Who We Are is What We Do

[0:00] Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4. A couple of things that I want to call your attention to and bring you up to date and let you know what's going to happen the next couple of weeks.

[0:16] As you notice in your bulletin, there is a youth night coming up, youth extravaganza. We held a meeting on Monday, very encouraged by those who were both parents wanting to know what's in store for their kids, those who want to volunteer, those who want to lead and those who want to encourage through prayer to help build into our next generation.

[0:39] So for some of you who weren't there and you still want to be a part of it, please reach out to me. Let me know via email. That'd be greatly encouraging to build you into this incredibly worthwhile ministry.

[0:51] One of the things that God has called us to do is to disciple others. For some of you who may not be sure on what that looks like, pretty much the greatest way to get introduced to how to disciple is to do youth ministry.

[1:05] They're right there. They're looking for wisdom. They need godly advice. They need models. And we have that opportunity to provide that, both younger of age, like myself, and some of the older guys, like I'm not going to name them today.

[1:23] But so anyhow, there's a great advantage there. As you know, we're in the book of Ephesians. And I just wanted to bring you up to speed. In case you don't know, I'm actually working on a doctorate.

[1:34] And that doctorate actually involves you guys. You guys are actually going to be a part of my doctoral studies. And what we're going to be doing the doctoral studies on is the armor of God.

[1:46] We're going to do how the armor of God affects both our maturity and our effectiveness and our understanding of the Christian life. So if you notice, we're kind of at the tail end of chapter four going into chapter five.

[1:59] The armor of God doesn't start till chapter six. So what that means is we're actually going to be doing some fast forwarding because I have to actually preach a 10 to 12 part sermon series on the armor of God.

[2:14] Now, what does that mean for you? I'm actually going to ask you guys to participate in this by doing a survey alongside of me. So something that I'm going to ask you to do is to pray about it.

[2:25] It's actually pretty simple. I'm going to have a questionnaire to be handed out. Probably put it out at the front or at the back. And what you can do is you fill out the questionnaire in regards to your understanding of some of the things that are going on in regards to the armor of God.

[2:40] I'm going to teach on it for at least 10 weeks, I guess. And then you get to take the survey again to see if you actually learned anything from me. Right?

[2:50] So it's actually not a test, but I want to see just how measurement of growth, how we understand it, because I do believe it is one of the most misunderstood parts of the Christianity.

[3:01] So if I could ask you to pray, I got a lot of work to do in the next couple of weeks just to get all these things sorted out. In order to do the survey, I've got to work with a mathematician to make sure everything is worded correctly.

[3:17] We have the right scales. Some of you guys who are at Quest know exactly what I'm talking about. Irene's all excited about what? Statistics? Numbers? I love it. Hey, I might need someone to head this up.

[3:28] Okay? Hey? Anyway, we have to do something like that. So if I could have your prayers, encouragement for that, that'd be great. So we're going to be stepping out of Ephesians just for a couple of weeks as I get that sorted out.

[3:41] In two weeks' time, Joey Haynes is coming over from Victoria to preach. He and I are doing a pulpit swap, so I'll be actually in Victoria preaching at his church. He's been a great friend, great encouragement to me and actually to the church.

[3:55] So that's kind of the update. You guys all ready to get into the word? All right. So you got your Bibles open to Ephesians 4. Before I get you up there, I want you to look down a little bit further to Ephesians 5, verse 1.

[4:17] Paul begins with this word, call therefore. The argument that Paul is offering in verse 1 of chapter 4 is actually based upon the text that we are in today.

[4:30] So he's simply saying, therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

[4:53] A fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. What we're studying today is to lead to that conclusion.

[5:10] Walk in love. It's an action. It's an action. To walk, to live your life with the model being imitators of God.

[5:29] As Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

[5:43] Think about that. That is huge. Let it sink in a bit.

[5:57] We are being called to walk as Jesus Christ did, to be imitators. Do we really get the ramifications of that?

[6:11] And we're supposed to do it as Jesus did it. I love Jesus. Jesus is my Savior.

[6:22] Jesus is my Lord. Lord. And he tells me I'm to live my life to love as he loved.

[6:37] Is this true of you? I don't know. You have to tell me. So what does that mean?

[6:49] I can't heal the sick like Jesus did. I can't raise men like Lazarus from the dead. I cannot create enough food to feed thousands upon thousands of people with simple, a few loaves and a few pieces of fish.

[7:19] So how do I love like Jesus loved? How do I live my life as Christ loved us? Us. This is the question that I want to deal with.

[7:33] This is the question that is before us as those who call ourselves Christians, followers of Christ. Now before I dig into trying to answer this, let's recap what we learned last week because this has a great bearing on what this means.

[7:53] Last week, if you were with us, we looked at four characteristics of the world. All right? We base this off of what Paul was telling us to no longer walk as the Gentiles do.

[8:10] So what are the defining characteristics of the world? When we pursue the world, when we pursue the world's agenda, what happens to us? Well, the first one is it says, Paul concludes that man is futile in his intellect.

[8:26] We're futile in our intellect. And what he means by that is we cannot figure out God on our own. The world, with all its wisdom, understanding, and resources that it has, cannot figure out God.

[8:42] Scripture makes that very clear. Their heightened thoughts, ruminations, and philosophy is nothing but gibberish to God. The second truth that we learn that the world is defined by is there is a willful ignorance of God's truth.

[9:02] A willful ignorance of God's truth. There is this obtuseness that man wants to be his own authority.

[9:13] We see that in our own homes, right? If you've got a kid in your house, you know he wants to be the boss of his own world. And as you get into the teenage years, guess what?

[9:24] They become bigger bosses, right? Even husbands and wives. There's a competition for authority in how we're going to do things.

[9:37] You see, that word willful, there is no one that is ignorant. In fact, it says they have this hardened heart, and what it talks about is that they make themselves hard to God's truth.

[9:50] They want it their way, not God's way. The third thing that we learned about the world is man is callous. Man is callous. Kind of like calcifying. What it means is that man, when he gets into his own sin, accepts his own sin, wants his own sin, he shaz no shame.

[10:10] There is no shame. In fact, he wants to parade his sin. He wants the right to express his sin to the whole world and be loved for it. All right?

[10:22] That's what that word means, to be callous. He gets to a point as he doesn't even want to hide it. And the fourth truth we learned about the world is that it has a depraved mind.

[10:35] And what that means is that man, as he pursues his own sin, after time after time, the moral restraints become removed.

[10:47] When those moral restraints become removed, Romans 1 tells us they lose all ability to think clearly and rationalize and reason properly.

[10:58] This is what happens when man pushes God out of the picture. These are the four dominant characteristics of the world.

[11:10] This is what Paul clearly, plainly, and clearly again says, don't walk in it. Don't walk in this world.

[11:21] Don't be a part of this world. Separate yourselves from this world. Do not let it have influence in this world. Take a look at verse 17 of chapter 4 in your text.

[11:32] 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. 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.

[11:51] They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. So the first thing that when Paul is calling us to love Jesus, be like Jesus, what does he mean?

[12:09] Get out of the world. Get out of the world. Don't live it. Don't live like it. Don't marry it. Don't let it own you.

[12:20] Stay out of the world. Remember when he says, don't walk like Gentiles do.

[12:35] Gentile meant foreigner, one who is outside of God, outside of God's promises. Paul uses that word to contrast with the word Jew, Jew-Gentile, Jew, the religious insider that God has revealed himself to through Abraham.

[12:53] Then we have the Gentile, everyone who isn't Jew. The Jew given all of God's commands. God personally knew them. The Gentile does not know God.

[13:05] Totally outside of God. God. But we are now a new person. The religious insider is both Jew and Gentile that comes together in faith in Jesus Christ.

[13:20] Take a look in verse 20. But that is not the way you learned Christ. So this morning, I want to look at the primary characteristic it is to be like Christ.

[13:33] The primary characteristic, and I want to talk about four ways that that shows itself in our lives. Four ways it changes our outward disposition.

[13:46] If you notice, in the bulletin, there's a quote I put in there by J.C. Ryle. And he specifically talks about how the outside has to look like the inside for it to be sincere.

[13:59] So notice, so today, we're going to start in verse 20. Notice it says, but that is not the way you learned Christ.

[14:11] Verse 21, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth in Jesus, is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.

[14:34] Now, before I continue on this, I made a statement that a lot of people, I made a statement last week that a lot of people actually asked me about.

[14:44] In fact, Sable testify there was a mutiny in a small group over this statement, right? People were throwing chairs at each other and apparently they weren't talking to each other for what, five, ten minutes and then they, anyhow, a little bit of hyperbole, all right?

[15:01] But what we were talking about, I made that statement that where does sin start and I said in the mind. But people start, you guys who are biblically versed, started to question that and I provided several verses and reasons why the mind is so important to the Christian life.

[15:24] But people, and I had one person tell me on the phone, hey, what about Jeremiah 17, six? The heart is wicked and deceitful above all things. Isn't the heart the issue, not the mind?

[15:39] Right? In Genesis 6, five, reads, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thought of his heart was only evil continually.

[15:56] Deuteronomy 6, five says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your mind. Now it doesn't say that actually. It says, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

[16:15] Not even a mention in mind there. So I must have said something so incredibly tragically wrong. All right? Actually, Jesus, when answering the question of how one inherits eternal life, he responds in Luke 10, 27, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

[16:40] Then he adds something and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. Let me explain what's going on here. When you hear that word heart, what do you think?

[16:53] What do we equate it with? Desires, passion, right? Emotions. Those are the things that we usually hear when we hear that word heart.

[17:07] But in the Hebrew context, it means something different than how we in our present context see heart.

[17:19] Now, the best way that I can explain this is tell you that the heart in a sense means your nature, your predetermined nature, kind of like your DNA.

[17:33] For all of you who work in computers, it is the central processing unit, it is the one that accepts the commands and makes everything happen.

[17:46] So, so when I ask someone what is their heart's disposition, I'm not actually asking them how they feel.

[17:57] They feel sad. I feel really angry. It's not the question I'm asking. I'm kind of asking them at the core of your being, who you are, how do you think about this?

[18:12] What do you feel about this? Right? We don't have like a perfect word. You see, we all have a nature. If I gave you $10,000 and I gave a non-Christian $10,000, they will probably spend that $10,000 quite differently.

[18:34] Why? Because of their disposition of their heart, their nature, their DNA, their ultimate desires, right? The fact of the matter is, my disposition in life is to love chocolate cake.

[18:50] It is. I love chocolate cake. You can put a pie before me and tell me it is the greatest peach pie in the world that's ever created. Meh. But you put chocolate cake and you could say it's possibly the worst chocolate cake in the world.

[19:05] I'm still going to choose it over the pie. It is my nature to love chocolate cake. All right? I don't care about pie. Another way to help you understand this is that there are things called dogs and there are things called cats.

[19:24] Okay? Emily's already shaking her head. She knows where this story is going because Emily knows the nature of cats. If your house is burning down, you know what your dog will do?

[19:35] It will bark and bark and if it's a big dog, it'll come and haul you out of the bed, haul you outside and save your life. The cat, it's taken off. It's going to get together with the rest of the cats and it's going to tell them that fire started because I knocked over the candle.

[19:50] Ha ha. Right? That is the nature of cats. That is the nature of dogs. You cannot change it. They are what they are. So when it's talking about their heart, it's talking about their inward disposition that exists within them.

[20:06] So when you say that I need to like pies, you have to change my inner disposition. I can't do that. You could say that BK needs a change of heart.

[20:23] this is what we're talking about in spiritual terms. Last week I used that word total depravity and it's a Calvinistic term.

[20:37] What I mean by that is it means that we are so influenced by sin in every aspect of our being we cannot change our own hearts. We cannot change our disposition towards God.

[20:49] You can't. something needs to happen inside of you first. Before you can make a decision with your mind to enact your will something needs to change inside of you.

[21:11] See before Christ came into our life we were futile in mind. We were willfully ignorant of God's truth. We were callous. We were depraved. some of us to different degrees but it was because of the condition of our hearts our nature.

[21:29] The problem with sin is I don't even know it. When I'm far from God I don't even see that I'm far from God. When I'm an unbeliever I don't even realize I need God.

[21:41] Because I am the authority. I'm totally blind to what is going on. God so something needs to happen. But what's interesting is that we are still responsible for our choices.

[21:58] That God still judges us by our choices. So even though I did not know it there is really nothing I could do to change it.

[22:11] And in fact I'm not free. I'm actually in bondage to sin. I'm in bondage to this world. Let me ask you a question.

[22:27] How do you know that God is working in you? How do you know that God is working in you?

[22:41] Perhaps think to the time when you did not know Christ. How did you know? Well you started having thoughts about God.

[22:52] For one reason or another you had thoughts about God. You had thoughts that there was some other authority outside of you. You start to think that there is someone who is above you and that you might actually have to worship.

[23:10] Perhaps in regards to your sin you actually start to feel guilty. You start to feel shame that you never felt before. You actually start to have second thoughts.

[23:24] You start to ask yourself I used to freely sin in that area now I don't. What's going on? In fact you actually find yourself thinking hey that was sin about certain things that you didn't think was sin before.

[23:38] So all of a sudden that ignorance that you had in regards to your actions those excuses that you made kind of aren't fooling you anymore.

[23:56] What you were doing without shame you now feel shamed. What's happening?

[24:07] God is beginning to reveal himself to you when those things are happening. When you start to feel shame guilt second thoughts about things you no longer felt about before God is essentially doing the can be anything you could be a senior looking back at your life and perhaps how you raised your kids and you feel the need to call your adult children and say I need to tell you I'm sorry forgive me you might not even know what they're talking about but those are signs that God is doing something within you my encouragement to you is don't reject this don't run away from this some people try to pour on the sin even more acting as if that will inoculate them from all that sin and shame and perhaps it will lead to a hardening of heart and it's true you might not ever feel shame again but

[25:30] I will tell you that is the path of destruction now let's go back to our text 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 what this means is you just didn't hear the news about Jesus but you learned Jesus you didn't learn about Jesus you didn't learn the stories of what Jesus hair color was you didn't learn the stories of how tall Jesus was or how he walked or if he played soccer or anything about Jesus in that way but you learned Jesus and how did you learn Jesus someone told you about him people shared with you about what he did you heard about the miracles you heard about the leprosy that was healed lives that were raised again you heard the blind could now see the deaf could now hear that is what you heard when you learned the stories of

[26:48] Jesus people shared with you what Jesus said you heard that Jesus loved you and in that great love he died on the cross for you those are the things that you learned about Jesus why because you according to Romans were guilty of sin and God was so holy that sin could not exist in his presence but now you could and you know what you believed and as you grew in Christ you came to church you read your Bible people taught you you listened to the radio and you grew in your knowledge of Christ you still don't know how tall Jesus was still don't know his hair color still don't know how much you know

[27:50] Jesus that's what Paul is talking about here a knowledge that is ingrained through your experience of understanding the words that are presented to you here in scripture notice verse 21 assuming that you have heard about him were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus amen and that truth exists today why because someone maybe it was a preacher like me maybe it was a mom your dad your grandfather your grandmother at camp counselor a sister brother friend told you about Jesus and you believed you see this is the primary characteristic to be like Christ you heard you believed and now you know Jesus you understand what it is to walk in his suffering to walk in his joy you understand what makes

[28:53] Jesus angry starts to make you feel angry the things that Jesus is joyful for you are joyful for so that is the primary characteristic to be like Christ you see learning Jesus is welcoming Jesus into your life it's inviting him in through faith as a living person and being shaped by who he is can I get an amen for that that's what it is and now that you have Jesus now what verse 22 put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires there's the heart right creates the desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of

[29:57] God in true righteousness and holiness notice it says to put off yourself it's a one time action done by the spirit so that heart and this is what it's getting down to that heart mind thing I'm kind of getting ahead of myself in the sermon but I want to understand that change your heart is a one time event you're going from the world to Jesus one time one time only you don't have to ask Jesus to change your disposition anymore he's already changed it you can't change it okay but you have a mind by which you follow through on your actions and you renew that mind and that's why we see this continue in scripture renew your mind put on your mind renew so we see that God gives us many commands we are told to deny ourselves Jesus says follow me he says come he says repent he says seek ask knock choose hear take my yoke be born again what he's saying is get rid of those old stinky clothes and put on me time to get rid of the old and put on the new this new person created in the likeness of God in true righteousness to ultimately know

[31:36] Christ is to be saved it is to leave the old way of life behind you you do not need it anymore Satan will work very hard for you to think that you do need it that those elements of your old life you still need that you're not strong enough you're not courageous enough but we need to take it all off and leave it behind you see all these commands that I just read to you are directed at your mind and the reason you can make those decisions is because of the inward change of heart that God made in you as I said the heart is a one time change the mind is a continual thing that we need to renew you see who we are is what we do a changed life must lead to changed actions in

[32:43] Christ a believer leaves four actions from the old self and that's what we're going to talk about for the rest of today so I'm going to look at four actions the believer puts away and what he adopts instead and we see this quite clearly the first action is that the believer puts away all falsehood and speaks truth the first action of a true believer in Jesus Christ who has undergone a heart change renews himself in his mind by pursuing truth take a look verse 25 therefore having put away falsehood let each of you speak the truth with his neighbor for we are members of one another there we have this idea again of laying aside put on truth you have a new father now the Bible tells us that Satan is the father of lies and deceit when we are untruthful we are playing his game fact the matter is it is quite easy to lie it is easy to exaggerate it is easy to deceive we will often lie to promote ourselves we will often lie to avoid shame we will lie to avoid people looking at us in ways we do not want to be looked upon we lie when we blame others we lie when we tell others we are not responsible remember the people who are receiving this message live in a world where there is false gods everywhere and everything is filled with lies you see that is the world of

[34:34] Satan that is the world that he controls the fact is Jesus Christ simply said I am the way the truth and the life sometimes we equate truth with a child lying to his mom or dad and that is indeed true but there can be many ways in which we can be false sometimes we are false in what we don't say we want people to think otherwise about us we are false when we don't correct falsehoods we allow gossip to continue lies to be told where I think this affects most adults is found in the words of the English writer Samuel

[35:34] Johnson when he said it is more from carelessness about truth from intentional lying that there is much falsehood in the world do you understand that let me say that again there is more lies created through carelessness about truth than there is about intentional lying in the world I paraphrase a lot we need to be careful when we paraphrase is it something that someone actually said because sometimes I zone in what I think is important rather than what the speaker is important when I was with CSIS I had to provide briefs that would go before the Supreme Court of Canada I had to be pretty exact in what I said and that sometimes could take weeks and weeks and weeks just to write a short letter making sure everything was absolutely precise so I believe us followers of truth need to cultivate accuracy when speaking the second action or the second thing we put on is that a believer deals with his anger in a biblical way a believer deals with his anger in a biblical way what's kind of interesting is sometimes we think anger is wrong it's a sin notice verse 26 it says be angry all right

[37:09] I'm going to be angry right but there's a rest and do not sin do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity for the devil the fact of the matter is anger brings a lot of baggage does it not when we're angry we say hurtful words we insult we become impatient when we sit on that anger it starts to fester right starts to grow it's like a yeast that goes through our whole body for anger at someone we start to build a case against them can you believe they said that the other day I saw them look at me a certain way I been in those situations and they need to go and ask I didn't even see the person what are they talking about right we start to build a case to justify our anger there's a reason why it simply says do not let the sun go down on your anger you have to deal with it because we know that it can fester we know that it brings up pride it brings it turns into sin which has a habit of turning into bitterness we think we stew we plot we plan and it can lead to real issues in your life

[38:44] I know a person who on the outside looks like a wonderful Christian person but something happened to her and there is so much anger in her life no one could be around her for a long period of time and does she have right to be anger yes she does abused but that anger that exists in her heart festers in every relationship with every man woman child her parents that she's around it's like an atom bomb being like Jesus means dealing with our anger in a biblical way let's take a look at the third one found in verse 28 it says 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 third action is quit stealing which is thinking about yourself and thinking about others that's what we were talking about when

[39:57] I talked about if you give someone ten thousand dollars one who's got a disposition towards self they're going to use that and invest that money into themselves a believer in Jesus Christ a follower of Christ is going to look at how can I use this money to invest in others it up so wonderfully clear so that he may have something to share with anyone in need hey this is one of the ten commandments we get that I'm guessing and I may be assuming incorrectly here but you guys probably all own those cars in the parking lot right I'm going to guess there's not too many grand theft auto people here right see sometimes we read those things and that's what we're automatically thinking but we steal a lot of things we are guilty of stealing time from

[40:57] God when we do not give him the worship that he is due that is theft God is rightfully due our worship amen we are the created beings anytime we worship by giving him something more someone else something more honor or more time worship time we're stealing from him we steal from God when we set others interest above God's interests business businesses steal when they overcharge at a business I'll be honest with you I always used to get saying you should be a salesman you should be a salesman I hate selling I hate selling so one time I'm in university and I had to get a job and if you guys remember in the 90s there was kind of a depression and it was hard to get work so I was the only person who was hiring

[42:02] I'm so embarrassed of this so on the first day they had this strategy to drive us out to another town from where we are and they drop us off and they give us a load of these collection of knives and I've got to go sell the knives right and I'm stuck with it till like the van takes me back at 7 o'clock these knives were garbage right and you're going around like you're showing up at factories where there's factory workers hey man I'm going to sell you these knives for $29.99 they're worth like $700 right and you have this old shtick that you're doing I quit on the first I actually called my friend to have him come pick me up I was so ashamed to be peddling these knives and I praise God for that because they were just poor products and that's something that has to affect us no matter what we're saying whether it's true or not whether we're selling

[43:08] Jesus or we don't sell Jesus but if we're trying to sell Jesus it's going to make you happier it's going to make you richer that's wrong sometimes we steal when we take a praise that wasn't deserved I felt bad about this but I'll tell you about it anyway I got this great praise from my boss my boss loved me when there was a time when I was at CSIS why because I stayed late all the time but what he didn't realize is I was so stupid that I had to stay late to get the work done right most people could do it in a regular eight hour day not me I needed 12 hours right and so he sends me this little commendation card and I'm like man I don't think he's very smart but it was totally undeserved right I had to totally push it on no they're way brighter than me it just takes way longer for me to get it sometimes we steal from there's a whole parable in Luke about the minas remember the minas

[44:20] I really believe those are the opportunities that God gives us opportunities to build into the church to use our gifts that God has given us I profoundly believe when we are not using the gifts that God has given us to serve in the church we're stealing from God I'm absolute we have tons and tons of opportunities to share to love to give to build into that by not taking those opportunities not only are robbing God but we're robbing ourselves of the blessing that he gives his church it was an interesting stat the other actually this morning I wrote the number one way where people thieve is actually employee theft we always used to think businesses was theft from other people but it's actually a 2.9 billion dollar shortfall that businesses face because people that they trust steal from them let's take a look at the fourth action verse 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 beautiful speech is a beautiful thing amen

[45:48] I've got this friend who is beloved anybody who knows him loves him and I was thinking about this before and you cannot find anyone in this world that he's ever said a bad thing about he just loves people always always loving not critical he could be but he's not he's just loving kind admired you see even the slightest word that is negative about someone that is not gracious or kind can light a fire that can destroy a life in fact James warns us so dearly in James 3 1-6 says not many of you should become teachers my brothers for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness this happens to people who are unstudied who are untaught who don't take the time to measure their words and I have seen on many occasions destroy churches or a pastor taking his church through his own issues which horribly affects the testimony of God let me say this to you if you ever hear me doubting my faith love me care for me pray for me but by golly don't let me preach verse 2 for we all stumble in many ways and if anyone does not stumble in what he says he is a perfect man able also to bridle his whole body if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us we guide their whole bodies as well look at the ships also though they are so large and are driven by strong winds they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs so also the tongue is a small member yet it boasts of great things even today we see this unfolding before us in the political scene right we have political parties that are not trying to advance themselves by bringing out policies they're actually trying to say such negative things about people that it will destroy their future careers this is not of

[48:35] God in fact even this morning in a US article it said for polite Canada the latest federal election campaign is turning out to be pretty nasty it is a cynical race to the bottom where leaders have focused on inflicting maximum damage on their rivals rather than propping themselves or their policies up how often are we guilty of that right someone else gets credit oh it wasn't that big of a deal he could have done better all said with the thought that you could do better it's interesting a month ago I received an email about a certain website that was talking about the subject of stopping spiritual abuse and as I read the article it seemed pretty credible until I started reading a little bit more of the other articles and they came upon a situation which I knew about personally and it was totally wrong totally wrong yet they made all such stories making it look like credible and I simply wrote to the people who had suggested that you need to delete this this is just a gossip mongering site that disguises itself as Christian when in fact it is of the devil see the reality is we live in the world of Twitter where people see stuff and they race to get news and often they make mistakes it's the world which has been dubbed false news

[50:09] I can tell you without a doubt when I was with CSIS when there was ever a news story or a book written about us it was always wrong we need to be very careful with our tongues we need to be very careful with gossip with speaking about others facts that are mixed up wrong understanding of a subject my friends God calls us to have what he says is a controlled mind and a controlled mind leads to controlled speech gossip is a horrible thing and I have had to repent of it in the past because it is both destructive and hurtful those who are in Christ it has no place in their lives let's take a look at verse 30 Paul gives us a wonderful conclusion to the sermon and do not grieve the

[51:11] Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice be kind to one another tender hearted forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you therefore as it began the sermon be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God this is who we are called to be let's pray