INTRODUCTION: Jesus changes the way we live. Followers of Jesus choose to embrace the new life they have in Christ. Paul says we are to put off the old way of life and to put on the new way of Christ. The basis of this new life is love (Eph. 5:1-2). This means that we must live as children of light instead of children of darkness (5:3-17). Followers of Jesus develop good relationships in their marriages, home lives, work demands, and daily contacts. Good relationships arise out of spiritual power and voluntary cooperation. How do we get to that place in our spiritual lives as Christians?
 
NURTURE THE SPIRIUTAL SIDE OF YOUR LIFE (5:18).
 
*Let the Holy Spirit stimulate your life and actions. Avoid competing stimulants. “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit…” (5:18).
 
*The first step to good relationships is to keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit. “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).
 
*Develop a relationship with the person of the Holy Spirit and do not leave him out of your life and associations. “Quench not the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19).
 
It takes spiritual power to live a life of grace and love.
 
PRACTICE THE PRINCIPLE OF PRAISE (5:19).
 
*Singing is a way to express joy to God and encourage one another. This includes scripture songs, congregational hymns, and personal spiritual songs.  “speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit…” (5:19).
 
*The source of our singing is joy in the Lord. “Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord…” (5:19).
A person of praise and joy encourages people to have hope.
 
DEVELOP AN ATTITUDE OF THANKSGIVING (5:20).
 
*Thanksgiving is an attitude of gratitude. “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:20).
 
*Thanksgiving does not depend upon the circumstances. It is a pre-determined choice. “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:20).
 
An attitude of gratitude looks for the good in others.
 
COOPERATE WITH OTHERS FOR CHRIST’S SAKE (5:21).
 
*The practice of “mutual submission” is the second step to all good relationships. “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ”(21).
 
*”Submitting” is an attitude of respect for and cooperation with others in our relationships. The principles of mutual submission:
 

• Have the courtesy to let me be myself.
• Have the decency to include me in your plans.
• Have the humility to share your problems with me

 
Jesus lived his life this way:
 
“Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:26-28).
 
Respect and cooperation build bridges to strong relationships.

   
INTRODUCTION: Jesus changes the way we live. Followers of Jesus choose to embrace the new life they have in Christ. How?
 
PUT OFF THE OLD WAY OF LIFE (17-19).
 
*The life without Christ is marked by…

• Futile notions - “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking…” (17).
• Muddled thinking - “They are darkened in their understanding…” (18).
• Alienation – “and separated from the life of God…” (18).
• Ignorance – “because of the ignorance that is in them…” (18).
• Hardness of heart – “due to the hardening of their hearts”(18).

 
*Their life is based on sensuality and becomes…

• Spiritually calloused – “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality…” (19).
• Impure – “so as to indulge in every kind of impurity…” (19).
• Greedy – “and they are full of greed.” (19).

 
We must put off the old nature and its practices.
 
PUT ON THE NEW WAY OF LIFE (20-24).
 
*Jesus Christ gives us a new life and a new nature. “That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus” (20-21).
 
*We have the power to put off our old nature and put on the new person we are in Christ. “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self…” (22-24).
*The new self is marked by…

• A new likeness – “put on the new self, created to be like God…” (24).
• A new conduct – “created to be like God in true righteousness...” (24).
• A new mind - “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (24).

 
We must put on the new nature of Christ and live like Jesus.
 
PUT INTO PRACTICE THE NEW WAY OF LIFE (25-32).
 
*Put off the lie; speak the truth. “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body” (25).
 
*Put off sinful passions even though you are angry. “‘In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold” (26-27).
 
*Put off stealing; put on constructive labor. “Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need” (28).
 
*Put off corrupt speech; put on helpful speech. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (29-30).
 
*Put away all evil conflict; put on tenderness and forgiveness. “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (31-32).
 
 Why should we live this way? “God in Christ forgave you.”

   
INTRODUCTION: All of us are familiar with the childhood game “Follow the Leader.” This childhood game is a picture of a larger reality. We all pattern our lives after someone or something. Who do you pattern your life after? Who patterns his or her life after you?
 
WHO DO YOU PATTERN YOUR LIFE AFTER?
 
*All of us have role models. Who is your role model?
 
*Human models often fail us.
 
*Paul says to use God as your role model. Pattern your life after God.
“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children…” (Ephesians 5:1).
 

• You have the power to follow God because it is your new nature.
• God’s standard is “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).

 
*The best example of God is his son Jesus Christ. God wants us to be like Jesus. “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29).
 
*The best way to imitate Jesus Christ is to walk in love. “And walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2).
 

• The way of love is to forgive. The supreme trait of Jesus is forgiveness. On the cross, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
• The second aspect of love is sacrifice, selfless giving. “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us…” (5:2).

 
Who do you pattern your life after? Are you following Christ?

WHO PATTERNS HIS OR HER LIFE AFTER YOU?
 
*Are you aware of your influence?
 
*Have you considered who may try to follow in your footsteps?
 
*You can be a leader that people follow!
 

• Paul wrote to Timothy, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12).
• Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).

 
*The best way to lead is to set your eyes on Jesus and trail him! “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith”(Hebrews 12:1-2).
 
Who patterns his or her life after you?
 
Is your life setting an example worth following?

   
INTRODUCTION: When Jesus returns, he will expect us to be waiting, watching, and working. Paul wrote to the Ephesians about Christian unity. He encouraged them to practice patient love, to maintain oneness of the Spirit, and to agree on basic doctrines of truth. He also called for individual service in the Christian life. God has given Christians gifts that promote growth and unity. God expects us to use the gifts he has given to us. Let’s look at these gifts.
 
YOU HAVE SPIRITUAL GIFTS (7).
 
*God has given you a “grace” gift. “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it” (7).
 
*Your gift may be different than someone else’s gift.
 
*God sovereignly distributes the gifts as he wills.
 
Principle: God gave you a gift to use to help others.
 
YOUR GIFT IS VALUABLE (8-10).

*Verses 8-10 quote Psalm 68, a Messianic Psalm. Spiritual gifts fulfill biblical prophecy. “This is why it says: ‘When he ascended on high,    he took many captives and gave gifts to his people’” (8).
*The gifts have been secured with a price – the life of Christ. The gifts are valuable because they cost something. “(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe)” (9-10).

Principle: Jesus Christ gave his life so you could receive his gift.
 
YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE YOUR GIFT (11-13).
 
*Christ has called and gifted spiritual leaders to prepare the church. “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people…” (11-12).
 
*Christ has given all Christians gifts for the work of the ministry to  advance unity and growth. “So Christ himself gave the apostles…to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (11-13).
 
Principle: The life and growth of the church depends upon you.
 
YOU CAN USE YOUR GIFT TO PROMOTE UNITY (15-16).
 
*The goal of spiritual gifts is to create unity in the faith, maturity in the body, and the fullness of Christ. “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work”(15-16).
 
Principle: The more you use your gift, the more you lean on Jesus, and the more you lean on Jesus, the more you want to use your gift to help others.
 
 
 

   
INTRODUCTION: As we celebrate our 55^th Anniversary at Parkview, we need to check our spiritual pulse. Are you personally walking with God? Is our church operating out of a sense of God’s leadership and direction? How do we as a church and individuals live in the presence and power of Almighty God? How can we boldly enter the future and know that God will continue to bless us? In order to receive the blessings of God, I believe that the Bible teaches that we must move from fear to faith. Jesus shows us this truth in a parable found in Matthew 25:14-30.
 
EVERYONE ANSWERS TO THE MASTER.
 
“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property…Then he went away…Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them” (Matt. 25:14-15, 19).
 

• The master owned the talents.
• The master distributed the talents.
• The master rewarded their efforts.

 
Principle: God has a master plan for your life.
 
EVERYONE IS GIVEN A TALENT TO INVEST.
 
“To one he gave five talents, another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more” (Matt. 25:15-16). A talent = 15-20 years of wages.
 
*Notice that all of these servants did not have the same ability but they did have the same opportunity to invest their talents.
 
Principle: God expects you to use your gifts and talents.
 
EVERYONE CHOOSES TO LIVE BY FEAR OR FAITH.
 
“So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money” (Matt. 25:17-18).
 
*Spiritual equations:
 

• FAITH + INVESTMENT = REWARD 

 
“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master’” (Matt. 25:21).
 

• FEAR – INVESTMENT = LOSS

 
“He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man…so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’  But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant…you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance” (Matt.25:24-29).
 
Principle: Without faith it is impossible to please God.
                                                                              (Heb. 11:6)

   
INTRODUCTION: Mosaics were popular in New Testament times. Roman and Greek mosaics still exist and early Christian mosaics in ancient churches show biblical scenes. A mosaic is a picture formed by placing small pieces of tile or glass together to form a design. The different small pieces create a complete whole when put together in various patterns. Sometimes we have to piece together ideas and words to gain a better understanding of a word or concept. This creates a mental picture of the idea. For instance, how do you describe good news? You would have to use many words to define what you mean by good news. Paul wrote, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16). Paul uses the word Gospel or Good News to describe the message that brings salvation. In a few short years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, early Christians described their salvation as Good News! Let’s piece together a mosaic to define this Gospel of salvation.
 
THE GOSPEL IN ONE WORD: JESUS
 
*The Good News can be summed up in Jesus. When you look at Jesus you understand the gospel. “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God…” (Mark 1:1).
 
*Good News is the gift of God’s Son for you and for me. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
 
When people think of Good News, they think of Jesus!
 
THE GOSPEL IN THREE WORDS: JESUS IS LORD
 
*The Good News means Jesus has risen from the grave. He is Lord of Life, Death and All. Caesar could only rule people’s bodies; Jesus rules people’s hearts in all places and at all times. Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live (1 Cor. 8:6).
*The Good News means that Jesus is alive and he is in charge. We must believe that he is risen and bow before him as our master and ruler.  “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved” (Romans 10:9-10).
 
When you look at the Cross and Resurrection, you realize that Jesus is Lord!
 
THE GOSPEL IN THIRTY WORDS:
 
THE GOSPEL IS GOOD NEWS THAT GOD HAS COME TO US THROUGH JESUS TO SHOW US HIS LOVE, SAVE US FROM SIN, ESTABLISH GOD’S KINGDOM, AND SHUT DOWN INAUTHENTIC RELIGION.
 
*The Good News declares that Jesus is “Christus Victor,” Christ the Victor. Through his life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and exaltation, Jesus has totally defeated death, sin and the devil and has set us free to love God and others.  “Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
 
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time…” (1 Cor. 15:1-6).
 
The Good News mosaic is that God loves us, Jesus saves us and forgives us, and we can live life the way God intends for us to live!
 
Paul was not ashamed of the gospel because it contains the power of God to save us if we are willing to believe.
 
Are you willing to believe in this Good News today?

*Thanks to David Mercer of College Park Baptist Church, Orlando, FL for the sermon outline.
 

 
Why Do Good People Do Bad Things?
 
Dr. Greg Magruder,  April 9, 2014, Parkview Baptist Church
 
I think you would agree with me that Christians make mistakes. Christians commit sins. Sometimes we make gross mistakes, commit gross sins and they seem to be advertised everywhere. But there are a lot of Christians that commit sins that never make it to the public pages and no one else ever knows about them. They are done in private. Good Christians do things that are appalling at times, terrible, at times.
So we ask the question, “How could a faithful, God fearing, active Christian do such things?” We try to rationalize it, explain it away and say, “Well, they must not have been a Christian at all.” Or we say things like, “They were temporarily insane,” or “Maybe it had something to with their past,” and on and on we go trying to understand why good people do bad things.
It does not matter what week you are in. I will give you just a few examples from this week’s news. There was an article in the Gainesville Sun this week about a Hutu man in Rwanda who was reconciled with his Tutsi neighbor. The Hutus and the Tutsis are two groups in Rwanda that lived by each other for years. The Tutsi group was a minority, the Hutus were in power, and they had a leader who encouraged the Hutus to do away with the Tutsis and so there was a genocide that took place. This man was one of those Hutu men that went on a rampage. He had hacked this lady’s hand off and killed her child during this genocide period that took place on Rwanda. They had somehow miraculously come back together and God had been able to bring reconciliation and healing there between those two. But at the time, he was a Christian, active in the church and he and his Hutu brothers and sisters in Christ were hacking off the arms and limbs and killing the babies of the Tutsi Christians who were hiding out in the churches. And we wonder...that does not make sense!
We saw on TV this week about a Mega Church pastor here in Florida who resigned because of a moral failing. One of our local Pastors wrote a blog article about it, telling his church members that this was one of his greatest fears, that men like himself, Pastors, are susceptible to sin, susceptible to falling, to committing gross sins as well as anyone else.
Christianity Today had an article in last month’s issue about children of missionaries who were systematically abused for years at missionary boarding schools that they were sent to while their parents worked on the field. We are just horrified by these kind of things.
And of course we have had our own situation this last week about the alleged actions of one of our own members. We just shake our head and grieve over it. Some of you have told me how deeply you have grieved over it. How could something like this have happened? Did it really happen? If it did happen, why did it happen, and what should be done to this person? And so we are just appalled by this. How do we account for it? Are these people somehow more evil, less Christian than the rest of us, or are we to understand this is a warning about our own vulnerability and sinfulness?
DISSONANCE
So I would like to discuss the Biblical and psychological response to this question: Why do good people do bad things?  There is a word we need to understand: dissonance. Dissonance means “lack of agreement, inconsistency,” but it really deals with the idea that there is an inconsistency between the beliefs one holds and one’s actions. So you say you believe one thing and your actions are completely contrary to it.  A good example of that is that someone will say, “Smoking is bad for you,” and then they light up a cigarette. That’s dissonance. They believe one thing but they are doing something else. This is part of who we are as human beings.
A psychological term that came out in the 1950s is “cognitive dissonance.” This is an idea that you hold two beliefs simultaneously. So you can be believing one thing very strongly yet be doing something else that is completely contrary to what you strongly believe. In other words, you compartmentalize your mind in such a way that you allow yourself to do things that, in the normal state of affairs, if someone were to ask you about it, you would say, “That’s horrible. I would never do anything like that!” And yet people do the very things that they are horrified by. We’ll say, “Well, that’s really weird. I don’t know about a person like that.” But you just described yourself, because you do the same thing.
Our minds compartmentalize things all the time, don’t they? In a lot of ways it is good. Think about a soldier on the battlefield. He has to concentrate on what he is doing in that conflict because if he is thinking about the kids at home or what he is going to have for dinner, he might get shot. So his mind has to compartmentalize. It has to focus on what he is doing and put everything else out. So that is a normal make up of the way God made us so we could deal with certain things that come our way. If you are under threat, your body naturally goes into reaction against that threat. It’s a physical thing as well as a psychological thing.
But there are also ways that this can be bad because it allows you to do things that you normally would not want to do. Then you find yourself asking, “Why am I doing this?” and you feel terrible about it. You wonder, “How can I be like this? I must be a bad person, I must be a monster! I must be terrible!” I bet every one of us here have done that at some time in your life, either in something you said or something you have done. Maybe you got drunk and you did something terrible and horrible, you looked back and said, “How could I have done that?” Well, guess what? You did it, no matter what your belief system was.
So that is what we are talking about. We have this capability within us because we have been designed that way to deal with stress, deal with things that come our way and we have to compartmentalize, but also we allow it to happen in our lives, sometimes over a slow process of time. Dissonance and cognitive dissonance describe partly the way God made us, and, because we are sinful human beings, we abuse that in such a way that it causes us to do things we normally wouldn’t want to do.
OUR DEPRAVITY 
That’s a psychological comment. Let’s get back, now, to the Bible and what it says. We as Christians talk about sin. We believe there is sin in the world, but we don’t believe there is sin in the world. We believe it is somebody else’s sin in the world. We don’t believe our own sin. We don’t look at our own lives. We don’t realize our own shortcomings and failings. We don’t recognize the depth of our depravity.
Wasn’t that a beautiful song we just sang about the Cross? About how Jesus became our sacrifice? We sing a beautiful song about that, but you stop and think about what happened there on the Cross. His hands were bloodied, his feet were bloodied, he had a sword up his side, he hung there, asphyxiated on the Cross, he was thirsty, his head was pierced with thorns and blood was coming down. That’s not a very pretty picture, is it? Yet we say thank you for the Cross. Why? We say thank you for the Cross because that is what sin cost. Sin had to be crucified. It’s a horrible thing, and each one of us here in this building are sinners.
Now I want you to go back to Genesis, Chapter 3. I want to take you through a survey of the Bible here and remind us what we believe. When things like what happened here last week happen, we begin to ask ourselves, “How could this ever happen?” and we have this dissonance. This isn’t supposed to happen, yet it happened. How are we going to deal with that?
The way you are going to deal with it is to go back to the Word of God and try to understand what you really believe and then apply it to the situation that you are in.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”   Genesis 3:1-13
 
Some people say, “Well this may be a myth,” or “This may not be historical but it is a true story about the fall of mankind…” Do you know why this is a true story?  Because you and I do it every day! This is a description of you and me, and what we do in our own lives. It’s a perfect picture, a mirror of our lives, because when Satan comes to us and tempts us we submit to that temptation. We disobey God’s Word. We are in the same boat as Eve was.
Our first reaction is, “I want to hide.” That’s what Adam and Eve did. They became aware of, conscious of their nakedness before God so they sewed up some fig leaves to try to cover themselves. Their physical nakedness reflected the nakedness of their souls. They had a perfect relationship with God, a perfect openness between God and each other, and now all of a sudden they are covering themselves, they are hiding from each other. They are hiding from God.
When God said, “What did you do?”  Adam immediately does the old blame game: “She made me do it.” Eve says, “The serpent made me do it.” And suddenly we have this separation.  It is a separation from God, it is a separation from other people, it is a separation from ourselves. That’s the dissonance. We know what we should have been but here we are, separated, divided from ourselves because of this thing called sin. That’s why I say it is a true story because it is you and me and the way we live our lives every day.
We get sophisticated about it, you know? We try to explain why we do certain things. “Well, I’m Scottish and all Scottish people are drunks.” Or, “You know I’ve got a temper because I am Italian.” “Well, if my Daddy had not done this, I would not have acted like this.” And on and on we go to run away or cover ourselves, to try to hide ourselves, protect ourselves. We don’t want to be vulnerable to anybody. We don’t want anyone to see what we are really like. We layer and layer and layer, trying to hide from each other and from God.
Jeremiah is the prophet that did not pull any punches. Nobody liked him. He preached but did not want to preach. God said he had to. “Nobody is going to like you, but you go out there and do it anyway.” He did, and got into all sorts of problems. He got thrown into a pit and was standing in waist deep water, practically starving to death until a small group of people hauled him out of there. He writes very bluntly because whatever God tells him to say, he says it. Look at Jeremiah 17:9. Here is the midst of his prophecy about the people of Israel who are going to go into captivity, Jeremiah says,
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure? Who can understand it?”  (Jeremiah 17:9 NIV).
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked…” (Jer. 17:9 KJV).
Who is he describing here? If he is describing you, would you raise your hand? He is describing everyone. That’s your heart!
I have a relative that went through a divorce. She was on the rebound, she went wild, she did all kinds of crazy things, horrible things, wicked things, and she said, “I don’t know who that was. That wasn’t me!”
I reminded her, “Yes it was! That was you.” It was hard for her to accept that. We have this exalted opinion of ourselves, that we don’t do things like that. That’s a dissonance, a cognitive dissonance. This is the way I want to be, this is what I believe, but this is what I did. It does not match. I can’t figure it out! So it must not really have been me. Yes, it was! The heart is wicked and deceitful above all things. Everybody is in that situation. Everybody has that in their heart.
What does the Bible say in Romans 3:23? “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” If you are included in that all, would you raise your hand? All have sinned. If you go back and look at that passage, you will see that he has listed about half a page of sins that we have all committed, and he says, “Hey, that’s you! Jewish people, Gentile people, that’s me, Paul, that’s everybody.” All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. Paul said of his own sin struggle, “So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death!” (Romans 7:21-24).
You see, Jesus wasn’t fooled by this. You and I have been raised in the Enlightenment Age. The Enlightenment said we were born with a clean slate, in a pure state of nature, and society corrupted us. The things that were written on our heart as we grew up, those things were the ones that twisted us. We have to get back to the garden. We have to get back to the pure state of things. We have to be Hippie-like and go live in communes. We have to take drugs to get mind expansions and get away from it all. That’s all bunk!
The truth is, you are not born with a clean slate! You are born with a bent toward evil! At some point you choose evil and you mar your own life. That’s the truth of the matter. We have the age of innocence, and where that ends depends on the child. That is all in God’s hands. But at some point everybody makes a choice between right and wrong, everybody goes back to the Garden, everybody is Adam and Eve and we rebel against God.
That’s why Jesus said we have depraved hearts. You don’t remember Jesus saying that? Look at Matthew 15:10-20. The Pharisees were upset because they were eating grain on the sabbath. The Pharisees said they were defiled because they ate something defiled. Jesus made the comment that it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person. It is what comes out of a person’s heart.
“But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.  These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”” Matthew 15:18-20
Jesus is saying you can look good on the outside, but on the inside you might have a wicked heart. As a matter of fact, all of us have a wicked heart. So when you hit your thumb with a hammer and out comes vile cursing, you realize you should not have said that, but that was already in your heart. What comes out is already in the heart, so you need to get that right with God. It does not matter what you believe, it’s what you do that reveals the truth of what’s going on inside of you.
YOU DON’T BELIEVE THERE IS A DEVIL?
On top of all this you have this other being called Satan, or the Devil, who was an angel of light and has been cast out of heaven. He has demons that are in support of him. He is called the “Accuser of the brethren.”
If you know the story of Job, God allows Satan to operate. Satan makes it awful difficult for us in this world. Satan comes to you, looks in your heart, finds out where your weakest point is and he will attack you there. Satan doesn’t commit the sin. You commit the sin. Satan tempts you to do what was already in your heart.
“When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:13-15).
Satan sees where you are vulnerable and will attack you at that point. If you are not a Christian, he has already got you. He can do whatever he wants with you. He can just speak to you and you follow his every whim. He’s got you by the nose. When I was a boy and it was time for the chores to be done, if I’d say, “In a minute Mom,” she’d grab my ear and say, “Now!” That’s what Satan does with people that are not Christians. He says, “Now! I want you to do this!”
A Christian has the ability to tell the Devil, “No!” Yet if you are not aware of the Devil, if you are not aware that your sins are going to be open to the Devil, that he is going to try to hit your vulnerable points, you are going to be caught by the ear and be dragged and pulled to do what Satan wants you to do.
So many times, recently, when I have said to people in this church who have had bad things happen to them, “The Devil is after you,” they look at me with a blank stare, like they don’t understand a word I am saying. They don’t even believe there is a Devil! “Well, that’s just a story.” No its not! The Devil is alive and well. He hates you! He has a terrible plan for your life. The devil is real and he is looking for any way he can trip you up!
That’s why Peter says, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.” 1 Peter 5:8,9
 
Jesus said, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Mark 14:38
You don’t believe there is a Devil? Then explain to me Matthew 4, where Jesus, having been baptized and filled with the Spirit, was sent into the desert. The Devil comes three times and tempts him, three times tries to undermine the mission of Jesus and get him off track from the very start. Was that just a fantasy story or was Jesus facing the Tempter, the Accuser, the Devil? The story is told that Jesus had to rebuke the Devil and get rid of him, persevere and stand for the Lord. He was able to withstand the Devil and the angels came and ministered to Jesus after that. Jesus believed there was a Devil and he realized what the devil was trying to do.
 
When the Disciples said, Lord teach us to pray, and Jesus said,
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from the evil one.” Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)
 
When you pray, one of the basics is that God will not lead you into temptation and will deliver you from evil. Do that every day. Do that as many times a day as you can. You don’t believe there is a Devil? Jesus said the basic prayer you should be praying includes protection from the Devil. Be alert!
Jesus said, when He was talking about being the Good Shepherd, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10 (NKJV)
Who is the thief? It’s the Devil. He’s the Enemy! What’s his goal in your life? What does the Devil have for a plan in your life?  He wants to steal, kill and destroy you. He wants to kill you, physically, if he can. He wants to steal your reputation if he can. He wants to destroy your marriage, he wants to destroy your relationship with your children. He wants to destroy everything good about you if he can. He wants to rob you blind!
You don’t believe this? You don’t recognize this? Are we just talking fantasy here? A lot of Christians operate in this way: I come to church, I speak God words, I go home, I live my life, I do my job, and God has nothing to do with it. You are living in a fantasy world! This is what you believe, this is what you do, and you wonder why Satan picks us off? As Christians, many of us are not even aware the Devil is out there. We are not aware that he wants to destroy us!
When Jesus spoke to Peter at the Last Supper, he said, Peter, “Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you” (Luke 22:31,32a).
Satan wanted to come along and shake him up, shake out every good thing in his life, and Jesus prayed that that would not happen. It almost happened to Peter, didn’t it? But God was able to restore him. It did happen to Judas. Jesus believed in Satan, the Devil, and he lived in such a way that He resisted the Devil.
When Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees and they claimed Abraham was their father, Jesus said, “No he’s not. Your father is the Devil. Satan is a liar and you are children of the Liar! You are children of the Devil because you lie also.” (John 8:44) How were the Pharisees lying? They said they believed one thing but they lived another way. Their life was a lie! Is that the way our lives are?
The devil is a liar, he is full of deception. The good thing is, we know the Devil has a demise, he has an end. Jesus said, in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matthew 25: 41
God’s got a special place for him, the Lake of Fire. Everyone that chooses to follow the Devil and his way and refuses to follow Jesus as Lord, as their Savior, that’s where they go too, by their own choice. God does not send them there. They send themselves there, to eternal destruction.
Jesus saw the reality of the Devil and the Apostle Paul saw the reality of the Devil. He said, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (1 Corinthians 11:14).  He deceives people.  He acts just like he did with Eve. “Why don’t you do this? God knows you will be like Him. You are missing out on all the fun! Why don’t you just take part in this?”
 
CHRISTIANS TRAPPED
 
Paul said, “Give no place to the Devil.” Ephesians 4:27 NKJV
The context of that was, don’t go to sleep at night angry with your spouse because if you do you will give place to the devil. Work it out before you go to bed because if you don’t, you are angry and the devil is going to get a foothold in your life. But the principle applies everywhere. If there is something you are doing that is leading you to disobey God’s Word, you have to stop it. It might seem completely innocent but you have to stop it. I am a diabetic and I love chocolate, but I have to stop it. I am not joking about this. I am going to die if I don’t stop it. I’ll loose my toes like my Uncle Harry did. I’ll loose my legs like my Uncle Harry did if I don’t stop it.
That’s what Satan does to us. He comes as an angel of light, he tries to deceive us in these little ways, ways that might not even be that bad, yet we give in to it. We know we are doing wrong, we believe one thing but are doing another, and Satan is given place. You have to give no place to the Devil.
In Ephesians 6, Paul says put on the whole armor of God. You have to get up every day and put on the armor, ask for God’s protection. You can put on each piece of armor, like Paul does there, in prayer, step by step, and say, “Now I am ready to go. Satan get out!” And go, live this day!
Paul instructed Timothy to correct fellow Christians, “those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will” (1 Timothy 25,26 NKJV)
So, even Christians can be snared by the Devil. Even Christians can be trapped.
Peter said the Devil is like “a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour, resist him” (1 Peter 5:8,9). And James said, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
So if you feel like this is all overwhelming, what are we going to do? The Bible says we don’t have to give in to him. He is defeated. When all these things happen to you, the temptations, the accusations, the condemnations, resist the devil! Tell him to get out of here just like Jesus did and he will go, he will flee from you.
How does that happen? John said, “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” 1 John 4:4 ASV
The Devil seems overwhelming at times but we don’t have to bear that burden because, “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” God is in control. This thing didn’t surprise Him. He has allowed it to happen for a reason. Satan will not get the victory from it. We do not have to be defeated and hang our heads in shame. We can operate knowing God is going to work a miracle, a victory out of what has happened in this church this past week. We don’t have to be afraid and kowtow to the Devil.
 
“Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.They triumphed over himby the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short” (Revelation 12: 7-12 NIV).
 
Why is the world going to hell in a teacup? The Devil knows his time is short and he is doing everything he can to wreak havoc on God’s plan for this age. He was cast out of heaven, he has no more authority and power. Jesus is Lord, He has all authority and power. Satan is defeated, he knows he is defeated, therefore we don’t have to live defeated. We have overcome him by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. The Blood of the Lamb is the Cross of Christ where he shed his Blood for us, forgave our sins and made us right with God.
The Word of our testimony is that Jesus is Lord, He’s a Risen Lord. We believe in Him, therefore Satan has no authority, no power, no condemnation toward us.
 
 
THE WORD, OUR LIFE!
 
How do you ensure that your beliefs and your action match so that you are not living in dissonance all the time?
“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Psalm 119:11 NIV
It all goes back to the Word of God. You need to meditate on it, you need to study it, you need to read it, you need to make sure it is in your heart, so when the Devil comes tempting, you will have a verse of scripture to tell the Devil to get lost. You’ve got to live in the Word of God, you’ve got to know what the Bible says. How many times have you read through the Bible? You need to read through the Bible, you need to read it over and over and over. Since 1995 I have read it maybe ten times. You have got to read it, study it.
This is not some academic thing, this is your life! These are the Words of Life! These are the words that allow you to resist the Devil and sin. It is a living Word. It is God inspired. It is the Holy Spirit’s Word. He speaks to us through it. That’s why you need to dwell on it. Throw away your TV show, do away with Dave Letterman. Read the Bible.
Take time to study God’s Word. Get up half an hour earlier, spend time in the Word of God. It is your life and a protection from sin. The Lord Jesus conquered sin and therefore sin does not rule over us. Paul writes in Romans 6 that we have died to sin. We can walk by the Spirit now, dead to sin and alive in Christ. The only way in can have control over you is if you give it permission, if you say, “I believe this,” and you live another way.
The reason why a lot of things happen to Christians is because they are holding on to some secret sin. They are holding on to some habit, some action, some pattern in their lives that they keep going to. No one else knows it, but the Devil knows it and at the right moment the Devil is going to bring it out in the open and it’s going to be a horrible thing. “You know, I didn’t really mean to do that. That’s not really me.” Yes it is. Your heart’s wicked and deceitful. You played around with it, the devil knew it and he got you in a place where the trap was set and you were exposed.
Jesus has conquered sin. Sin does not have dominion over you any more. You don’t have to give in to the devil. You can voluntarily, willingly say, “I am going to give my body to God and not to the Devil. I am going to give my body to righteous things and not to unholy things. You can do that in your life.
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If you are a son of God you are going to live as a child of God. God himself will enable you to do that. Jesus took our sins so Satan cannot condemn you anymore (Romans 6; 8:1-2, 1 John 1:1,2, and Ephesians 6).
 
THE CYCLE OF ADDICTION
Why do good people do bad things? Either out of ignorance or out of a voluntary willful desire to commit sin, a person is tempted, a person acts on the temptation, and they commit the sin. The person then feels some kind of pleasure in that, but then the person starts feeling guilty. When they start feeling guilty, they start feeling condemned, and when they start feeling condemned they start feeling ashamed, and when they start feeling ashamed, they start thinking, “How can I get out of this? I don’t want to be like this. Oh, God, forgive me for being like this.” So their thought patterns are such that they have dissonance. They can’t understand why they believe this, but they acted like that. “What am I going to do? Well, what gave me pleasure?” The thought comes back to the temptation again and they give in to it. Now they have pleasure again, and they start this whole cycle. Round, round, round and around. Its called the cycle of addiction.
It could be alcohol that gives you pleasure. Pornography gives that you pleasure. It could be gambling that gives you pleasure or it could be food that gives you pleasure. It could be narcotics that give you pleasure. It could be power that gives you pleasure. It could be anything else you fill in the blank with that gives you that sense of pleasure and suddenly you get in that cycle of guilt and shame and pleasure, of guilt and shame and pleasure, of guilt and shame and pleasure, and the cycle traps you. That happens to Christians as well as non-Christians, but there is a way out.
The Celebrate Recovery 12-step sheet shows the basics of 12-step recovery groups. The principles of AA and other 12 step groups are based on biblical principles. The key is the first step: Admit you have a problem. Then you look to God to deliver you. You consciously turn yourself over to God and then search your heart to uncover everything that is morally wrong. You then begin to become transparent by confessing your sins to God and to another trusted person. You ask God to remove your sins and your wrongs and you begin to make amends with others that you have wronged. You continue the cycle of self-examination and confession and you begin to pray and develop spiritually asking God to show you the way forward. As you begin to recover, you begin to share your experience with others and support them so they too can be healed. This is the way to overcome addiction and sin and grow in your walk with God.

   
INTRODUCTION: The Christian life has been called “a walk”.  It is a life that follows God’s Law and God’s Spirit through personal faith in Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4:1 says, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Curtis Vaughn calls verse one “the pivotal verse of the whole epistle – indeed, the key that unlocks its structure…”  Chapters 1-3 are doctrinal; chapters 4-6 are practical. In other words, now that you know who you are and where you are going, live it out; walk right; do what God wants you to do. The Christian life is a walk. A Christian needs spiritual skills and proper equipment to walk the Christian walk.  God wants us to live and act in a way worthy of those who have been chosen to be a part of his family. How can we walk worthy of our calling from God? Let’s relate our spiritual walk to preparation for a hike in the mountains.
 
HIKERS NEED A GOOD PAIR OF WALKING SHOES.
 
*The Christian walk needs the sturdy support of patient love. “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (2).
 
*Love is expressed by three virtues: humility, gentleness and patience.
 
Principle: We will succeed in our Christian walk if we consciously choose to humbly, gently, patiently and lovingly overlook our brother’s faults.
 
HIKERS NEED A GOOD BACKPACK FOR THE HIKE.
 
*The Christian walk needs the backpack of unity filled with the seven essentials of doctrinal truth. “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (3).
 
*The backpack of unity in the Spirit has seven basic truths around which Christians can agree. The unity of the church centers on the doctrines of God, salvation, and the church. “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (4-6).
 
Principle: Spiritual unity is built around basic biblical doctrine.
 
HIKERS NEED SPECIAL SKILLS FOR THE HIKE.
 
*The Christian walk requires that we use the special spiritual abilities that God has given to us.  “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it” (7).
 

• You have a spiritual gift: “grace has been given”
• Your gift may not be the same as someone else’s gift: “But to each one of us”
• The Lord distributes the gifts: “as Christ has apportioned it”

 
Principle: God gave us spiritual gifts so that we can help others.
 

   
INTRODUCTION: Dietrich Bonheoffer, contending that everyone needs to learn how to pray, wrote in his book Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible that “prayer does not simply mean to pour out one’s heart…it means rather to find the way to God and speak with him, whether the heart is full or empty.” We need to find a practical way to pray. Paul has given a personal prayer for the Ephesians in chapter 1, but here in Ephesians 3 Paul offers a prayer with a purpose that all of us can use. Paul reminds the believers that he has been given the job of preaching the mystery “that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 3:6).  In great gratitude and humility, Paul boldly and confidently prays for the believers (3:12-14). Purposeful prayer for others includes:
 
THE REQUEST FOR INNER POWER.
 
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (16-17).
 
THE REQUEST FOR A FIRM GRASP OF LOVE.
 
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…” (17-18).
 
THE REQUEST FOR THE FULNESS OF GOD.
 
[I pray that you] “know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (19).
 
CLOSING: PURPOSEFUL PRAYER IS NOT AN ILLUSION.
 
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen” (20-21).
 
Pray that God’s people will know the inner power of Christ, God’s love, and the fullness of God.