OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW

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Ephesians 4:17-32

Good morning.

Morning. My name is Daniel Duce. I am one of the pastors here and I want to give you another update about the building. By the way, if you're new here, you know, you think our building looks awesome and freshly painted. For those of you that have been here a while, it looks pretty good, right? Yeah.

Out with the old. In with the new. For old timers, for OG Mission church folks, and for, those that are new or visiting. I want to tell you the story of our little church. We began, as a Bible study and then had our first actual service together in a high school in Helotes, in way far northwest San Antonio.

That was in 2008. I came on staff in February of 2009, in a high school auditorium. That's where we were. And in some classrooms where we did kids. Then that summer we were moved. So that's the first location. That summer we moved into a barn, gym, agriculture building that was next to the high school. Okay, that was our second location.

Then praise the Lord. Everything got fixed and we were able to move back into the high school. Then the following year, in 2010, we moved to what had was just built the Palladium movie theater at I-10 and 1604. If you all know where that is. We were there for a long time, and then at one point, they gave us three weeks notice and we had to find another location.

So we found another location, which was this movie theater right here. So that was our fourth location. Then by the grace of God, through some wild circumstances, we were able to get into this building and renovate an old racquetball gym. Now our sixth location, that was Easter of 2019. And we've been here leasing this space ever since.

Recently, this building was purchased by someone else and they are renovating the building. And whenever, whenever we are basically month to month right now and he, the owner of the building, is graciously allowing us to be here until we renovate what will be our seventh location at the Amish Oak Furniture Store on 410 and West Avenue. It is being renovated as we speak.

That's. This will be our seventh location since 2008. We have had four lead pastors. I am the fourth lead pastor of Mission Church. We've nearly merged twice with two other churches. There are so many stories that I could tell you and reasons why we should not exist as a church. But God, in his grace has allowed us to endure and remain.

And he's just done a really unique work. I think, with us here at Mission Church. And I think that he has something unique for us to do. I don't know what it is. But we will. We are renovating a new building, our seventh location. We are going to have twice the seating. We are going to have a lot more parking we're going to have.

It's going to be right on the highway. I'm praying that we will be able to invite and welcome more people into our family and into life with Jesus. Do men's ministry and women's ministry and children's ministry and youth ministry and college and career ministry and all kinds of I equip the saints for the work of ministry. I don't know what we're going to get to do, but I'm excited for it.

During this renovation process, just to give you guys an update, if you're new or visiting, we're just going to talk business for a second. Okay. We have, spent over $130,000 as of this point, and we don't even have our building permits yet. It's expensive to renovate a commercial property. Our desire, my desire. It's not a rule, but it's our desire that we complete this renovation project and not have to take out a loan.

We want to do this and remain debt free. Another desire that we have is that we would like to buy new chairs for the new building. I know some of you love these chairs, but some of us don't. We bought the ones we could afford at the time. They had to be folding and they had to be 18in.

They had to be the the the the, the thinnest chairs we could get so we could fit the most of them in this room. And we don't have to do that anymore. We really would like to buy new chairs, but I don't know if you've priced those out recently. They are expensive. Another desire that we have is that when we move into the building, we have a sign on the front of the building that says Mission Church.

We've also been allowed the ownership of the building has allowed us to if we pay for it, we can put a sign on the highway that belongs to our property. It's a six panel sign that is, that you can see from 410 on both sides. That data says over 180,000 cars drive by every single day.

But it's expensive and none of us can do it by ourselves. We have to do all of this together. I am overwhelmed by the generosity of so many of you for so long. The way that you serve and the way that you give, I know that the government shutdown has been difficult for a lot of us. It's just been a hard couple of years.

The economy is is is tough. But I think we can do this together. And I would just ask as your as your, as people are doing end of year giving campaigns, as people are asking you to consider where you're going to, you know, give of your tithe or give of your extra or, be generous in this season of giving, I would just ask that you would consider, to help us, help us in the year strong as we are seeking to get into this new space.

I know I have several things in my garage that I need to Facebook Marketplace, that I have been putting off for a long time. So I will do that. I might have my kids do a bake sale. I don't know what we're going to do, but we'll get creative. I would just ask that you would pray for us.

God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He can make this happen. It is not a hard thing for him to do. But I know that that we're blessed when we. It's more blessed to give than to receive. And I know that he can do this. And we can do this together. I'm going to pray, and then we're going to get into Ephesians because this is not a, giving sermon.

Hopefully you can hear the rest of the words that I say because the pastor just asked you for money. So just forget I said that, you know, until the end. And, we're going to get into Ephesians four. So if you have a Bible or if you have a Bible on your on your phone, but the Bible app open to Ephesians four and we're going to read the second half of Ephesians four.

Let me pray.

Heavenly father, thank you for. This church. Thank you for allowing us to, endure all these years and all the seasons and all the hardship and difficulty. Thank you for all of the ways that you have used this church in my life. And in so many lives, I ask that you would continue to use us, continue to use us as you see fit to make known the name of Jesus, to declare the gospel, to declare your truth.

To invite people into life with you.

Make us the people set apart, Lord, for your purposes in this city and beyond. Provide for us. Bless us. Lord, bless our pursuits, Lord, as we as we strive and endeavor to glorify you in all that we do as a body. Lord, bless these people.

Bless them with knowledge of you. Bless them in their obedience. Bless them in their devotional life. Bless them in their worship. Bless them in their families. Bless them in their homes. Bless them in their work. Make all that they touch. Make all that they pursue. Lord, to prosper for your glory, for their joy, so that people may look and say, wow, those people are blessed as their God is the Lord.

Make a shiny and bright Lord for all to see. Come now and speak to us through your word and do what only you can do. Open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things. Now from your word in Jesus name, Amen. Little recap. So last week we were in Ephesians. The first half. Paul has just finished urging these Ephesian Christians to walk worthy.

Verse one I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. To walk in a worthy manner means that we should walk while striving toward unity. Fight for unity. Paul says, walk worthy by pursuing unity with all diligence and with urgency. Last week, Paul told the Ephesians to walk worthy, and today the apostle Paul will continue.

He tells them not to walk as the Gentiles do, because that would not be walking in a worthy manner. Don't walk like the Gentiles, rather walk in holiness. And I'm going to break this down in three sections to walk in holiness. Life without Jesus. Life with Jesus and life with Jesus. Together. Life without Jesus. Now this I say, verse 17, and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.

Paul is saying, I stand here and I testify alongside the Lord Jesus. Don't walk like the Gentiles do. And all the Ephesians, as they were reading this, said, hey, but but I'm a Gentile. But but I was a Gentile. Don't walk like the Gentiles do. Paul is saying, friends don't walk like you used to walk. Don't go back to your old ways of living.

Don't live like you used to live before Christ. Paul is also reminding them of who they were before Christ, who they were without Christ, who they were before. The free gift of God's grace has had saved him, had made them alive. Do you remember chapter two? Life without Jesus. Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.

That word futility, it means vanity, means depravity, worthlessness, without purpose.

Futility. Paul is saying, don't walk like you used to walk as a result of your useless mind.

Remember, behavior begins in the mind.

What we do is determined by how we think. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They are darkened in their understanding, their ability to reason. These Gentiles, their ability to reason properly, has been darkened. It has been clouded. The reason the Gentiles walk like they do in the futility of their minds.

It's because darkness has completely clouded their ability to reason, to even reason in a proper way. They can't think straight. Their minds are depraved because they lack the ability to understand spiritual things. In chapter one, Paul prays for the Ephesians that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.

We need the Spirit of God to help us understand the things of God. The things of the spirit are spiritually discerned. And Paul is reminding these Ephesian Christians who were once Gentiles, who were once Gentiles, that walked in darkness, that they are now enlightened believers. Don't walk as the Gentiles do.

He needs them to remember what they were, and to constantly remember that they are not that anymore.

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. The Gentiles were also alienated from the life of God, separated from the life that comes from God. Paul is exhorting these Ephesian Christians not to walk like they used to walk when they were separated from God, when they were alienated from God, when they were not a part of the covenant family of God, not a part of God's household.

Remember chapter two. Not fellow citizens with the saints, not members of the household of God. Do you see what Paul's doing? He is telling them not to do something while also reminding them of what has been done for them. In Christ.

He's catching them up on everything that he's told them has come true for them in Christ. It's brilliant. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. The Gentiles are separated from the life of God because of their ignorance. They couldn't see.

They could not perceive. They couldn't understand. Friends. I could not see.

I couldn't understand. I couldn't hear the things of God.

Why? Because their heart had become hardened. Notice, due to their hardness of heart. Heart is singular. Every person, each and every one of us, is responsible for the hardness of our own heart. The revelation of God and His will is not able to to penetrate, to cut deep into our heart when it's hard. This is why people remain ignorant of God and His will and His Word and his ways.

It is a heart issue. It's not because we need to, you know, you need to explain it better. They can't. We can't see. Paul couldn't see until God knocked him off his horse.

Friends, we must pray for the hearts of our friends and our family and the people we work with and our neighbors. We must pray that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened, and we must pray for our own hearts. Life without Jesus. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

Paul has been communicating the character of those that have that lived life without Jesus. And now he's going to talk about what that character leads to, which is lifestyle. Character leads to decisions and behaviors. It leads to a lifestyle.

The effects of this continual hardness of heart leads to callousness.

It's like hard on hard. And this callousness leads to three things. Look at the verse. It leads to sensuality, which is another word for indecency. That is the word impurity and greed.

I'm going to read, my translation of verse 19. They they, the Gentiles, have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. Leave that up, please. Indecency in this indecency is sin without concern for what God thinks or what people think, or how it's going to affect anyone else. It's just indecent.

No concern. Impurity. Moral impurity. Sexual impurity. Every sort of defilement and greed. Greed is covetousness, which is idolatry. It is desiring what another has. It is coveting what another has. It is doing, doing things, doing everything for me, for my own advantage. I don't even know how to have a relationship with another person because I'm so greedy. I just am concerned with what I can get out of this person.

Greed.

And this is the life without Jesus lifestyle. It starts when people pervert their free will and they give themselves over to sin. And then God's response is he gives them over to their sin.

And then the result of that is that sin continues to enslave them. These Gentiles have become completely consumed with themselves. Their selfishness is in direct opposition to Christ, who laid down his life, who gave himself up for us.

This is love of self versus love of God and others.

And Paul reminds the Ephesians what life without Jesus is like. He's asking them to remember.

And then he's exhorting them, don't walk like this. James would say it like this. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Friends, we must not walk as the world does. We must walk closely with Jesus. When we walk with Jesus.

We will not walk as the world walks. We will walk in nearness to him. And as we as we walk in proximity to him, he will transform us. We will become like him.

This is life with Jesus. Verse 20. But that is not the way you learned Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. When we hear the gospel, when we hear of Jesus Christ preached, and then we receive him. This is the beginning of what Paul refers to here learning Christ.

We hear and we believe and we receive. That is our learning. Christ, our old life is gone. Our new life is concerned with this hearing, this learning about Christ. And as we continue to learn Christ, we order and arrange our lives so that we would please Christ. This is life with Jesus Christ is the object. He is the purpose.

He is the goal of our learning and our hearing and our teaching. All truth is found in Jesus. And Paul is saying, Ephesians, remember that is not who you are any longer. You are no longer like those Gentiles. So don't walk like that. Don't live like that. Walk in holiness. Walk in the truth of who God has called you to be in Christ.

Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Live with Jesus. Live life with Jesus in a life in pursuit of holiness.

This life pleases Jesus. Verse 22. To put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life, and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness. This life with Jesus is a fight for holiness.

To walk in a worthy manner. To walk in holiness, as Paul is calling us to here. When we order our lives appropriately, bring all things under submission to Jesus, who is himself. The truth. It is a fight.

It's not just going to happen as you chill.

Paul calls it a good fight of faith, a race worth running.

Races are hard. It is an endurance race worth running. We must put off the old self. We must be renewed in our minds. And we must put on the new self. What must we put off? The person that we were must be put off, put away, thrown away. Put down.

Our old words. Our old ways. Our old thoughts. Our old attitudes. Our old beliefs. Anything that does not obey Christ. We must put down. We must kill it.

We must be rid of it.

First John one. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So we would be lying to say that some of the old self doesn't linger.

Chapter three. No one born of God makes a practice though of sinning. Makes a practice of sinning.

We would be lying to say that some of the old self isn't still in us, in on us, and it comes out of us sometimes, but for it to remain is unacceptable.

No one born of God can make a practice. A habit can continue sinning and sinning and sinning, and it not just eat them up inside. If you're sinning and sinning and sinning and you just feel it and it eats you up, that's a good sign. Keep making war.

We must put it off. We must throw it away. We must kill it. How can we be renewed? We put truth into our minds, be transformed by the renewal of your mind. We pursue truth from the scriptures. The Bible sound biblical teaching. And then we live in community so that we are sharpened and so that we can put what we learn into practice.

Romans six. We know that happens with your mind. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. Might be put down, might be killed, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. This is the process.

Verse 11. So you also must consider that happens with your mind. Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Consider yourselves. Reckon yourselves is the word. Reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God. I don't do that anymore. That's. That's not me. I'm. That's dead to me. I'm going to live my life unto God.

This is a fight that takes place in our minds.

Colossians three set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died. Believe it in your mind. Know it. You have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you.

Third, what must we put on as we live near Jesus, as we live in proximity to Christ and His people? We are actively putting on this new person. This new person is being put on, that is being formed and being transformed by the power of the spirit through knowledge of the word. This is how it happens. This is sanctification.

As the gospel does its work in our lives. Jesus makes us more like himself. This is his purpose. He wants to conform us to the image of his son. He makes us more like himself. We become like that which we behold. We must put off sin. We must put on righteousness. Is this not the gospel? This is the problem that we face as humanity, sin and righteousness.

We are sinners. We have sin and God is righteous.

And so what does God do?

He takes our sin and he puts it on His Son. He puts it on his son, and he nails it to a cross so that the punishment that I should pay for my sin is put on him, and he atones for my sin.

He stands in my place as a sinner and takes the punishment that I deserve. And then what do I get? I don't understand it. I get his righteousness given to me for free.

It makes no sense. But this is the dream that was imagined by God. This is his plan. And all you have to do is believe it. And receive it. And when you do, it changes you.

Our sin and his righteousness. He put down our sin so that we could put on righteousness.

For our sake. He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Peter, the betrayer of Jesus, the denier of Jesus, says he himself. That is Jesus. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. The gospel is the power of God.

It is the only power strong enough to soften even the hardest, even the most callous heart. The death of Christ. For me, the forgiveness of Christ. For the things I've done.

Put off sin. Be renewed. Put on righteousness. This is the life that is built upon the love of God displayed in the death of Jesus Christ. And this is life with Jesus. Now, what does this life with Jesus look like? As we live in community together, therefore Paul continues having put away falsehood. Let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Friends, we must put away falsehood. This has been a 20 year endeavor for me. I was a liar.

I would lie about things that I didn't even need to lie about. My experiences in life had taught me that it was safer to lie, to live, to protect myself.

With falsehood. We must put to death lies, deceptions, even a twisting of the truth. False teaching. False doctrine. Incorrect belief. We must love the truth because Jesus loves the truth because he is the truth. As Christians, as new people who love and pursue righteousness, we are commanded to speak the truth with one another. Speak the truth with one another in love.

And what's bound to happen when we tell one another the truth? Well, let's read the next verse. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. And give no opportunity to the devil. We are bound to wrong one another. Friends, when we start telling one another the truth. Even in love we're going to offend one another.

Maybe even hurt one another. Maybe even say the right thing, the true thing, the correct thing, but not say it in a loving way.

But what does he say? We are not to allow our emotions to lead us to sin. In word or indeed be angry. But do not sin. And what else does it say? We must forgive quickly. We should not even let the sun go down before our anger is resolved.

We must forgive quickly. The devil wants us to remain angry with one another. Divided.

The devil can then come in and twist the truth and bend and manipulate and distort and tell lies and gossip and slander and cause division and disunity. We must quickly strive, pursue, chase, fight for unity, and fight to resolve these issues. We must strive for peace and strive for restoration.

The devil loves disunity and he hates unity. Do you remember that? The first thing the devil says in the garden. Did God really say he just likes to cause a mess?

First John three he says the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. Let the thief no longer steal. Verse 28, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let the stealer no longer steal. Is what that means.

This could be the laborer who steals from his employer. Maybe he's stealing product. Maybe, like, you know, you work at Starbucks and you're supposed to get, like, one free latte every shift, but, like, you get 2 or 3.

Maybe you're stealing in the way that you're clocking in and clocking out or acting like you're working, but you're not really working.

Maybe you're dishonest in your in your work or in your performance.

This is stealing. You are being paid to do something and then you're not doing it knowingly. As a believer.

This could also be the owner of a business who's dishonest with his customers about the product, about the service, about whatever it is he's offering. And he knows it's not up to snuff, but he's just he, he he needs the money. This is dishonest. This is stealing in God's eyes. We work as believers. We work to honor God first.

To provide for our families and to be able to be generous when there is opportunity. Friends, I remember what it. I remember not being able to work.

As a man. It's the darkness that hovered over me was,

Was overwhelming. It's such a gift to be able to work, to be able to provide, to be able to honor God with our work.

Ephesians 429. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Friends, we are accountable for what we say. Every word.

This one hits me like a ton of bricks. Every time. There's not a night that my head hits the pillow. That I don't think of. The 500 things that I said that I shouldn't have said, or the things that I said in the way that I should not have said them.

I must pay more attention to the words that I use. Even how I say them and why I say them, so that my words would be a blessing, so that my words would be a benefit, so that my words would build others up.

Worthless words harm the body of Christ and they also grieve the Holy Spirit. Verse 31 let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you. Put away along with all malice. Bitterness is resentment, wrath and anger, wrath and anger, shouting and slander. This is abusive speech. Notice bitterness is like a heart posture.

Like like it's an attitude. And then wrath and anger are these emotions that come out of that, posture and and feeling and then shouting and slander like, oh, no, they're actions now. They're coming out of me. It's like moves from in to out and all malice, all malice. All of these things should be put away. They should be put down.

Malice is evil. Malice is hatred, molasses, wickedness.

They must be put away. They must be put to death. When we notice them coming up in us or coming out of us. We must repent. We must put them down.

And I close with this. Verse 32. Paul closes with this. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. This is what life with Jesus looks like as we do it together.

Our eyes are fixed on Jesus individually and as a people. It's my job. Part of my job is to fix our eyes on Jesus, to exalt Jesus so that we have our eyes fixed on him and our minds saturated with his truth being renewed day by day. When our eyes are fixed on Jesus, when we're experiencing and preaching the gospel to ourselves and repenting and putting off and putting on, when we're doing this, our hearts are being made soft over and over again.

We're more thankful for his grace. We're more thankful for his forgiveness. We're more thankful as he works in us and through us and around us. We're made more like him. We are overwhelmed by his kindness toward us. The gospel, captivated by the love of God, displayed for us in the death of Jesus on the cross. First John three.

By this we know love, that he, Jesus, laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives

for the brothers.