WELCOME
Good morning First Baptist. We welcome you to worship this morning. Be sure to remember your brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the week as you pray for them, and as the Holy Spirit brings their faces to your mind. Be sure to also connect with them in the ways that are possible. And if you have any questions or would like to talk to someone, please don’t hesitate to contact the church through the church telephone and leave a message. (519-733-4144)
Songs
Call to Worship
Spring is about to break forth!
In all the land, new life is happening!
We Feel the wonder and power of God’s creative energy, the awe and joy of God’s love for us.
We come from times of stress and worry, needing God’s healing love.
Come to this place of healing and feeding from the worries of our lives and from the things that draw us down and away.
Let us worship God with a full sense of joy and expectation. All who are gathered here this day are welcome in the sight of the Lord.
Good morning FBK & Welcome to worship!
Songs
Prayer
Prayers of Confession & Assurance:
Father, In the daily grind of life, we are so often taught to climb the ladder of success by stepping on each other, focusing only on our own wants and needs.
Even as children on a carousel, we were taught to try to grab the golden ring, and it would fulfill our dreams of glory and wealth. How we have been corrupted to think in these terms. Our “dollar for a dream” mentality has gotten us into lots of trouble.
We chase after all those false idols that cannot ever sustain us and bring us peace.
Forgive our stupidity, Lord.
Forgive us when we believe that if we only could win the Lottery, everything would be OK and we would be happy.
It is your Son Jesus Christ who leads us in the ways of happiness and peace, sustaining us, loving us and guiding us.
Nurture us, Lord, that we may truly focus on the life you long for us to have- your ministries and mission you have set before us. For we ask this in Jesus’ Name. AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon:
Do you not know? It is Jesus Christ who is the answer!
Come to him and know his love for you. Find healing in his presence. Know that this is given freely for you, out of his great love for each one of us. AMEN.
Blessed Assurance
Raising the Bar
Today's Message: Pastor Marlee Page
As some of you I’M SURE are aware, we were away on a Cruise last week – down through the Caribbean Sea – blessed with weather and friends and certainly time and space for renewal – thank you for that….
If you’ve ever been on a cruise ship you will likely have noticed that people come in all shapes and sizes, colours and races, from many different countries of the world actually – it’s truly a melting pot at sea!
As you would expect, you get to see a myriad of clothes as well….know matter where you go today, there is a worldwide fascination with fashion. We saw it all last week – from tropical shirts to tuxedos in the dining room – from cut off shorts to full length pant suits – you could even purchase a full wardrobe of clothing on that ship – yes, even on a cruise ship, you find fashion-conscious people making fashion statements. The amount of luggage some people bring is amazing!!!!
In our world today much of this enticement comes from fashion’s promise of a “new you.”
You have seen the ads, the before picture of a plain, unhappy-looking person who lacks confidence, and then the photograph after they have come under the care of a salon and have a different hair colour, cut, and eyebrows, a fresh paint job, and clothing to match.
They are now a new person, brimming with confidence and appeal. Her husband and children love her now — and she is becoming rich! Men are subject to her enticement. “Clothes don’t make the man (or woman), but they sure help,” that’s what culture tells us.
There are volumes of books on “power dressing.” A dark pinstripe suit, a white button-down collar, and a muted red tie, now that’s power!!
The promise from the fashion world to men and women is not just a change of clothes, its a literal life alteration & transformation— new birth through clothing — and it sells and sells and sells!
The problem is, as Paul will show us here, not only does clothing not make the man or woman — it covers up the real you.
Clothing can alter the image but not the soul, and certainly not the truth of our lives.
This morning, Paul presents something far better — a divine wardrobe which will really change one’s life. Here we have the clothing for the unified Body that Mike started to speak on last week— a heavenly, eternal style which will never go out of date — in fact, a style which wears increasingly better with time.
Paul tells us what we need to shed and what we need to put on to be properly dressed. Let’s look at this together:
Scripture Reading: Ephesians 4:17-24
Instructions for Christian Living
17 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 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 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 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; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Tragically, the old way of dressing is just as much in style today as it was in Paul’s day. Paul describes the pagan lifestyle in these first three verses with some fairly severe disapproval.
Paul says, That kind of life, life apart from God, is a downward spiral.
The world around us today would and does call into question whether this somewhat dark description is really true of the world apart from Jesus. Others have called it an outright exaggeration.
It is true that not all those who live apart from God and without grace go to the depths mentioned here.
As we have been studying through this book in our various Bible Study’s we’ve talked about choice, the fact that God has given us choice – Sin itself comes into the world by our choice…I often explain it like this to people who ask me about the choice that God gave us….it’s like a door – God could burst through the door of our lives and impart his way upon us like a bunch of righteous Robots…but that’s not what he does, is it? No, he leaves the door closed, puts only one handle on the door and makes sure that handle is on our side….you see, if God through Jesus Christ is going to come through that door, into our lives, it’s because of our choice….it’s because of our choice and the faith we have in that choice of choosing Jesus over the world.
The problem is that because sin is present in our lives, it shows up in various ways that we and the world around us are drawn to. Today’s social media feeds and advertising confirm this – let me show you…
Look at vs. 18
Hardness. The Human condition has at its root the hardening of the heart, The Greek word for “hardening” is porosis, which comes from the word poros, which originally meant “a stone harder than marble.” In our own terms we might call this “a heart of stone.” What Paul is saying is that left to our own will, because of “the hardening of their hearts” we have an inability and unwillingness to respond to God’s truth. …and where does this hardening come from – well look again at vs. 18
Darkness. From darkness comes hardness, as it says in verse 18: “They are darkened in their understanding.” Think about this as, an absence of spiritual understanding, because the intellects of the unsaved during that time were great speakers…just like many are today….they are active and capable.
Paul says the same thing in Romans: “their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened” (1:21); “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools” (1:22). The more they distorted and suppressed the truth, the less capable they became of understanding and living a spiritual reality.
Which leads us back to sin – From hardness and darkness comes separation – sin, as Paul says in verse 18: “separated from the life of God.”
This separation makes everything possible — Weekly mass shootings on our TV’s, Dictators invading sovereign countries next door, — other sins hardly imaginable to us.
It’s truly a spiral because this separation spawns more and more recklessness:
Look at vs. 19 “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
What a description! The opening phrase, “having lost all sensitivity,” literally means they were beyond feeling — like callused skin…. (aselgeia — “vice that throws off all restraint and flaunts itself”). Paul says don’t be like these people that performed every impurity and lusted for more. Sin does not satisfy, it might feel awfully good at the time but only creates a greater appetite…. a spiral….
In our Ladies Tuesday Night Bible study this week we learned a definition of Sin from Susana Wesley – mother of Charles & John:
“Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, takes off your relish for spiritual things, whatever increases the authority of the body over the mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may seem in itself.”
— Susanna Wesley.
You see, the culture of our world today provides a comfortable environment for a life’s direction like this. Hearts which are hard and dark and separated spiritually would rather keep their old clothing, smelly and decaying as it is, then change. They may not like all that goes on, but as long as they are allowed to pursue life in their own way, everything and everyone is simpatico — “live and let live.”
What I’m saying here may seem a bit harsh, but this is reality! Paul’s opening line on the subject in verse 17, “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord,” means that these are not Paul’s ideas, but Jesus’s. This is how the resurrected Jesus sees the world. It is so important that we Christians embrace this assessment of the world without Jesus because we then see that it is radically lost. We then get a chance to understand why humankind cannot save itself and why Jesus came. A loss of the Biblical vision of the world is behind the erosion of Christianity in many places, because if you imagine the world is better than it is, the necessity of Jesus and what He did on the cross is lessened and the lie of the “You can do it on your own” culture is celebrated.
Is the picture Paul or we would present of the world – gloomy pessimism?
Absolutely Not!
What Paul is about here is New life in Christ…following Jesus is the answer and vision for humankind far beyond any secular dream we might conjure up..… Look how this happens…
As Paul warms to the subject of the new wardrobe, he uses the language of bold contrast: “You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus” (vv. 20, 21).
The Ephesian Christians were taught the exact opposite of the world’s style by learning of Jesus Christ! Here Paul uses three remarkable teaching terms which indicate respectively that Jesus was the subject, teacher, and classroom of their instruction.
That Jesus was the subject of their instruction is indicated in the words “to know Christ” in verse 20 — which should be more accurately translated, “to learn Christ.” The Ephesians learned of the living Christ. They learned more than knowledge about him. They learned him — his life, his ethics, even his character.
Next we see that Jesus was their teacher (v. 21a): “Surely you heard of him …” The word “of” is not in the Greek, and the correct rendering is, “Surely you heard him.” – Jesus, through His own words and those of the Apostles was the teacher.
Last, we understand that Jesus is the classroom in which the instruction takes place, for the Ephesians “were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus” (v. 21b). Everything was “in” Jesus.” Paul repeats this over and over again – In Him, In Christ…in Jesus
Jesus is the subject, teacher, and classroom.
This is the Christian life – St. Patrick’s Day happened this past week…. St. Patrick absolutely understood this….he put’s it this way in the fifth century – would you say this with us:
St. Patrick’S BREASTPLATE
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
You know we’ve said that chapter 4 opens up the the very practical side of Pauls’ teaching here….
So, what do we take away from this? The answer is in verses 22–24.
First, verse 22: “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.”
Second, verse 23: “to be made new in the attitude of your minds.”
Third, verse 24: “and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
First, though the Ephesians had put off the old self (the life described in vv. 17–19) when they first came to Christ, in verse 22 Paul in effect challenges them to a repeated putting off of the old garments, the old style of life.
God’s word and experience teach us that no one has ever succeeded in shedding the clothes of the old life with simply saying a prayer and going on with our old life….
No, those who live holy lives do so by repeated putting offs.
The problem is, the old garments, the old life are so comfortable and natural. Not only that, many of us have worn them so long that they naturally drape over us and we scarcely know we are wearing them until the Holy Spirit convicts us.
If you are fighting pride, it must daily be shed.
This is equally true of anger and bitterness and and all their relatives. Many of us stumble because we don’t realize this. But the truth is, our old life will have to be put off daily as long as we live.
Second, sandwiched between putting off and putting on is the necessity that we
Verse 23
“be made new in the attitude of [our] minds”
We cannot effectively put on our the new clothing unless our thinking is altered and renewed. This is an echo of Romans 12:2 — “… be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.” This is done by reading and studying God’s Word, in the community of the Church… and by asking the Holy Spirit to continue his renewing work in our lives – remember we are not called to do this on our own!!! The Word gives us God’s very thoughts, and prayerful meditation upon it will infuse his mind into ours in constant renewal. It is imperative that we read the Word expectantly, praying for God to speak to us by his Holy Spirit.
Finally, there is the putting on:
Verse 24
“… and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness”
The fact is, we have this new self if we are Jesus followers. We received the old life at birth, and we were given the new life in our heavenly birth. But we have to remember that the new life is not our work — it is God’s creation and gift.
Our task is not to weave it, but to wear it.
We must keep in mind that we do not put on the new life by simply putting off the old.
We need to put on love, to put on peace, to put on joy, to put on patience, etc. (cf. Galatians 5:22). For example, I may have lost my temper with a family member and I have repented and put it off. But I have not completed my responsibility unless I have also put on love and patience.
Aren’t you glad All of this is through God’s grace…?
This is hard, 1 scholar I follow reiterated that for us living this life of holiness in Jesus is both the easiest and hardest thing we will ever do:
In Salvation, we do nothing…Works have no place in obtaining salvation… The Christian life is sola gratia, grace alone.
But as children of that grace we must work at our Christian lives, every day…and that’s not easy – we have to work at that together!! We have our part to do in dressing ourselves with the divine wardrobe, for here, clothes do make the man — and the woman! We must every day set aside our old life and ignore the worlds call back to that life. We must formally reject sensuality and selfish pride and materialism and bitterness. We must read the Word and ask God to renew our minds through the Spirit. We must put on our new, shining garments of light.
We must put on what we are for the world around us to see!!
LET US GO TO HIM AND PRAY….
Prayer
Father,
It is easy for us to go through the motions of spirituality.
We want to say the “right” prayers, and think that we have found the magical key to make holiness appear in our lives.
But we are empty, Lord. We hunger and thirst for something that will sustain us through all the times of our lives. We chase after things that will disappoint and hurt, and look past the very thing that will heal and cleanse our lives.
Christ is the answer.
Help us to stop running after the glitz and glitter; help us to look in the right direction and to put on our new self, so that we can be created to be more like you.
Father, we have lifted up names of people and situations which lay heavy on our hearts today that need your healing touch, help us to remember that we stand continually in need of your healing mercy.
Lord of all people and all nations,
We lift before you the people of Ukraine and the people of Russia,
Each girl and boy, each woman and man living in fear of what tomorrow might bring,
We cry out to you for peace,
Protect those who only desire and deserve to live in security and safety,
Comfort those who fear for their lives and the lives of their loved ones,
Change the hearts of those set on violence and aggression,
Fill earthly leaders with great wisdom to find paths to peace,
Please Lord come and have your way in your world,
Bring us to you, with open and repentant hearts, for your loving care.
As we receive these wondrous gifts you offer so freely, may we truly be reminded that Christ nurtures, fills and recreates us with his own life.
Let His peace and Shalom follow us every where we go and in all we do this week. AMEN.
Song
Benediction
The father has called and clothed you and you are made NEW.
Now go out into God’s world to and show off your new wardrobe – it’s a fashion show….
Go out there, in that hurting world as the called child of God that we are…. knowing that Christ is with you, behind you, before you, And beside you
Bring God’s love, hope and peace to all you meet! AMEN.
Have a great week!