Text:\u00a0 Ephesians 4: 17-24<\/p>\n
Want an interesting discussion?\u00a0 Get together a group of young and old. Bring up what to wear for worship. For my mom and dad, what you wore made a statement about what you were doing.\u00a0 \u00a0If you went to see the mayor, you got dressed up. Even more so, if you came into God\u2019s house.\u00a0 It said this is important.<\/p>\n
But I have learned it isn\u2019t the same for younger people today or here out West.\u00a0 If you dress casual in worship it doesn\u2019t mean that you are dissing God or the people you worship with. And so here we need to be careful about judging hearts by what someone chose to wear.<\/p>\n
But it doesn\u2019t mean that God doesn\u2019t care what we wear as Christians. Oh yes, he cares very much. Our Lord has a lot to say on what we should wear as God\u2019s people and what we shouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 But it has little to do with what is hanging in your closet or folded up in your dresser drawer.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where Jesus\u2019 apostle takes us today.\u00a0 What\u2019s it mean to be:<\/p>\n
DRESSED TO FOLLOW JESUS Life in the military can be tough.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a tough week for our soldiers and marines in Afghanistan. But it\u2019s simple in one way.\u00a0 You wear a uniform.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have decide what to wear.\u00a0 But then you get out and you have to make those choices.\u00a0 One time, I came home at the end of the day and heard this:\u00a0 You wore that!<\/em> I guess I wasn\u2019t exactly coordinated.<\/p>\n In a way, the apostle Paul says the same to every one of us.\u00a0 There are days when we need to hear:\u00a0 Christian, You wore that?\u00a0 You did that?\u00a0 You said that?\u00a0 You walked around with that attitude?\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0 At the beginning of this chapter, Paul says live a life worthy of the calling you have received.<\/span> God has called you out of a terrible darkness into his wonderful light.\u00a0 He has called you to faith in the One he gave on a cross to bleed and die for you.\u00a0\u00a0 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God<\/span> and that is what we are<\/span>.\u00a0 That\u2019s our great calling.<\/p>\n So child of God, you wore that?\u00a0 I wore that!\u00a0 We need to be reminded.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t go with who we are and what we are in Christ.\u00a0 It goes with what we once were. That\u2019s what Paul told these Christians in no uncertain terms:\u00a0 17 <\/sup>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. 18 <\/sup>They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 <\/sup>Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more<\/span>.<\/p>\n Look at the life of many people around us.\u00a0 They want nothing to do with Jesus.\u00a0 Through their eyes things might seem to be fine.\u00a0 Maybe they are getting a good education or advancing in their career.\u00a0 They are getting to travel or hang out with friends.\u00a0 But God sees something else.\u00a0 Futility.<\/em> What did Jesus say: \u00a0\u00a0What good is it for man to gain the whole world and yet lose his own soul.?<\/em> And that\u2019s the terrible thing Paul is describing.\u00a0 People may be callous and indifferent to God and their spiritual condition but this is the sad truth:\u00a0 They are separated from the life of God.<\/span> And if nothing should change, that\u2019s how they will be forever.<\/p>\n And we know what happens when people push God out of their hearts and lives. So much of what makes life good and decent goes away. We\u2019re seeing that unfold in our own country.\u00a0 The fabric of our society is unraveling in so many simple ways. The presidential campaign is a sad example. The lies, the slander, the selfish ambition where almost anything goes to get what I want. And neither campaign is innocent.\u00a0 They both have rolled around in the gutter of ugliness.<\/p>\n Here Paul could have pointed to that temple up on the hill in Ephesus.\u00a0 There men and women not only exchanged the glory of God to worship an idol of stone.\u00a0 They also had sex with the many temple prostitutes and called it worship.<\/p>\n Well today people don\u2019t have to go to a temple.\u00a0 They can indulge their lusts right in front of a computer.\u00a0 Pornography, sexting. God\u2019s gift of sex and marriage has been twisted and perverted in so many ways.<\/p>\n Years ago, a couple came to me to be married. The young lady was a member of our church. She was confirmed in the faith. Her fianc\u00e9, not.\u00a0 I asked them write to down their addresses.\u00a0 It turned out they were sharing the same address.\u00a0 I looked at the young man and said, I wouldn\u2019t expect that you know better.\u00a0 But then I turned to the young lady and said:\u00a0 I know you do.<\/em><\/p>\n Isn\u2019t that what Paul writes for us here:\u00a0 20 <\/span><\/sup>You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21 <\/sup>Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 <\/sup>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;<\/span> Put off what you once were, dear friends– and when we find ourselves dressed like this world does, we need to put off those things.\u00a0 . We need to repent and seek the Lord\u2019s forgiveness.\u00a0 And then get dressed again, dressed to follow Jesus.\u00a0 Put on what you now are. <\/strong><\/p>\n What are you now?\u00a0 Let\u2019s take a walk through this letter to the Ephesians:<\/p>\n +First of all, God chose you to be his own long before you were ever born:\u00a0 4 <\/sup>For [God] chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world (1:4)<\/span><\/p>\n +When the time came that God chose, Jesus came, lived and died for us to make it possible for you and me to be his own\u00a0 So that now in Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins<\/span>.\u00a0 (1:7)<\/p>\n +Then sometime during our life, God intervened with us who were as good as dead.\u00a0 He took us who were drowning in a sea of hopelessness and made us truly alive.\u00a0 Because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when\u00a0 we were dead in our transgressions<\/span>. (2: 4)<\/p>\n +And the Lord brought us in.\u00a0 He brought us together in a special way.\u00a0 Like living stones, God has built us together in his Church where we share this one Body, one Sprit, one hope, one\u00a0 Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all<\/span>. (4:5)<\/p>\n So what are you now?\u00a0 You are a chosen, redeemed, forgiven, reborn child of God in whom the Holy Spirit lives. <\/strong><\/p>\n But there\u2019s more.\u00a0 Meet the new you.\u00a0 Not a new look.\u00a0 Not a tuck under the chin or a Botox facial, but a new self. \u2026 the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.<\/span> (24)\u00a0 Meet the new you.<\/p>\n Of course, no introductions are necessary.\u00a0 This is you.\u00a0 Not that old self that keeps trying to drag us down.\u00a0 This is you, the born again child of God who can say with the psalm writer:\u00a0 Direct me in the paths of your commands, for there I find delight. <\/span>(119:35)<\/p>\n For now we want to live the life God calls on us to live.\u00a0 We want our lives to be filled with the fruit of the Spirit: the love and the joy of the gospel.\u00a0 We want to be people who are patient with each other, who keep a lid on our temper, people who show kindness to everyone.<\/p>\n But that new self gets worn and weary.\u00a0 We get worn and weary.\u00a0 For after all we\u2019re in a struggle.\u00a0 We struggle each day to follow our Savior against the current of this fallen world and our own sinful nature.<\/p>\n So we need something only the Spirit can do for us.\u00a0 To be made new in the attitude of [our] <\/span>minds\u00a0 Not once, but again and again.\u00a0 We need to be filled with the Spirit so that our faith is refreshed and lifted up.\u00a0 Well where does that come from?\u00a0 Not from a cup of Starbucks or can of Red Bull.\u00a0 NO, it comes in the Gospel where the Spirit serves up a generous portion of God\u2019s grace in Christ.\u00a0 It comes in his precious promises that reassure our doubting minds.\u00a0 It comes in Jesus\u2019 Supper where he comes to us with his body and blood, as the pledge of his forgiving love.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what renews us.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what makes us, even us Californians, want to get dressed up.\u00a0 Dressed up to follow Jesus. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 Ephesians 4: 17-24 Want an interesting discussion?\u00a0 Get together a group of young and old. Bring up what to wear for worship. For my mom and dad, what you wore made a statement about what you were doing.\u00a0 \u00a0If you went to see the mayor, you got dressed up. Even more so, if you came into God\u2019s house.\u00a0 It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":356,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions\/356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>I.\u00a0 Put off what you once were
\n<\/strong>II.\u00a0 Put on what you now are<\/strong><\/p>\n