Hello everyone. Thanks for joining with me on another Helping You Become podcast. I pray it's a blessing for you. Friends, I do appreciate you joining with me around God's Word today.
Turn in your Bibles please to Ephesians chapter 4. We're going to continue on with this study that we've been looking at for the last seven weeks about living an effective life. It's something I believe as Christians that we all
want to do well. Ephesians chapter 4, you turn over there in your Bible,
and I'll just pray for us.
Father, we thank you for your word. Jesus, thank you for all that you do for us every day. Holy Spirit, thank you for providing us with actionable intelligence today. As we gather around the Word of God, teach us something please that we can apply to our life. And we ask it, sir, in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen.
Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1, one of our foundation scriptures for this study, "Amplified Bible, I therefore the prisoner for the Lord, appeal to and beg you to walk and to lead a life worthy of the divine calling to which you have been called, with behaviour that is a credit to the summons to God's service.
Very important that our behaviour aligns with the summons. The summons that's placed on each and every one of us to the service of God to participate in the growth of the kingdom of God, the health and the well -being of the family of God. We are co -labourers together with the Lord, ambassadors for Christ.
Yes, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, particularly verses 17 through to 21, very important verses. So I've been digging around in this for the last few weeks, looking into, I think some of the behind-the-scenes information.
Remember Paul ministered face -to -face in the region of Ephesus, you read this in Acts chapter 19, he ministered face -to -face in the region of Ephesus, predominantly at the School of Tyrannus, from about 10 o 'clock in the morning through to around three o 'clock in the afternoon, and he was holding daily discussions, daily discussions from 10 till three for over two years, face to face.
This wasn't over social media. This wasn't through email. This was face to face five hours a day for over two years. And then we have the Book of Ephesians, and I believe Paul had given these people many, many pieces of information, actual teaching, preaching, ministry, encouragement, yes, correction, in so many foundational things that would underwrite and strengthen this verse here and and some of the others, a leader life worthy of the divine calling to which you've been called with behaviour that's a credit to the summons to God's service.
He'd already been teaching and he had taught them a great deal of prior information. Ephesians 5, 15 to 17, "Look carefully, then, how you walk. Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless but as wise, sensible, intelligent people, making the very most of the time, buying up each opportunity, because the days are evil, therefore do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is.
And after two years of ministry, face to face with these people, they knew so many other things that he had already taught them. I read that and I think, "Praise God, thank You, Paul, for the information. How do I do that?" I just can't throw a switch and suddenly live purposefully, worthily and accurately. What does that even mean? I mean, that can vary in what it means, subject person to person to person,
subject to each individual's positioning in life. Okay?
So we've been looking in Romans chapters 4, 5 and 6 and in Romans 4, 5 and 6 we've been looking at who did we used to be sinners that came along because of you know evolved because of one man's offense, one man's lapse, One man's failure, yes, Adam. But then Jesus Christ came along and because of one man's obedience, righteousness was released, yeah?
This situation of being able to get back in right standing with God through faith. And we see this in Romans 4, 5 and 6, which raises some interesting questions that I think helps steer us down the pathway of some of the "how to do's" in looking at the information that's in Ephesians chapter 4 is phenomenal. Thanks Paul, but how do I do it? And Romans 4, 5 and 6 help us with those "how to do's".
So the first thing that we see was who did we used to be? We were sinners, enemies of God, the unrighteous outside of the family and outside of the economy of God. But because of Jesus Christ, we were able to be born again, the one man who produced and provided this method of righteousness, being able to get back in right standing with God. This Jesus Christ provided all of that, so who did we used to be if came along and changed into who are we now?
And then that moves along, and we see in Romans 5, verse 2, the second half of the verse, and let us rejoice and exult in our hope of experiencing and enjoying the Glory of God. So what are we doing now? Who did we used to be? Who are we now?
Romans 5, chapter 5, "For God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 6, verses 1 and 2. What should we say to all of this? Are we to remain in sin in order that God's grace, favour and mercy may multiply and overflow? Certainly not. How And we who died to sin live in it any longer. So who did we used to be? Who are we now? What are we now doing? How are we now living? What are we doing?
Now, and we see in Romans chapter 6, let's look in verse 4, and this is where we'll start our study today. Romans chapter 6 verse 4 in the 6, 7, 8, we were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, so we too might habitually live and behave in newness of life.
We are authorised, we are empowered, we we're expected to change and constantly
improve our behaviour patterns. We might too habitually live and behave in newness of life. Doesn't that sound like Ephesians 4?
Live a life worthy of the divine calling to which you've been called, with behaviour that is a credit to the summons to God's service. So we've been given this ability and there's this expectation to change for us to change and constantly improve our behaviour patterns.
Romans 6 verse 5, "For if we have become one with him, by sharing a death like his. We shall also be one with him in sharing his resurrection by a new life lived for God." What does that mean?
"Your future awaits you, a future with the Lord that he wanted you to have with
him, and a future with the Lord that he wanted to be in with you, and all of that awaits you. Yes? This union together, you and God moving forward together, doing cool stuff, in the service, in the service to the summons to God's calling on your life.
Romans 6, 6. We know that our old un-renewed self was nailed to the cross with him, In order that our body, which is the instrument of sin, might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin. Dead people don't sin. Yes, our old, un-renewed self was nailed to that cross. With Jesus,
what happened to Jesus on that cross. He died. Yeah, he died. So dead people don't
sin. And this is the thing. If we call it sin, these things that are problems,
obstacles, you know, stumbling blocks for us before a holy God, problems in our behaviour. Okay, not just a problem. Let's call it sin.
If we call it sin, we can access the power of the cross to stop it. If you don't want to call it sin, you're going to need some other system than the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to overcome it, if it's your problem. Well, no, let's call it sin and reach out to the power of the cross of Jesus Christ and ask the Lord, to help us overcome this sin,
because Romans 6, 6 tells us that we might be no longer slaves to sin,
which tells us that we can break free of that. Yeah?
Romans 6, verses 7 and 8, "For when a man dies, he is freed, loosed, delivered from the power of sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Dead people don't sin and resurrected alive people, live a new life based on different priorities and a different understanding. And think about this as a priority. Paul's saying, "I, the prisoner for the Lord, beg you and appeal to you, beg you, beg you to walk and to lead a life worthy of the divine calling to which you have been called, with behaviour that is a credit to the summons to God's service.
And I believe that you, same as I, you want to do that well, to walk in that well, to be successful in that, yes? So, consider yourself dead to sin, Romans 6, 11. Even so,
consider yourselves also dead to sin, and your relation to it broken. That's huge, yeah? Consider yourself dead to sin.
No, I don't do that anymore. I'm dead to that. My relationship to that thing, that
whatever it was, that sin, that does so easily beset us, yeah? That relationship that I had with that is broken. It's gone. It's over. But my relationship now, it's a relationship that's alive to God, living in unbroken fellowship with Him in Christ Jesus.
Let me read that verse again, without all my interruptions. Romans 6, 11. Even so,
consider yourselves also dead to sin. Consider yourself also dead to sin. Think this through. I am dead to sin. And your relation to it broken, but alive to God, living in unbroken fellowship with Him in Christ Jesus.
So if we're going to consider ourselves also dead to sin, to consider means to think this through, and ultimately, it tells us how to think, my relationship to sin's broken, but my relationship, that's a whole new thing. I'm alive to God in unbroken fellowship with Him. So I might need to change the way I think about all of this and take on this new life approach. That's powerful in our mind and then in our life. It starts off in our mind first. That's where the word "consider" comes in.
Romans 6, 13. Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members and
faculties to sin as instruments and tools of wickedness. but offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to perpetual life
and your bodily members and faculties to God, presenting them as implements of
righteousness. So what we focus on has us mastered. What you focus on long enough, you move towards. You change your focus, you change your thoughts, change your thoughts, you can change your direction, change your direction, and you change your life. Yeah?
That's huge. All right? You change your direction and you change your life. So, where are you now going? Remember, Paul ministered to the people at Ephesus five hours a day, face to face, for over two years. And I think he covered a lot of this
foundational stuff because we're told that some of the things that he was teaching
there, this continued for two years, so that all of the inhabitants of the province
of Asia, Jews as well as Greeks, heard the word of the Lord concerning the
attainment through Christ of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God."
Well, that's a big overview sentence, the attaining through Christ of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God. Acts chapter 19. Now, if you're going to understand that, and that attaining of salvation through Christ of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God, if that's taught to you five hours a day for two years, then Paul's going to cover a lot of ground on that topic. And I believe this is my view. I think he will have covered some of these things like sin, like righteousness, because of one man's offence, sin reigned, because of one man's obedience, righteousness then reigned, and because of that righteousness, now you can reign in life with one Christ Jesus, yes, and Paul would have covered so many of these things.
So things like to the Ephesians, who did you used to be? Who are you now? What are you now doing? Yes, what are you doing now? And then this next question here, where are you going?
Let's look at it in Romans chapter 6, I'll just read verse 13 again because it's so strong. "Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members and faculties to sin as instruments and tools of wickedness, but offer and yield self to God, as though you've been raised from the dead to perpetual life and your bodily members and faculties to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness. So as I said before, what you focus on has you mastered. What you focus on long enough, you start to move toward. As you change your focus, you can change your thoughts, you change your thoughts, you can change your direction, you change your direction, you change your life.
Now verse 16 of Romans 6, "Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourself to anyone to do his will, you are the slave of him whom you obey?" Whether that be to sin, which leads to death, but then the next two words, wow, or to, whether that be to sin which leads to death, but praise God there's an or to,
or to obedience which leads to righteousness, right doing and right standing with God, or to, or to.
If I was in church, I'd say everybody say or to. Okay? What does that mean?
Choice. Choice is powerful. Choice is powerful. Understand the power of choice.
So choose to become a student of the Word of God. Choose to live an effective and
purposeful life. Choose behaviour that honours the Lord and flows with Scripture,
not against Scripture. That's really important. Behaviour. Our behaviour is born again Christ -like people, yeah? Representatives, ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's use the word from 2 Corinthians 5. Ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ.
A behavior must be behavior that honors the Lord and flows with Scripture,
not against Scripture. So some of the things that I believe Paul covered with the
church at Ephesus, face -to -face for two years, read it in Acts 19, it's amazing.
Apollos went off to Corinth, Paul went to Ephesus, taught in a synagogue for three months, that became really hard so he left and went to the School of Tyrannus, he ministered face to face from 10 to 3 daily discussions in the School of Tyrannus for two years, preaching Christ and attaining eternal salvation through Jesus Christ. He covered some ground, I tell you, in five hours a day preaching for two years.
Daily discussions, five hours a day. So I think that Paul would have covered who you used to be as a sinner before Jesus Christ. I think he also would have covered who are you now? You know, if we're going to talk about external salvation through Jesus Christ, well, you've got to talk about who you are now when you accept Jesus Christ. And then he's also going to have to mention, one would assume, "What do you do now?
Now that you're a born -again person, what does that mean? What are you going to be doing?" And then he's also going to mention, "Where are you going to go from here? Why? Because he writes things like in Ephesians, live purposefully, worthily,
accurately, not as the wise and witless but as wise sensible intelligent people making the very most of the time, buying up each opportunity because the days are
evil.
Therefore do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish but understand and firmly
grasping what the will of the Lord is. Why do you want to know what the will of
the Lord is so you can go do it for yourself and you can participate in God's
intention for your life? So important, so important.
So the next thing that Paul, I believe, would have touched on after the, you know, who did you used to be? Who are you now? What are you now doing? I think the next thing would be where are you now going? Join with me again next week, please, and we'll continue this study on as to the next thing that I suspect Paul may have raised with the people at Ephesus. God bless. Thanks for joining with us on this podcast. We are dedicated to helping you become all you can possibly be
in Christ Jesus.
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