Ephesians 4:21-24 - Christian Growth for 2021

Ephesians 4:21-24 discusses Christian growth and transformation.

The Bible teaches that true freedom comes from knowing the truth.

As new creations in Christ, we should put off old habits and desires.

Daily renewal in the spirit of our mind is essential for spiritual growth.

Music What we're going to look at today is Ephesians chapter 4, and we're going to look through just a few verses, 21 through 24. So if you'd like to follow along, you can look that up. Ephesians 4, 21 through 24. 2020 has been a rough year. It really has. We've seen a lot of rough stuff, and I'm not even talking COVID-19. although that's been the thing that has really been the hardest part. But we've seen a lot of social injustice. We've seen a lot of hatred. We've seen a lot of divisiveness among our nation. We've seen a world that has been kind of been in an upheaval all year long, and politics and everything. Just everything has just been, it seems like it's just been a terrible year. And it's been rough on the church. It's been really rough on the church because the church world, we have seen the church literally be turned upside down. Because through COVID-19, it messed up the church. We didn't even have church for quite a while there. We had to find different ways. But what I loved about the church in 2020 was the fact that the church was not going to be silenced. One way or the other, we were going to get the word out. The word of God was still going to be preached. Whether it was through social media, through like Facebook Live or streams or whatever. Or whether it was going to be through drive-in services or whatever. There was going to be church. And I love that. I love that the church was not going to allow themselves to be silenced. But now we are coming to the end of this 2020. And what we're doing is we're staring at the next year. So what we have to look is, do we look forward to the blessing of God? And do we look forward to saying, you know what, this next year is going to be something special? Or do we look and we say, well, 2020 was so bad and it ended this way. Why don't we have a feeling that it's going to be any better in 2021? What is our mindset going forward into 2021? What's our mindset? Do we have a sense of anticipation saying, you know what, God's going to do something? Or do we have a sense of dread? This is what we have to think about. The idea is that as the old year ends and the new year begins, we've got to remember it's a promise of a new beginning. Every morning is a new beginning. Every year is a new beginning. So it's a beginning of something special. It's a beginning of maybe something that just maybe God is going to do something good. I love what Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus In Ephesians chapter 4, starting verse 21 He said these words If so, be that ye have heard him And have been taught by him As the truth is in Jesus I love this You have been, you have heard him You have heard him We've all heard the message. The Bible says it, John chapter 8 and verse 32, it says, Then you will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. I love that. We've all heard those words. We've all heard that the truth will set you free. And we've all, probably everyone here has accepted that truth. That's why we're free. Even though this world is in chains, and so many people are in chains, being chained up and locked up by the fear and the stuff of all the issues that are going on in this world, you don't have to live in fear. You can live free. I love it. He says, and have been taught by Him, or taught His words, if you will. We've never been able to be sat down and taught by Him. Jesus long since has left this world physically. So we've never been able to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to Him talk and listen to Him teach. But we've all been taught His words. Hallelujah. As the truth is in Jesus. Jesus said in John 14 and 6 He said I am the way the truth and the light and no man comes unto the Father but by me Jesus is the way He's the only way to make it to heaven He's the only way to make it home It's not going to come by anyone else It's going to come by Jesus I've told the story so many times but it's so true of the little swami the fellow that lived up in North Carolina when we were living up there. And when we saw his big palatial residence and all this, you could go and tour this place. So fabulous. So beautiful. I have to say, it was a gorgeous thing to see this huge estate filled with amazing looking buildings and palaces and all kinds. It was gorgeous. But as you enter the gates, right on top of these huge, humongous gates was written, all roads lead to heaven. Wrong. Sorry. All roads don't lead to heaven. Jesus is the way. He's the only way to heaven. He's the only way we make it to heaven. That's just the way it is. Although it says in verse 22, it says, that he put off concerning the former conversations of the old man. Now, you've got to take into consideration that when we become a new creation, that's the whole point, when we become a new creation in Christ, what should we do We should put off the old when we set up Jesus as personal Savior and Lord if we still going to the same old place as we went before if we're still saying the same old conversation that we said before, if we're still watching the same old junk we watched before, if we're doing all this, was there a transformation? No. Couldn't be. Could be a transformation if there is nothing changed, right? That's the point. 2 Corinthians 5 and 17 tells us that when he says, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation or a new creature. Old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new. We don't have the same desires that we once had. They're all carnal desires. We don't have that anymore. We don't have the desires to do the same old things we once did. We should have a holy desire, a desire that says, I want to be what God wants me to be. That's what we need to be. That's what we should be. See, because he says, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. Who brings deceitful lusts? Satan. Satan does that. God doesn't bring temptation. God cannot be tempted and he cannot bring temptation. So many people get it mixed up that we go through evil and we go through stuff. And people got it all mixed up when they saw COVID-19 happen and they sit there and they go, Why did God allow this or bring this? But God didn't bring nothing like that. Satan brings evil. God may step back and allow the thing to happen for a purpose, but God does not do this. we want to blame everything on God I'm amazed that when you think of insurance companies and if something happens and what do they say sometimes to get out of pain they'll say oh it's an act of God right oh that was just an act of God it's like Okay, sure. See, God gets, this is the sad part about our world in which we're living. God gets blamed for all the bad and he gets no credit for the good. That's the problem. Anything good that happens, we don't give any credit to God. But anything bad happens, he gets blamed. And that's sad, but that's true. That's exactly the truth. I love this. God does not bring deceitful lusts. Satan does. In verse 23 it says, And be renewed in the spirit of your mind. I like that. Be renewed. Now many people get this mixed up when they hear the term renewed. They think of the term renewed as something that happens when you get saved. But that's not what that is. This renewal here is a daily thing. we need to be renewed in our mind on a daily basis we need to, the first thing in the morning when we get up in the morning we need to pray for a renewal a new fresh beginning see, Psalm 103 in verse 5 tells us this he fills my life with good things my youth is renewed like the eagles that's not a one time experience That's a thing that we do all the time. I love the idea of our youth being renewed like the eagles. Wouldn't it be lovely to just stay young forever? Of course, we ain't going to do that. But that doesn't mean we can't have a joy and a blessing about us that keeps us young. I mean, yeah, I've got problems. I've got physical problems, man. I'm getting older and things are breaking down knees are bothering me I'm getting arthritis in knees I'm getting arthritis in the shoulder I'm getting all this arthritis in the back and it makes it a little bit tough to get around you know but I still have joy in my heart and I still feel young inside because the joy of the Lord is what? my strength it's my strength So when I'm feeling a little bit rough, when the knee's starting to ache, when the back's starting to get a little stiff, I just put a little bit of arthritis medicine on the knee and a little bit on the back, and then I just say, Lord, go with me, and then we start walking. And you know what? The more I walk, the more I do, the more I am walking with the Lord, the less I worry about the pain that's going on in my body, and I keep going forward and then before long the day's over and I felt like I've been with the Lord all day long and I felt like I had a good day. And that's the point. We've got to have that kind of a mindset, not let our pain determine what we go through and what our mindset is. We've got to let God determine our blessings. We do it so often that we allow the circumstances to determine whether we're blessed or not. Oh, well, all this around me is just so tough, and there's just so much going on, and you know what, I'm just, what's the point? And that's the problem. Circumstances shouldn't determine your blessing. Because what we do, so often what we do is we have a mindset that if I don't have X amount of dollars in the bank, If I don't have all this type of stuff, then I'm not blessed. Material stuff does not mean blessing. You can have all the wealth of the world. And let's face it, what does the Bible say? What should it profit a man if he gave the whole world to lose his own soul? And that's the point. It doesn't matter if you have the whole world. If you end up losing your very soul and you don't see heaven, what did it profit you? Nothing. Nothing. That's the point. We've got to have a mindset of blessing. If we have a mindset of blessing, we're going to be blessed. I love what it says in verse 24. It says this, And that he put on the new man. Put off the old, put on the new. Right? Take off the old, put on the new. which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Boy. Oh boy. This is going to be tough. This one going to be tough for some people True holiness True holiness is not always what it seems Because churches are deceiving us. There are churches that are not preaching the whole book of God. And they're claiming to be true holiness. But the Bible itself says that we can't add to or take away from it. But yet we're trying to do that. That's not true holiness. True holiness is taking every single word even if it hurts. Believe me. It's right here. It's hurt me many, many times. It really has. God's word has hit me like an arrow so many times and I had one of two choices I've said it many times but I had one of two choices I could get bitter or I could get better and that's the thing we gotta get better we can't get bitter just because the Bible hurts it says it right there it's sharper than any two-edged sword it's going to hurt, but in the long run, it's going to be for our benefit. That's the point. So when I got all this through, now this is what we see. What do we need to do in 2020 to make 2020 a blessing for us, for each and every one of us? I read about it and I said, Lord, show me what we need to do. Show me what I need to do. Show me what the church role needs to do in 2021 to be a blessing. For us to be blessed not only in our own heart, but for our church to be blessed and the whole community and the world as a whole to be blessed. And I felt God shared with me three things we need to have. A heart of three things. Number one God says We need to have A heart of prayer A heart of prayer 1 Thessalonians 5 16-18 says Rejoice evermore Pray without ceasing And everything give thanks For this is the will of God In Christ Jesus concerning you We need to have a heart of prayer When I thought about it, I thought of that little lady in the Bible, Hannah. You know her. We all know her. Hannah wanted a baby. There was something about it. She just wanted a baby. But she couldn't have a child. No matter how hard she tried with her husband, no matter how hard they tried, they could not have that baby. she began to pray and she began to plead with God time after time after time and seemed hopeless because every time she prayed still she never got pregnant she was just bothering her but she did not quit praying and then finally God answered her prayer and she was given a child that she wanted that she had prayed about but what would have happened if she were to pray once and quit She wouldn't have got a blessing. We need to have a heart of prayer. We need to pray for our people, for our church, for our country, for everything that we want to see happen. We need to pray without ceasing. We need to have that kind of prayer life. The second thing we need to have, we need to have a heart of forgiveness. A heart of forgiveness. Matthew chapter 6 14 and 15 tells us this for if he forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive you your trespasses that's a tough verse that's a tough verse you got some people in your life that don't like you probably we were all saying yeah there's probably some people that don't like me okay I'm having a conversation with God here in my mind I'm saying Lord I don't want to do this and he's saying go ahead and do it okay Okay, God. I'm trying to unburden myself here, okay? I had a very difficult time in my life for a long time because I harbored a lot of bitterness towards a certain person because of what this person did to me. And I, that went so hard. So hard to forgive. No matter how hard I tried. No matter how hard I tried, I could not forgive. When I saw that person, it just made me, oh, so angry. Because I always thought of what they did. It's all I could think of. So one day I sat there and said, Lord, this is killing me inside. This is not a blessing to me. This is a curse to me because every time I look at this person, all I think is hatred. And this is not the way I want to live my life. And I said, Lord, I need you to help me with this. I don't know how it happened. I don't know how it happened. I can't even pinpoint a time when it happened. Can't pinpoint. I just know that as years went by, my heart softened, and all this bitterness that I had passed away. And now, praise the Lord, I can say all this that was going on is past. this hatred, this stuff that was going on between me and this person has passed. I can sit down and talk with them. I can sit down. I can have fun. And we communicate, which I never thought was ever going to happen, to be honest with you. What happened? God. And I going to tell you something I going to go a step further With this bitterness that was in my heart you think I was going to go to heaven not according to what the Bible says right here if you can't forgive you can't be forgiven but I'm glad to say and that was a difficult thing to have to tell but I'm glad to say I can say today I have no bitterness in my heart to anybody and I'm going to tell you something. There is nothing that is more of a blessing than to say that. That I harbor no ill feelings to anybody in the world. That's probably why I've got so much joy in my heart. Because I'm not filled with hate for anybody. Let me just share with you a quick story of forgiveness. We all know the story. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. God had a plan. He rose Joseph up to second highest only to Pharaoh. His brothers came into Egypt to buy food. And he found out it was his brothers. And we know the story. He sent all his brothers away and he kept his little brother with him. And they said, you know what? You can leave, but your brother's going to stay with me. And they said, no, no, no. We're not going to leave him. and they drew swords and they tried to take back their brother. And Joseph looked at them and he said, so now you're willing to die for a brother. Now you're willing to die for a brother. But what about that brother that you left behind? What about that brother that you sold into slavery? What about him? And they all looked around at one another thinking, what is going on here? How could he possibly know this? This second highest of favor. How could this person possibly know this? And then Joseph removed the headdress and he wiped off and he said, Because I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into slavery. Now Joseph's brothers at that point no doubt were broken inside because they saw what had happened. And Joseph had one of two choices at that point. He could forgive, he could forgive, or he could turn loose his anger of all those years of what they did to him. And Joseph said to them, he said, you men evil to me. But God, God men it for good. That's forgiveness, people. That's forgiveness. And that's the kind of heart of forgiveness we need to have in 2021. and then finally the third thing we need in 2021 is this a heart of compassion a heart of compassion Galatians 6 and verse 2 says this bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ one of the most horrible stories ever found in this book is a story about religious people. And I'm going to share with you real quick, and that is this. A man was beaten and left on the side of the road, robbed. And what happens? Religious people, people that go to church, people that had a name in the church, came down the street, saw the man laying there bleeding and dying, and what did they do? They took a look, and they crossed on the other side of the street to get as far away from him as they possibly could, thinking somehow, maybe some of that would rub off on them. That's church people. That's church people. Looked at a man dying on the street and cross on the other side. What happens? A Samaritan comes along. A man that has never heard the blessing of God. But what does he have? He has a heart of compassion. He sees a man laying there bleeding and dying, and he goes over and he tries to fix him up and wipe off him and try to help him as much as he can. Then he put him up on his donkey, and he starts to go to the city. He goes into the city and he goes to a hotel and he says, I want you to take care of him. Here's some money. Take care of him. Give him what he needs. I'll be back when I take care of my business. I'll come back if you use any more money to take care of him. For whatever he needs, I'll pay you. That's a hard compassion. and sadly it came from somebody that was not a person that knew what this book says. So what do we need in 2021 going forward? What do we need to be to be blessed in 2021? We need a heart of prayer. We need a heart of forgiveness and we need a heart of compassion. Those are the three things we need And if we have those kind of things in our heart, we are going to be blessed. And we're going to see a 2021 like we have never seen a year ever. Our churches will build. Our people will be blessed. And we will have the joy of the Lord, which is our strength. And that's what we need, those three things. Thank you. Thank you. you

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