Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning and welcome to Mission Church.

My name is John and I serve Mission as the lead pastor.

I am humbled and honored to be with you this morning.

Our mission is to partner with God to see His kingdom come in Las Vegas as it is in heaven and we accomplish this as we Love Jesus, Live like Jesus, and Lead others to Jesus.

This morning, we are continuing in our study of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.....

A journey that we’ve entitled, “God’s Plan for God’s people.”

It is absolutely amazing that God has invited us to be a part of His plan for the world.

Despite our brokenness, and regardless of our weaknesses, God plans to use His Church to transform the world for His glory!

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Now....If you would, please grab your copy of God’s Word and open it to Ephesians 4. The first three chapters of this letter focus on how it is we receive a new life in Christ.

And..in Chapter 4…Paul pivots from teaching us the contents of the gospel to how we are to apply and live out the gospel.

We left off last week with Paul instructing us on how we are to live out the Christian life....specifically in the context of the local church… and we were challenged to intentionally use the gifts of grace God has given us for the ministry of our local church.

Now…over the next few weeks…Paul is going to lay out for us.... in detail.... the characteristics of the new identity we received when Jesus saved us.

I have entitled this morning’s sermon “Out with the Old, In with the New”, and if you are able to, I would like to invite you to stand for the reading of God’s Word.

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Pray.

“You may be seated”

Have you ever heard the saying, “clothes make the man?”

The idea is this.....the way you dress determines how people will perceive you.

If you want to be seen as powerful then you need to wear a power suit.

If you want to be seen as hip then you need to wear a fresh new pair of Air Jordan’s.

If you want people to think that you don’t care then you need to spend way too much money on a pair of worn out and tattered jeans.

After all.....“You are what you wear!”

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At my age, I try not to care about what others think about my clothes.

Let’s be honest, I am not the most fashionable.

But…when I was a kid…my identity was wrapped up in how I presented myself.

The clothes and the shoes I wore defined who I was …they determined what friend group I had....what hobbies I enjoyed..and what table I would sit at in the cafeteria.

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Now…of course…this idea is not physically true....you are not defined by how you dress..... but this concept is spiritually true.

When you become a Christian, you get a new set of clothes…you are clothed in Christ, and these clothes make the man....or the woman.

You see..... when Christ saves you…He clothes you in Himself, you receive a new spiritual identity, and you are given new responsibilities.

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And.....In our text this morning.... Paul …he instructs us to take off our old garment of corruption and to put on a new garment of grace.... and he uses this metaphor of clothing to point us to our deepest problem and our greatest need.....you see.....Humanity’s greatest issue is that our hearts have been corrupted....and this corruption has hardened our hearts producing all kinds of desires that are in opposition to God.

And so.....Paul warns us that…if these corrupt desires are not dealt with......they will ultimately deceive us and lead us to death.

But How do we deal with them?

What do we do?

Well…from our text....Paul gives us a diagnosis and a prescription .....he gives us a remedy that can heal our corrupt hearts and free us from deceitful desires as we pursue a life that loves Jesus, lives like Jesus, and leads others to Jesus.

Let’s first take a look at Paul’s Diagnosis.

Paul begins with an urgent and authoritative instruction....look at v17

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Ephesians 4:17 (CSB)

17 Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: In other words...because you have a high calling in Jesus Christ....because you have been called to salvation…because you have been unified in the Body of Christ, and were gifted by the Holy Spirit....

You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do...

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Now, this word Gentile is being used... not in an ethnic sense ....but in a moral sense…much like we would use the word pagan…or ungodly.

Paul is essentially calling Christians to stop living like those who don’t know Jesus.

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Now....Ephesus was a leading commercial and cultural city within the Roman Empire.

It was famous for the great pagan temples of Artemis and Diana, which are considered today as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Much like the church in Las Vegas....the church in Ephesus was surrounded by godlessness and immorality.

What happened in Ephesus stayed in Ephesus…it was a leading city of debauchery and sexual immorality.

Many historians have titled the city to have been the most lascivious and depraved city of its time.

So with this in mind…we can imagine the church in Ephesus as a small island in a sea of wickedness…a sea that most of the believers had at one time swam in....and Paul says, “Look , you have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ…now…live like it.”

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Now…underline or make note of this word, “walk” ....this word is not just speaking about how we are to live.... it’s much more detailed than that.....rather it is highlighting our deliberate, step-by-step lifestyle choices.

In other words…by God’s grace in Christ we have been saved and reconciled to God…we have been united to Christ...we are now members of His body....the Church....and so Paul is appealing to us to live out our new identity in Christ…he is telling us that we are to live with a deliberate…thought- through pattern of life.....and the first step to this new distinctive walk is to stop walking as we did before we met Jesus.

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Brothers and Sisters.....the moment you believed and confessed that Jesus is your Lord …you were spiritually born again…you experienced a complete spiritual transformation .

Consider .....

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Romans 6:4 (CSB)

4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.

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consider also

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2 Corinthians 5:17 (CSB)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

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You see ......you did not simply receive something new ....you have become someone new....and your new nature is not added onto your old nature but replaces it....if you are in Christ then you have been completely transformed and you have been given a completely new nature.

Now…you may be thinking, “But John, if that is true …then why do I still sin?

Why do I struggle with sin? Do we continue to sin after we become Christians?”

Paul is helpful and answers this question in ....

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Romans 7:17–18 (CSB)

17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me.

18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh.

For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.

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In other words..... Yes....you are a new creation....and ..yes…you have been given a new nature in Christ…It’s true that your old self died and your new self lives but its also true that there is a remaining garment of sinful flesh that causes you to sin.

You see…as a Christian you are transformed but you are not yet wholly perfect.

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However......although we still have residing sin we are no longer controlled or ruled by sin…we are no longer a slave to our old sinful nature.... we are no longer corrupted by sin …rather we are new creations awaiting the completion of the work that God has begun in us.

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Now.....with this in mind ....we can understand that our new nature demands a change in behavior…and Paul helps us by first describing what our life before Christ looked like…a lifestyle that should no longer describe us or define us.

So....what exactly does it look like to walk like a Gentile?

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Well....Look back at v17

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Ephesians 4:17–19 (CSB)

17 ...You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thoughts.

18 They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts.

19 They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more.

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Paul’s description of an unbeliever is bleak and dark ....and this downward spiral of life begins with a hardened heart

Man’s condition has at its root the hardening of the heart......you see…Paul is not speaking of a merely “hard” heart but a “hardened” heart.

Paul is referring to a certain stubbornness and is speaking of one who repeatedly makes the wrong choices....one who constantly chooses to sin... which ultimately results in the the heart becoming calloused.

Callouses are a result of deliberate choices repeatedly made against God’s good rule and reign …and the result..and the danger of these callouses is a life that is insensitive to God’s will and God’s ways, and has an inability to respond to God’s truth.

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Consider Romans 1:18

Romans 1:18 (CSB)

18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,

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They suppress the truth....or they hold down the truth much like the little boy who smuggled his dog into his room to spend the night.

When he heard his parents approaching, he put the dog in his toy box, sat on the lid, and talked with his parents, ignoring the repeated thumps and the howls of the poor dog.

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You see....Paul is talking about an aggressive suppression of the truth....knowing what is right but refusing to obey or knowing what is sin and choosing to still commit it....and when you choose to sin…those choices rub against your heart so often that they ultimately leave it calloused…making it insensitive to God’s will and God’s ways.

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Remember....Paul is writing this to believers.

Tell me.....Why do Christians need this kinds of warning?

Well....The answer comes when we consider the allure of temptation....whatever that may be for you....whether the temptation is to gamble....view pornography, or simply to waste time…we can try to convince ourselves that it’s almost innocent....as we think things like.....“Nobody gets hurt,” “nobody needs to know”, and “we can stop at any time,” But what really happens?

Well.... sin hardens our hearts, darkens our minds to the evil of what we are doing, and ultimately makes us less sensitive to the moving of God in our lives.

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You see.... when we embrace what the world promises will satisfy ......we inevitably discover that it drives the tenderness and the feeling out of our hearts....ultimately leaving us unfulfilled.

Then.....with a hardened heart no longer pumping life-giving blood, the mind itself grows dull and dark…you see....a hard heart leads to the darkness of heart

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This phrase in v.18 ....“They are darkened in their understanding.”

speaks of the absence of spiritual understanding.

Now....of course unbelievers are capable of obtaining knowledge....but they are incapable of obtaining wisdom.

Sin darkens our understanding in every way and the more you suppress the truth the less capable you are of discerning spiritual reality.

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When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden…their first thought was to hide from God (Gen.

3:8).

A futile task for no one can hide from God…but sin had mangled their mind …sin had caused them to think that the good and gracious God was someone to hide from…..You see..... their thinking became futile…worthless....and empty..... because sin darkened their understanding.. That’s what sin does.

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In fact Paul says, apart from Christ our minds are worthless....our thoughts are futile…and.....a futile mind can’t accomplish what it’s supposed to accomplish…because…a futile mind produces empty ...pointless…and vain thoughts.

You see.... God designed our minds for a purpose but sin has corrupted our minds and has made them hollow.

Ultimately ignorance and sin are inseparable.

And....from a hardness of heart and darkness of heart comes a dead and immoral heart

Paul says in verse 18: “they are excluded from the life of God.”