Put Off to Put On (Sermon Oct 11. 2009)

Ephesians 4:17-32

Why do people think that they have to act differently around Christians?  Kevin asked us that question.  He shared an experience of stopping by the Dunkin Donuts (for coffee) on the way to church and having the clerk say - careful here comes the preacher!  As if we as Christians expect the world to behave better when we are around.  We have that backwards.  We are the ones who should be behaving better for others.  One of the main criticism of the church is that we act like hypocrites.  We claim to be Christians, yet we don't act any differently than rest of the population.   Kevin also shared that before he had a total surrender experience in his life - he use to want Jesus to follow him around.  Hey Jesus come help me with this.  But he now understands that to be a disciple of Christ we need to follow him.  So point #1 in his sermon was:  Lifestyle change is a MUST for followers of Jesus.   If our lives don't look any different before and after Jesus than there is something wrong.

He goes on to say that the book of Ephesians was written for the church not for the world.  It is like the coaches playbook and we, inside the church, get to see the plays.  What we see is a recipe for life transformation.  There is a theme that runs throughout this whole thing:  Verse 28 "He who has been stealing - shall steal no longer"  but then we have to do something useful with our hands we need to work and share with others.  This theme is not only that you should stop doing wrong but that you should do what is right.  And we learn these things within a family context - that family being the church.  We should live close enough to each other to influence each other in these good things.  So the pathway to spiritual maturity is to pray:  "God I need your help" and then we have to put on something and the only way to get there is to take off something.  Nature does not like a vacuum.  You can't just get rid of something - you have to put something good in.  You can't just stop eating junk food - you need to start eating healthy food.  Point #2  Spiritual maturity is a life-long process of PUTTING OFF your old natural life so that you can PUT ON a new supernatural life.  

Continuing on with the sports team analogy - Kevin said we expect too little of church members.  Football teams have approximately 52 people on the team.  They are expected to show up to practice and to play the game.  Church members should expect to go to practice and to play the game - on the field.  They should minimally tithe and serve somewhere.  Instead, as church members we get upset when someone asks us to serve.  We should be coming to the staff and saying "Where can I serve?"  And this is how we shall grow in Christ.  So how do we get on the team?  First, we say "Jesus I want to be on the team.   I want to follow you."  Then you put off the old life and put on the new life.  And you do that in community with other.  "If living for Christ is something you could do on your own, it would just be another religion."  We do it with the power of the Holy Spirit with us.  Point #3:  The process of your spiritual growth comes not from EFFORT but from COOPERATING with the Holy Spirit.  


Kevin and some of the staff went to a conference and one of the speakers said we believe in a God that is irrational. He raises people from the dead.  But do we live our lives as if we have supernatural power to tap into?  And if we want to tap into that - how do we do it?  We start with obedience.  We just obey God one step at a time.  And as we obey God shows us more and more that we need to surrender, we need to put off, and the new things we need to put on.  Live like Jesus did and live by his examples.  An example of this is that our words should build each other up - not criticize.  Imaging how differently conversations would go if all we ever spoke were words that would build each other up.  We would be living supernaturally if we started to obey even that one rule from the Bible.  We come to worship so that we look more like Christ.  We look like what we worship.  If we worship Christ we will look more like Christ. If we worship money - we will look more like greed.

We need to live differently so that the world will notice.  Think of just one thing, and pray about it, that you are trying to stop.  Pray that to God and then confess it to someone else and ask them to pray with you.  See if it makes a difference.