Does your old self feel like a leaky bucket, no matter how hard you try to fill it? Join us in this episode as we explore the profound transformation that comes from living out the teachings of Jesus. We begin with a warm reflection on our love for community and the comfort of rainy Sundays.
Through a study of Ephesians 4, we uncover the spiritual riches Paul encourages us to embody—integrity, justice, and purity. Using the metaphor of ancient South American terracing, we illustrate the importance of protecting our spiritual growth and recognizing the gradual nature of transformation.
We delve into Ephesians 4:17-24, contrasting our former life with the new life in Christ. Drawing insights from Dallas Willard, we discuss the necessity of reorienting our lives to reflect God's righteousness and holiness. This transformation isn’t just about external behaviors but involves a profound reformation of our inner being.
We draw parallels with Michael Jordan’s shift from basketball to baseball, illustrating the need for new habits and daily practices to succeed in our spiritual journey. Practical insights from Ephesians 4:30-32 guide us in discarding negative behaviors and embodying the virtues of kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. Finally, our guest Tim shares the transformative power of solitude and intentional time with Jesus, encouraging us to foster both personal and communal spiritual growth.
Join us as we learn to live out our new identity in Christ and experience the transformative power of His presence in our lives.
Does your old self feel like a leaky bucket, no matter how hard you try to fill it? Join us in this episode as we explore the profound transformation that comes from living out the teachings of Jesus. We begin with a warm reflection on our love for community and the comfort of rainy Sundays.
Through a study of Ephesians 4, we uncover the spiritual riches Paul encourages us to embody—integrity, justice, and purity. Using the metaphor of ancient South American terracing, we illustrate the importance of protecting our spiritual growth and recognizing the gradual nature of transformation.
We delve into Ephesians 4:17-24, contrasting our former life with the new life in Christ. Drawing insights from Dallas Willard, we discuss the necessity of reorienting our lives to reflect God's righteousness and holiness. This transformation isn’t just about external behaviors but involves a profound reformation of our inner being.
We draw parallels with Michael Jordan’s shift from basketball to baseball, illustrating the need for new habits and daily practices to succeed in our spiritual journey. Practical insights from Ephesians 4:30-32 guide us in discarding negative behaviors and embodying the virtues of kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. Finally, our guest Tim shares the transformative power of solitude and intentional time with Jesus, encouraging us to foster both personal and communal spiritual growth.
Join us as we learn to live out our new identity in Christ and experience the transformative power of His presence in our lives.
Here we go. We'll try that again. Morning everybody. How are you Good? As you guys know, I'm an extrovert. What that means is that I get energy by being around people, and so I can experience like even like sleeping, like I sleep next to a person, which is very helpful, but like like I wake up in the morning and I'm a little lonely. Most of the time, usually I'm the first one awake in my house, and on Sundays there's been this thing that started to happen in recent weeks where I'm so excited to see you all every, every Sunday morning and I just love to be together and Houston and I diverge here, but I love rainy days. It's just kind of cozy to me and we got to be kind of down on the floor with you this morning and I'm just really enjoying this, and so I'm so glad that we're all here together this morning.
Speaker 1:We're continuing in our passage in Ephesians 4. We're going to finish that out today. Continuing in our passage in Ephesians 4, we're going to finish that out today. You'll see in your you've got a spot for notes in your bulletin.
Speaker 1:Last week Houston shared an insightful illustration. At least I found it helpful. I hope you did too. It was just kind of this ancient South American farming practice of terracing the land, and I think that by getting that, we got this idea in our heads that the reason that you would terrace land in an agricultural setting is to kind of slow runoff or hinder it altogether, so you retain all of the nutrients in the soil, all the good things that help the crops to grow. And as we walk through Ephesians, we've seen lay out everything that we have to protect from erosion, right All of the spiritual riches that we have in Christ.
Speaker 1:We spent the first three chapters kind of unpacking that, and then this set the stage for us to shift gears last week, where we shifted to what does it look like to live these out? And Paul urged us to walk in a manner that is worthy of our calling. And we emphasize, this is not about earning anything. We've done this throughout. This is not about realizing something new. It's actually about understanding the change that Christ has already started in each one of us who are committed to follow him. And so we're going to come to Ephesians 4, 17 through 32 as we finish out the chapter this morning, and we're going to see Paul outline a Christian lifestyle that's marked by integrity, justice, purity, one that contrasts with the life that we once lived, one that contrasts with the life that we once lived. These are the genuine hallmarks, genuine expressions of life that is transformed by Jesus, being transformed by Jesus, a life where his desires become our desires. But I just want to set this in front of us at the outset, before we get to the main idea.
Speaker 1:This is not an automatic thing, it's not. It's not like. I don't know if Houston referenced this or if somebody else referenced it I think it was John Mark Comer in his book Practicing the Way. But it's not like the Matrix, where you know they're on the roof. Trinity needs to learn how to fly a helicopter. So she calls back to the operator and says I need to know how to fly an Apache. Blah, blah, blah, and all of a sudden her eyes kind of flicker and she's like let's go, because he downloaded it right into her brain. If you don't know what the matrix is, let's talk afterwards. It's basically a turning point in all of history, cinematic history at least. Anyway, not really. But there's a cool camera trick. But the idea is it's not automatic, and I think that, again, I want to put in front of us this morning.
Speaker 1:Jesus uses all kinds of illustrations and metaphors for our growth. None of them are fast, and so I just want to check in with you this morning. How are you feeling about your Christian walk? How are you feeling about your relationship with God? Is he near this morning or is he far? Has it been a struggle? Or do you feel like you're running with strong legs, like Shawn Johnson? The Olympic gymnast thinks you could knock me over? Might be your low center of gravity, but anyway, how are you this morning? I just want to give you 30 seconds to take stock, so would you just close your eyes, put your feet flat on the floor, just come to the center of your breathing, breathe in and out, and just take stock of where you are with relationship to God this morning.
Speaker 1:The reality that we all face is that, regardless of kind of what's going on in our daily lives, the things around us are making us into someone, they're forming us, and for those of us who followed Christ, the call is to align our daily walking with this high calling that we've received. At Eastside, we articulated that we want to be people who love Jesus, live like Jesus and speak of Jesus, and here in Ephesians 4, 17 through 32, paul is going to gently but firmly confront us about that very thing. Are we people who love, live like and speak of Jesus? Are we people who are emulating the ways of Christ and family? What I want us to see is that, because we have new life in Christ, we should abandon our former ways and live like Jesus, relying on the Holy Spirit to guide and shape us so that Jesus' ways become second nature to us. So let's work our way through the text. This morning, we're going to look at what it means to be people who understand our transformation. Through the text. This morning, we're going to look at what it means to be people who understand our transformation, who live out the ways of Jesus and who are empowered by the Spirit.
Speaker 1:And so would you just join me in prayer before we dive in? God, I thank you just for the different ways you've wired us. I just thank you for the people in this room. You've called us together this morning, father, for the folks that we know are usually with us or not with us, I pray that you would bless them this morning, that they would just feel in their spirit a nearness to you. They are no less because they're not with us this morning. We love them. We love you, god. I pray that, as a gathered people, we them. We love you, god. I pray that, as a gathered people, we who are here would turn soft hearts towards you with your help. So, spirit, soften hearts where you need to soften hearts. Strengthen, give faith and courage to believe where you need to give courage to believe. I pray that we would all truly examine the things that we believe to be true about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, and that we would come to this shared idea and what it looks like to leave old patterns behind, abandoning them on the side of the road for something far more precious to walk with you, jesus, to love you more deeply, to live like you and to share this joy that we have because of you, this hope we have with others. So we know that you're here already. We thank you that you are a God who condescends to be with his people, and I pray that you would just be in and among us now, doing your will, working your way In Jesus' name, and my brothers and sisters said with me amen.
Speaker 1:Well, you guys all know Avery and Reed, our fourth and fifth children, reed, is joining us in the service today. Welcome, buddy. Sometimes I talk about the kids. Didn't warn you about it, you'll get used to it, it's okay. Well, avery and Reed are always on an adventure, and so I think most of you have been to our house. If not, I'll describe it so the backyard kind of opens up and of all the things that you know, when you buy a house, you have thoughts about the people who owned it before you, right? You're like, oh, that was a really good decision. I'm not entirely sure what was going on over here, right? The people who owned our house before us planted all kinds of things and like right on top of one another, and it had gone fallow for a while anyway. So we spent the first five years just like ripping up new things. But my favorite thing that they did is they planted pine trees to line the backyard. They're spaced about five, six feet apart, and Avery and Reed can often be found under those pine trees doing different activities.
Speaker 1:And one day I was out on the deck and I observed them at the water spigot filling a bucket with water and then walking across the space of the yard which is probably from the stage to the back cabinets with the bucket to dump it into another bucket, which I'm sure that they were making some kind of soup in. If you're ever offered it, don't eat it. We're pretty sure they don't. We're not 100% sure, but as they're walking I'm noticing that the bucket is leaking water, and then I'm watching them dump it into the other bucket which is sitting up on top of this piece of wood, and that bucket is leaking water as well. And they just keep going right, they're just loving it and they're like surely if we only make enough of these trips, this bucket will fill with water. And as cute as that story is, their efforts are completely futile. They will not get where they think they're going because there's a fatal flaw. Their bucket has a hole. The water will just keep leaking out. And this is a simple illustration.
Speaker 1:But this is where Paul starts us. It mirrors our spiritual state before Christ and this is where Paul is going to get into it. So let's go to our passage. Let's look at Ephesians 4, 17 through 19. Paul writes 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. I want to make a note here before I get into the explanation.
Speaker 1:Paul's using the word Gentiles here, and we might be prone to think that he's talking about non-Jews, which would be most of the time accurate, but here he's using it to make a distinction between believers and not believers. Okay, so this isn't ethnic Jews versus everybody else, right? Remember Ephesians 2? The wall of hostility has been torn down. There's one new body, and so he's using Gentiles to refer to people outside of God's covenant, people which now include all who believe in Christ, not just ethnic Jews. Are we on the same page? Okay? Paul describes the old self here as living in the futility of thinking right, darkened in understanding, separated from the life of God, just like Avery and Reed struggling with broken buckets, our old self, driven by futile thinking and desires, is fundamentally flawed.
Speaker 1:Yesterday we got invited over to someone in the neighborhood's house for homemade pizza, and as they brought out the dough, they announced because when you have people over and you're cooking for them, you always have to tell them what you think is going to go wrong they announced that the dough was overproofed. So, without getting into all the detail, I can tell you details afterwards. I love to tell them what you think is going to go wrong. They announced that the dough was overproofed, and so, without getting into all the detail, I can tell you details afterwards. I love to talk about dough and bread. It basically means that, instead of being strong and stretchy, the dough was weak, soft, and so, as we worked with it in this kind of group pizza-making effort, the dough was breaking. It was kind of coming apart, and so the only way to use it was to reform it into a dough ball with added flour, and in doing so we were able to save the situation.
Speaker 1:And, like the dough, we need to be reformed. Dark, cut off from God, given over to sensuality, losing all sensitivity, full of greed. These are not the ways that humanity was created to operate. We come apart at the seams because of the brokenness of this world, and we need to be reformed so that we can fulfill our purpose and have the hope that we were intended to have. Dallas Willard highlights that this transformation is not just about changing behaviors, but it's a deep reorientation of our being. Willard writes Spiritual formation in Christ is the process leading to that ideal end in which the believer becomes to possess the character and the heart of Christ. So this reorientation, this reformation, moves us from a life driven by futile thinking, endless seeking after desires, to one that reflects God's righteousness and his holiness. That's what we were made for.
Speaker 1:Continuing in the passage, paul now is gonna make a shift, pointing out that the life we learned in Christ is fundamentally different than our former way of life, and this new life involves putting off the old self, which is corrupted by deceitful desires, and being made new in the attitude of our minds. And so I just want to draw attention. There's an action that's required here. Paul's speaking with action words, do you see? Put off right, be made new in your mind. Let's read it together. Look at verse 20 through 24. 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.
Speaker 1:Nikki and I are gonna celebrate 17 years of marriage this summer. We've known each other 20 years and when we got married we turned from our old single way of life, turned away from it, left it on the side of the road so that we could walk the long road of marriage together. We made promises to each other in private. We stood up in front of family and friends and covenanted together to become this new identity together. And we didn't know at 23 what we were getting ourselves into. Not really right. We had an idea. People told us I don't think we could hear them, but we did know what we were getting out of, specifically the way that we related to members of the opposite sex and relationship.
Speaker 1:I remember coming to the realization that how I related to other girls was going to fundamentally change on July 6th of 2007. Because I was now committing to being formed by marriage, not by singleness, and I needed to put on marriage and keep putting it on so as to avoid slipping back into being formed by singleness. Do you see what I'm saying? This is the same thing that Paul is calling us to. He's urging us to put on the new life that we have in Christ and, like marriage, this changes everything about how we relate to the old patterns of life, the way that we were before Christ.
Speaker 1:Learning to live the ways of Jesus involves intentional participation. Imagine if I had to continue to pursue deep relationships with girls after being married to Nikki, and now imagine that I blamed her for not making me into a husband and changing my desires for me, that somehow it was her fault. That's crazy, right. But I think we do this with Jesus. We come to him and we say, okay, I'm going to follow you. And then we just we stand there and Paul's urging us. No, don't just stand there. Put on this new way of life, learn how to live in it.
Speaker 1:I want you to just take stock for a moment of what your life was like before you met Jesus. What did you enjoy and make time for? What patterns of behavior were characteristic of you then? Are they still hanging around? Are you putting it all on Jesus to transform your way of life, but putting in no effort yourself? And here's where I have to step aside and give the obligatory, because we are a gospel-centered church, that I'm not talking about a works-based gospel. That's not what I'm doing. Do you remember Willard, my favorite quote? I think I'm just going to get like tattooed somewhere where I have some space and just point to it.
Speaker 1:The gospel is not opposed to effort, only earning. I'm guessing for most of us there might not even seem to be an old way of living. Maybe you grew up in the church and you're like man. I've just always been this way. I've always been this way. My parents are this way. I just follow Jesus, it's what I do, but you're not growing, and the signs that you're not growing is that you've actually added in patterns that belong to the way of life that this world is following and they've become normative. The passive lack of participation in your own formation into Jesus' life, his character, his mind, his heart and his will is still just as dangerous as if you were bringing it in. I mean, this is what we experience all the time.
Speaker 1:I remember one of the most staggering things that I read on Reddit right as the pandemic was hitting was they have this kind of like. You can ask questions, and it was hey, cheaters of Reddit, how is lockdown influencing your affairs? People will say anything on the internet, by the way, and I'm not saying that like they will make things up. They do that too, but they will reveal things, and just reading through that post thread was incredible. People having left being in their marriage, having their marriage be on them, and putting that off to put on something from outside, and they were ruining their lives.
Speaker 1:This is the contrast that Paul is drawing for us and family. I'm right here with you. If you're like me, you're bringing patterns of life into your relationship with Jesus and they're crowding him out. You can't wear both things equally. If you picture kind of a reservoir inside of your body, it's either full of self-will, which is representative of our old way of life, darkened in understanding, lacking sensitivity to truth, or it's full of the Spirit, this new way of life. We were nude in our minds, created after the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness. And a big way that we can kind of measure this is to think through how we spend our time, how we spend our money, where we spend our best energies, what are we feeding? Where is Jesus in all of that Eastside? I fear that I, along with you, are expecting to be transformed into Jesus without making space to be with Jesus, to learn from him. It's not just to learn things that fill our heads, but to learn things that help us to walk after him, with him, walk in the opposite direction of our old self.
Speaker 1:Ruth Haley Barton explains that true transformation occurs when we create space for God in our lives and respond to his invitations to grow. She writes Spiritual transformation is the process by which Christ is formed in us for the glory of God, for the abundance of our own lives and for the glory of God, for the abundance of our own lives and for the sake of others. This process requires us to actively participate by putting off the old self, embracing new habits, new attitudes that reflect Christ's character. Nikki's had a lasting impact on my life in ways that I am forever grateful. If I'm honest, I'm completely astonished by how much my life has changed over the last 17 to 20 years of knowing her. I shudder to think about how my life would be without what she has formed me in over the last 20 years, but I'm pretty sure that TLC has a show that could feature it.
Speaker 1:Our relationship with Christ can be the same. It's actually designed to be the same. The patterns of life that you have now, that bring guilt and shame and frustration and anxiety and stress, can be transformed into joy-filled, enjoyable ways of living with God, with yourself and with others. I want to be clear again this new way of life has nothing to do with earning our salvation. This is a free gift that God has given us. This is about manifesting the change that Christ has already begun in us. It's about living out the truths we have learned continuously becoming righteous people, holy people, people that when we walk into a room, goodness follows us, people who dispense mercy. We'll get to that here in just a minute. It's about living with renewed attitudes, renewed minds and putting on the new self created to be like God, and so this is where we're going.
Speaker 1:We've been instructed to understand the transformation, and the transformation is that we have an old self it's a way we used to be and we're to abandon it on the side of the road, and we talk about biblical repentance. Biblical repentance literally means turning the other direction. We're getting ready to teach the membership class here in a couple of weeks, and one of our values is always being reformed, and part of that is that we're repenting people. We're always being reformed into the image of Christ, and we do that at every level, and so I'm trying to figure out how to represent that with a graphic, because, if you guys know me, I like visual things and what I've got so far is this line, and then it kind of starts to arc backwards a little bit and then we have to turn around again, and sometimes that line can go for long ways. Right, we've all experienced this. So we're called to be reformed on a regular basis into the new self, new thought patterns, new ways.
Speaker 1:Okay, number two what do we do? People who live out the ways of Jesus? So now, putting on, okay, putting on being people characterized by righteousness, characterized holiness, renewing our minds. Out of this identity is going to come a new way of living, and I want to highlight this a little bit. And because we're humans that are living in a culture consumed with the idea of doing the right thing, the ways of jesus can only become our pattern of life when we are transformed from the inside out. This is what Paul's talking about with his mind. It's like an apple tree it can only grow good apples if it resides in healthy soil. It's getting enough water.
Speaker 1:Look at verse 25 with me. This is where Paul gets practical. He says, therefore, because you're renewing your mind, because you're putting on the new self, because you're putting off the old self, are you with me. Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor. We are all members of one body. This call to put off falsehood, to speak truth is rooted in where Paul began this chapter. If you're in your Bibles, you can just look up to verse 4. Paul writes there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all Family. It's in this oneness, all and in all Family. It's in this oneness, this oneness that's designed to function, to transform us into people who are actively living out the ways of Jesus. Tim Keller highlights the importance of community in this transformation when he says we are not just individuals in relationship with God. We are members of a community and our transformation happens in the context of relationships. Speaking truthfully to one another builds trust and unity within the body of Christ. Let's continue on in verse 26 and 27.
Speaker 1:Paul 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. Learning to understand our emotions is crucial to our being formed to be like Christ. John Mark Comer in his very good book Live no Lies says unchecked anger can become a foothold for the enemy, disrupting our relationship and our own spiritual health. Healthy anger that isn't sinful shows us the shape of our passions. It helps us respond to situations that need justice and mercy. These are characteristics of being like Jesus. It's a good thing. When Jesus turned over the tables, when he whipped the money changers out of the temple, he was angry because they were disturbing the communion of God with his people for their own gain. He's angry. It was a good thing.
Speaker 1:Dan Ortlund, in his book Gentle and Lowly, presents Jesus as embodying both this gentle compassion and this fierce anger. He highlights that Jesus, while being tender and inviting towards sinners, also displayed this profound anger towards sin and its destructive effects, and this is my favorite part of the book. He says Jesus is the most angry person alive to this day, suggesting that he's still angry at sin, the brokenness that it continues to ravage in this world, in our lives. I love that feeling. Have you ever had somebody like good and angry on your behalf? Feels good. Jesus is angry about the sin that is plaguing you family. He's angry about the things that you just can't seem to move beyond.
Speaker 1:But on the flip side, anger, if it's allowed to become unhealthy, eventually gives way to unhealthy fear, which tends to produce a desire to control the situation. Let me know when I'm starting to get close to your tendencies, because they're mine. Start to control the situation in an attempt to do what? Get rid of our anxiety. But what does taking over a situation and attempting to control it ever lead? I know from personal experience. It does not lead to a good outcome. What usually happens is that fear and anxiety build until we're immobilized by our anxiety and depression, or that we explode sideways in rage, which deals powerful damage, and we've seen this damage. It deals it to the individual and to the community around them.
Speaker 1:The reality is that any of our emotions, if allowed to fester or go into a dark place, like the darkness we once walked in before we met christ, will lead to incredible harm and does not lead to us living out the ways of jesus. It deforms us back into our old self. This is the opposite of the way we're supposed to live now. We're to follow Jesus, to be transformed into him. Recognizing and addressing our emotions like anger is part of the attentive response to God's work in our lives that Paul is calling us to have. But this work isn't just limited to our inner life. It must show up in the real world too. Let's look at verses 28 and 29, as Paul continues to unpack what living this new life looks like. 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. These instructions to work honestly, speak wholesomely, are practical applications of this new life in Christ.
Speaker 1:Willard points out that the most important thing in our life is not what we do, but who we become. That's who we will take into eternity with us. Our work, our speech should reflect the character of Christ, contributing to the building up of the body, contributing to this oneness. And just like our emotions, the place to work out these behaviors is our daily lives. Our daily lives as individuals who are part of a larger community, the church. Our daily habits and routines as people who love Jesus are where we practice living like him family. It's in these ordinary stuff of our life that God shows up, brings about this incredible transformation as we put on the new self and surrender our actions to him, seeking Christ-like character. It's slow, but it's real.
Speaker 1:If you've been around for a while, you've heard me talk about bamboo. I'm fascinated by bamboo. Bamboo spends a long time almost five years under the ground and then, over the course of just weeks, can grow to over 100 feet tall. And so the age-old question right, it's like a chicken and the egg kind of a question. It's like how long does bamboo take to grow? Does it take a few weeks or does it take five years? Following Christ, learning to put off and actually leave on the side of the road, not going back forward, our old self, putting on our new self, takes time, but real change occurs.
Speaker 1:Paul's instructions here are not just suggestions. This isn't just kind of like, hey, here's some things to think about, you know. Kind of like just remedying some kind of little. You know little thing you're working with. You know it's like, oh, that might be good, but you know people have different opinions. That's not what this is Speaking truthfully, learning to surrender our emotions, particularly anger, to Christ working honestly.
Speaker 1:The thieves who are caught stealing. Paul's not telling them to stop stealing just because they're taking things. It's what they're not contributing to, stealing just because they're taking things. It's what they're not contributing to the community because they're taking things. See, god always works on that side of it. It isn't just about stopping behavior. It's about beginning a new way of life, using wholesome speech. These are all ways that we can reflect the character of Jesus every day. These practices are not just about following rules. They're about embodying love and integrity, embodying Christ. But we can do none of this. We can understand the transformation that's taken place. We can say I will live the ways of Jesus, but unless we're empowered by the Spirit, none of it will happen. So let's look at verses 30 and 32.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you've heard of Michael Jordan. He's one of the most famous basketball players ever. There's a great documentary I can't remember the name of it right now oh, the Last Dance, I think and it's really good If you're a documentary fan at all, but you're like, I'm not a basketball fan. It's a documentary and I think it's fascinating to just get inside of people's minds Again, the things that people will tell a camera that they know is going to go out there. It's fascinating to me.
Speaker 1:But at the end of his kind of basketball career well, the first part of his, the first career of basketball, michael Jordan his dad passes away and he decides, hey, I want to play baseball to honor my dad. My dad was a big baseball fan, I think he even played some minor leagues. And so he decides to pursue this career change in baseball. But this transition required more than just him taking his talent from Chicago and applying it to the baseball diamond. He had to completely transition his physiology, transform his entire body. Jordan had to adopt a new training regimen that included different exercises. He had to change up his whole diet, new routines to build specific muscles that he would need for baseball, which were very different than the kind of muscles needed for basketball. His success in this new sport depended on his commitment to this daily walking out of this new regimen, and he couldn't do it on his own. He talks about this. He talks about going to his trainer and and putting together a plan and his trainer working with him for for months, the better part of a year, so that he would be equipped with the understanding, not just in his mind but in his body, on how to do this new workout regimen to get ready for baseball.
Speaker 1:And similarly, living out our new identity in Christ requires daily practices that reinforce our transformation. And, just like Jordan had to change physiology to adapt to a new sport, we need the Holy Spirit to transform us from the inside out so that we move beyond just doing right things to truly embodying Jesus' character in the everyday stuff of our lives. So let's look at verse 30 and just unpack. What does it mean to be empowered by the Spirit? Ephesians 4.30,.
Speaker 1:Paul writes do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. The role of the Holy Spirit in our spiritual formation is pivotal. Family, at the expense of boring you with one more Willard quote, he explains it this way he says the Holy Spirit takes the teachings of Jesus and applies them to our hearts, making them a living reality within us. This presence of the Spirit is both a comfort and a challenge. It guides and convicts us to live out our new identity in Christ. I can imagine there were days when Michael was tired, his body hurt and his trainer is there saying hey, remember the goal, remember what we're trying to do. It's worth it, press on.
Speaker 1:But Paul's instruction here is to not grieve the Holy Spirit, and I think this is highlighting the sensitivity of our relationship with God. Because when we try to put back on the old self, when we engage in negative behaviors like bitterness, rage, malice, clamor, we're resisting the Spirit's work in our lives. This resistance is not just a minor setback but it's a hindrance to our spiritual growth, our ability to live out our calling Theologically. This transformation involves understanding our identity in Christ fundamentally changes our relationship with sin and with virtue, just like my Christ fundamentally changes our relationship with sin and with virtue, just like my marriage fundamentally changed my relationship with other women who are not Nikki. Being in step with the Holy Spirit is how we learn to break free from these patterns. So by engaging with them we fall out of step. And this is a countercultural message in a world that prioritizes self-interest, instant gratification, retribution over forgiveness, self-will do it. God is kind, he will accomplish his purposes in our lives.
Speaker 1:But this call to not grieve the Holy Spirit is real and I think a lot of times we just kind of chalk it up as this thing of like. Well, I'm not really sure what that means. Let's bring it into concrete reality in our lives. I like to describe moments where I'm aware that Jesus wants to talk to me about something or is trying to say something to me, and it's like I'm in the same room as he is and he's over there and I just don't really want to look at him right now. Have you ever had anybody do that to you? It's the most obvious thing in the world, isn't it? You walk in the room and you say someone's name and they just kind of like pretend you're not there. Or, like you know, I give an instruction to one of my kids and they just kind of like look away, as if somehow I just disappear and my presence is no longer there and somehow that command is just gonna evaporate.
Speaker 1:That's what grieving the Holy Spirit is like, and it's just as obviously silly, because we are people who are being changed to be like Christ and so we need his spirit. He said, actually, that it was better that he leave so that we would have the spirit, so that we would do greater things than him. We have to stop grieving the Holy Spirit. We have to stop resisting the kinds of things that he is trying to bring about by way of change in our lives. And for some of us, we've been aware of patterns for a long time. For others of us, there's going to be a fresh awareness as we lean in to. What does this mean for us in our daily lives? So here comes the good news. Look at Ephesians 31 and 32. Well, here's the bad news.
Speaker 1:First, you have to get rid of this stuff, paul writes get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, along with every form of malice. And I want to note, while Paul may have been imagining physical things during that time, we can do this in conversation, can't we? How many of you have been on the internet recently? Social media? We brawl, we slander, we practice malice, we rage. We can be very bitter people, and I would say that all of us in this room and I know most of you well you are not bitter people, but, left alone to your own devices, there are things you've experienced in your life that would leave you bitter and erect Word not for Christ.
Speaker 1:And here's the antidote. This is what Paul writes Be kind, don't do those things. Be kind, be compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as in Christ. God forgave you, be kind, be compassionate. Paul is using characteristics of Christ that are fundamental to his character and that have a really profound effect on this broken world. Henry Nouwen suggests that compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things. It's the beginning of healing this interconnectedness that we have with the body, right where Paul started this chapter. We're one, we're one. We're one. God is in and through all. We're one.
Speaker 1:So what Houston was teaching us last week when he mentioned those five-fold apest gifts? Right, and so the oneness that's in us, together like a mosaic, is designed to image Christ, to show Christ to a world that desperately needs him. I just want to read this passage again for you. This is Ephesians 4, 11 through 16. Just listen. And God gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and the teachers. I know we can get hung up on those definitions. I want us to call. I want to call us back to what Houston said. Let's work it out in community over time, and if you need help because somebody taught those to you, it messed you up a little bit or something, or you've heard them used as leverage come talk to us as your elders. We want to walk you through that.
Speaker 1:But for now, god gave gifts, and let's agree that this gift is the full image of Christ. He gave them to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. Until when, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, or one, the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood Ladies, you're not exempt. This is like mature personhood okay To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, the full expression of Jesus. Why? So that we might no longer be tossed to and fro, so we might no longer be in darkness, in turmoil, in our old selves. Rather, in speaking the truth, in love, we grow up in every way into Christ, from whom we're all connected, joined together, held together, so that the body would build itself up in love.
Speaker 1:This is the effect of kindness and compassion on a broken world, of kindness and compassion on a broken world. The love that we're to show to one another begins with understanding God's heart of forgiveness demonstrated for us. We have to experience something before we can really pass it on. God's ultimate love for us enables us to truly love one another, even when we're difficult to love, because Paul, in another letter, says while you were still sinners, christ died for you. Jesus didn't wait to come until we were ready and easy to love. He showed compassion and kindness. I mean, this is the embodiment of the gospel, and it's how we become a community of light, shining into a world of darkness so that others might also be brought out of it, into new life in Christ.
Speaker 1:Are you seeing this picture? By experiencing faith in Christ, following him, we've put off our old self. We've been transformed, we have a new self. We're to live out the ways of Jesus as the expression of that new self, and we are to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to do it. So what's the next step? Well, I'm glad you asked, as I always am. The next step? Well, I'm glad you asked, as I always am. Well, as we learn to live out this new life in Christ, we're called to abandon our old ways, to live like Jesus, allowing the Spirit to guide and to shape us, and the point is that His character would become second nature to us, not occasionally, when it's convenient nature, but second nature, and so there's a lot of ways that we could try to apply this.
Speaker 1:I'm very aware our culture that we're in isn't up and to the right. Go as fast as you can, as hard as you can, and you're gonna get where you wanna go. I'll use Paul's language. That's not the way you learned Christ, and so I wanna actually slow us down, but I wanna call us into unity around something. I know that we all have different things that we do on a daily basis to connect with God, and over the last few months, we've been putting out the daily practice, which is trying to help people get time alone with God in a particular way, working through particular spiritual disciplines, and each week we're trying to offer insights, practical steps to weave these ways of Jesus into our daily routine. And so, whether you're a long-time believer, whether you're new to this journey, this is really an opportunity to deepen your walk with Christ, and so I just want you to turn. Turn to the next page in your bulletin. Well, actually it's a few pages into your bulletin, because we're going to sing in a little minute.
Speaker 1:We're currently exploring the practice of solitude, and it's been hard, but it's been so good. You can talk to Tim about how hard it's been. He's like a. I don't know if it's a warning, tim, for extroverts, or if it's like a call that they can do it. I haven't figured out yet, but I love the way that you are engaging with this brother. I love the ways that I have seen you just pursue Jesus in the lonely place and experience him.
Speaker 1:Tim regularly tells me about sitting in the front room of his house. Many of you have been there. He told this to us, I think, a few weeks ago. Two couches and he sits on one in the quiet of the afternoon and he just envisions Jesus sitting across from him. And I know because tears tell the truth that that has become a sacred place for you, a place of healing as you experience the kindness and the compassion of Christ. And I know that it's complicated. Not all of us have kids out of the house and only occasionally grandchildren coming and running and jumping on us in the morning. Some of us are under a pile of children. So I know it's going to take some work, but I want to encourage all of us to sync up on this practice this week, to lean in to intentionally setting aside some time to be with Jesus, because all this put off the old self, put on the new self.
Speaker 1:I don't know about you. For me it comes with tons of baggage, lots of self-effort, lots of trying, failing, cycles of shame. Those are the moments when we need Christ the most, when we need his love and his kindness, his compassion, to be spoken over us again and again. And I think that's why Paul says depend on the Spirit to manifest that in the church, because we need the constant reminder. Imagine the impact on our community as we collectively pursue Christ.
Speaker 1:Not only will our lives be transformed, well, not only will God get glory, not only will our lives be transformed, but those around us, including the not yet believers in our lives, will witness the beauty of Jesus reflected in how we live. May this Holy Spirit open their eyes to the grace that we've received in Christ. And I don't always say this often, and I'm going to say this in closing this this is how we will one day see Madison and Dane County, everyone who lives here, having a daily encounter with Jesus. It's by experiencing him ourselves, encountering him ourselves. So, family, my prayer for us is that we would put off our old self and leave it in a heap on the side of the road and never go back and learn how to be formed and reformed into the character of Christ, that we might live his ways, empowered by his spirit. Would you pray with me?