Man, the title of my sermon this morning is, Walking as Other Gentiles.
Walking as other Gentiles.
Look at verse number 17.
This I say therefore and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles
walk in the vanity of their mind.
The apostle Paul here, he's writing to the Ephesians that are obviously Gentiles.
So they're coming from a pagan background of people who had not known the word of God.
So they have totally different morals, totally different ethics than what are taught in scripture
and what God expects us to follow in our lives.
And so he says, don't walk as the other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind.
Now what does that mean in the vanity of their mind?
Well in the parallel passage over in the book of Colossians, it talks about people being
vainly puffed up in their fleshly mind, right?
The word vanity itself means that which is empty, worthless, meaningless, pointless.
And people who are full of themselves are often referred to as being vain people, right?
People who are really into their appearance are known as vain people.
People who think that they're really smart and they think they know everything.
They are vainly puffed up in their mind.
And here the Bible talks about the Gentiles walking in the vanity of their mind, meaning
that they believe that they know the answers, that they know what is right and what is wrong
without God telling them what's right and wrong.
So they follow their own way through life.
And what does the Bible say?
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death,
right?
The Bible tells us that the way that people think is the right way to live is not always
right.
And that's why the Bible says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto
thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.
And so these other Gentiles, they're walking in the vanity of their mind and it takes them
down a very dark path.
Look where they end up.
The Bible says in verse 18, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of
God through the ignorance that is in them because of their blindness of their heart,
who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness
with greediness.
So this carnal mind that doesn't acknowledge God, that doesn't acknowledge the Bible ultimately
leads to just indulging self, just whatever you want to do, just giving yourself over
with no feeling or conscience about it, just giving yourself over to whatever pleasures
you want to indulge in, whatever lasciviousness.
And then it says at the end of verse 19, to work all uncleanness with greediness, just
never getting enough whether it's gluttony, drunkenness, fornication, adultery, whatever
because you end up with no morals.
And so that's what the Bible's warning about the way that the other Gentiles are living
their lives.
He says in verse 20, but you have not so learned Christ if so be that you have heard him and
have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus.
And so the Bible's saying, don't be like the other Gentiles.
Be different.
God wants us to be a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
He doesn't want us to just go with the flow of whatever the culture and society around
us are doing.
You've not so learned Christ, he says, if so be that you've heard him and have been
taught by him as the truth is in Jesus.
Look at verse 22, that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man.
Put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the
spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man.
Now what is this talking about the old man and the new man?
Well, all of us at some point in our life were unsaved, right?
Before we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, we were unsaved.
And so that's the old man, right?
The person that we were before we got saved, just the natural fleshly person that we are,
just the human being that we are without being regenerated by the spirit of God, right?
So unsaved people, they're the old man.
We were the old man before we got saved.
And then once we get saved, then God quickens our spirit and creates a brand new creature
within us, the new man.
Now here's the thing about that.
When we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, when we get saved, yes, God makes us into
a new man on the inside, but the old man does not disappear.
The old man doesn't go away.
So no matter how long you've been saved, you might have been saved for decades, you are
still the old man as well as the new man.
You have two natures now that are at war with one another within you, okay?
So when you're not saved, it's just the old man.
The old man's the old man and he's going to fulfill the lust of the flesh and go out and
live the sinful life that everyone around him is living.
And even if he tries to be religious or serve God, those things are all going to be motivated
by pride and all the wrong motivations.
And it's just another form of wickedness, right?
Those that are in the flesh cannot please God.
The carnal mind is enmity against God.
It cannot be brought into subjection to the laws of God.
So unsaved people are not pleasing God.
Well, once you get saved now, you have the new man, you have the ability to walk, not
as the other Gentiles walk, but to actually walk the way that Christ has taught us to
walk and to follow the Lord and please God and to do the right things and to be the right
kind of person.
You have the ability, but you have to put on the new man.
So where a lot of people get this wrong is that a lot of people just think that if you
believe on Jesus, all of a sudden, just boom, you're a new person and just everything's
different and they'll take that verse that says old things are passed away, behold all
things have become new, and they think that that is just automatically going to reflect
in the way that you live your life because you got saved.
And that is simply not true because getting saved creates the new man within you, but
it does not eradicate the old man.
Both exist.
And if you go through life feeding the old man, then the old man is going to dominate.
If you just go through life and everything's just feeding the flesh, everything's for the
old man, it's all just whatever worldly entertainment and worldly pastimes and worldly thought and
you're just filling your mind with worldly entertainment and then you expect the new
man to be in charge, well, the new man feeds on reading the Bible, listening to preaching,
singing praises to God, praying to the Lord.
And so if you're just constantly feeding the old man, then the old man is going to be dominant.
And God is telling us that he wants us to put off the old man and to put on the new
man.
Walk in the new man, right?
We have a choice of which nature is going to dominate in our lives.
Are we going to walk in the old man or are we going to walk in the new man?
Every saved person has this struggle.
And by the way, it's a daily struggle.
It's not like you just one time put off the old man and that's it.
No, the Bible says that if any man will follow Christ, he needs to do what?
Deny himself and take up the cross daily and follow Christ.
So it's a daily struggle to put to death the old man, mortify the old man, put off,
slough off the old man and to put on the new man.
That's why we should wake up every morning and read our Bibles, pray, do something to
walk in the Spirit and put on the new man so that we can start out the day right and
so that we can begin to deny self and walk in the Spirit.
What does it mean to deny self?
It means not just doing whatever you want to do or whatever you feel like doing, just
giving yourself over with greediness to whatever your flesh desires, but rather to walk in
the Spirit, follow Christ, put on the new man which after God, look at verse 24, put
on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
So when you got saved and God created that new person inside you, that new person is
created in righteousness and true holiness, right?
I don't care how lame of a Christian you are, how backslidden of a Christian you are, how
watered down of a Christian you are, somewhere in there there's a great Christian down in
there somewhere, inside of all of us, literally.
Even if you just say, man, you know, I believe in Jesus, I know I'm going to heaven, I'm
a Christian, but I just struggle to do the right things, I'm just constantly sinning,
I'm just constantly going back to my old ways.
Look, you have the potential within you to be a great Christian, to be a godly person,
to be a righteous person, because you have that same new man that we all have, what happens
is you just need to walk in the new man.
You need to pray and ask God to help you to put on the new man.
You need to put forth the effort to feed the new man and sow to the new man and not sow
to the flesh, because you have the potential to be both kinds of, you can either be exactly
like you were before you were saved, or you can be a great Christian, and it just depends
on whether or not you're walking in the new man or the old man, and a lot of people confuse
this with salvation.
They think, well, if you're not walking in the new man, you're not even saved or something
like that.
Well, then virtually no one is saved, because most people spend most of their time walking
in the old man.
That's why the apostle Paul has to tell these people, hey, don't walk like the other Gentiles
walk.
Why?
Because your average Christian today is walking as the other Gentiles walk.
Most of the people that we talk to, even that are saved, that have believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ, that know Jesus Christ their Savior, are not living a life that pleases
God.
They're not following the commandments of God.
They're not putting Christ first in their life.
They're not doing anything big for God.
Maybe they barely go through the motions of going to church once a week, but they're not
doing much for God.
Why?
Because they're just walking in the old man.
They're still saved.
They're still on their way to heaven, and the potential is there for them to be so much
more, but they have to put on the new man, and it's not automatic.
And so just because someone is living a worldly life that doesn't make them unsaved, it just
means that they're walking the old man.
That's all that that means.
And so the Bible here says we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind, put on the new
man, read your Bible, pray, sing praises to God, walk in the spirit, and you'll not fulfill
the lust of the flesh.
And then he gets into the specifics here of what this looks like, because we can easily
just get up and talk about being different than the world or putting on the new man,
but what does this ultimately look like in the end?
He gives some specific examples here of what should be different about us from the world
around us.
It says in verse 25, wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor,
for we are members one of another.
So again, when you get saved, you don't automatically start living right, but you now have the potential
to live right.
You have the potential to be a great person.
You have a potential to follow Christ and be different.
And one of the ways that this manifests is in being a truthful person, a person that
tells the truth.
And it blows my mind how so many people just lie at the drop of a hat, don't they?
People just can't stop lying, and they're just lying and lying.
Why?
That is the way of this world, unfortunately.
The Bible says let God be true, but every man a liar.
I believe that every single person in this world has lied at some point, myself included.
We've all lied at some point.
But just because we've all lied at some point in our life doesn't mean that we have to go
through life just continually lying over and over again.
And a lot of times I think we can minimize or downplay the sin of lying because we just
think, well, everybody's done it, so therefore it must not be that big of a deal.
But let me tell you something.
God hates lying.
The Bible says that lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.
Jesus Christ said, I am the truth.
And those who love truth love Christ.
And if we love truth, then why would we be lying all the time?
And look, I'm not saying that anyone is perfect and has never lied, but you know what?
There are people who have lied a little bit and then there are people who just can't stop
lying and they're just lying all the time and it is wicked in the sight of God when
you're just going through life as such a liar.
Tell the truth.
Now sometimes the truth can get you into trouble, so be it.
And whenever you lie, here's what you're basically saying.
You're basically saying, I care more about what people think than what God thinks because
God knows you're lying.
You're not fooling God.
So if you lie, you might please someone in the short run.
You might make someone happy or get yourself off the hook in the short run, but in the
long run, God's looking down and seeing you lying and he's not going to bless that.
And so if you actually believe that God ultimately holds your destiny in his hand, you'd want
to make sure that you're pleasing to God.
And so you would tell the truth and not lie.
People often lie because they're in a jam and they don't want to take responsibility
for the mess that they've made or whatever hole they've dug themselves into.
So they lie to try to get themselves out of trouble.
And of course, this isn't right.
It's inexcusable.
Just face the music.
Just deal with whatever the consequences are, but tell the truth.
But then there are people who take it a step further and they just get in a habit of lying
and they start lying about things that don't even matter.
They just lie for the sake of lying.
I mean, I've known people where they'll just as soon lie as tell the truth.
There's not even a reason to lie.
Now it's pretty bad when you're lying to get yourself out of trouble, but it's even worse
when you're just lying upon lying for the sake of lying because you just can't stop
lying.
Why?
Because you're just in a habit of lying.
It's wicked.
We should be known as people who tell the truth.
We should be honest and truthful and not lie.
So the Bible says, wherefore put away lying.
Make every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Be ye angry, verse 26, and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
Now being angry in and of itself is not a sin because the Bible says here, be angry
and sin not.
If anger were a sin in and of itself, it would be impossible to be angry without sinning.
But alas, it is possible to be angry and sin not.
Why?
Because of the fact that there is a righteous anger.
There is a time for anger.
There's a godly anger.
But that being said, the vast majority of anger in our lives is not righteous.
You know, I don't know the exact number, but I'll just throw this out there, 90 some percent
of anger in our lives as Christians is ungodly and we're wrong to indulge in that anger.
We don't want to be like just worldly people out there who let anger consume them.
Have you ever known someone who's just an angry person?
I'm not saying that they just get angry about a legitimate cause.
I'm talking about people who are just, they're just angry people.
It's just who they are.
It's their character to just be an angry person.
And you know what the Bible says?
Make no friendship with an angry man.
Why?
Because you'll learn his ways.
He's going to rub off on you, the Bible says.
So don't just go through life being an angry person.
The Bible says, be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, right?
Because it's one thing to be angry about an isolated circumstance that's legitimate, being
angry and then it's over.
And then you go to bed and you're not angry, you go to bed, you're at peace, you wake up
the next morning, it's a new day.
You're not just angry on Monday, angry on Tuesday, angry on Wednesday, right?
You don't let the sun go down upon your wrath.
Jesus Christ was angry in the gospels.
There's a time when there's a man in the synagogue whose hand was withered and Jesus Christ was
going to heal that man and the people around him were indignant because they felt like
he was working on the Sabbath day because they had all these strict rules about the
Sabbath that weren't even in the Bible.
They'd made up all their own strict rules and he was violating not the rules of the
Bible but he was violating their rules and Jesus looked upon them with anger, the Bible
tells us in Mark, I believe chapter 3, when they had no compassion on this crippled man
and are just worried about the minutia of their false religion that they had twisted
the scriptures to be.
And so Jesus Christ became angry when they were selling and buying things in the house
of God and he even fashioned a whip and Jesus went into the temple with a whip and chased
the money changers out of the temple.
He flipped over the tables, dumped out the money, he was angry, right?
The Bible says God's angry with the wicked every day.
And so obviously there is a legitimate time and a place for anger in our lives.
Asking us to never be angry for any reason is to ask us not to be human and it's also
to ask us to go beyond even Jesus Christ who was angry multiple times in the four Gospels.
But do we see Jesus Christ just continually angry?
Absolutely not.
We see these couple of isolated incidents where Jesus was angry but he wasn't just an
angry person.
He wasn't continually angry and in fact when Jesus goes in and chases them out of the temple
with the whip, that was premeditated.
He didn't just lose his temper or blow his top.
Here's the proof that it was premeditated.
The Bible says that he sat there and made a whip.
He sat there and braided a whip.
So he had plenty of time to think about what he was doing as he was braiding the whip.
He didn't just lash out and blow up but he sat there and you can just imagine the chilling
sight of Christ sitting there braiding that whip.
And by the way, people who are mad all the time, their anger is meaningless anyway.
You don't really take it seriously when they get mad at you because you know, well I didn't
necessarily do anything.
They're just always mad.
But man, when somebody who never gets mad gets mad at you, that kind of gets your attention.
It's like, wow, this actually means something.
But man, I have been around people that were just angry people.
I used to work with this guy that just had a bad attitude and every day he'd go into
work and this guy was just mad.
Every morning he'd just be banging things around and just upset and everything.
And I just thought, man, why do they keep this guy around?
But the reason they kept him around is that he was so good at his job.
But everybody hated him.
They just put up with him because he was effective.
So nobody really worked with him.
They'd kind of just send him out on his own, just go make money for the company, get out
of our sight.
But nobody wanted to be around the guy because he was such a big jerk.
He was just an angry person.
You don't want to be that way.
You don't want to be a bitter, angry person.
And you say, well, there's just so much bad in the world.
Quit thinking so much about it then.
Yeah, we can all sit around and dwell upon every bad thing in this world, every negative
thing.
Look, if I wanted something legitimate to get mad about, I could find one right now.
I mean, something that would actually be legitimate.
All I have to do is just hop on the internet, just start looking through the news or something
and just scroll through a few news stories and find something where I could be righteously,
godly, angry about it.
But is that really how I want to go through my life?
No, because I don't want to have a habit of anger where I just become an angry person
and I'm just angry from day to day.
I want to put off anger.
And the Bible says whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of
good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.
I want to go through life meditating upon things that are true and holy and pure and
just and lovely and not just go through life just seeing what I can stay angry about all
day, every day.
It's unhealthy.
It's physically unhealthy and it's spiritually unhealthy.
We need to be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down in your eyes.
Think about the things that make you mad on a daily basis or that make people mad on
a daily basis.
What are the type of things that will often trigger our anger?
Somebody cuts you off in traffic or somebody does some jerk move behind the wheel.
Well, here's the thing about that.
Just teaching my daughter to drive over the last few years, she was just constantly seeing
people do these jerk moves and I told her, I said, listen, you will never get in the
car and drive anywhere without seeing somebody do something stupid behind the wheel, like
literally every single time you drive, like you will never, unless you, I don't know,
unless you just drive like a half a mile away to the grocery store or something, you might
make it without seeing something stupid.
But if you go somewhere that's at least 15 minutes away, you will see something wrong
out there.
It's virtually always going to happen that someone's going to be selfish, some, you know,
it's these, you know, no offense if you drive a big truck, but let's face it, a lot of these
guys with a big truck have a big ego and you can almost just predict that they're not going
to use their turn signal, they're going to cut you off, they're going to, and you know
what makes me madder than those types?
Let me tell you what really gets me mad.
These people with the loud vehicle that's so, now it doesn't bother me that much.
It doesn't bother me that much when I'm in my car driving, but when I'm walking or when
I'm on my bike, like I've literally, it felt like somebody was stabbing a knife into my
ear when this thing drove by me, I'm not even kidding, he's like, it's bad, right?
I mean, look, these are the types of things that get me mad, you know, people just cutting
me off, people just making their vehicles super loud by a pedestrian, just bashing in
their eardrums, you know, look.
But at the end of the day, is that really a righteous anger for me to just get out there
behind the wheel and just be screaming at all the bozos out there?
No, that's not a righteous, that's not what God has called me to be angry about, right?
And so you've got to learn to master your anger.
You know, why don't you just get in the car and just realize people out there are going
to cut you off, people out there are going to drive like idiots, people are going to
do stupid things and just say, father, forgive them, they know not what they do.
And just let it go, just move on because if you let those things get you mad, there's
going to be one every day and then you're going to be mad every day, I don't want to
be mad every day.
So you've got to just learn to just not care about those little things, just let those
things go, don't worry about those things, transcend that kind of just petty anger, oh,
can you play this guy?
You know what my dad used to always do whenever someone would get mad at him and be like,
you know, waving at him with only one finger and be, you know, screaming at him or whatever
is my dad would always just look at that person when they, you know, when they drive up and
they're like, hi, you know, then he would always just go like hi, you know, you just
smile and wave and then that would really heap coals of fire upon their head because
then they got really mad.
But the point is, you know, you can't let these things get you all worked up or you're
just going to end up being an angry person.
Just stay cool, just stay calm, who cares, it's not a big deal, let it go.
You know, that's one thing that I could think of that gets people mad.
I mean, what else gets people mad?
What's that?
Not getting their chemicals in them first thing in the morning, yeah.
You know, but anyway, if we stopped and thought about all the times that we got mad in the
last week, if you just looked at yourself and just thought about every time you got
mad in the last week, you know, I really doubt that the majority of it was righteous indignation
over sin, you know, or someone blaspheming the name of the Lord or something.
You know, that's a legitimate reason to get angry, getting angry at false doctrine or
blasphemy against Christ or getting angry at sin.
But no, it was probably somebody spilled a drink or food or something or somebody cut
you off in traffic or just someone inconvenienced you in some way or, you know, you didn't get
something that you wanted.
You know, it's always something just petty like that that gets us mad.
And by the way, you know, sometimes when we go out soul winning, we'll knock on somebody's
door and they'll just come to the door enraged.
They're just in a rage.
We just got there.
We haven't even said anything and they're just already in a rage.
But here's the thing.
That person was already like that before you got there.
You really think that that person's just like, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood,
a beautiful day, faithful word, you know, they're not just going to freak out like that.
They're already an angry person.
They're already messed up.
Same thing with the people who just blow up on you in traffic.
You know, look, if I'm having a good day and somebody cuts me off, it's like, oh, that's
okay, whatever.
Right.
It's when you're already mad and then somebody cuts you off that you're just like, die.
Why?
Because you're already mad.
And what I'm trying to say is you don't want to go through life already mad.
You don't want to go through life an angry person.
And you know why I'm not going through life mad is because I have so much to be happy
about.
Right.
And the Bible says the joy of the Lord is your strength.
And so I know I'm saved.
I know I'm going to heaven.
God loves me.
My life matters.
And I have so many blessings.
I've got my wife and my children, and I live in the United States of America and peace,
security and prosperity.
I mean, there's so much to be joyful about.
If I would just be thankful and count my blessings and thinking about spiritual things and thinking
about heaven and thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ, my savior, then I'm going to go through
life not an angry person.
Now something might come along that legitimately makes me mad, but in general, my baseline,
my default mode is going to be to be a joyful person.
I'm going to be joyful on Monday, joyful on Tuesday, joyful on Wednesday.
You know, sure, something comes along and there's a reason to be righteously angry.
But you know, if you would have been around Jesus, he's not just a hothead.
He's not just making a whip every day.
And you know what?
If he wanted to, he could have gone out looking for people to whip every day, right?
I mean, in his three and a half year ministry, he could have just looked for the most rotten
situations that were going on in Israel and just been cracking skulls every day.
But yet that's not what you see him doing.
You know, there's a certain time and a place for anger, but in general, he's not going
through life angry and neither should we, right?
Be angry and sin not is basically saying don't be sinful in the way that you are angry, right?
Because being angry should not be the norm.
It should be the aberration when you're angry.
That's out of the ordinary and it's for a legitimate reason.
And so I guarantee you that if you were to do a self-check and think about all the times
you've been angry in the last 24 hours or seven days, most of it was probably something
stupid, something petty, something carnal and not something spiritual that was a righteous
indignation.
And so we all need to work on being angry and not sinning and not letting the sun go
down on your wrath, right?
Don't go to bed at night just plotting revenge and being angry and vindictive toward people
who've wronged you.
Just forgive and be peaceful and go to bed and start the day fresh without being angry.
And again, if things bother you, if things make you mad, try to stay away from those
things.
You know, if the news makes you mad, don't watch the news.
You know, look, if you can follow the news without being an angry person, then, you know,
if that's your good clean fun, then have at it.
But if it's making you into an angry person, don't let it turn you into a monster.
You know, and it's so funny how I run into so many people that are just like, they're
so upset about everything that's going on in the world and they can't understand why
you're not so worked up about it.
And I'm just like, I'm not upset about what's going on in the world because I don't really
know what's going on in the world.
So I can't be upset about things I'm not even aware of.
I mean, can you believe what's going on over there in Ukraine?
I'm just like, what?
What?
I don't even know what's happening.
You know what?
I have enough of my own problems.
I don't have to sit there and worry about everything that's going on in Washington,
D.C. or Ukraine or Israel or anywhere else.
You know, I'd rather just be happy and serve God and follow Christ and do my own thing
and not worry about all this stuff that's going on.
You know, and it's so funny because I'll go to other places in the country, they think
that Arizona is some kind of a war zone.
I remember when I first moved here, people were just like, you know, man, what about
all the kidnapping and the human trafficking?
I'm like, what are you talking about?
They're like, is it safe to live in Phoenix?
I'm like, what?
I just had somebody literally like a couple weeks ago, like two weeks ago, just be like,
man, living in Arizona, what's that like with all the cartels and all, you know, the drug
war and all the violence?
And I'm just like, I was like, dude, I literally have no idea what you're talking about right
now.
I was like, did something just happen?
Like, is this an, is it, they're like, well, I mean, I thought it's just an ongoing situation.
You know, like, like there's just these, just, I don't know, they just think that there's
just these like zombie illegals from hell coming up across the border and just killing
and raping and pillaging or something.
What are they even talking about?
Right.
In reality, Arizona is just a totally normal place to live.
If you didn't watch the news, you would just think that Arizona is a beautiful, nice place,
safe and right.
Why would I sit there and obsess over every bad thing that happened?
Yeah.
Okay.
You're in a state with 8 million people or something.
Yeah.
There are people that are going through some bad things.
Bad things are happening, right?
But they're not necessarily happening to me or you.
And so if you want to just fixate on everything negative, yeah, you're going to be upset.
You're going to be angry all the time.
You've got to learn to let those things go.
And, you know, some people's job may force them to deal with more of this than the average
person.
Let's say you're a policeman or an EMT or something.
Yeah.
You're probably going to see a lot more disturbing things in your job, right?
Or even other people who work in prisons or people who are some kind of a counselor or
being like a pastor or something, you know, where you get exposed to some weird stuff
sometimes.
But here's the thing about that is that if that's you, if you have a job like that that
exposes you to these things, then you know what?
You need to even work harder to put on the new man, walk in the Spirit and be able to
have peace because the fruit of the Spirit is peace.
That's one of the fruit of the Spirit, right?
And you've got to be able to cast all your care upon Him and be at peace and let it go
and let not the sun go down on your wrath even if you are seeing these gnarly things.
You've got to be able to move on from that stuff and have a peaceful time when you get
home to your family, when you go to bed at night.
You got to be able to let that go.
And by the way, that's probably the only people that are ever going to succeed at those jobs
are the people who are able to leave that stuff at work and be able to come home and
live a normal life.
The Bible says, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil.
Why?
Because being an angry person, you're giving the devil an inroad into your heart and into
your life to get you to sin because the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
It can often lead us into sin.
And so the Bible says in verse number 28, we talked about what?
Telling the truth.
We talked about what?
Not being an angry person.
What else?
Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor working with his hands the thing
which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Part of being a good Christian, part of being different than this sinful world that we live
in is telling the truth.
It's being a joyful person and not living in anger.
And it's also working an honest job.
Really producing honest work and getting paid for doing legitimate work, not being
a thief or a con artist or a ripoff kind of a guy.
There are all kinds of people obviously who literally steal.
They go into stores and they're even professional thieves who just all they do is just shoplift
and they shoplift and they work for organized criminal syndicates where they go in and they
shoplift and they bring the merchandise back to a warehouse and it gets processed and there
are these organized criminals with regard to stealing and then there are obviously just
small time petty thieves who just see something and steal it and take it.
And it's wicked.
It's wrong.
Thou shalt not steal.
But not only that, there are just corrupt lines of work that you could get into where
you're not working an honest job.
The Bible says that we should labor working with our hands the thing which is right.
We should go out and actually do legitimate work with our hands and not just be stealing
from people.
Not just ripping people off.
Don't become some predatory lender or something.
Drug dealer or whatever.
Or some kind of a corrupt salesman selling lies, selling garbage.
One of these drug pharmaceutical reps or whatever who goes around bribing doctors to
prescribe a drug to people that they don't need.
That's just a different kind of stealing, isn't it?
Ripping off the insurance company, ripping off the taxpayer, ripping off the customer.
Those are just other more subtle ways of stealing.
We need to just put in an honest day's work for an honest day's paycheck.
That's what God wants us to do as Christians and not to be thieves.
Working with our hands, laboring, not stealing so that we may have to give to them that need
it.
So not only do we go out and work and produce something and make our own money, but then
we're also generous with the money that we have.
We're able to give to those that are in need.
We're able to help people out.
And by the way, I don't ever recommend that you would give money to homeless derelicts
who refuse to work.
The Bible says that if a man will not work, neither should he eat.
And I've quoted that scripture to many a homeless person.
And let me tell you something.
People who are just refusing to work, they're not poor.
They're just refusing to work.
They're just out there because they want to be addicted to drugs.
They refuse to work.
And you know what?
Those people need to hit rock bottom.
It's not that we don't love those people.
It's not that we don't want them to get clean and get sober and get right with God.
Usually they could get saved if they're not saved.
Some of them may even be saved.
Just because you're saved doesn't mean you can't become a drug addict.
And that's why you saved kids shouldn't drink and shouldn't use drugs because you're not
immune from those addictions.
The old man is still there.
The flesh is still there.
But look, it's not that we don't love these people.
It's not that we don't want to see them do better.
But we know that the best thing that could happen to them is for them to run out of money
and run out of drugs and hit rock bottom and get to a point where they're forced to
make a change, not to be propped up in a horrible, destructive lifestyle.
You're not making them happy by giving them money.
You're just prolonging their misery, prolonging their suffering, prolonging whatever.
But you know what?
There are people who legitimately are in need, right?
There are people that are just poor and they need help, they're working, and they just
are struggling to make ends meet or maybe they're handicapped or whatever.
And helping those kind of people out is a virtue.
And God does want us to be generous and open-handed with people who are actually legitimately
in need.
Now look, let's face it.
In the United States of America, there isn't really a lot of this because we are living
in one of the richest countries in the whole world.
And so a lot of Christians struggle with this like, there's all these verses about helping
the poor, so I got to give money to this crack addict.
But here's the thing about that is that the reason why we don't maybe comprehend this
as much is because we're living in one of the richest countries in the world.
It's an anomaly.
America is not the normal country of this world, right?
There are eight billion people in the world, right?
Only about a third of a billion people live in America, right?
So roughly approximately like one out of 24 people lives in America.
You know what that means?
Twenty-three out of 24 live somewhere else.
You want to know where a lot of people live?
They live in China.
They live in India.
They live in the Muslim world.
They live in Sub-Saharan Africa.
And let me tell you something.
In these places, there are lots of very poor people that are literally hungry, living hand
to mouth, struggling to make ends meet.
So we may not see this around us in America, but that's because we're living in one of
the richest countries in the world.
So this is not necessarily a big thing for us.
It's just a fact.
We live in a land of prosperity where there isn't a lot of poverty around us.
There are a lot of people who refuse to work.
But here's what you have to understand.
What we think of being a poor person in other countries, they would probably just think
that's just, you know, you're doing pretty well.
Because they're making like $1.50 a day or some insane low wage or whatever.
And so we have it good in America.
We should be thankful for that.
But we should be generous people and help out.
If we do see someone in need, because sometimes we do come across, it's not daily for us,
but when we do come across those that are poor, those that are in need, we should be
ready to help.
We should want to be generous and help people out and be open-handed with people who have
less than we do.
Right?
So we want to work hard.
Instead of being greedy, be generous and giving and take care of the poor.
It says in verse 29, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which
is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Now edifying literally means building up, right?
And so the opposite of building up is tearing down.
And so how do the other Gentiles walk?
How does the average worldly person live their life?
Well, they're constantly cutting people down with their words, right?
Tearing people down.
And we want to edify people, want to encourage people and build people up and not tear people
down.
Okay?
Now you see this a lot in children tearing people down, right?
You see children and what are they constantly doing?
Constantly proving, I'm better than you, right?
I'm faster than you.
I'm stronger than you.
I'm smarter than you.
And that's a wicked mentality.
It's prideful.
It's arrogant.
And saying those kind of things is corrupt communication.
Tearing people down instead of lifting people up and encouraging people.
We then that are strong, the Bible says, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not
to please ourselves.
You know, if you see somebody struggling at something, you know, why not help them to
do a better job, encourage them, compliment them.
And, you know, it's sickening listening to children treat each other this way, right?
And just constantly just down on each other's appearance, constantly down on each other's
skills or lack thereof or whatever.
You know, we want to be a kind and loving person that's lifting people up around us,
helping people to be better and not tearing them down and having that kind of corrupt
communication proceed out of our mouth.
I mean, corrupt communication could go further than that.
It could really just be anything that is harmful coming out of our mouth.
You know, obviously, telling a dirty joke is corrupt communication.
That's not helping anyone, right?
That's dragging people down or tearing people down in another way because it's tearing people
down morally.
It's dragging them down spiritually, right?
Blaspheming God or telling a dirty story or saying something that's, you know, detrimental
about someone, those are all could be corrupt communication.
Being a tale bearer, being a gossip, spreading rumors, whatever.
You know, you could go down the list of all the things that are corrupt communication
but specifically he says that we should be edifying people, we should be lifting people
up and helping people to do better and not tearing them down, right?
Because a lot of people that are insecure about themselves, they have to tear everybody
else down to make themselves feel better about themselves, right?
So you know, they have to prove how tough they are so everyone else is just weak and
I could just kick everybody's butt and whatever, you know?
I mean, it's so immature to go around talking about how you can kick everybody's butt.
You know, what does that mean?
What does that prove?
Like when does that even come up in real life?
Like how often do you really have to get in a butt kicking competition is what I'd like
to know because you know what, I'm 42 years old and you know, if anybody has made some
people mad, it's me.
I've made a few people mad, believe it or not.
I have some enemies, believe it or not, okay?
I know it's hard for you to imagine but there are some people who would love to kick my
butt.
Now how is it that in the last 18 years of pastoring, I've never had my butt kicked?
You want to know why?
It's because I'm an expert in so many martial arts.
They come at me and I'm just whoa, I'm just finishing them off one by one.
Is that why?
You know, is it because I'm just so tough, I'm such a bad dude and nobody can mess with
me?
Is it because I haven't had my butt kicked in the last 20 some years of being a zealous
soul winning Christian?
No, the reason that I haven't had my butt kicked is because that literally never comes
up in real life unless you're a brawler.
You know and maybe otherwise, maybe once every 20 years you might get in a physical altercation.
Once every 30 years, you could go, what if I told you, you could go through your entire
life without ever getting in a fist fight just by not being a brawler, just by not going
out there and being an arrogant person who stirs up strife.
And look, I have stirred people up with the word of God, not out of pride or arrogance
or grandstanding or something, but you know, through preaching the word of God, I've made
people mad, still never got my butt kicked.
You know, I've had people slap me in the face, I've had somebody shoved me into a window
and the window broke, I had somebody punch me in the face before, but it didn't hurt.
It wasn't a big deal.
You know what I mean?
Like that kind of stuff, who cares?
Nobody has ever actually beat the whatever out of me.
It just has never happened, okay?
And so this whole thing of just going around, I'm so tough, I'm so bad, I'm so, you know,
what are you talking about?
That's not what life is about.
That's not what the Christian life is about.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against
the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places
and you cannot use martial arts on these spiritual entities, cannot karate chop demons.
And so the point is, you know, and look, and let me say this, I'm not against martial arts
at all, okay?
I did many years ago, like 20 years ago, I did a lot of Muay Thai and kickboxing and
I learned that stuff.
I was never that good at it.
There, I said it.
I wasn't that good at it, you know?
And you know what?
There are probably a lot of people in this room that could kick my butt.
I'm sure Brother Segura could kick my butt, like I don't even have any doubt about that.
But yet, it's never going to happen.
I'm not worried about it.
And you know, I don't have to go around just proving my manhood like, I am the ultimate
warrior like, that is not the Christian life.
How many people's butts did Jesus kick is what I'd like to know.
How many fistfights was Jesus in on this earth?
How many fistfights were the apostles in on this earth, right?
That's not the Christian life, my friend.
And so this attitude of just tearing down everyone else and you're so tough and everyone's
a wimp and everyone's so weak and you're so bad because of your Muay Thai or Brazilian
Jiu Jitsu or whatever.
And I'm not against those things.
I'm 100% for you getting in shape and getting exercise.
And I'm 100% for you having those skills so that maybe once in 50 years when someone actually
physically attacks you and you're actually in danger, you'll be able to fight back.
But you know what?
Most of us will never have to use the gun that's in our house.
Most of us will never have to use these guns either.
It's just the reality of life, okay?
And so the point is that we don't need to go through life like the other Gentiles, right?
And people in this world, what do they do?
They show how bad they are and how tough they are and talk all big and they can kick everybody's
butt and there's, you know.
It's vain.
It's wrong.
And when you're tearing down other people, making them out to be weak, making them out
to be a loser, to make yourself out to be so cool, you are engaging in corrupt communication.
And we should be edifying people.
We should be complimenting people.
You know, what if you are stronger than someone in the gym?
Why don't you just compliment the lifts that they're doing?
You know, what if you are a better runner than someone else?
Why don't you compliment the run that they performed?
You know, why don't you say, hey, good job on what you're doing.
Hey, I really like what you did over here.
Hey, great job.
And especially when it comes to spiritual things.
Hey, you know, this church did a great job on this mission strip.
Are you kidding?
Our mission strip beats the whatever out of their mission strip.
It's like, what in the world?
What kind of a wicked attitude is that?
That's corrupt communication, right?
Why not lift up other people and be thankful for what they are able to do and try to encourage
them and, you know, I've had people compliment me over the years, and it made me want to
do better.
You know, people complimented me and said that I was good at something, and I was thinking
like, man, I'm not good at that, but that guy said I was good at it, and now I feel
like I need to get good at it so I can live up to, you know, this compliment that I received.
You know, there's nothing wrong with complimenting people, edifying people, building them up,
helping them to grow spiritually, saying positive things to them, saying biblical things to
them, helping them to grow spiritually, and helping them to have some confidence in the
Christian life, not just tearing them down so that you can be a bad dude.
That is a worldly, sinful mentality, and it shouldn't be a part of Christians' lives.
We're not supposed to be violent people anyway, and again, I'm not against martial arts.
It's a great sport, but that's what it is.
It's a sport, and if it's something else to you besides a sport, if it's just your way
to just go out and hurt people, well, then I think you're missing the point.
The Bible says, and grieve not the Holy Spirit, verse 30 of God, whereby ye are sealed unto
the day of redemption, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking
be put away from you with all malice and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
And I feel like this is the most important thing on the list right here, because we've
seen, hey, we shouldn't be lying, we shouldn't be living an angry life, we shouldn't be stealing,
we shouldn't be saying corrupt things to people, talking a bunch of trash, tearing
people down with our words.
But then we get to this final point here, and I feel like this is one of the most important
things that should set us apart from worldly people is that Christians should be forgiving
people, forgiving one another.
The opposite of forgiveness is bitterness.
Bitterness is where you're still mad at what somebody did six months ago.
This goes back to the beginning, too, about be angry and sin not.
Let not the sun go down on your wrath, and then three months later you're still mad.
That isn't right.
Be a forgiving person.
If Christ has forgiven us, can't we forgive other people?
Because we've sinned a lot more against God than other people have sinned against us.
And you know what makes me want to throw up is especially children who are bitter at their
parents.
What wickedness.
The Bible says honor your father and mother, but yet today we live in a generation that
despises their father and mother, that doesn't bless their father and mother, and they're
so bitter at their father and mother, it's like, oh, you know, I got this one spanking
I didn't deserve or whatever.
So what?
Get over it.
People aren't perfect.
No parents are going to be perfect.
Don't be bitter against your parents.
Let it go.
Look, I'm sure that every parent has wronged their child, but I guarantee you every child
has wronged their parent.
That is a two-way street, right?
And you know, we've had our siblings wrong us, we've wronged our siblings.
You know, I can remember all kinds of things that I did to my siblings that weren't right
over the years, right?
I hope that they don't sit around thinking about it to this day.
I hope that my siblings aren't bitter about something, and I'm not bitter against them,
because guess what?
We're all human, we're all going to make mistakes, but there are people, I kid you not, there
are people where the pastor of the church will just mildly tell them, hey, you know,
you need to change something.
Like your kids are out of control, you need to discipline your kids, you know, you need
to punish your child for what they've done here or whatever.
And they just, people just, six months later, they're still thinking about that, because
someone had the audacity to correct them and say, hey, this, you know, we're not going
to have this around here or whatever.
And then nine months later, that parent is still bitter at Pastor Anderson, because he
had the gall to say that their kid did something wrong.
You know what?
That is just wicked for you to just harbor those kind of grudges and be mad about something.
Look, first of all, number one, if, if, if other adults in the church had to come to
your kid and correct them, or if the pastor or staff member had to correct your kid, 99.999%
your kid was in the wrong, because that kind of thing rarely happens anyway, 99% they're
wrong.
But let's say you just say, no, Pastor Anderson, I'm the exception.
My kid didn't do anything wrong and the staff came down on my kid.
Then, then here's what you do.
You just forgive him.
You just forgive him and move on and let it go and don't become a bitter vindictive person.
Let it go.
And you know what, by the way, I'm the pastor here and you know what, obviously I've had
people say rude things to me or do rude things to me or, and you know what?
I don't think about it.
I forgot.
Look, I had a guy apologize to me and this happens to me all the time.
I had a guy contact me like a couple of weeks ago and this, this happens to me like every
few months and he's like, Hey, Pastor Anderson, I just want to say, I'm really sorry about
all that stuff I was saying about you and how I acted last year.
And I, and I'm literally, I literally write back and say, Hey, I have no idea what you're
talking about.
So it's really easy to say, I forgive you right now, buddy, because I literally don't
even know what you're talking about.
And there you're just like, okay, great.
I'm like, you know, you're, you're asking me to forgive you.
I don't even know.
I don't even know who you are and it's like, but the point is that, look, I don't sit around
worried about some wrong that somebody did to me 18 months ago or six months ago.
Why?
Because I'm trying to be a Christian.
Christ is all about forgiveness.
Move on, let it go and don't be bitter and unforgiving about things that happen.
Yeah, but you don't know they really did me wrong.
Yeah.
Okay.
We've all done someone wrong.
We've all done wrong by God.
Forgive and forget.
Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake
had forgiven you.
And you know what, we talk about forgiveness.
People who have bitterness towards someone, they bristle like, wow, yeah, yeah, it's easy
for you to say, you know, they've got all this indignation about that.
And they've got all the excuses and everything about why they're not going to forgive.
But let me just tell you something.
If you're just sitting there refusing to forgive and you want to have this grudge and you want
to have that attitude, just realize you're just being like all the other worldly sinful
people in this world because that's the way this world is.
I mean, how many people in this world do you know, they'll never speak to their parents.
They'll never speak to their sibling again.
They'll never speak to their friend again because of just some stupid thing that happened
and they just won't let it go.
All the time.
I mean, I could think of tons of people out there in this world that I know who are like
that.
Why?
Because that's the way of the world.
That's how people are.
That's human nature.
But we as Christians are supposed to be different and we should be forgiving and let things
go and be not like the other Gentiles walk, bitter, angry, let it go.
And you say, well, you don't understand Pastor Anderson, this person is truly a reprobate.
This person's a pedophile or a murderer and they've done these horrible things.
The Bible says that they should be put to death.
Let's say that there is someone in your life that is truly that evil because 99%, that's
not what we're talking about, right?
It's just somebody offended you or did something or whatever.
If someone literally committed like a rape or some horrific thing like that that should
be punishable by death, then here's what I would recommend.
You know what?
Just forget about that person then.
You say, well, I can't ever be around that person again.
They're truly evil.
Then just don't be around that person.
But don't sit around thinking about it.
This is what I'm going to do with people, either A, I'm going to forgive people, that's
99%, or the rare exception of some horrible pedophile reprobate sodomite freak or whatever.
You know what I'm going to do?
I'm just going to just push that person out of my mind and they're just dead to me.
Because why?
Why would I want to sit around thinking about some evil horrible person who's done horrible
things?
I'd rather just push that out of my mind and just not even think about it.
You know, and I feel like those are your two options, is to either just forgive, which
is 99 point whatever percent what we should do, or number two, just stay away from that
person.
Just cut that person out of your life, get away from that person, that toxic individual,
just have nothing to do with them.
But you know what?
Bitterness and continual anger should never be an option.
Let it go.
Move on.
Live your life.
Rejoice in the Lord and be different than the people around us in this world.
Put on the new man.
Let's pray.
Let's have a word of prayer.
Let's pray for this passage, Lord, that kind of shows us what it looks like to be living
a righteous life, walking in the new man, Lord.
Help us, first of all, to be renewed in the spirit of our mind by reading our Bibles,
praying, singing praises to you, attending church, and doing all those things that feed
the new man, Lord.
But also, Lord, help us to work on these different areas of our life to do kind of a self-check
of whether or not we're walking in the new man and make sure that we don't become an
angry, thieving, lying, bitter individual.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.