I Need It! Duped?

Ok, I have missed a cou­ple “It’s Monday” entries. Let me get you caught up real quick and then go into Sunday’s ser­mon. The pas­tors at Flatland Church have started a new series of ser­mons called “Garage Sale” based on Ephesians 4–5 [show]Ephesians 4–5 I there­fore, a pris­oner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a man­ner wor­thy of the call­ing to which you have been called, [2]with all humil­ity and gen­tle­ness, with patience, bear­ing with one another in love, [3]eager to main­tain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. [4]There is one body and one Spirit–just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call– [5]one Lord, one faith, one bap­tism, [6]one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. [7]But grace was given to each one of us accord­ing to the mea­sure of Christ’s gift. [8]Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of cap­tives, and he gave gifts to men.“ [9](In say­ing, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? [10]He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heav­ens, that he might fill all things.) [11]And he gave the apos­tles, the prophets, the evan­ge­lists, the shep­herds and teach­ers, [12]to equip the saints for the work of min­istry, for build­ing up the body of Christ, [13]until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowl­edge of the Son of God, to mature man­hood, to the mea­sure of the stature of the full­ness of Christ, [14]so that we may no longer be chil­dren, tossed to and fro by the waves and car­ried about by every wind of doc­trine, by human cun­ning, by crafti­ness in deceit­ful schemes. [15]Rather, speak­ing the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, [16]from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is work­ing prop­erly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. [17]Now this I say and tes­tify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futil­ity of their minds. [18]They are dark­ened in their under­stand­ing, alien­ated from the life of God because of the igno­rance that is in them, due to their hard­ness of heart. [19]They have become cal­lous and have given them­selves up to sen­su­al­ity, greedy to prac­tice every kind of impu­rity. [20]But that is not the way you learned Christ!– [21]assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, [22]to put off your old self, which belongs to your for­mer man­ner of life and is cor­rupt through deceit­ful desires, [23]and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, [24]and to put on the new self, cre­ated after the like­ness of God in true right­eous­ness and holi­ness. [25]Therefore, hav­ing put away false­hood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neigh­bor, for we are mem­bers one of another. [26]Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, [27]and give no oppor­tu­nity to the devil. [28]Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing hon­est work with his own hands, so that he may have some­thing to share with any­one in need. [29]Let no cor­rupt­ing talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for build­ing up, as fits the occa­sion, that it may give grace to those who hear. [30]And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemp­tion. [31]Let all bit­ter­ness and wrath and anger and clamor and slan­der be put away from you, along with all mal­ice. [32]Be kind to one another, ten­der­hearted, for­giv­ing one another, as God in Christ for­gave you. Therefore be imi­ta­tors of God, as beloved chil­dren. [2]And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave him­self up for us, a fra­grant offer­ing and sac­ri­fice to God. [3]But sex­ual immoral­ity and all impu­rity or cov­etous­ness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. [4]Let there be no filth­i­ness nor fool­ish talk nor crude jok­ing, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanks­giv­ing. [5]For you may be sure of this, that every­one who is sex­u­ally immoral or impure, or who is cov­etous (that is, an idol­ater), has no inher­i­tance in the king­dom of Christ and God. [6]Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of dis­obe­di­ence. [7]Therefore do not become part­ners with them; [8]for at one time you were dark­ness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as chil­dren of light [9](for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), [10]and try to dis­cern what is pleas­ing to the Lord. [11]Take no part in the unfruit­ful works of dark­ness, but instead expose them. [12]For it is shame­ful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. [13]But when any­thing is exposed by the light, it becomes vis­i­ble, [14]for any­thing that becomes vis­i­ble is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.“ [15]Look care­fully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, [16]making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. [17]Therefore do not be fool­ish, but under­stand what the will of the Lord is. [18]And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauch­ery, but be filled with the Spirit, [19]addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spir­i­tual songs, singing and mak­ing melody to the Lord with your heart, [20]giving thanks always and for every­thing to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, [21]submitting to one another out of rev­er­ence for Christ. [22]Wives, sub­mit to your own hus­bands, as to the Lord. [23]For the hus­band is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is him­self its Savior. [24]Now as the church sub­mits to Christ, so also wives should sub­mit in every­thing to their hus­bands. [25]Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave him­self up for her, [26]that he might sanc­tify her, hav­ing cleansed her by the wash­ing of water with the word, [27]so that he might present the church to him­self in splen­dor, with­out spot or wrin­kle or any such thing, that she might be holy and with­out blem­ish. [28]In the same way hus­bands should love their wives as their own bod­ies. He who loves his wife loves him­self. [29]For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nour­ishes and cher­ishes it, just as Christ does the church, [30]because we are mem­bers of his body. [31]“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” [32]This mys­tery is pro­found, and I am say­ing that it refers to Christ and the church. [33]However, let each one of you love his wife as him­self, and let the wife see that she respects her hus­band. (ESV)
. The plat­form of our church now has the facade of a three car garage on it and our band is now a true garage band.  Our church is great!  Summary of the series so far: last week pas­tor preached on the fact that we have too much junk and went over what some of that junk is. We col­lect a lot of stuff in our lives that gunk up the works and slow our spir­i­tual growth down. This week, we saw that we are duped into think­ing we need all that junk.  Lets look at what Pastor Bart had to say about that and what our response should be.

Highlights of ser­mon first:

Eph. 4:17–19, 4 [show]Ephesians 4:17–19 [17]Now this I say and tes­tify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futil­ity of their minds. [18]They are dark­ened in their under­stand­ing, alien­ated from the life of God because of the igno­rance that is in them, due to their hard­ness of heart. [19]They have become cal­lous and have given them­selves up to sen­su­al­ity, greedy to prac­tice every kind of impu­rity. (ESV) Ephesians 4:4 [4]There is one body and one Spirit–just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call– (ESV)
:22, and 5:13–14

“We have been duped into think­ing we need all the junk in our lives.”   “Wake UP!”  “Not only did Jesus pay for our sins but he also wants to change us by His Spirit (a para­phrase).” “Be Enlightened!”

Main Point 1: We have been duped by deceit­ful desires (Eph. 4:22 [show]Ephesians 4:22 [22]to put off your old self, which belongs to your for­mer man­ner of life and is cor­rupt through deceit­ful desires, (ESV)
)

Abraham Mazlo’s Needs — Satisfaction, Safety, Love, Respect, Meaning/Worth.  We are duped into think­ing that the fastest way to meet our needs is the right way.

Main Point 2: We have been duped by deceit­ful outcomes

You know its junk if its grat­i­fi­ca­tion  lasts only a short time.

Main Point 3: We have been duped by deceit­ful examples

We can fol­low peo­ple who are bad exam­ples ( part­ners with them ), or we can fol­low and actu­ally be good exam­ples.  Not every­one has loads of junk in their life. If we can get rid of all the junk in our spir­i­tual lives, we can be great exam­ples to others.

Our Response (my response)

We first have to rec­og­nize that we are car­ry­ing junk that needs to be dumped. Our pas­tors at Flatland encour­aged us to write down the junk we are car­ry­ing with us and turn it over to God. Recognizing that we are car­ry­ing junk is so important.

The junk we need to get rid of as seen in Ephesians 4–5 [show]Ephesians 4–5 I there­fore, a pris­oner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a man­ner wor­thy of the call­ing to which you have been called, [2]with all humil­ity and gen­tle­ness, with patience, bear­ing with one another in love, [3]eager to main­tain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. [4]There is one body and one Spirit–just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call– [5]one Lord, one faith, one bap­tism, [6]one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. [7]But grace was given to each one of us accord­ing to the mea­sure of Christ’s gift. [8]Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of cap­tives, and he gave gifts to men.“ [9](In say­ing, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? [10]He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heav­ens, that he might fill all things.) [11]And he gave the apos­tles, the prophets, the evan­ge­lists, the shep­herds and teach­ers, [12]to equip the saints for the work of min­istry, for build­ing up the body of Christ, [13]until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowl­edge of the Son of God, to mature man­hood, to the mea­sure of the stature of the full­ness of Christ, [14]so that we may no longer be chil­dren, tossed to and fro by the waves and car­ried about by every wind of doc­trine, by human cun­ning, by crafti­ness in deceit­ful schemes. [15]Rather, speak­ing the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, [16]from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is work­ing prop­erly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. [17]Now this I say and tes­tify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futil­ity of their minds. [18]They are dark­ened in their under­stand­ing, alien­ated from the life of God because of the igno­rance that is in them, due to their hard­ness of heart. [19]They have become cal­lous and have given them­selves up to sen­su­al­ity, greedy to prac­tice every kind of impu­rity. [20]But that is not the way you learned Christ!– [21]assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, [22]to put off your old self, which belongs to your for­mer man­ner of life and is cor­rupt through deceit­ful desires, [23]and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, [24]and to put on the new self, cre­ated after the like­ness of God in true right­eous­ness and holi­ness. [25]Therefore, hav­ing put away false­hood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neigh­bor, for we are mem­bers one of another. [26]Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, [27]and give no oppor­tu­nity to the devil. [28]Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing hon­est work with his own hands, so that he may have some­thing to share with any­one in need. [29]Let no cor­rupt­ing talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for build­ing up, as fits the occa­sion, that it may give grace to those who hear. [30]And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemp­tion. [31]Let all bit­ter­ness and wrath and anger and clamor and slan­der be put away from you, along with all mal­ice. [32]Be kind to one another, ten­der­hearted, for­giv­ing one another, as God in Christ for­gave you. Therefore be imi­ta­tors of God, as beloved chil­dren. [2]And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave him­self up for us, a fra­grant offer­ing and sac­ri­fice to God. [3]But sex­ual immoral­ity and all impu­rity or cov­etous­ness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. [4]Let there be no filth­i­ness nor fool­ish talk nor crude jok­ing, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanks­giv­ing. [5]For you may be sure of this, that every­one who is sex­u­ally immoral or impure, or who is cov­etous (that is, an idol­ater), has no inher­i­tance in the king­dom of Christ and God. [6]Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of dis­obe­di­ence. [7]Therefore do not become part­ners with them; [8]for at one time you were dark­ness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as chil­dren of light [9](for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), [10]and try to dis­cern what is pleas­ing to the Lord. [11]Take no part in the unfruit­ful works of dark­ness, but instead expose them. [12]For it is shame­ful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. [13]But when any­thing is exposed by the light, it becomes vis­i­ble, [14]for any­thing that becomes vis­i­ble is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.“ [15]Look care­fully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, [16]making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. [17]Therefore do not be fool­ish, but under­stand what the will of the Lord is. [18]And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauch­ery, but be filled with the Spirit, [19]addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spir­i­tual songs, singing and mak­ing melody to the Lord with your heart, [20]giving thanks always and for every­thing to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, [21]submitting to one another out of rev­er­ence for Christ. [22]Wives, sub­mit to your own hus­bands, as to the Lord. [23]For the hus­band is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is him­self its Savior. [24]Now as the church sub­mits to Christ, so also wives should sub­mit in every­thing to their hus­bands. [25]Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave him­self up for her, [26]that he might sanc­tify her, hav­ing cleansed her by the wash­ing of water with the word, [27]so that he might present the church to him­self in splen­dor, with­out spot or wrin­kle or any such thing, that she might be holy and with­out blem­ish. [28]In the same way hus­bands should love their wives as their own bod­ies. He who loves his wife loves him­self. [29]For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nour­ishes and cher­ishes it, just as Christ does the church, [30]because we are mem­bers of his body. [31]“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” [32]This mys­tery is pro­found, and I am say­ing that it refers to Christ and the church. [33]However, let each one of you love his wife as him­self, and let the wife see that she respects her hus­band. (ESV)
include: anger, bit­ter­ness, false­hood, gos­sip, greed, obscen­i­ties, addic­tions, and immorality.

Pastor said some­thing that hit me as very impor­tant, espe­cially so we can respond well. We need to be able to match up the junk with the needs that we are try­ing to meet with that junk. For exam­ple, if we carry a lot of anger around with us, we need to see how car­ry­ing that anger is some­how try­ing to meet a need in our lives, be it self-worth, safety, respect or what­ever. Once we are able to see how we are try­ing to meet a need with what really is an inap­pro­pri­ate response, we can elim­i­nate the junk and find appro­pri­ate ways of meet­ing those needs.

We have to remem­ber first and fore­most, Christ wants to meet our needs Himself. He can fill our deep­est, emp­ti­est, hole of a need. It may not be ( most likely will not be ) the eas­i­est or fastest way of meet­ing that need but once we allow Christ to touch our lives and meet those needs, no mat­ter how long or dif­fi­cult it is to allow Him to do so, we will find grat­i­fi­ca­tion that is eter­nal (this goes back to an ear­lier ser­mon… Jesus is liv­ing water and eter­nal bread that sat­is­fies forever).

Being a good exam­ple to oth­ers of not hav­ing a lot of junk hang­ing around our lives to me is an impor­tant way to meet one or more of those needs… self-worth and respect. I want to be a good exam­ple of a Christian life and hav­ing a lot of junk clut­ter up my life cer­tainly ruins the abil­ity to have those needs met.

I plan on look­ing very closely this week at those areas that are junked up in my life, see if I can match them up with what need I am attempt­ing to meet with that junk, and turn them over to God. I look for­ward to Pastor’s next two ser­mons where he is going to lead us through how to have a great Garage Sale!