Good morning Gospel City. My name is Mitch Helmkamp. It’s a privilege to be one of your pastors here. It’s a privilege to open God’s Word this morning. So open your Bible to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. And while you turn, we need to remember that Paul is exhorting us as believers to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called. He’s instructing us to put off the old self and to put on the new self. In order to walk worthy of our calling we must put off worldly thinking. We must put off worldly desires and worldly actions. We must put on Christlikeness if we’re going to walk worthy of this incredible calling to which we have been called.
As Christians our minds must be renewed to think the way Christ thinks so that we can love what Christ loves and the way Christ lived. We call this the process of sanctification. And after Paul taught us the process of sanctification in Ephesians 4:17-24, he transitions to give some practical examples of what we need to put off and put on, what we need to stop doing and start doing if we’re going to walk worthy of our calling. Last week Pastor Micah helped us to see that in order to walk worthy we need to put off lying, we need to put off deceit, and we need to put on the truth.
Today we’re going to consider two more “put off/put on”s. We’re going to consider that we need to put off unrighteous and put on righteous anger. And we’re going to see that in order to walk worthy of our calling we need to put off greed and put on generosity.
So look down at Ephesians 4. We’re going to start at verse 21 just so we remember the context and we’re going to read through verse 28. So hear the Word of the Lord.
Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 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.
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
And this is our text for today.
Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. (Ephesians 4:21-28)
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
Dear Father, we believe that Your Word has the power to create the universe. For we know that You simply said, “Let there be light,” and billions of stars were flung into the universe, flung into the expanse. So Lord, as we come to You today and as we hear Your Word, we believe that You have the power to recreate us into the image of Christ. We believe that You have the power to uproot seeds of anger that has been just implanted in our hearts for years. We believe that You have the power through Your Word to help us no longer be greedy, but to be generous as Christ was generous.
So Lord, I pray that as we sit under the preaching of Your Word today that we would not just be hearers of Your Word but that we would be doers of Your Word. And Lord we thank You that by Your Spirit through Your Word and through Christ who dwells in us we can be like Christ, we can walk worthy of our calling. So Lord, I pray that for Gospel City. In Jesus name, amen.
All right, so our first point for today is that in order to walk worthy of our calling we must put off unrighteous anger and we must put on righteous anger. So it’s not exactly breaking news to say that our world has a lot of anger. If you just think about the road rage among drivers, think about the arguments on Twitter, think about the popularity of anger management classes. Think about the anger that Democrats have for Republicans and Republicans have for Democrats and Americans have for balloons. Think about the constant fighting between spouses and kids.
It seems like everywhere we look someone is angry about something. And so as Christians it could be easy to assume that we are not supposed to be angry about anything ever. I mean 1 Thessalonians 5:16 even says, Rejoice always. Give thanks in all circumstances.
But notice what Ephesians 4:26 says. It does not say put off all anger. Instead it says be angry and do not sin. So this isn’t exactly a command to be angry, but it is an acknowledgment that you can be angry without sinning. And the reality is as Christians there are some things in this world that should make us angry. Abortion should make us angry. When a husband leaves his wife and kids, that should make us angry. Bad theology that is rampant in our churches and in our world should make us angry. A world full of people who blaspheme the name of the living God should make us angry.
If these things don’t make us angry then we’re not thinking about them the way God thinks about them. Because God is holy, as we just sang about. Sin makes Him angry. Psalm 7:11 says God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation every day. Indignation is another word for anger. And the Psalms says that God feels it every day because every day sin abounds.
We even know that Jesus in His sinless perfection did get angry. I think about the times He went into the temple. He was angry. In Mark 3 the Pharisees are condemning him for healing a man on the Sabbath. And Mark 3:5 says that Jesus looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart.
So because God is angry, this means that Ephesians 4:26 is not a command to put off all anger and replace it with indifference, because not all anger is sin. Some anger can be righteous. But this should lead us to ask, how do we know if our anger is righteous? How can we be angry and not sin, as it says in Ephesians 4:26? And this is a really important question. Because we often think our anger is justified, but our hearts are deceitful.
And so here are some questions that will help us discern whether or not our anger is righteous or unrighteous. Number one, we need to ask ourselves, is my anger prompted by other people’s sin or my own sin? So just think back throughout your week. Think about the things that made you angry. Perhaps you got angry at your kids because they just kept disobeying. Perhaps you got angry at your spouse because they snapped at you. Maybe you got angry at a person on the road who cut you off in traffic.
It’s not wrong to want your kids to obey. It’s not wrong to want your spouse to speak to you lovingly. It’s not wrong to want to be safe on the road. But really ask yourself why do those things make me angry? Is it because of their sin or my sin? And perhaps you really are in those moments angry because you are grieved at the other person’s sin just like it said Jesus was angry and grieved in His heart over the hardness of the hearts of the Pharisees.
But if we’re being honest, I think more often than not our anger is prompted by our own sin. Our primary concern is not the heart of our children. We’re not grieved over their sin as much as we have just had a really hard day and we want some peace and quiet. When we don’t get what we want, we get angry. Our primary concern might not be the heart of our spouse, wanting them to treat us with love. We just think we deserve respect and intimacy and we think that we deserve appreciation. And when we don’t get what we want, we get angry.
Our primary concern is not the safety of the people on the road. We just want to get where we’re going and we don’t want anyone to get in our way. And when they do, we get angry. And if you think I’m wrong, think about the last time you saw someone else get cut off. Chances are you weren’t nearly as angry seeing them get cut off as the last time you got cut off. That helps us see that our anger is hypocritical. And if it’s hypocritical it’s not righteous.
So if we’re truly angry because we’re grieved at other people’s sin, then our anger is righteous. But more often than not, if we’re being honest, it is usually our own sin, our own demands, our own desires. And when we demand something and don’t get it, we are angry in our response, and that’s unrighteous.
Number two, we need to ask, is my anger at other people’s sin leading me to respond in sin? So this is the next question. So it is possible to be angry at the right things, for the right reasons, and still sin in how we respond in our anger. So let me ask you, how do you respond when you’re angry? Are you an exploder? You’re just an explosion waiting to happen? You yell and scream, and if it’s really bad you maybe even curse a little bit. You just get it off your chest. You’ve just got to let the person have a piece of your mind. You hit the table, slam the door, storm out.
Maybe you’re not an exploder. Maybe you’re more of a stuffer. You’re calm on the surface, but in your head you have fifteen arguments lined up about why that person is wrong and ridiculous. You might become passive aggressive, withdraw from the relationship, shun them a little bit. You don’t attack the person to their face. You’re calm and act like things are normal, but behind their back you slander and gossip them. It doesn’t matter what we’re angry about. It could be a heinous sin. But if what we’re angry about is leading us to sin, our anger is unrighteous.
In his book on anger, David Powlison encourages readers to ask, is my anger destructive or constructive? Because if our anger is unrighteous, our anger is going to be destructive. We’re going to destroy peace and unity in relationships. We’re going to destroy trust. We’re going to destroy intimacy. When our anger is unrighteous, when it’s destructive, it usually causes way more damage than whatever the original thing it was that we were angry about.
Just think about those times when you’re in an argument with your spouse and you’ve been in an argument so long, your heart is so hard, you don’t even remember what started it. And when you do, you realize just how silly it is. And yet your heart is so hard and you’re just so angry because of the other things that have come out. You just don’t want to admit that what started it was silly.
And when you get to that point when that anger, when that explosion, when the argument is way worse than what actually prompted it, it’s a good sign that our anger is unrighteous because it’s destructive. But if our response to sin is righteous, if our anger is righteous, then our anger will be constructive. We don’t have to ignore it and shove it under the rug.
God doesn’t just ignore our sin but He responds to our sin. His anger is motivation to help redeem it. If we seek to restore the relationship with patience and mercy, our anger will be motivation for true reconciliation, not just shoving it under the rug. Our anger will be motivation for true peace rather than a weapon for revenge.
Number three, we should ask, is my anger slow to come and quick to leave? Just consider the life and ministry of Jesus. He knew the sinful hearts of every wicked person He ever met. The gospels say over and over He knew what was in the heart of man. And so He encountered a lot of sin, a lot of sin that could potentially make Him angry.
And yet the gospels only record Him being angry a few times. So this means that Jesus was really slow to anger. And just a reminder, He is slow to anger with you. And because Jesus was slow to anger, we should be slow to anger as well. James 1:19 commands us, Brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.
If our anger is slow to come then it will be, then it’s a good sign that it’s righteous anger like Jesus. Not only should our anger be slow to come. Our anger should be quick to leave. Paul says in Ephesians 4, he says, “Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger.”
So even if we’re angry for the right reasons in the right way, our anger should not grip us for long. Some people hold on to their anger for weeks, even months, even years. Some people have been angry deeply in their hearts for years. And that is not righteous anger.
Righteous anger is able to be mastered. It is slow to come and quick to leave. The sun does not go down on righteous anger. But unrighteous anger masters us, grips us, and it doesn’t leave quickly. So if our anger is slow to come and quick to leave it’s a sign that our anger is righteous.
With these three questions we should all come to the conclusion if we’re being honest that we have some unrighteous anger to put off. If we don’t think so, we maybe need to go listen to Pastor Micah’s sermon last week on lying.
So that begs the question how. How do we put off unrighteous anger? How do we put off this anger that so easily boils out and so easily grips us? And in order to answer that question we need to remember what Paul taught us in Ephesians 4:17-24. He’s teaching us the process of sanctification. He’s not only commanding us to put off the old self and put on the new self, he’s teaching us how.
And so if we were to sum up Ephesians 4:17-24, here’s how I’d sum it up. Sinful thinking cultivates sinful desires which produces sinful actions. But biblical thinking cultivates godly desires which produces holy living.
So Paul is talking a lot in this section about our thinking. He’s talking about the futility of the minds of the Gentiles. He’s talking about the ignorance, the darkened understanding. Because he understands that the way you think helps determine what your heart desires. And what your heart desires leads to how you live.
And so when we talk about trying to change our behavior we can’t just change our behavior. That’s hard. What we need to do is we need to have our minds renewed with the truth. Because as our minds are renewed to think the way Christ thinks, it will give us a new heart. We will desire new things. We will realize that the desires of the futile mind are rooted in ignorance but the desires of the world are deceitful.
But Satan is lying to us. But if our minds are renewed with the truth, our hearts will be changed and we will desire holy things, and then holy living will be the result. And so in order to change our behavior, our minds need to be renewed with the truth. This applies to the principle of putting off unrighteous anger and putting on righteous anger.
If we’re going to do that, we can’t just think really hard about not being angry. Because anger just explodes. It’s out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So we need to go to the root of it, and the root of it is our worldview. The root of it is our theology. The root of it is what we believe about God and the world.
So here are three biblical truths that will help us put off unrighteous anger. Number one, God is in control. So it can be really frustrating to miss an exit on a highway. That can prompt some anger. But what we need to do, don’t get angry. Remember that our God is big that He controls all things at all times for His glory. We talked about in Ephesians 1:11, it says God works all things according to the counsel of his will.
Hebrews 1:3 adds that He upholds the universe by the Word of His power. Matthew 10 adds that not a bird, not a sparrow that’s worth less than a penny falls apart from God’s command. He knows every hair on our heads. God is in control of this world that He has made.
So this means that our God is so big that He can distract you to the point where you miss your exit because He knows there’s a drunk driver barreling down a lane that is going to run the red light and t-bone you if you would have made your exit. And so things happen that are not what we planned. We need to remember that God is in control and He is a good God. And so we should be thankful that it didn’t go according to our plans, because that means it’s going according to God’s plans and God’s plans are always better than our plans.
It is tempting to get angry when our kids won’t behave or the doctor gives us bad news or our career is not going well. But remember that God works all things together for good for those who are called according to His purpose. He cares about your kids. He cares about your health. He cares about your career. But He cares most about conforming you to the image of His Son.
So when things don’t go our way, we shouldn’t be quick to become angry. We shouldn’t be quick to wish that we had more control of the universe and that things would just go the way we wanted. We should be quick to be thankful that there’s a good God who is in control and He is working all things according to the counsel of His will. And every plan, every minute, every hour He has millions of plans, and all of them are going exactly according to His plan. We don’t know most of them, but we do know where it’s headed, and it is headed towards very good things. And so we can trust them.
Number two, judgment day is coming, speaking about where things are headed. So there is a lot of sin in this world that is truly infuriating. Like we said, it should make us angry. But we need to remember that this sin makes God angry as well.
Romans 12:19 says, Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, “Vengeance is mine. I will repay,” says the Lord. This is a promise. He is promising to repay every sinful thought, every sinful deed, every sinful action. Not one sin will go unpunished. “Vengeance is mine,” says the Lord. “I will repay.”
It will either be paid for by Christ on a cross or it will be paid for by the sinner in hell. So this means that it is not our job to punish people with our anger. It is our job to trust the Judge of all the earth to repay each person for their deeds. And believe me, He will. 2 Corinthians 5:10 assures us we must all, including you and me, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one of us might receive what is due for what He has done in the Body, whether good or evil.
So when you are sinned against, punishing that person with your anger is not your job. Your job is to think about the judgment day that is coming, because the judgment day that is coming will hold that person accountable and it will hold you accountable for how you respond. Believing this truth that judgment day is coming, that judgment day is real, that the holy wrath of God is terrifying and that we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ is a great motivator to put off unrighteous anger.
Number three, the devil is lurking. So after telling us to not let the sun go down on our anger, Paul goes on in verse 27 to say, “And give no opportunity to the devil.” Give no opportunity to the devil. So the devil is crafty. He knows that anger is a great opportunity for him to cause chaos. Chaos in the home, chaos between friends, chaos in the church. The devil loves to capitalize on anger and twist it for his purposes.
James 1:20 says the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. In other words, when we get angry, usually a bunch of sin is soon to follow. And so this is why Paul says if you are angry, don’t be angry for long, because the devil is coming.
Just think about someone who is bleeding in the ocean. If you are bleeding in the ocean, you are in grave danger because the sharks can smell the blood from a mile away, from miles away, and they’re coming when they can smell it. And when we’re angry, it’s like blood in the water for Satan.
When we are angry, we are in spiritual danger. When we are angry, we are giving an opportunity to the devil. So realizing the spiritual danger we are in when we are angry should be a great motivator to help us put off unrighteous, to not let the sun go down on our anger because the devil is lurking. There are so many other truths we could go over, but here are three truths that could help us put off unrighteous and put on righteous anger. God is in control, the devil is lurking, and judgment day is coming.
So Gospel City, be thinking about the anger that you experienced this past week. Think about the things that could potentially make you angry this week. And be thinking about them in light of what we know is true of our God and what we know is true and coming. It’ll help us put off unrighteous anger. It will help our minds be renewed to think about the world the way God thinks about it, to think about sin the way God thinks about it, to think about how sin will be punished the way God thinks about it and therefore to think about how to respond. And as our minds are renewed our hearts will be changed and holiness will be the result. Righteous anger that is slow to come and quick to leave.
So that brings us to our second point. In order to walk worthy of our calling, we must put off greed; we put on generosity. Verse 28 says, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands so that they may have something to share with anyone in need.
Ok, so by now we should…let’s take a step back and consider verses 25-28. We should realize that Paul is actually echoing the Ten Commandments. Verse 25 Paul commands us to put off lying. So this obviously echoes the ninth commandment. You should not bear false witness. The sixth commandment says you shall not murder. And if you remember the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is saying the spirit of that command is really don’t even be angry in your heart. So this means that Ephesians 4:26 is echoing the sixth commandment.
And that brings us to verse 28 where Paul is echoing the eighth commandment. You shall not steal. So seeing how Paul is echoing the Ten Commandments is just a good reminder that the gospel is not a license to sin so that grace may abound. The New Testament has over 1,000 commands.
Some people think that the Old Testament is a book of laws and the New Testament is just a book of grace. Well the New Testament has over 1,000 commands. The gospel is not the good news that we can be saved. Well it is the good news that we can be saved by grace from our sins, but it’s also the good news that we have the power to sin no more, and this includes stealing. The gospel is not the good news that you can steal whatever you want and get away with it.
So if you’re planning to maybe cheat a little bit on your taxes or maybe you slack off at work when your boss isn’t looking. Or maybe you’re an employer and you’re stingy with your employees, withholding things from them that are rightfully theirs that they might not find out about. If you’re currently withholding anything, intentionally possessing anything that is not yours, you’re a thief and you need to repent and confess your sin. Jesus called the devil a thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy. So anyone who steals is not acting like a Christian. They’re acting like Satan.
But I’m guessing most of us in here are not thieves. That doesn’t mean we get to pat ourselves on the back and move on to the next verse. Because the root sins that lead to stealing are greed and covetousness and laziness and entitlement, materialistic selfishness. So if you’re like me, you have plenty of that that you could put off.
And notice the verse. It’s not just put off stealing. It’s not just don’t steal and then you’re good. We’re to put off stealing and to put on generosity. The goal of working, the purpose of working hard, is not just so that we can have as much money as we can to spend on ourselves. Our thoughts when we have some extra income is to think, “How can we bless others?” so that we can give to anyone at any time those in need. We could never steal a penny in our lives and still be greedy lovers of money.
Again, this is easier said than done. I mean, we’re in a world of Amazon. We can order anything at your fingertips. We have Instagram influencers. We have shopping malls. We have vacation homes. We have luxury sports cars. When we’re surrounded by people who are living the American dream, it is really hard to think that as Christians we’re going to heaven; why not just make this life as comfortable as we can?
There’s so much stuff in our world that we can spend our money on. It is really hard to not be consumed with focusing on how we can use our income to benefit ourselves rather than give to others in need. So how is it possible in this world of Amazon and Instagram and the American dream to put off greed and to put on generosity?
Well we’re going to try to put off and put on using the same strategy that we did with anger. So here are three biblical truths that will help you put off anger or put off greed and put on generosity.
Number one, money is dangerous. The Bible has a lot to say about money, and most of it warns about the dangers of wanting it and loving it and worshiping it and depending on it and thinking that it is a replacement for God.
In Matthew 19 Jesus says, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
And if we are an American in Granger, Indiana, there’s a good chance we’re a rich person.
In Mark 4 Jesus warns about the deceitfulness of riches being one of the main things that can choke the Word and keep us from believing the gospel. The deceitfulness of riches. Why would we think we need a God when we have money?
1 Timothy 6:10 says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. Not because money is evil, but because our hearts are evil, and we’re prone to love the pleasure and security and the prestige that money can bring.
So based on passages like these, John Piper says, “Considering these strong warnings, it is amazing how many Christians still pursue wealth. Either we’re not believing that money is that dangerous or we think that we will be the exception to the rule.”
So Gospel City, I would encourage you to think about the income that you have. When you are making your money, when you are pursuing money, what is your heart thinking about? What is your heart longing for? Are you longing to have extra money so that you can spend it on yourselves or are you longing, are you thinking, are you quick to think, “How can I take this money so that I can give it to those in need?”
Money is dangerous. It is quick to grip your heart if you are always thinking about how you can spend it on yourself.
Number two, the second biblical truth that will help us put off greed is that greedy Christinas are foolish investors. Jesus says in Matthew 6, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
So this means Jesus is not against us storing up treasures. He just wants to be aware. He doesn’t want us to be foolish investors, because everything in this world is going to burn. In this life, we can start investing in heaven, and a great way to invest in heaven is by faith demonstrate with our own possessions, our own money, what God has blessed us with, that we believe that all of this is going to burn, that we came into this world with nothing and we will leave this world with nothing. And we can’t take anything to the next life. And so we are by faith demonstrating that what God has given me is His and what He has given me, He has given me to share with others.
And because we’re not that bad at math and because eternity is long and this life is short. And so invest in heaven and not in this life.
Number three, the third truth, last one. Everything you have is not yours, and everything that could be yours will be yours. So this principle is two combined in one. Because God is a Creator, He owns everything. That means that everything we have belongs to Him, not to us. We’re just stewards. Our home is not our home. Our money is not our money. Our cars are not our cars. They all belong to Him. It all belongs to God.
And yet the good news of the gospel promises that we are going to be heirs of the new heavens and the new earth. If we are united to Christ we will reign with Him. what will be ours will be His and what’s His is everything. So everything will be ours.
Ephesians 1 talks about this inheritance that is secured for the day of redemption. It is guaranteed. Romans 4 talks about how Abraham’s offspring will be heirs of the world.
1 Peter 3 talks about this inheritance that is being guarded by the power of God for us. Meditating on these truths will help us to see just how silly it is as Christians to be greedy or materialistic.
Think about a billionaire who would go around stealing or hoarding Monopoly money. I mean that would be kind of ridiculous. You have unlimited access to the real thing. Why are you haroding? Why are you being greedy with the thing that doesn’t matter?
It’s kind of similar what it’s like for Christians to be greedy. We are going to be heirs of heaven. We’re going to be the heirs of the new heaven and the new earth. Everything that could be ours will be ours because we’re united to Christ. And everything that is His is His. Everything that could be His is His.
So if this world is going to burn and eternity is going to last forever, why would we be stingy with the things of this world? Meditating on these truths will help us pout off greed and put on generosity.
And as we close, I just want to acknowledge that these last two weeks have been heavy. These last few weeks have been convicting. The Word is going after our hearts, going after our lives, going after our behavior. But let’s think about it. The world is full of people who lie with their lips, they commit murder in their hearts and they steal with their hands.
And the reason the world is full of people like this is because the father the devil is like this. So the devil is the father of lies. He’s been a murderer from the beginning, and he’s a thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy. Those are three common titles for the devil. So in other words, these last three “put offs”, commands, stop acting like the devil.
And if you’re here today and your life is full of deceit, full of greed, full of anger, I want to ask yourself. I want you to ask yourself in your heart, are you sure that God is your Father? Because if God is your Father, your life will demonstrate a family resemblance.
But if your life is full of lying and anger and greed, that is not what the family of God looks like. That is not resembling family. That’s what the family of Satan looks like. But if that is you, if you have never repented of your sins, if you are still walking in your deadness and your trespasses and sins, here is the good news. God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
If you repent of your sin and trust in Christ alone you will be born again. You will be adopted by the Father and Christ will be your brother. You will be adopted into a new family and you’ll be given the power to put off greed. You’ll be given the power to put off anger, to put off lying, through the Holy Spirit who will now indwell you.
And for the rest of us who are born again but still struggle with deceit, struggle with anger, struggle with greed, let me encourage you to look to Jesus. Look to Christ. Behold Him. Because as you behold Him, as you marvel at Him, as you feast on Him through His Word, you will become like Him. because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. He doesn’t just speak the truth. He is the truth. He is the Word incarnate.
And so as you read His Word and marvel that He is a God who never ever lies and that His Word always comes true, as you marvel at Him through His Word you will become like Him and you will speak the truth because His Word will be in your heart and then His Word will come out of your mouth.
If you struggle with unrighteous anger, look to Jesus. Because when He was reviled, He did not revile in return even though He was perfectly righteous and innocent. Even when He came to His own people, His own people did not receive Him. He didn’t walk around angry all the time. He was slow to anger. He was merciful and gracious and lowly and gentle and compassionate. He looked at the people who rejected Him with compassion.
So as you behold the mercy and the grace of Christ through His Word, you will become like Him. And if you struggle with putting off greed, look to Jesus because He left heaven’s throne where He had no place to lay His head. Look to Jesus, the most generous man to ever live, because He gave the most valuable thing He could possibly give for free, His precious blood.
So this is how we walk worthy of our calling. We don’t just try really hard. We look to Jesus. We behold Jesus. And as we worship Him we will be like Him, because we always become what we worship. Let’s pray.
Dear Father, we thank You for Your Word that doesn’t just tell us what to do. It is the revelation of Jesus. Every word, every page, is proclaiming His glory from beginning to end. I thank You that we can marvel at Him and we can love Him. And as we love Him, we will become like Him. I thank You that He has indwelled our hearts. He is making His home in our hearts. And I thank You that by Your Spirit that convicts us, by Your Word that tears us down and then builds us up into Christlikeness that we can walk worthy of the calling to which we have been called.
And so Lord I pray that You would help us be honest in our hearts. Help us see through Your Holy Spirit what we need to put off and what we need to put on. And Lord, I pray that You would renew our minds so that we desire holy things and so that holiness would be the result. To Your glory forever and ever, amen.