• Daniel Baker
Posted in Sanctification, Sermons
Some of us grew up with Mr. Miyagi echoing in our minds, "Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off." Danny LaRusso eventually learned that this odd counsel had a lot more to it than he thought.
God's counsel has a similar ring to it, but a vastly different impact: "Put off, put on. Put off, put on." These words come out of Ephesians 4:17-5:2, Sam's text from last Sunday when we finished out our series on on change. One of the key aspects of this passage is the series of "put offs" and "put ons" that we find there. We are to "put off your old self" (Eph 4:22) and its sinful ways and "put on the new self" (Eph 4:24) and its holiness. This affects our relationships, speech, how we display anger, our work lives, and just about everything. Below are a few things from his sermon that you might have missed in real time.
He read a great quote from Tim and Kathy Keller's book, The Meaning of Marriage:
One of the most basic skills in marriage is the ability to tell the straight, unvarnished truth about what your spouse has done—and then, completely, unself-righteously, and joyously express forgiveness without a shred of superiority, without making the other person feel small. This does not mean you cannot express anger. In fact, if you never express anger, your truth-telling probably won’t sink in. But forgiving grace must always be present, and if it is, it will, like salt in meat, keep the anger from going bad. Then truth and love can live together because, beneath them both, you have forgiven your spouse as Christ forgave you.
When he turned to what to do as we want to apply, one thing he mentioned was reading a book to grow in our knowledge of and relationship with Christ ("you leaned Christ," Eph 4:20). He referenced John Piper's Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, a brief but excellent look at our Savior.
Another thing you may have missed was a series of questions to ask yourself when you want to figure what behavior we are to "put on" after we're convicted of sin. He gave us these useful questions:
As we think about what we’re trying to stop, we need to ask questions:
- What’s would be the opposite of this?
- If you get angry quickly with your wife, maybe you need to be more gentle, more patient, more compassionate, more understanding.
- In what ways is this behavior selfish?
- If you have a hard time admitting your wrong, what effect do you think that’s having on others?
- What was God’s intent for the thing that you’re perverting?
- What kingdom purposes does my behavior prohibit or impede?
- What would Jesus do? What does He have to say about this?
We hope the series served you well. As Phil said, "change is God's agenda for us till we die." Hopefully these sermons gave you some help to get on board with what he's doing in your life!
Daniel