8-23-20 Grace - Benson & Vail Sermon

August 23rd, 2020 Ephesians 4:25-32 Grace-Vail, Grace-Benson. Pastor Rose Each day, the sun comes up and then goes down. Each day is like a mini-version of a lifetime.

What you do with the time in between sun up and sun down is a mini version of what you do between your birth and your death. Each day you make choices of what to focus on, what activities to engage in. Those choices shape the person you become; those choices impact the character formation of the people around you as well.

Think of a firefighter who when the sun goes down and he rests his head on the pillow, he can say, I’m a firefighter. That identity doesn’t happen overnight. He spent many sun ups to sun downs learning and training to become a firefighter. He focused his attention and engaged in activities that were designed to make him a firefighter. If he didn’t know anything about the equipment of the protocols and had never actually fought a fire, he couldn’t say to himself, I’m a firefighter.

In a similar way, God wants each of us to lay our heads on the pillow after another day of sun up to sun down and say, I’m a Christian, a Christ follower, a mini-Christ. And there are certain attitudes and actions that come along with that. He invites us to focus our attention on him and ask him to give us not only the trust in Christ that we need, but also the attitudes and actions of Christ as our own. Like the potential fire fighter, there are characteristics of a Christ-follower that we just don’t have, we ask God to help us have them, we should seek the training and learning that he provides to make us more like Christ.

In Ephesians 4, there are a few characteristics of a Christ follower that we can consider. I want to focus in on 2: A Christ follower lives in the truth as opposed to lies. A Christ follower lives in forgiveness rather than in anger. We need to understand the contrasts, and ask God to make us into the kinds of people who have what Eph 4 describes as a natural and normal part of our sun ups and sun downs.

First of all, truth as contrasted with lies. In theory, we want the truth. We don’t like being lied to, we don’t like believing something false. But in practice, living in the truth is very difficult.

There is a huge allure to lies. A Sunday school teacher once asked a young girl what a lie is. And she answered: a lie is an abomination before God and an ever present help in trouble. It’s believable because it sums up our natural attitude toward lies. We know they’re not good. None of us would tell a young person we care about to just lie all the time at every opportunity. We know that’s not a good recipe for a life of meaning. But we all want to leave the door open for lies in case we think we need it.

Jesus came along and taught people not to lie. The reason is more than just; it’d be breaking a rule. The reason not to lie is that a person living in the kingdom of God doesn’t need to lie to get what they want. Instead they can trust God to give them what they need. The resources of God’s kingdom available to us freely in Christ means you don’t have to lie, you can simply tell the truth.

Actually, life is much simpler when we tell the truth. Mark Twain said, “A person who tells the truth doesn’t have to remember anything.” We all understand stories like Pinochio; when he lies, he can’t avoid the consequence of his nose growing longer. We know that a lie brings other unavoidable consequences with it, usually, the need to become more deceitful to make the first lie believable. The habit of telling lies seems like a short term strategy for getting out of trouble; but they become a long term tangled web which we struggle to get out of.

Think of an example: the IRS sends a letter that says you owe a few thousand dollars in taxes.

You choose to lie to yourself and say, that’s no big deal, I’ll just ignore it and it’ll go away. That’s a form of self deception. And over time it can lead to that piece of paper turning into a problem much

worse than the original few thousand dollars. It can turn into jail time and larger fines. It’s best to tell the truth, to be honest, to be willing to face the truth and deal with it.

And the same kind of consequences come when we lie about our problem with God. Adam and Eve when they broke friendship with God and he came to them; instinctively did not respond with openness and honesty. They hid. They blamed. They lied. We instinctively learn to do the same. Self deception is really wrapped up in almost every sin we commit. On some level we tell ourselves we have a reason to do what we know is wrong. After we speak cruelly, or deal dishonestly, or use someone else for our own advantage, we easily want to cover up what we did with deceit. We are scared of openly confessing what we have done before God or out loud to other people.

We struggle to tell the truth about our sinfulness because we’re afraid of rejection. We’re afraid that if other people knew the real thoughts and actions and motivations we have, they’d reject us. We’re even afraid that God will respond to openness with vengeance and retribution. And so to have our habit of lying broken, we need to be reminded first of all about the truth of how God views us.

Here’s the truth: what we know about our own sinfulness is only a fraction of the full horrific picture. God actually sees us all the way through, in all our terrible wickedness. And yet rather than outright rejecting us, the truth is he has made provision for the vengeance our evil has earned to be carried out on his son rather than us. He has made provision for the rejection which would send us spiraling out of control for eternity to be experienced by Jesus in our place.

Jesus shouldered the rejection of liar, of evil-doer; because he was the only person who could face such rejection and yet do it with trust, and confidence, and the ultimate courage and bravery. He faced that pain with faith, confidence that he would yet see his father’s face. His faith was proven right when he rose from the dead. The truth is Jesus did not abandon us when it cost him the immense suffering of the cross, and he will not reject us when we sin against him in our daily lives.

What’s more true than anything else is that you are loved by God, treasured and valued by him. What’s true is that Jesus did not abandon you when it cost him ultimate suffering, and so he will not abandon you now, no matter what failures you have committed against him. His love is true. And his love is the foundation for you to live in the power of the truth and to resist the allure of lies.

The truth of such love and victory for us is what enables us to be more courageous in honestly facing our faults, our sin habits, to own up to even the worst things we’ve done, yet to have confidence that God still forgives us, and values us, and treasures us. That truth then allows us to have a different way of dealing with others.

The specific situation Ephesians 4 seems to be address is what to do when you see another Christian sinning. God says, “Be angry, but do not sin.” He reminds us that love can involve anger if we see someone walking a path of harm to themselves and others. But he reminds us that unlike his perfect anger, which is able to exist side by side with love; our anger can quickly become selfcentered, and lead to hostility. So he warns us, “do not let the sun go down on your anger. Do not give the devil an opportunity.”

The devil loves to see anger build up to resentment, and bitterness. He loves to see quarrelling & unwholesome words and malice happen in relationships, especially between Christians.

It’s been said that resentment is like drinking poison and hoping the other person gets sick. We damage ourselves when we let anger go unresolved. We damage other people in how we treat them when we’re angry at them for extended periods of time. The devil is instrumental in all these examples.

Often, the devil leads you from one sin to the next. Think of how a person who steals often does because they are angry about the unfairness they see around them. It’s easy to convince yourself that it’s ok to steal money from someone because they’ve been given it unfairly. Or to steal time from your company because they’re not compensating you like they should. Or to steal credit from someone because you’re convinced they shouldn’t have it themselves.

Or think of how when you’re angry at someone it’s easier to let unwholesome talk come out of your mouth around them. If you’ve convinced yourself that your spouse or friend or family member isn’t worth caring about, it’s natural to run them down with your words. Or to talk in an unwholesome way around them. In all these situations, the devil is putting up more barriers between us and God, between the people around us and God. He’s giving more and more opportunity to hide and lie and minimize rather than to live a truthful, honest, open life before God and in a community of other believers.

Ultimately the devil wants to cause our sinful habits to grieve the Holy Spirit who is in us to the point where he no longer can tolerate us. The Holy Spirit is able to leave when he is grieved. And the final outcome for a person without the spirit of God in them is a downward spiral of more lies, more anger, less compassion, less truth, and it can go on for an eternity in hell.

We need to see the truth of what anger, malice, resentment leads to. But then, we need to be reminded of the truth. Based on the power of Christ’s willingness to bear the consequences of selfishness, anger, lying; God then invites us to live a different way.

Rather than stealing he says, “Labor to do good work with your hands. Think of the satisfaction of laying your head on the pillow knowing you put in an honest days work for your pay. I can remember days as a young person on a farm when I could look at a filed at sun up and see hay lying on the ground, and then look at a silo at sun down and know it was full of hay. There’s satisfaction in hard work.

You’ll also have something to offer to a person in need. You’ll be able to help others because you’ve worked hard to provide your needs, and you have extra left to give others. Rather than living in the shadows of hiding theft, you can live in the light of providing for others in need. The command not to steal is not God forbidding a convenient way to get stuff. It’s an invitation into a better way to live.

He tells us that instead of unwholesome talk coming out of our mouths, we can speak what is uplifting and encouraging. We get to speak grace into people’s lives rather than running them down with our words. There is such power in a compliment. You with your words can lift someone’s spirits and remind them of the value they have to God. God gives you that power, all you have to do is speak, and someone can be lifted up by your words. I think of my young children, and the power of using words to instill a confidence in them, how rewarding that is for me to be a part of. The command not to speak unwholesome words is not a joy-kill. It’s an invitation into a better way to use words to life others up.

Rather than responding to wrongs with anger, shouting, and fighting; God says, “Forgive just as Christ forgave you.” Forgiveness is in many ways the key characteristic of being a Christ-follower which unlocks all the others. Forgiveness as much as anything is built on, I don't have to exact vengeance, or make sure that my version of justice gets done, I can leave it in God’s hands. Just as God didn’t have to make sure that I received punishment, but instead he made arrangement for punishment to be carried out on his son. Because you have that kind of forgiveness, you have a foundation to forgive others.

You are invited to forgive others just as God forgave you. In the same way God forgave you, you can do the same to others. Rather than saying to others, “your life for mine,” you get to say, “my life for yours.” Forgiveness is a willingness on the part of the one forgiving to receive pain rather than dish it out. Forgiveness always hurts, it’s a willingness to say, “Christ was willing to accept the ultimate hurt for me to forgive me; I can now accept the mini-hurts others cause against me.” The command not to let the sun go down on your anger is not God forbidding a useful attitude; an invitation into a life of Christ-like forgiveness flowing through you.

Rather than lying, God invites us into a life of openness before him. Think of the joy of knowing that God knows everything about you, and being ok being known on such a deep level.

That is what we’re in for. That’s a feature of the eternal life Jesus gives us.

God wants us to remember that his Holy Spirit is inside of us. That Spirit is like a down payment assuring us of the life of closeness with God to come, which will last for all eternity. There is a day of redemption, when everything wrong with you will be made right. There is a life to come where anger, stealing, lies are a thing of the past; where there is nothing more natural than compassion, love, and graciousness toward the people around you.

What a remarkable truth, you actually have the Holy Spirit of God in you. God’s unbodily personal power, which is whole, holy, pure, that is in you. That spirit presence in you is among other things a seal, assurance of your destiny on the day of redemption. An indication of what is to come. A day when n the presence of Jesus, you will be made into the person you were always meant to be: whole, right, valued, nothing to hide. Your assurance that you are ready for that day is the spirit of God in you now. He’s in you through humble faith which comes by humble word, but powerful and impactful nonetheless.

And so, with that startling reality and destiny in front of you; you’re invited to get ruthless with anything that threatens it. Set aside anger, just set it aside, be done with it. Set aside lies. Look at something different and better. And forgive. Do it day by day, sun up to sun down; because each day is like a mini lifetime, a mini-rehearsal of the eternal day to come, a day of life with him.