In Light Of All This: Make A Move

That's it.

And this morning, what we're going to dive into, and I love this series that uh Justin's been going through Ephesians, and in Ephesians chapter four, is where we're going to jump in this morning, and we're going to continue on this.

And it's really, if I want to move from just having that gift to experiencing that gift, this morning there's going to be several.

There's about seven different moves that need to happen in our lives that we're going to see in this passage.

There's probably a lot more, but I just kind of picked out seven that God just has hit me with personally.

And I don't want you to get all of them.

I'm going to talk about them.

At the end, we're going to put all seven of them up there.

And I want you to just really pray, God, what what move am I missing?

Because I want to experience you in reality.

And God did come and die for us.

He did forgive us.

He does come in when we invite him in.

But then there's this active part.

It's not God saying, look what I did for you now.

What are you going to do for me?

That is not his plan at all.

It's like, look what all I've done so that we can do this life together.

And you can experience my forgiveness, my power, my perspective, my infilling and embodying your life.

And we can do this together.

And if I'm not experiencing that in every area of life, there's a really good chance that one of these moves is the one I need to make because God has done enough.

And I just have to move.

And I love this particular passage.

So in Ephesians chapter, I think it's chapter 4, chapter 4, starting in verse 17.

Let me get on that.

And so Paul was writing, he says, So I tell you this, and insist 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 sensuality so as to indulge every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

In that first passage, it's this idea of ignorance, and not just ignorance is not traditionally terrible.

And how many of you have ever heard the phrase ignorance of the law is no excuse?

Have you heard that?

I have too.

And I thought, you know what?

That's not true.

It's not true.

And I did a quick Google search and did a little bit of background.

Do you know how many laws, federal laws, there are in the United States today?

Nobody knows.

Literally.

And as I researched it down, they're like, we we have no concept.

The first 150 years of our country, they put it in one volume, one volume of laws.

They're now in the next 90 years has been literally 57 volumes added.

If you put 60 lines to every page, there's over 23,000 pages of laws, laws that contradict laws.

And I'll give you one for today because we're human, we're imperfect.

People say we need more gun control laws.

Now, I don't know what side of the aisle you fall on there, but do you know how many laws there are on the books about guns today?

Anybody want to take a guess?

Too many, that's it.

There's over 20,000 laws on the books dealing with guns.

Our problem is not we need more laws, we need to know what they are and obey them.

That's what we need to do.

I mean, it's it's just, wait a minute.

So ignorance, I don't know about you, but I don't have time to learn laws that are infinite.

And I mean, driving here today, I probably broke a hundred laws, just didn't know it.

And it's not a willful disobedience, but it's here's the deal.

There's a difference between ignorance and the not knowing, but then knowing, but hardening our hearts, knowing that I can know, knowing that I should know, but just hardening my heart, going, no, I'm gonna do it my way anyway.

And and brothers and sisters, we live in that society.

That the only immoral is to say there are morals, and we are attacked on a daily basis.

And what God is saying, I want you to move out of that chaos and into my light and peace and fulfillment.

And the first move is in there, it's in uh verse 19.

It says, they have lost all sensitivity and have given themselves over from to sensuality.

We have to move from sensuality and this self-consumption of our fleshly desires to sensitivity, the sensitivity of what's really important, a sensitivity that only God can give.

Because if just hang with me for a second here, because in sensuality, it is a consuming that is never enough, and it will never be enough.

It is an emptiness that gets emptier.

But in sensitivity, it is always fulfilling and more fulfilling and more fulfilling to the point of overflowing.

And God is saying, I want you to live there.

Now, there are some basic fleshly sins.

Now, some are tend to be a little more masculine, and if you look in 1 John 2.16, it says the love of the world or that sensuality is the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and boasting of what he has and does.

We look and we want to consume and we want to feel important and we want to say I'm good enough.

And there's that that in us.

Now I'll be honest, I'm a man and I get that, and I relate and I go, yep, that I I get that, but I would not want to be a woman.

I I I love women.

My mom, a woman, my wife, a woman.

I love women.

Women are like they're like people, but but better.

You know, they're just they're awesome.

But I would not want to deal with your besetting sin.

And if you want to see that, just go back to the first woman in Genesis 3.

It's this you you have within you that there's always something better.

If you doubt me, look at Eve.

Eve was in the Garden of Eden.

God created perfect paradise.

And she walked around going, there's something better than this.

I mean, literally, literally, that's that's what you struggle with.

And and in that sin, God is saying, hey, it's a lie.

Just like the lust of the eyes and the flesh, this idea of whether it's porn or sensuality, it's a lie.

That that's not the way that's meant and created to be.

And the more you consume and the more that that is consumed, the emptier, the more empty you will feel.

And in the same way, take what I call the bachelorettization of America, just you know, there's something better.

If I had 18 guys that loved and adored me and I got to hand pick, then my life would be better.

No, it wouldn't.

Because you don't know the motives involved.

And what God is saying is, my sensitivity is what you need, and that that truth.

And that to move from that lie to the truth, that to that intimacy is more than just a physical act of a moment.

It is truly emotional and mental and relational and physical.

And in marriage, that's that God said, I want you to have the sensitivity to experience that.

I've been married 23 years and I'm still working on it, okay?

I have not one time woke up in the morning and thought, you know, today, today I want to tick my wife off.

That's that's what I want to do.

I mean, I want to get to the end of today and have her so frustrated she's questioning why she's married at all.

Okay, that's that's my goal today, all right?

I I have never once had that thought, yet I have accomplished that on multiple occasions, all right?

So I'm working on it.

But I can tell you this, I'm literally moving, and I sense God in my life as I as I confess, Lord, I'm I'm struggling, or that, and I confess that I want your sensitivity, not my sensuality.

And I want to experience what you have because I need to move that way.

There's a second move, and it's in verses 20 through 24.

It says, 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 the old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in an attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in truth, righteousness, and holiness.

There's another move that we have to make.

It's a move from being passively corrupted.

Do you know what it takes to corrupt a metal?

Nothing.

You just set it outside in the elements and leave it alone, and it will rust and decay and it will corrupt.

We have to move from being passively just sitting back to taking the initiative and putting on and putting off and saying, you know what?

It says in Romans, it says, do not be conformed any longer to the ways of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.

It says it in Colossians 3.12, and it says, but as dearly loved children, with this gift that I've given you, put on, in other words, take an active role.

And now most of you here today, I don't see anybody who's naked, most of you got dressed today, okay?

And you did that intentionally.

You looked at something in your closet.

Now, guys, we get dressed much easier as jeans or khakis, okay, jeans, and and we have fewer choices, and what goes with that?

And we put it, we got it, we got dressed intentionally.

And and what he's saying is be intentional about what you're putting on and putting in your mind.

He says in Colossians 3, clothe yourselves with compassion, with kindness, with humility, with gentleness and patience.

And to put that on our minds, to be transformed by renewing our minds.

And well, let me let me put it to you in a real-life sense.

Now, I don't know if you've ever seen this, but there's a kind of a fun game that I've seen several times, usually at a sporting event or a carnival called Dizzy Bat.

Have you ever seen this?

It's where they have a line of people and you run to the other end, you put your head on a bat, and you have to go around the bat like ten times.

And then you got to turn around and run back to line.

Well, you are so disoriented.

I love to watch Dizzy bat.

I don't like to participate in Dizzy Bat because they start running, you think you're running that way, and they're just running.

And I've seen people run into bands before, I've seen them fall into a lake before.

It's just fun to watch.

But it's not fun to live a life that way.

And what he's saying is set your minds, put off the old, put on the new.

And yet, and and I'm I'm not trying to be convicting here at all, but God convicted me of this about two and a half years ago, and it changed me completely.

That what was my normal day like?

What was pop out of bed at the last possible moment?

It's grab my phone and turn it on and see either news or a text or something that would go, oh my goodness.

And then from there it was to jump into traffic, and then it was to get into environment and hear gossip, whether it was on a national scale or an intimate personal scale, and then to deal with the circumstances that were overwhelming that I couldn't get it all done, and from there to be an environment and a society that was completely against me and feel like I was fighting uphill in the mud all day.

And that equals chaos and yuck.

But what God is saying is move from that.

Take the initiative to renew your mind, to where now I got in the habit of the first piece I do in the morning is I don't touch anything electronic except a light, and I turn on a light, and I take my Bible and I read a chapter.

And from that chapter, I'm like, Lord, put one verse on my mind, just one verse on my mind.

And I read in Romans this morning five, where it was like, uh, just you know what, be the power that raised Christ from the dead lives in you.

And I've just been dwelling on that this morning, and that's where my mind is, and I memorize at least one verse a week.

And during the day, I bring that verse back out and I look at it over and over.

I want to stay tuned in to what he is doing, and I want to be tuned into his voice.

And does that change the circumstances?

No, but it gives me a total different perspective of them.

And I'm able to prioritize and I'm able to see it through the grid of God's life by because transforming, letting him transform my mind in it and move from passive to initiative.

And I started realizing that God, God is in the middle of our day, but I have to choose to move.

And that move is to put him on my mind.

Then it gets interpersonal in verse 25.

It says, Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

To move away from the false to the truth.

And it says to your neighbors, neighbor is simply a word that means closest ones.

Who are those closest around you?

Usually it's family, some close friends.

But instead of diving into the chaos of that moment and what they're complaining about or whatever, am I moving towards the truth and listening and really caring?

Am I being Jesus as it says that the truth became flesh and dwelled among us?

And he came in grace and truth.

It's caring where they are, but it's actually being willing to speak truth into where they they need to be and where I need to be and discuss that truth.

I've got a dear friend I just spent a couple days with on the road, and he's going through a tough time maritally.

And and I with grace, I just said, Man, I I can I can fathom where you are, I can understand the struggles.

But as you're talking, here's the truth that God's brought to my mind.

And that that He is unconditionally loving and that He longs to fully restore you.

It was my verse for the day, it was Psalm 137, 130 verse 7, and I just said that that verse came to my mind as you're sharing that and sharing that truth, moving from the false to the truth.

And and I got to get to that point where I'm like, okay, Lord, here's your deal.

Let me get very real.

How many of you are married here this morning, real quickly?

Okay.

Now, wives, how many times have you ever heard this question from a husband?

Because we we that follow Christ, God will hit us every now and then and give us some sensitivity.

And it's not that often, but we get it sometimes.

And I'm like, honey, what's wrong?

And ladies, what do you say when we ask that question?

Counselors call that relational tension.

The Bible calls that lying.

Okay?

That's what that is.

All right?

Now, now this is hard.

Now, I'm not saying that we can do this on our own.

This is where God needs to step in, but but we need to go past that.

And I literally told my wife as I started dealing with this moving from falsehood to truth.

I said, Well, honey, here's the deal.

I feel like there's something wrong, but if you tell me nothing is wrong, I trust you.

And I'm going to move from this point forward as if nothing is wrong.

And that just ticked her off even more.

But what it did was it got the truth to come out, and we got to deal with it.

Is it easy?

No, it's not easy.

It's simple, but it's not easy, but it is worth it.

And he's saying, I want you to move from falsehood to truth, and I want you to start living in that.

In verse 26 and 27, it gives us another move that's in that same category.

It says, 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.

Now, I gotta tell you, I had a breakthrough this year in this.

In other words, that he wants us to move from defending, which is anger, to mending, which is intimacy.

And to move from that anger, and here's the deal I was made aware of a study this past year.

This blew my mind.

They talked to couples who had been married for like 40 years or more, and they said, What are the secrets?

What are the keys?

And one of the pieces that came up, it says they went to bed at night with unresolved conflict.

I'm like, What?

Well, the Bible says they're gonna go to bed angry.

And they said, No, no, no, they didn't go to bed angry, they just didn't resolve everything.

They said, you know what?

I love you, and we're gonna work this out.

But you know what?

We're tired.

And and I love you, and uh, let's pick this up again tomorrow, but but let's get some rest.

And they got up and they started dealing in truth, they started filtering through it, and they have fewer arguments because they start in this mode of a foundation of love and commitment and saying, you know what, okay, you're upset.

Why are you upset?

Okay, let's get to the issue because you know what, as couples and as people, have you ever had a disagreement or argument with your wife and you stop in the middle and go, wait, wait, wait, are we talking about the same thing?

We've had arguments and we're arguing about two totally, completely different issues.

And I'm like, Well, I agree with you, and she goes, Well, I agree with you, and I'm like, Why are we fighting?

Because, because we're giving a foothold to the enemy.

He's trying to get us there, he's trying to get us angry when we stop.

And and I've done this now several times in the past several months.

When I sense things getting heated or frustrated, I'll just, and and she'll be just mad.

I'm like, hey, she goes, yeah, and I'm like, I love you.

And she's like, Well, I love you too.

And I was just okay.

Well, let's start there, and let's work back from there and and tell me why you're frustrated.

And and and let me understand it.

And then again, it's these moves, they work together, but this is where we discover who God really is.

Let me let me put it in this way, uh, in a very practical sense, from am I walking around in a in a posture of defending?

Like I have to defend everything I've got, everything I do, every decision I make.

Or am I walking around in a in a an attitude, a heart of mending that our relationship is more important than any political statement or issue or decision?

I I want to I want us to be okay.

And as I take that gesture, let me put it this way.

This actually happened to me one time.

I'm driving.

Now I'm getting better at driving, okay?

I'm getting better that it used to frustrate the credit.

I couldn't get out of my neighborhood before I'm just yelling at somebody through the windshield, going, You're an idiot.

Wait, wait, what are you waiting on?

There are no cars, go and get off your phone.

And I that I almost got all the way to the airport the other day before I yelled at somebody.

I mean, I'm getting better at this because I'm moving and God's teaching me this, but I I literally I'm in traffic.

It was one of those places where I'm being the I obey rules that don't exist and I understand that, but I'm in the lane and I'm waiting my turn and we're gonna go off.

And this guy flies up and cuts right in front of me where I have to slam on my brakes and turn, and and before I could just explain to him how I felt through the windshield, I recognized him.

And my attitude changed.

And I thought, I I wonder, I wonder what he's in a hurry for.

And you know what?

When I see him, and I thought, Lord, if if if he's late for something, I I hope he gets there on time.

And my whole attitude changed because I knew him.

And I and I'm I it was such an encouragement to me that I'm moving from this defending, this is my spot, and you wait in line, I wait in line, to mending.

It's it's a relationship.

And I want to I want to live there more to the point where I see strangers.

Now I'm like, well, I've been in that situation before too.

I'm just glad I'm not in a hurry.

I'm glad I'm I've I've planned better.

I'm glad and it's just it's a it's a change of mind.

And it's in those places that we experience his fullness.

And then the last last couple in verse 28, he does a beautiful job, and he just says, 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.

Now, most of you are sitting here going, well, I never steal anything, I'm not a thief.

What's a mindset?

I've got to move from living a life of consuming to a life of giving.

And and we can get so stuck in it to say, you know what?

Well, I'm just trying to make ends meet, and I just I don't have enough, and and we can have that mindset.

But when we start praying and saying, God, will you show me how I can move to that giving side?

I'll give you a real life example.

My second son is in college out in Phoenix, Arizona, and he's making great grades, but he's dealt with a little bit of depression because he's not home and he's a little homesick, and he's got some friends, but they're not deep friends, and and he's just Frustrated and he's like, I'm broke all the time.

And I'm like, well, welcome to the college life.

That's the way that works.

And and my wife just had this brilliant insight of moving from well, you worked all this summer, and you didn't save like we recommended you save.

So you're out of money now.

And she goes, You know, probably one of the best ways to overcome that shortage, get a job.

That that would probably be a good idea.

And he's like, Well, I don't know where to go.

I don't know where to start.

And she goes, Well, start somewhere.

Go get some applications.

And he's like, okay.

And he had some friends, and they started praying for him, and he started going on a couple interviews.

And full circle now, he's gotten a job as a waiter at a nice restaurant.

He's working a couple nights a week and he gets tips and he's got money in his pocket.

I talked to him last night.

He's like, Dad, I got I made like$80 on one shift and$60 on another.

And I said, dude, can I can I offer you an opportunity to build some momentum?

And he's like, Yeah.

I said, go to church and take a tenth of what you got and say, God, thank you for giving me an opportunity.

Thank you for giving me the ability.

Thank you for giving me the shift.

Thank you for giving me the personality that I have.

And thank you that I have more shifts next week.

And I said, dude, when you start getting out of that consuming, that that just getting stage and start giving, you change.

And when I see that hall of gifts of people that said, I've got a gift for somebody, I guarantee you, we got a bigger gift than anyone will ever give.

And that mindset to move, and then in verse 29, we're almost there.

It says, Let no, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only which is helpful for building others up according to their need, that it may benefit those who hear.

We've got to get to the point where it's literally we're moving from being hurtful to being helpful.

And that that listening, now, and I I want to I hope this is as convicting as it is to you that it was to me.

I said, Well, God, I, you know, I'm I'm kind of that way that I want, I am helpful.

And then I realize, God, every time I ask God to show me, He brings something to my mind, I'm like, oh, do not raise your hands.

But have you ever been this way?

And if you haven't, then you're lying because have you ever listened to somebody and it's a conversation and you're thinking, and something pops into your mind of what you can say next, and then you're just like blah, blah, blah, get on because I know what I'm gonna say next.

And we're not really listening, we're just getting to that point so we can say what's next.

And I'm like, oh, Lord, help me.

And this past weekend, I'm like, Lord, this is the one that hit me.

I'm like, help me just listen.

And and and that that comes to my mind, let me filter it through.

Is this going to benefit them what I'm gonna say?

Or is it just gonna be more words to say, yeah, I know what it is, but mine's better.

Well, what is it gonna be?

Am I helpful or hurtful?

And and it's convicting.

And then the last, it really brings it all together.

And this is where the power comes from in verses 30 through 32.

And it says, Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed on the day of redemption.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slandering, along with every form of malice.

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another just as Christ forgave you.

Here's the deal: if I'm not actively in the part of moving to what God has for me, then I'm hindering the power of his spirit within me.

And what I want to do is I don't want to hinder his power.

I want to release his power within me.

And the more I actively move, it's like a supercharge.

God's like, now you're going.

Now, now I'm gonna work on you, I'm gonna work with you in this area.

So as they put up these different, I want to just for a second, they're gonna put the list of moves up there.

I want you to prayerfully take a peek at those and simply ask, God, which of those do you want me to focus on?

Which of those is most needed in my life today?

And and ask God, show me how to move.

Show me how to move.

And maybe go back to that verse in Ephesians 4 and say, Lord, which verse was oh, there it is.

Lord, let me let me renew my mind with that this week.

And I'm gonna ask them to leave that up.

Justin will come out here in a second, just wrap us up this morning.

But let me pray for us this morning and pray with me.

Lord, we ask, as your children, holy and dearly love because of what you did for us.

And Lord, even in the midst of that simple phrase, I pray if there's anybody who doesn't know you, I pray they'd realize that your desire for us is to literally change us to become who you made us to be.

That's your whole desire.

And it's simply inviting you into our lives, accepting your forgiveness, accepting the way you built life, that we are your creation, created by you to do good that you prepared.

But Father, for those of us who are walking with you, it's convicting, but it's also encouraging to know you don't condemn us, but you've literally said, I want to show you what I desire you to be.

And here's the move.

It's your move because you never force us.

So, Father, I just ask that you would continue to draw us in and show us that one area and help us to focus on that.

Reveal your truth to us this week as we dig in and make us who you made us to be.

And only through Christ, but the power that raised him from the dead that lives in us, that we pray.

Amen.

Guys, thanks for letting me share.

I can't wait till next week.

I'll see you then.