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Why do we struggle so much with right and wrong? How does Paul challenge believers to walk out their new life in Christ? Join me, Pastor Richard, as we receive God's word for us from Ephesians chapter 4. Who here has seen the movie Inside Out? Can I have a raise of hands? A few laughs. Some are a bit shy to say they've seen, some have seen. Okay. For those who have not seen it, it's an animated movie, and the premise or the message that it conveys is that our outside actions are, in a sense, uh directed by our emotion on the inside. All right. That's it's just a movie. There is some truth there. This is not a complete truth, but what is on the inside is determining the outside. And so that's what the the movie shows. This morning I want to ask you have you ever noticed how many young people they have a switch inside of them? They have a switch inside of them. Uh, all along, maybe they they can't seem to produce motivation to do their schoolwork. Trying to get them to do their Chinese compo is like trying to yank a tooth out. Uh they don't want to brush or comb their hair. The hygiene may need a bit of work. And then one day the switch flips. It's not because we've said something to them, we've been telling them hundreds of times or more, but somehow the switch flips and suddenly they care and they start to take ownership over their life. They start to care about the marks they're getting. You don't have to nag them about we need to do revision, an exam is coming. They themselves want to put in the time and want to do revision. Uh, they they start uh grooming themselves and caring about their appearance. There's a switch that many times we don't know how it happens, but it just flips and change takes place. In my preteen years, I was very timid. I don't know, I I perhaps I don't seem like a very timid person to you, but when I was young, I tell you, I was afraid to leave my home to go play together with a friend at another house. I I I think there was maybe only once I tried going for a sleepover, and I was I was terrified. I'm not even sure of what. I was very, very timid. And this was how things were. But eventually a change took place in my life. And I I I would attribute to the work of God. Don't want to go into the long story, but when that switch flipped for me, well, you know, I had a lot of fun going out with friends all the time. Uh, we'd go to Christian dance parties. This was this was back in the in the 90s, huh? Uh we had black lights, we had strove lights, and we had the music, but the music was somehow Christian, and and I I'd also, you know, we'd we'd have barbecues together that I'd organize. Um in those times I was probably the glue that would bring the people together. So there was the point is there was a change that took place. It didn't happen overnight in my case, but somehow something changed. And this is why I'm telling this to you. It's because our passage today is really talking about God changing us from the inside out. It starts on the inside. Ephesians, we we just read this, uh, the Ephesians chapter 4, verse 17. It says, Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. How many here have read the book by Watchman Knee? Sit, walk, stand? Anyone? Uh some people have, right? It's not a long book, and it's it's it was impactful to me. And the first part, he divides the book of Ephesians into three words, three key words. And the first is sit, and that is uh we are seated together with Christ in the heavenly realms. Now, today our topic is about walking out the new life in Christ, but before we get to that walking out, it's important that we understand positionally, we are seated together with Christ in the heavenly realms. If we have given our life to Christ, if you have given your life to Christ, positionally, you are there. And so out of that we we have a rest. If you don't get this first part, then you're striving all the time. And yet, so we we must understand we sit together with Christ. We're seated together with Christ. And so before we talk about walking out, we have to be very, uh we need to be really convinced of this on the inside. Christ has done the work. We don't have more work to do. Christ has done the work. The second part about the walk is our life in this world, and that's what we'll be speaking about mostly today. And then the last part uh for the book of Ephesians, he would say we stand, and that's our stance against the enemy. We don't advance against the enemy, we stand because the victory is already won. The outcome God has predetermined. And so we just stand our ground, knowing that the victory will come about. Now, on this chapter uh on walking, it begins with these words of wisdom, and maybe I can have the next slide, please. I'll just read this out for you. We have sought to make it clear that Christian experience does not begin with walking, but with sitting. Every time we reverse the divine order, the result is disaster. The Lord Jesus has done everything for us, and our need now is to rest confidently in him. He is seated on the throne, so we are carried through in his strength. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that all true spiritual experience begins from rest, but it does not end there. Walking is not about earning our salvation. Walking is not about justifying our salvation. Walking demonstrates our salvation. And if we, just as it said, if we get the order mixed up, we are in trouble. There's nothing that we're going to be able to do to earn salvation. Can't be done. There's no way to kind of uh as if we were on credit. Uh, okay, Christ has saved us, but now we have to pay back this thing. Actually, that's that's not the sense, and we can never pay it back. But our walk is when we demonstrate our salvation. So, what does the walk look like? There's a Greek word, uh peripateo, which is the word used here for walk. And it it's it's quite simple. It's talking about our conduct or our behavior. Our conduct or our behavior. And if we're walking with Christ, there's going to be evidence of it, right? No one walks uh with Christ, and then people can't tell. There's a difference to us. And so the inward reality of making Christ Lord and being cleansed of all sin, it'll be demonstrated outwardly. It will. And our behavior and our conduct will be altered. But I want to challenge you with a mindset change. All right, some of you will disagree with me on this. That's okay. Uh, I hope we're okay to disagree sometimes. You see, when we go back to the Garden of Eden, there's the two trees, right? And we have the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and we have the tree of life. Adam and Eve, we know the story. If you've been in church more than one time, you've probably heard the story. Adam and Eve took that forbidden fruit, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they weren't supposed to eat, and they ate it. And when they did that, it was like they were putting on a pair of specks. And they put it on, and now they were seeing things all in terms of good and evil or right and wrong. Actions are all now divided into right and wrong, in a sense. This is not the perspective that God desired for them. He desired instead that they would eat of the tree of life, which is Christ. But the sad thing is, I believe many of us, even today, we continue to eat the wrong fruit. We're continuing to eat from that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We continue to wear the specks. I don't know. I I won't ask for a show of hands, but I think there are those here who you really, really struggle with the gray areas of life. Uh so what do we mean by gray areas? Make sure we we mean the same thing by the same terms, right? Uh for instance, we know uh from the Bible uh gluttony and lust and lying and so forth, uh, these are evil. They are wrong, right? Very, very clear cut. Okay, these are black. Uh and we also know that being generous, being kind, being forgiving, and these sorts of things, these are good, these are white. And yet, I don't know about you, I feel that there is so much of life that is lived in the in-between, where things are not so clear cut. Should you give in your notice and take a new job with a new employer? How to know is this is this black or is this right or wrong? Um holiday on a cruise this year? Where's the moral? It can be a bit different, right? Uh, students, what CCA should I choose? All right, this is a when you're at that age, it's a big decision. And yet it's in this gray area where we we can't really tell. There's no clear direction. If we are struggling often in this thing of the gray areas of life, we are continuing to eat from the wrong tree. We're continuing to divide everything into right and wrong. And that is that is not God's plan for us. Christ is for us the tree of life, and if we abide in him, we have a different perspective on life. And I think we need to be renewed in that today. And so when we are eating of the Christ, that means that uh we're not trying to discern forever and ever between right and wrong, but instead we take on the perspective of imitation. We take on the perspective of imitation that we might be found in the likeness of God before because that is God's desire for us that we might become like Him. And so I I'm not encouraging us to be naive in areas of right or wrong. This is it's a change in perspective. Our focus should be on pleasing Christ. And so this is the thing where walking out our new life, it's being changed from the inside out. Our motivations, our focus, our perspective. Church, we we if we are in Christ, things will change. Our conduct will change, our behavior will change, and yes, uh, we are it will all change. Now, what happens when we continue to eat of this wrong fruit? What does it do to our Christian testimony? Because you know there are some consequences to this, if you haven't noticed already, as we're always focused on dividing uh right and wrong, we try to hold ourselves to that standard. Guess what? We're trying to hold everyone else to that standard too. And we can at times become quite critical. We are to tell the truth, but we are to tell the truth in love. But when we continue eating of this wrong fruit, the love is not there. And so the truth just becomes a uh something to a vehicle to be critical of others, which is not what we want to do. And we become upset with those who fail, and when we find ourselves beginning to fail, we may find ways to reason it away or hide it away. And then we're we're headed in the wrong direction, amen. It hinders confession, it hinders healing, it hinders restoration when we are only trying to fit into this right and wrong. There is another way for us, church. Ephesians chapter 4, verses 22 to 24. It says, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life, and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Paul instructs us to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. We know what it means to be renewed, right? And we know we know what a mind is. What does it mean to be renewed in the spirit of your minds? It's a funny phrase, isn't it? There are different views on this, but I would tell you, this is just Paul's phrase and way of saying this is something that needs to happen on the inside. This is something that on the inside takes place, and then it's going to be worked out. And he's very clear about we put off, okay? Once we were like this, that, and the other thing. We we heard the full passage today. Uh, there were some very not nice words to hear. And Paul was writing to the Ephesians. I imagine the church was a mix between Jewish believers and Gentiles. And he's saying, uh, don't do, uh, don't walk in the way of the Gentiles, meaning don't walk in the way you you used to, you who are Gentiles. You were like this. And church, if we have been changed in Christ, we too will see that there was a difference. Before, uh on the inside and probably on the outside as well, we we were not so pleasant. Even myself, I can remember, although I was saved at an earlier age, and I thank God for that. No, in that earlier age, I remember doing things like going to the grocery store and stealing candy bars at the time. And I remember the day that I think my mother was with me, and she caught me and she said, as we walked out, and I pulled this thing out a bit too soon, where did you get that from? And I broke down in tears immediately. I was found out. We were once uh futile in our thinking. All right. It's not a choice. We're not talking about intelligence. It we we didn't have the capacity to please God. It just wasn't there, it just it just didn't work. And so this is the work of Christ in us. So we put off the old self and we have our our minds renewed. We get renewed on the inside. And only then are we able to walk out our life in Christ. We're being changed from the inside out. And so, church, we we need to choose the fruit of the tree of life. We need to have this change of perspective take place in us. And we need to be renewed in this. I need to be renewed and reminded of this from time to time as well. That way we choose life, we choose Christ. We we choose to please Christ, we choose to imitate Christ. We ask less of the question is is this right or wrong? And instead, we we ask the question, is this pleasing? If I if I spend money on this new phone, oh very nice phone, oh, it just came out. The camera is very good in it, will this be pleasing to you, Lord? And then just wait to hear what he says. In each area of our life, is this pleasing to you? And when we do that, we are we are taking and eating from that tree of life, even today. And the best part of it is in this act of seeking to please Christ, that very motivation does please him. So even if we get it wrong, well, I I made a foolish decision on that. But because my desire was to please Christ, what do you how do you think he looks down at us? You think he's displeased when you try to please him but make a mistake? No. He is very pleased, and so may God continue to change us on the inside. Our motivation, our perspective will be different. Before turning to Christ, according to God's standard of holiness, well, the Church of Ephesus, it was a bit of a mess, as we see from Paul's writing. And he's exhorting them walk out your new life in Christ. Your minds must be renewed. Don't don't seek to just get away with things, to do just what is legal, and then everything else is okay. Uh, Ephesians, it's time to move from it's all about me to it's all about him. I hope you'll indulge me. Sometimes, Paul, all right, let's be honest. Paul's writing is very, very dense. There's a lot of layers there. The way he puts together words, uh, it takes a lot to unpack them. And so, to help myself, I sometimes will try to just rewrite things in modern language, just to help me maybe see it a little bit from a different perspective. This is how I wrote out this passage and I'll share it with you. Maybe this gives us uh insights as well. It says, this is God's own truth. You cannot keep living like everyone else. Those outsiders, they just don't get it. They cannot understand because they're not a part of the family of God. With a God-given sense of right and wrong removed, they've become hardened. It's all about feeling good with them. But that's not you. You're done with that way of life, both as individuals and as a church. You're an imitator of Christ Jesus and you're in an ongoing process of being changed from the inside out. In principle, this is done. In practice, we're still working it out. This process leads to being pure on the inside as well as on the outside. So put away the bad old life. Be honest. Deal with anger in a healthy way. If you made a living through cheating and theft, it's time for a change, time to get an honest job. And your salary isn't just for you, because in the new life we share with those in need. Watch your mouth and learn to encourage others instead. Those put downs and horrible things you used to say, they offend the Holy Spirit, who is the sign of better things to come. So be done with all that bitterness and anger and putting others down instead. Be nice for a chains. Be kind and forgive people even when they don't deserve it, because that's exactly how God in Christ forgave you. I feel like this is perhaps a bit of what Paul is saying in our modern everyday English. It's a little different. I wonder if Paul were to write to us, the Ishunites, what would that letter be today? If he knew about us, he had a heart for us, he'd been praying for us, he'd heard that God was moving. What else would he have heard, church? How does God see us as a church? I don't want this to be just a message of try harder, do more good things, do less bad things. I I think we internally we already feel the motivation for that. Because the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. Instead, church, I want to urge you. Can you join me? Let's let's have a new perspective. Is this pleasing to you? How can I better imitate Christ? Honestly, when I I first read about this, for me it was a different perspective. It felt scary because I'm used to the right and wrong. I know where I am on the road when there's the right and the wrong. Okay, there's the big gray area, and that's difficult, but it's very familiar. But would you take the risk? Would you would you go on this journey with me together? Remember, Paul is not just writing to individuals in the church, he's writing to the church, the body of believers, about walking out the new life in Christ. And I want to I want to challenge and encourage you, church. Let's do this. Let's try to live out, start with the next week. Uh maybe, maybe a week is a bit more manageable. And try to remind yourself again and again throughout the day, whenever there is a choice to be made, is this pleasing to Christ? And just be guided by that. Can we try that? I think that would be good for us. I know that it will be pleasing to God. Uh change is tough. And just before we come towards the tail end of this, I just remind us we start off with what was the three points, the three key words? What was the first one for Ephesians? Sit. First, we rest confident in the work of Christ. If we're not confident, we begin to just go back into the cycle of striving to earn or to justify our salvation. That is when we do that, that says that Christ's work was not enough. And none of us would say that, right? So we are confident, we are seated with Christ. His work is enough, and now we walk that out from the inside out. In the first few verses of Acts chapter one, it says, In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You have heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. And we know in the next chapter, the Holy Spirit did come down on all believers. And I just want to remind us this because God, the Holy Spirit, partners together with us to renew our lives. I cannot say that this is a work that God does, and all we need to do is sit and wait for it to happen. I can't say that what we really need to do is get serious and try harder. Instead, God in his wisdom, he chooses to work together with us. He doesn't desire for a bunch of robots who are controlled by the Holy Spirit and have no choice in the matter. That's not how he works. He wants our love, he wants our worship. And robots cannot do that. They are just programmed to do things. God partners together with us. That is the way He He chooses to work. Church, uh maybe I can ask you all to come forward. Yeah, thanks. So, church, we we don't want to be become again like the Pharisees who they excelled at dividing everything into right and wrong. All right, they eliminated as many gray areas as possible. They did all of this, but we want to become like imitators of Christ. Ephesians chapter 5, verses 1 and 2, it says, Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God, be imitators of God. We pray that you can minister on the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about History of the Christian Church, please visit our website at yccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.