[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Way Community Church Podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our mission is to show people the way to life with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Darahal and I am the pastor of the Way Community Church.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you would like to join us as a member or of you simply need prayer,
[SPEAKER_00]: or if you want to worship through giving, you can find the links and the transcription of this podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today, we're going to be greeted by one of our preaching team members, Grant Kirkland, Jr.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to have a conversation with us about identity.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I want to encourage you to follow along closely.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can stay with the transcript of this podcast, grab your bibles, let's study guys work together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ephesians chapter 4 verse 20 through 24 and I solicit your prayers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ephesians chapter 4 verse 20 through 24.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean when you have a say man, I mean that's enough of y'all so we don't going to read.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it reads as follows but you did not learn Christ in this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: If indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him.
[SPEAKER_01]: just as truth is in Jesus, that in reference to your former way of life, you are to read yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit and that you are to be renewed, somebody say renewed, in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created
[SPEAKER_01]: and holiness of the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to talk with you just for a very brief moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: I identify as renewed.
[SPEAKER_01]: You may be seated.
[SPEAKER_01]: Father, we need your help.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pistramine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have your way in this place.
[SPEAKER_01]: that this word be, you gotta find, let it be a applicable to all who hear it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you now, give me your preaching power, your strength, hide behind the cross that the people might not hear me, but that they might only hear you.
[SPEAKER_01]: In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever been like me and purchased a new tech gadget
[SPEAKER_01]: the two excited about.
[SPEAKER_01]: A new device, maybe the latest cell phone, or iPad, or laptop, and you excited about it all the bells and the whistles and the technological innovations and the advancements, right at your fingertips.
[SPEAKER_01]: And everything is working fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: The internet
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything works exactly according to the factory creation of the device.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then all of a sudden, corruption comes.
[SPEAKER_01]: You open a corrupt file from your email unknowingly, or you respond to an unknown text message, and you realize it's spam.
[SPEAKER_01]: And before you know it, you've been hacked.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or perhaps you're
[SPEAKER_01]: occasionally venture off into some web sites that you like to peruse from time to time, your leisure, and you click on one too many buttons or videos.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you make the meaningless mistake of downloading a virus to your device.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you slowly start to detect changes in the way your device is performing.
[SPEAKER_01]: few minor glitches here and there, but you notice it, but you continue to use it as normal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then a few stalls and a few freezes, and it gives you pause, but it's not bad enough to make you think anything is fully wrong with the device.
[SPEAKER_01]: And little by little, the virus continues to eat away at the system, because you let it go way too long now nothing works properly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything is corrupted.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now the exciting new gadget or the device that was originally working perfectly performing exactly as it was created to by the manufacturer seems unusable.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what do we think most of the time?
[SPEAKER_01]: We say, now I got to go buy a new one.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody ever been frustrated?
[SPEAKER_01]: I got to buy a new phone.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, I ain't had that in my budget this week.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got to buy a new apple watch.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got to buy something new.
[SPEAKER_01]: We think we need to buy something new.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we take the device and we contact the manufacturer and because of course, surely it came with a warranty, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And you explain what's going on.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you informed them that you need to trade it in for a new one.
[SPEAKER_01]: But here's what's interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Creator listens to the issues, listens to the problems that you're experiencing, sometimes the Creator even has to reveal to us that somewhere along the way, we picked up corruption.
[SPEAKER_01]: But guess what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes our surprise, they tell us that you actually don't need a new device.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your current device can be fixed.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's still useful.
[SPEAKER_01]: It still has value.
[SPEAKER_01]: You just need to perform what's called a factory reset.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to have to return it back to its original state.
[SPEAKER_01]: Back to the manufacturer's original settings of how it was intended to function an operate.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we see in Ephesians 4.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's believed to be the Apostle Paul writing another letter from a Roman prison and sometime around AD 60 to 62, he's stressing the importance of unity and holy living according to God's original intent for us to live.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look what he says in Ephesians 4, 20 through 24, I'm reading from the NASB version.
[SPEAKER_01]: If indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus that in reference to your form of life, you are to read yourselves of the old self, which is being what church corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit.
[SPEAKER_01]: and that you ought to be what church renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, which is in the likeness of God, has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I hear something that struck me as interesting, when I got to, when I started reading at Ephesians 40 and 20, I noticed that it started with, but you did not learn
[SPEAKER_01]: I went to another translation.
[SPEAKER_01]: I went to the NIV.
[SPEAKER_01]: NIV read it this way in verse 20.
[SPEAKER_01]: It said, that however is not the way of life you learned.
[SPEAKER_01]: I went to another translation.
[SPEAKER_01]: I went to King James.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some people believe that King James, you know, they said, that's the language of Jesus, spoke.
[SPEAKER_01]: I went to King James.
[SPEAKER_01]: King James read it this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: It said, but you have not so learned Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So in starting with verse 20, reading in I V, that karma, however, or reading in King James, but ye, it lets me know that something precedes this thought.
[SPEAKER_01]: Twenty-two, twenty-four is what would be considered an independent clause to all my English teachers in the room, because but and however are used to introduce a contrasting or opposing idea that the clause following them typically contrast with the clause that preceded it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, so Ephesus 24 says that in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in an in
[SPEAKER_01]: which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires to be made new in the attitude of your mind, somebody's an attitude, and to put on the new self created to be like God and true righteousness and holiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was the independent clause.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the contrasting or opposing idea to what precedes it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's look at what precedes it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go to Ephesians chapter 4 of verse 17 in the NIV, and it raises follows.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the futility of their what church thinking, they are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the heartening of their hearts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Having lost all sensitivity.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have given themselves over to sensuality.
[SPEAKER_01]: So as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed, that, however, is not the way of life you learned.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you see how we get to that comma, however, comma, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a verse to precede.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at verse 17 and says that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking.
[SPEAKER_01]: the quality of being useless, ineffective, or pointless, often describing actions that achieve nothing and have no purpose.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what they're saying, what he's saying here is he says, so I tell you this and insist on in the Lord that you must no longer live as a Gentiles do in the useless,
[SPEAKER_01]: ineffective, pointless, achieving nothing, and no purpose having a way of that thinking.
[SPEAKER_01]: You understand, then we go to verse 19.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 19 says, having lost all sensitivity that they have given themselves over to sensuality, so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
[SPEAKER_01]: That word sensuality, it means the active enjoyment or expression of physical sensory pleasure, often encompassing a deep connection to the five senses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now the word sensuality oftentimes is connected to something sexual.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it would be easy to hang our hats right there.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, especially in the church, we love the cherry pick.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love to pick which things we want to pick on.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you look at verse 19, he says, having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in what church,
[SPEAKER_01]: every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's talking about every kind of impurity, every day, given themselves over to every kind of impurity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we move from verse 19 into verse 20, which is our text scripture, and it says, that comma, however, comma, is not the way of life you learned.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all with me?
[SPEAKER_01]: y'all can't at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, when you heard about Christ, and we're taught in Him, according in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus, you were taught with regard to your form of way of life, to put
[SPEAKER_01]: of your old self which is being corrected by the deceitful desires to be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holding it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let me give you our first major key, major key number one, and Minister Adrian appreciate the amazing sermon of 730 this morning called Actin Brand New.
[SPEAKER_01]: act in brand new.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here's major key number one, acting brand new begins by thinking brand new.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because look what it says in verse 23, verse 23, it says to be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna tell y'all right now, I'm about to make my wife roll her eyes because she hates when I start to quote movies and television shows, which I'll all know by now that that's how I grew up.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like TV and I like movies.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this scripture, when it says to be made new in the attitude of your minds, it took me back to an old show that used to come on called A-Man.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all remember A-Man?
[SPEAKER_01]: Reverend Rubin Gregory, and Deca's earned a J. Ernest J. Frye, that's who I called Deca Philpard.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's earned a J. Frye.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in this particular episode, something that happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't recall what had happened, but whatever happened, Reverend Gregory ended up being thrown in jail.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Reverend Gregory was in jail.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there was an inmate or another jailmate that was in there with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ball had told to just mean looking just for real rugged.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's sitting up on top bunking.
[SPEAKER_01]: Reverend Gregory is pacing and he's doing his thing and he's thinking about all what he's got to do and the sale mate says, oh, cut out all that racket because of you know what's wrong which won't you sit on a man just be quiet.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Reverend Gregory being who he was he realizes that it's Sunday morning and for the first time ever he wasn't in his pool pit and wasn't going to be able to preach his sermon.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all wait for me?
[SPEAKER_01]: And so the sell man is he's he's kind of on the fence and he don't want to hit with Reverend Everybody have the same, but Reverend Gregory decide that he's going to set up something in the middle of the Sound and he's going to preach his sermon right there to the sell man Reverend Gregory preachers his sermon and he he's that you know the sell man He ain't all and he don't want to hit that follow.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't get a little good to him Then he started to get invested and get a little better to him
[SPEAKER_01]: Now he's intrigued, and they were Reverend Gregor, he's successful for the punch, and he preaching, and he preaching, and he's doing his thing, and he's selling me, now I sell me this in, and he got him, he got him, and they bolted, going back and forth, and he's engaged, and they do what they gotta do, and after Reverend Gregor finishes his rousing sermon to the sell me, he says, Amen, quiet, send me a song.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not realizing that they in jail.
[SPEAKER_01]: So because they had no choir, Reverend Gregory asked to sell me.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, don't you know a song?
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you know a song, maybe you could sing a song.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the cell may says, well, there is one song that I think I can quote.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, well, let me hear it, let me hear it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the cell may say, I'm feeling good from my head to my shoes.
[SPEAKER_01]: No way I'm going, and I know what to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I tied it up, my opponent view.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh-huh.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, I'm in control of my worries a few.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause I got loving.
[SPEAKER_01]: I never knew what he said.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh-uh.
[SPEAKER_01]: What he said.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was Paddle LeBelle.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was the gospel according to Paddle LeBelle.
[SPEAKER_01]: The attitude of your minds.
[SPEAKER_01]: and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it made me go back.
[SPEAKER_01]: It made me wonder.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's talking about to put on an attitude that mirrors being created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I wanted to go back to the creation.
[SPEAKER_01]: How will we originally intended?
[SPEAKER_01]: So I go to Genesis, chapter one, verse 26 through 27.
[SPEAKER_01]: King James Version.
[SPEAKER_01]: It says, and God said, let us make man in our image.
[SPEAKER_01]: After our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the foul of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: So God created man in his own image in the image of God
[SPEAKER_01]: male and female created he, them, he creates male in his own image and then he creates female out of the male, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Dr. Hall Preach of Sermons is two weeks ago, where do we stand on marriage?
[SPEAKER_01]: And he talked about this scripture, he talked about how God created a man and then out of man he creates female, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So brings me to major key number two, the original manufacturer's settings for humanity was in the image of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Before we can get to renew, we got to deal with new.
[SPEAKER_01]: The original manufacturer setting for humanity was in the image of God, God made man and his image man was new, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: But then I come back to Ephesians 4.
[SPEAKER_01]: And verse 22 it says, you were taught with regard to your form of way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by his deceitful desires.
[SPEAKER_01]: to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, create it to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it made me wonder, what is it that lies between the space of new and renew?
[SPEAKER_01]: What lies between the space of new and renew?
[SPEAKER_01]: Can I tell you what lies between the space of new and renew?
[SPEAKER_01]: Put it up down the screen.
[SPEAKER_01]: what lies between the space of new and renew S-I-N. And here's the thing I learned about that word, that feels, that the y'all feel how heavy the room got.
[SPEAKER_01]: It got heavy, didn't it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Just off the word, the room got heavy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because there's something about this word, and there's something that I learned about this word about myself, who was in the middle of that word?
[SPEAKER_01]: So, what lies between the space of new and renew?
[SPEAKER_01]: My sin, me, Greg.
[SPEAKER_01]: My, he knows my name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Me too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Greg and sinful nature.
[SPEAKER_01]: Things that I have committed in my former life, things that I can admit that I've done is what lies between new and renew.
[SPEAKER_01]: So.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's look at this connection between Genesis 1 and 26 to 27 and Ephesians 4, 23 to 24 and I love the way Bible Hub breaks this down so I used the breakdown of this in Bible Hub about this comparison.
[SPEAKER_01]: The original imprint Genesis 1 and 27.
[SPEAKER_01]: God created man in his own image.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Humanities' identity began with direct personal design and image-barren reflection of God Himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: This image included more likeness, relational capacity, and delegated authority over creation.
[SPEAKER_01]: We see that in Genesis 1 and 28, which says, and God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, multiplied, replenished the earth, subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the foul of the air, and over every living thing that moved upon the earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we see that in Genesis 1, God creates man out of man he creates woman,
[SPEAKER_01]: And he creates him in his image.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is the image that he created them in?
[SPEAKER_01]: The image you have dominion to be male, female, married together, to be fruitful, to be multiplied.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the image included more likeness, relational capacity, and delegated authority over creation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now look what happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sen, later distorted that likeness in Genesis 3.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this is what I love, what Bible helps it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it never erased it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what happens in Genesis 3?
[SPEAKER_01]: Just real quick, quick overview.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is the story of when he was at the tree.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the serpent came and tempted he'd eat of the fruit of the tree.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, we're not supposed to eat the fruit of the tree.
[SPEAKER_01]: The serpents.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen, go happen, eat Jesus' tree, and then guess what, here come Adam, and just like every man in here, he gives, come on brothers, we eat the fruit, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now we all are in sin, sin enters, because now we've been disobeyed to the word that he gave us.
[SPEAKER_01]: and he looked, oh my god, he had one job.
[SPEAKER_01]: He gave them the minion over everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: He gave them one thing that they could not do and what did they do.
[SPEAKER_01]: just like man, just like woman, just like human nature.
[SPEAKER_01]: It just seems like we just have to have that thing that we're that's forbidden, that we're not supposed to have.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so they take up their ass, and they find as that God comes walking, I love this scripture because it talks about the voice of God that comes walking through the garden and the cooler of the day.
[SPEAKER_01]: and Adam, he is the voice, come walking.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God says, Adam, well, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Adam has hidden himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he asked him again, like he don't know the answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, I don't know how I felt.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Adam said, he said, and then he's with the, Adam has never said, the woman you gave me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I tell that to God, like once a week.
[SPEAKER_01]: And at least once a week, I have to say to God, the woman you gave me.
[SPEAKER_01]: What, Ben, once a week, bro, at least once a week.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today's Sunday, I might say it today, start the week off, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so we get that, so that is the fall of man, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Genesis 3.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so, send later, destroy that likeness in Genesis 3, but it never erased it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, now we get to what's called, I love the way they put this, the new wardrobe.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ephesians chapter 4 and 24 is to put on the new self created to be like God and true righteousness and holiness created to be like God echoes Genesis 1 and 27 signalling a deliberate restoration of the original design.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul's imagery of putting on points to a conscious daily choice, much like changing clothes.
[SPEAKER_01]: to live in the renewed likeness offered through Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the phrase true righteousness and holiness highlights the moral dimension of God's image now recovered in the believer.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's look at this major key.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's look at this major key breakdown.
[SPEAKER_01]: Genesis 127, which is the all origin, equals is equivalent to image new.
[SPEAKER_01]: Genesis 3, which is the Fall, is Image Distorted.
[SPEAKER_01]: Romans 3 and 23, which is a confession, which means all have sent and fallen short of the glory of God, is Image acknowledged.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ephesians 4 and 24 is Image Renew.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see the steps?
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so we've gone from Genesis 127, which is the new all the way to Ephesians 424, which is renewed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I like the phrase image acknowledged, because many times it's not the recognition of our personal characteristics that we struggle with, is that we get stuck there.
[SPEAKER_01]: as if our acknowledgment of our behavior makes it okay for us to continue in such a manner and everyone should be okay with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not that we can't acknowledge it, but it's the fact that our acknowledgment makes us feel like that's what makes it okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we say things like, this is just me.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is who I am, take it a leave it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh well, that's a whole phrase.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all live a known somebody that says that?
[SPEAKER_01]: You tell him, you know you do just as a, oh well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh-huh.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's another one.
[SPEAKER_01]: That sounds like a U-Probler.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you get, listen, I understand what you're trying to tell me, but that sounds like a U-Probler.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's one more.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am who I am, so it is what it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all have to come across a person like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: They willing to acknowledge who they are.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're willing to acknowledge their characteristics, but their acknowledgement to them, constitutes why I'm okay to be high and you should just accept it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You understand what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_01]: But here's the problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't just stop there.
[SPEAKER_01]: We even treat God that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we say things like, well, you made me this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: or we talk about him and we say, God knows my heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what we're really doing is trying to justify why we behave the way we do.
[SPEAKER_01]: or while we are the way we are or while we act, the way we act, we try to fortify ourselves in an identity that is contrary to God's original design and an attempt to ultimately try to absolve ourselves from the responsibility of making the daily choice or doing the daily work to put on a new wardrobe of renewed identity in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that word, New Wardrobe.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it makes me think about our friend and brother, Isaac Britt, many y'all know Isaac, worship leader, at the Douglasville location of EBC.
[SPEAKER_01]: He still leaves worship at Atlanta.
[SPEAKER_01]: Isaac is a wonderful fashion stylist and interior designer.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he actually styles me, and he styles Leslie, and he even styles Dr. Hall.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why he's a wonderful stylist.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a company called House of Caritella, shameless plug.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to discount the next time you dress me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
[SPEAKER_01]: anybody who has ever gone through a closet purge, you know what that means.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Isaac, he has such a way about him that I don't want him to come see my closet because I already know what's going happen when he purges my closet.
[SPEAKER_01]: What I realize is that purging my closet forces me to face the harsh reality of what I'd like to identify as is no longer my identity.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, because I want to identify as still being able to wear large.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to identify as a 44-long.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to identify as a 36-34.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I want to identify as, however, purging of the old, albeit uncomfortable forces us to face reality while also making room for a renewed wardrobe that no longer fits our past.
[SPEAKER_01]: But appropriately, reflects our identity now.
[SPEAKER_01]: My identity that I want to identify as is a large extra-large, my identity now is extra-large, extra-large.
[SPEAKER_01]: What I want to identify is, is a 36-34, but my real identity is a 40-34.
[SPEAKER_01]: You understand what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_01]: So, purging my closet is uncomfortable because I already know that what's going to happen is he's going to come and remove all of the old garments that no longer reflect my identity now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at what Second Corinthians 5 and 17.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Minister Adrian Precious is morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a wet church, new creature.
[SPEAKER_01]: All things are passed away.
[SPEAKER_01]: Behold, all things have become new.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here's a major key.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's a major key.
[SPEAKER_01]: The wardrobe of our identity requires constant purging of ways of life we have outgrown.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna say it again.
[SPEAKER_01]: So those are gonna watch it in home.
[SPEAKER_01]: The wardrobe of our identity requires constant purging of ways of life that we have outgrown.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm telling you that if that was ever a word, if that was a such thing as a word, going viral, it would be this word identity.
[SPEAKER_01]: The word identity has gone viral, it seems like that's all we hear now.
[SPEAKER_01]: What people identify as, identify as this, identify as that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And these days, you can identify as almost anything on the planet.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's going to be a group of people somewhere waiting and willing to accept you as that thing
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul is saying in Ephesians 4, verse 22, it says, 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 to be made new in that.
[SPEAKER_01]: attitude of your minds to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: So essentially who we are in Christ should all share one identity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that identity is renewed.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, the world will allow you to identify as anything, but in Christ there is but one identity and that is new.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this is a renewing that rests in the mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not just in actions and deeds to try to act like you are new creature, your mind and your understanding and the knowledge of who you are in Christ will reflect renewal.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a transformation that occurs over every
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything else in your life after your mind has been renewed to your identity and Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is what Romans 12 and 2 says, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you may prove that it's good and acceptable, and perfect will of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a mind, E.
[SPEAKER_01]: This ain't in my nose, but then we just tell you this.
[SPEAKER_01]: The enemy is not after your stuff, this after your mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: But because if he can call your mind to think something, the Bible says, what's what's sort of a man thinks in his heart?
[SPEAKER_01]: So is he, how do you think in your heart that's got to be some mind in there somewhere?
[SPEAKER_01]: And if he can call you to think a certain way, everything else will follow.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's in the renewing of your mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at that tattoo.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to wrap this up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every preacher wonders how they're going close.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so grateful for this scripture because it closes itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because when I first, I told men's engineers, when I first was working on this sermon, I was going to title it, say less.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because after the renewing of your mind, certain things and activities that we used to do, you ought to at least do them less.
[SPEAKER_01]: We all works in progress.
[SPEAKER_01]: but we ought to at least see progress.
[SPEAKER_01]: We should be doing something less as a result of the renewing of your mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul shares that the actions that should not be performed just to try to show that you are a new creature.
[SPEAKER_01]: But instead, when we come to the place of a renewed mind, this is the fault.
[SPEAKER_01]: that should automatically reflect the transformation of everything else within us.
[SPEAKER_01]: So look at Ephesians 4, this time 25, and I promise you, I'm done, because the sermon is going to close itself, because the word is going to close itself, the word is going to preach itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because all I want you to know is that all we really need to be doing in the transforming of our minds and in the renewing of our minds, we should be in a place where we should be doing the old things less.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because look at what 25 said, this is therefore, each of you must put all falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor.
[SPEAKER_01]: For we are all members of one body.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at what that said, it said, put all falsehood, that's all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
[SPEAKER_01]: If you used to lie, you should at least lie less.
[SPEAKER_01]: And speak truthfully to your neighbor.
[SPEAKER_01]: For we are all members of one body.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at what it says in 26, in your anger, do not say.
[SPEAKER_01]: do not let the sun go down while you are still angry and do not give the devil a foothold.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is what I like about 26.
[SPEAKER_01]: It says in your anger.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not saying you won't be angry.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just saying that when you get angry you are to at least sin less.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
[SPEAKER_01]: You can be angry, but you should sometimes begin angry, less, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: Twenty-seven cents, and do not give the devil a foothold.
[SPEAKER_01]: Twenty-eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyone who has been stealing must still no longer.
[SPEAKER_01]: But must work doing something useful with their hands.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they may have something to share with those in need.
[SPEAKER_01]: They say, if it was a case of you, you said it didn't work.
[SPEAKER_01]: And all you would do is go out and steal what you need because you didn't work.
[SPEAKER_01]: You ought to at least steal less.
[SPEAKER_01]: You ought to work more.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you all have to go after what it is that you have to go after so you can get what it is that you supposed to need Do not let any unhoce some talk come out of your mouths But only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that it may benefit those who listen Listen, it says if you used to be a gossiper you might still have a look gossiping you but you should at least be gossiping less
[SPEAKER_01]: You should at least have a little more truth in your mouth.
[SPEAKER_01]: You should at least have some good things to say about people now.
[SPEAKER_01]: You shouldn't be a wanderer, a pearl, sitting in the window.
[SPEAKER_01]: Always looking out for everybody else's business.
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to sit inside some time.
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to worry about what's going on in your own house because you ought to metal less.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are a gossip less, you ought to be a little less messy.
[SPEAKER_01]: You ought to be messy, less.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get rid of all bitterness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice, be kind and compassionate to one another for giving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's saying that if you're the type of person where you used to hold grudges and you didn't let nothing slide and as soon as somebody did something to you, you didn't let it go.
[SPEAKER_01]: You ought to at least do that a little bit less.
[SPEAKER_01]: You ought to start forgiving more.
[SPEAKER_01]: You ought to start caring more.
[SPEAKER_01]: You ought to start letting things go a little bit more.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that people can see that you're not just acting like you're changed.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're mind is changed.
[SPEAKER_01]: The transformation of your life is changed.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we can see the room.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of your identity.
[SPEAKER_01]: I identify as, renewed, and I can do it because.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have not been conformed to this world, but I have been transformed by the renewing of my mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: And here's the big idea, and I'm done, here's the big idea, here's the big idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the world, we often define our identity in Christ, our identity defines us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what is our identity church?
[SPEAKER_01]: Renew, somebody oughta shout renewed.
[SPEAKER_01]: I need everybody who's been renewed to give God a renewed praise.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, have you used to give him a half praise?
[SPEAKER_01]: You oughta give him a renewed praise.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.