a conscience that lets you know when you've crossed the boundary.

But shame, the word of condemnation, says that you are not who God says that you are.

And the beauty of beginning to agree with God and speaking something over your life is you get to say, and this is what Paul always talks about with by talking about the flesh and the spirit, is he says, every now and then the flesh, that old man rises up and leads me to do something that I actually deeply, most deeply don't want to do.

Have you ever noticed that for those of you who are in Christ, that when you sin and you make a decision that's against the will of God, that when you're that after you've done that, you literally are disgusted.

You're disgusted.

Why did I do that?

That's not who I am.

That's not what I desire.

And this is what Paul writes, he says, he says that what that what the enemy does and what your flesh will do is it'll lead you to make decisions and live out of who you no longer are and what you don't actually most deeply want.

This is what happens when sin gets into our lives.

And this is why it's so powerful when you're able to acknowledge when you've crossed a boundary, when you've disobeyed, when you've sinned, but then you're able to speak back over your life.

That's what I did, but it's not who I am.

Like it's what I did, it's not who I am.

I am like God hasn't taken your identity or shifted your identity because you sinned or broke or made a mistake.

Like your identity is still beloved child.

This is why Paul is saying, hey, you're walking like the Gentiles walk, but that's not who you are.

You're dearly loved children.

And so he's saying, and now walk as dearly loved children.

Don't walk as the Gentiles walk because that's not who you are.

Walk as dearly loved children because that's who you are.

Walk as children of light because that's who you are.

And so, man, there's some people in here today that you've that you've not been walking as children of light, you've not been walking as dearly loved children of God because you're believing the old lie rather than stepping into the new identity and receiving it.

And this is what Paul's trying to say.

He's saying, Man, you've got to receive this.

Can you imagine?

Can you imagine the reality of the Apostle Paul when he was called to minister and go back into the very same places that he had once walked to kill, to murder, to arrest Christians?

You know, there's after the stoning of Stephen, he walks.

And he's he's on the road to Damascus and he encounters Christ.

And then after he starts to follow Jesus, he has to walk back into the same space.

And I can rem and I can just imagine Paul just gradually getting closer, just passing signs.

Five miles, three miles, two miles, one mile.

And you can imagine the closer that he gets, what's rising up in him, and the things that are starting to be spoken over his mind.

Have you ever had to go back into an old place as a new person?

And man, it's so tempting, so tempting to take back on that old narrative and to put it back on you.

And to begin live enslaved to condemnation and shame.

And man, there's some of you in here that God has a calling on your life, and you're letting an old lie about someone who you no longer are keep you from the life that God has for you.

And I think the Spirit of God is wanting to break some people free today so that you can actually live out the calling that God has for your life.

It would be a shame for you to stand before God and go like, man, God, I had a feeling that you had a calling and a vision for my life.

But I just I just struggle.

I believed that lie.

And God to go like, man, my son died for that.

To strip that off of you, to set you free from that.

Why did you trust that word over my word?

And so, man, the calling and the opportunity is just to receive your identity as a dearly loved child.

Man, to receive the love of God.

I love what Romans 5 says that the Holy Spirit pours the love of God into our hearts.

Because that's what you need, man.

Some of you guys just need to know that God loves you.

You need to know that Christ died for you.

And you need to receive that.

To receive that.

And the the reality of receiving is you can't earn it.

You can't earn it.

You gotta stop striving, you gotta stop performing, you gotta stop pretending, you gotta stop, you gotta stop being.

A lawyer.

Just receive the love of God as someone who's broken and needy.

And after you receive, you got to reorient.

There's a reorientation that has to happen with your life.

I think about this quote from Tim Keller often.

He says, When we behold the glory of Christ in the gospel, it reorders the love of our hearts so that we delight in him supremely and the other things that have ruled our lives lose their enslaving power over us.

That something happens in us when we encounter the glory of Christ in the gospel.

And it actually begins to reorder our hearts and reorient our lives.

You know, when he talks about receiving the identity, what's the very next thing that he says?

Now live in light of that identity, right?

You can tell yourself that you're dearly loved, that you're filled with the Spirit of God, that you're a vessel of the Holy Spirit, that you're a glory bearer all day long.

But if you're walking in sin and shame, it's you're never going to experience the life that God has for you.

Like you can't be a glory bearer and walk in darkness.

You can't be a child of light and live in darkness.

This is why Paul actually says if you're a child of light, you don't walk in darkness, you expose darkness.

And I think Paul's really talking about two different things.

Is he talking about exposing darkness in the world?

Sure, but the very first thing is exposing darkness in your own heart.

There's some of us that are really good at exposing darkness in the world and terrible at exposing darkness in our own heart.

Scriptures call that a hypocrite.

This is why Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount talks about, hey, hey, before you acknowledge the speck in somebody else's eye, you got to get the log out of your own eye.

What's he talking about?

He's saying, man, you got to get way better at seeing your own brokenness than you are the brokenness of other people.

You got to get way better at diagnosing your own darkness than you are at diagnosing the darkness of people and of the culture.

It doesn't mean that we don't diagnose the culture.

We're meant to be the conscience of the world.

The church is meant to be the conscience of the world.

If we don't stand firm and push back against darkness for the sake of the world, no one else is.

And so that is a role and responsibility that we have as the church.

But it starts by being really good at exposing the darkness in our own lives.

And so we have to reorient our lives and begin to walk in alignment with God's will and God's way for our life.

This is the way Paul talked about.

He says, He says, you've got to put off the old and you got to put on the new.

You got to take off the old man and you've got to put on the new.

He says, so so you got to so you got to get rid of this and you got to put this on.

What's he talking about?

He's talking about a reorientation of your life.

You're now a new person.

You have to live your life in accordance to that new reality.

You know, when Jesus, what Jesus wants to do is he wants to he wants to transform your heart and renew your life so that you can now, where you were, a vessel of destruction, you become a you could you become a vessel of renewal and transformation.

He says that if you're going to do that, there's got to be a reorientation so that you begin to live differently than you used to live.

And so, yeah, you've got reordered desires, but now you have a reorientation of your life.

You now are headed in a different direction.

This is the idea of repentance.

The whole idea and definition of repentance is that you were going one way, and now you have to change your mind and change the direction of your life to go a different way.

And in the words of Martin Luther, the life of the Christian is a life of constant repentance.

You don't repent just one time and put your faith in Jesus.

You live your life in a posture of repentance.

Anything in you that is going the way against Christ, you have to go a new way.

This is what this is why Paul writes, and he says, That's not the way you were taught in Christ.

So now you have to walk in accordance with the way that you've been taught in Christ.

You know, Paul says in in Ephesians chapter 4, let's see if I can find it real quick.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Yeah, so he says, he says, you were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires.

So he's saying that you have deceitful desires and it's being corrupted, but you gotta put that, you gotta put that old self off to be made new in the attitude of your mind and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

In Romans chapter, in Romans 12, he says that you that we've been called to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

What does it mean to have a renewal of your mind?

It means to think different.

That you have to think differently.

How does this happen?

It happens by two ways word and spirit.

Word and spirit.

So you get the word of God to begin to shape your mind and your thoughts, your desires, your intentions, and the spirit of God to fill you and dwell you and empower you to actually walk that kind of life out.

This is why community is so important.

Community and relationship is so important.

Relational discipleship is so important.

You gotta have people who are willing to see and look into your life and tell you when you're not living right.

You need that.

You don't you may not want it, you need that.

You need someone who's telling you that's not who you are.

You need to turn a different way.

And so God uses his word, he uses his spirit, but he also uses people in community to reorient your life and get you walking in the direction that you're meant to walk.

The fourth thing is yielding.

What do I mean by yielding?

It's really a posture of surrender.

So the spirit, once again, is gonna increasingly and continuously convict your heart.

And when the spirit convicts, he doesn't use condemnation, the spirit convicts by using life.

He says, Man, that's not who you are.

I've got more for you.

And what you do when the spirit convicts is you have two options.

You can either resist or you can yield.

And you want to yield to the spirit.

You want to yield to the word of God.

The reality for some of you is that you are a rebel.

And maybe you enjoy being a rebel.

But the reality of the follower of Jesus is that we submit to the authority of the word and the spirit.

You submit and you surrender.

And some of us just have a rebellious spirit.

You don't want anyone to tell you what to do.

Can I tell you what the Lordship of Jesus means?

Can I tell you what it means to be a disciple?

Jesus tells you what to do.

And you say yes.

That's what it means to follow Jesus.

But the beauty of it is you know this Jesus is leading you to life.

And he's committed to your good.

Why?

Because he's evidenced by laying his own life down to rescue you, to redeem you, to lead you to life.

We yield.

We have a posture of surrender to the Lord.

Do you actually look forward to surrendering to Jesus?

Are you asking God to show you ways that you can surrender to Jesus?

Are you asking for more opportunities to surrender and submit to the Lordship of Jesus?

And then the last thing is resisting.

Resisting.

So in sin, we resist God's leadership and settle for less.

But in the spirit, we resist darkness and pursue God's best.

We resist darkness and pursue God's best.

When you start following Jesus, you enter into a war.

Paul's going to write about this in Ephesians chapter 6 a lot, and he's going to talk about spiritual warfare.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

But there's something that happens where I think that we that we miss out on the reality that following Jesus is hard, and that we're in an environment, in a culture, and in a in a moment where everyone else is wanting to go against the grain of Christ and wanting to lead you to go against the grain of Christ, which means you've got to have a posture of resistance in your life.

You have to be able to resist the powers of the darkness.

You have to be able to enemy.

You have to be able to resist your own flesh.

You have to be able to resist cultural pressures.

You have to be able to resist relational and negative relational influences.

You have to be able to resist to follow Jesus and be faithful to him.

And so you yield to Jesus and you resist the darkness.

You resist the enemy.

You resist all that is in you that longs to lead you astray and lead you away from the love of God.

There's a book by Richard Loveless that I've just fallen in love with and has really guided me in a lot of this journey through church planting and honestly, a lot of the journey through what it means to structure and build a church that pursues and aligns with the spirit and the will of God and tries to resist the way of the world and wants to disciple people to do the same thing.

And he has this line where he says, he says, the instruments through which God works in the church are human beings.

If our hearts and our minds are not properly transformed, we are like musicians playing untuned instruments or engineers working with broken and ill-programmed computers.

The attunement of the heart is essential to the outflow of grace.

He continues on and he says, True spirituality is not a superhuman religiosity, it is simply true humanity released from bondage to sin and renewed by the Holy Spirit.

This is given to us as we grasp by faith the full content of Christ's redemptive work, freedom from the guilt and power of sin and newness of life through the indwelling and outpouring of his spirit.

True spirituality is living in true humanity, released from its bondage.

This is what Paul is writing and talking about here in Ephesians chapter 4 and 5.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Is he saying, Man, the reality of the old man is that he's in he and she are enslaved to bondage.

And he says the reality of what Christ wants to do is he wants to release you and free you from that bondage so that you can be who you truly are, who you truly are made and meant to be.

Without the stain and the brokenness of sin, without the influences of all these other things that are breaking you and leading you astray from God's calling and destiny for your life.

You know, there's some of you that you've lived your life in alignment with a story that isn't true.

And one of the one of the one of the hopes and awakening to who Jesus is and what he's done is to give you a new story.

To begin to live out of that new story.

That man, for some of you, you've believed a lie, and it's gotten down deep into your heart, and that lie is woven a narrative.

It's woven a story.

And you're now playing a character in a story that God isn't writing.

And you playing that character has led to a life that is not God's best for you.

And what God wants to do is to wake you up to a new reality, to speak truth where there is lie, to give you a better and truer story, to change what overflows out of your heart and into your life.

So that the life you live and the legacy you leave can be one not just that you're proud of or that future generations are proud of, but one that you can stand confidently before God and be proud of.

So as I was thinking about how to kind of close this and lead us into a time of response, I honestly was thinking about leaving you just with a few things.

First and foremost, I think, I think, man, some of you in this room, you just need to put yourself in position to encounter and receive.

You just need to put yourself in position to encounter and receive.

What does that mean?

It means to get in the presence of God and ask.

To long, to hunger.

I love what Jesus says in the Gospels.

He says, He says, man, if those if those of you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father not give you the Holy Spirit to those who ask?

And some of you just haven't gotten in the presence of God to say, God, I want you.

Will you give me more of you?

Will you give me your Holy Spirit?

Will you give me your life?

Will you give me more of your love?

Will you pour your love into my heart?

Just to get in the presence of God and go, God, I want you.

I desire you to put yourself in a posture of receiving, not earning, not striving, just wanting and hungering and thirsting for God and trusting Him to answer that prayer.

I think the second is, and what is it like to reorient the whole of your life around the person of Jesus?

What does it look like to actually be a person of the Word of God?

What does it look like to actually get in community?

What does it look like to actually get in relational discipleship where people can hold you accountable and help you pursue the more that God has for you?

What does it look like to actually start to leverage your gifts and the mission and the ministry of Jesus?

What does it look like to live on mission in partnership with Jesus in the place that He's called you?

To where the entirety of your vision and the reorientation of your heart is aligned with the vision of Jesus.

And then lastly, man, what does it look like to just cultivate deep devotion in your life?

You know, one of my favorite lines that I've ever heard from John Tyson, he said, I get so many people who are so afraid to burn out and they've never even burned.

They're approaching the Lord, going, I'm afraid to put my foot on the gas because I don't want to burn out.

And he goes, and you've never even burned.

Man, what would it look like to burn?

What would it look like to put our foot on the gas pedal when it comes to devotion to Jesus?

To trust that when we get in the presence of Jesus and we pursue the best for us, that we're never going to output more than his spirit's going to input.

That he's going to give us more as we pursue him.

But all of this, man, is in response to the gospel and the reality of who Jesus is and what he's done.

You know, John writes in 1 John chapter 4, he says that we love because he first loved us.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

And that Christ has proven his love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Religion says yes to God out of fear.

The beauty of the gospel is saying yes to Jesus out of love.

So, man, some of you today, it's just an invitation to say yes to the Lord.

Say no to the old man, to the old flesh, to the old way of living, to say yes to Jesus, to say yes to more, to say yes to his best for your life.

So our prayer team is going to come up.

And man, I don't know how this is landing for some of you.

But I think some of you, my man, you're just you're just existing right now.

And man, I don't know how the spirit's stirring up in your heart right now, but I think there's some of you you've experienced a little bit of change in your life.

You've experienced a small or a shallow form of conversion.

And you've been living the rest the whole of your life off of that little shallow form, off of that little moment.

And I think the Spirit of God is saying, I got more for you.

I got more change, I got more transformation, I got more power for you.

So some of you just need to stand up to receive prayer.

Some of you need to ask and beg God for a new level of devotion.

But you don't want to be content with yesterday's change when there's more on the table for today.

I think others of you, there's a calling on your life that you haven't said yes to out of fear.

You've been living out of a bad identity and an old story.

And today you say yes to Jesus and what he has for you in the future, because there's more for you ahead than anything you left behind.

And I think others of you, man, it's just hunger.

I think just praying for the Holy Spirit to give you new hunger, new desperation, new desire today.

To be able to say with the psalmist, like a deer pants for flowing streams of water, my soul pants for you.

I long for you, I desire you, I'm desperate for you.

God never turns away a desperate heart that longs for more of Him.

And so, Holy Spirit, as we respond, I pray that you would move in the hearts of every person in this room whatever they need, that you would give it to them.

God, that you would stir them, that if they need to respond, that they would respond.

As we prepare to sing, God, this song is all about our desire, our longing to be made more like Jesus, to be changed and increasingly transformed by the Spirit of God, to experience more of your power and more of your best for our lives, to not settle for less than your best, to not live out of the old story and the old man, but to take off those old clothes and put on the new.

To live in the newness and the reality and the power of the Spirit, to become who we were always meant to be.

And so, Jesus, would you change our minds?

Would you change our hearts?

Would you change our lives by the power of your spirit?

We welcome you, Holy Spirit.

Come and have your way in this place.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's respond.