New Actions

I can’t remember, but a few weeks ago, perhaps a month ago today, we had our last meeting and here we are again on thanksgiving Sunday with a follow up to the message we did last month called, “new minds.” Here’s what I said about that: we need to get out of the mindset that we know better or that we can make ourselves better or that we somehow can hold to a higher standard without being corrupted. Let me explain this concept to you. Paul is talking to two types of people: the first type of people are people who make nothing of their lifestyle and are content in being stagnantly lukewarm; and the second type of people are people who want others to become hot for God but step on the people who aren’t there yet, in their conquest of perfection. In sum, if you really think about it, he’s talking to every single type of religious institution and people within those institutions that forget that we weren’t born with the grace of salvation and that our trying to keep salvation is just a pitiful satanic diversion from the truth of our realities. If you don’t remember, I’m going to try to refresh your and my memories by reading this passage in Ephesians to you: 17 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.18 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. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. – Ephesians 4:17-24 When people get too wrapped up in something that they can’t see and in the process too wrapped up that they can’t believe it, they tend have darkened hearts. They tend to assign various traits to things in search of the thing they can’t see and become superstitious and in their superstition, they become darkened. They become foolish. But you know what. It’s not only people who are too wrapped up in the proof of not seeing what they say they are not believing, it’s the people who have been spared too often and too frequently that also seem to forget. – it is egalitarianism at its worst. We’re all going to be victims of it, if we’re not careful. Since, I left off with a title of: New Minds, today, I’m going to begin our conversation, and it’ll be an abbreviated conversation with our conversation today focusing on how to put our new minds in action. I don’t want to get too much into the theoretical part of action, but actually speak about the moving and doing of a new mind focused on fighting the egalitarian complacency within all of us. If you don’t know what I’m saying, I’m simply saying, it’s nice that we can all talk some major talk, but what really matters is how we walk and whether or not we can cash the checks our mouths are writing. Let’s read Ephesians 4:25-32. 25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 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. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Vs 25 – Let us speak truth and not lie. I’m going to be honest. I’m really bad at this. I lie even when I don’t have to. And I’m not talking about white lies that are harmless and just nice pleasantries, like “oh your dress is pretty.” I’m talking about lies for the sake of lying (like I want to live in alternate universe that’s not my own). I repent of this often and more recently I repented to people about this, but I still catch myself and I have to hold it and think about it because it’s so hard for me not to lie about the chocolate ice cream cake I didn’t share with any of you during lunch. You know what I’m saying? But I don’t want to confuse you here. It’s not only about straight bold face lies. “falsehood” in this context means even hidden motivations for saying or doing something. When we speak “truth with our neighbors” we’re extremely clear that our purposes and our respect comes from God and from the will of God, thereby only doing the will of God in speaking to one another; else we are really living in falsehood. It’s a tremendous feat to carry out less the power and work of Christ in our new minds. Yes, I know, but this is what it means to act in accordance to the mind of Christ—that is our new mind. I know this sounds like a maxim that we attempt to reach but never do, but this has to be our intention always, even when our actions betray us. We have to turn around and say: no, what we really want is to be truthful without pretense. Vs 26 – Another maxim Paul throws out at the Ephesian church that has lots of application for us today is this verse: “Be angry and do not sin.” Let me read to you how it is written in the King James, because I think it makes more sense in the KJV: “Be ye angry, and sin not.” This actually comes from Psalm 4:4. Paul is pointing out here that it is possible to be angry without sinning. He is not saying that you shouldn’t get angry and be passive about everything. Absolutely not. Rather he is saying that you should weigh your anger because some of us are unrighteously angry and we feel so entitled to be that angry. None of us earned any right to be sinfully angry. Some of us have anger problems that stem from an egalitarianism—that is a neutered lifestyle. You didn’t ever have to grind anything out for yourself. Am I right? Wait, wait, wait. No, let me rephrase for you—some of us are completely dissatisfied by and/or indignant about and unrestrained with anger. We get mad over nothing a lot of times and we can’t accept mistakes most others; and it infuriates us when we are wronged, but expect others who are wronged by us to understand gently and we’re pissed off about it. You know what I’m saying. Let me finish reading Psalm 4 to you. “Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah” It ends in the Ephesians as “do not let the sun go down on your anger.” You know overreacting over nothing. It’s like getting angry over spilled milk. Any of us ever get angry over spilled milk? Yeah, you don’t have to raise your hands; the people next to you know who you are. You can just judge each other. Verse 27 is related to a verse further along in this passage in verse 31 – When we don’t act with a new mind set we start doing the things in verse 31. It’s a pretty simple and clear connection. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. When the devil gets into our minds—whether it be by causal patterns of thinking that link ET somehow to the devil (that’s for you charismatics out there that believe everything is the devil). Or if you just harbor bad thoughts and go the screwtape method, that is by believing you are the reason for your own evil when it was simply whispered into your ear; you allow the devil, Paul says, to harbor within you thoughts that manifest itself into these actions. For example, have you ever been so angry that you dreamt death upon somebody? I know I have. I can go on and on about this stuff we shouldn’t do; but that’s a waste of time. I want to conclude here, with a conversation about what our intentions should be, when we act and for every single action we take and make towards ourselves and others: Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. That’s verse 32. We need to constantly think twice about whether or not we are living the way Christ lived for us. If our lives end at us, or at best our future kids, our partners, or our loved ones, then our lives are wasted and Christ’s sacrifice wasted on us. We have friends, family and strangers that need our kindness, need our forgiveness, need us to act toward them how nobody has ever acted toward them before. That changes people, that does something, that means something. I want you to join me and making that happen every single day. Let’s pray. It is Thanksgiving, have a good one and be safe.