First Be, Then Do
First B Jackson
2026-05-03

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

----
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to First Bee. Would you stand with us and join us in song? We're gonna just gonna read, an encouraging word from Romans five to lead us into worship. Hope will not lead to disappointment for we know how dearly God loves us because he's given us his Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

We're gonna sing a song called my hope is in you.

Out far away. I sing to you and my heart cries holy. Hallelujah. You alone. I wait for you and my soul finds rest and your selfishness.

You

Alright. Good morning. Welcome to First Baptist Church. Nice to see some delightful faces here. We got some new folks coming in.

This is great. Welcome to summertime, everybody. This is awesome. Okay. We're gonna get to Awana.

I think tomorrow is the Awana races. Am I wrong?

That's right.

Tomorrow tomorrow is the Awana races. They put a big racetrack down the middle of this room, and the kids go nuts cheering on for their little Pinewood Derby cars. It's a blast. It's a it's a really wild time. If you wanna come hang out with us, be here at 05:45 for the the fastest race in Teton County.

Neo music and message is happening over at Driggs this week on Wednesday over at the Driggs Fairgrounds. We got a woo in the back. Excellent. Whoo. It's a fun time.

If you know anybody who lives over there or just commutes through or you just wanna come on over, would you please show up at six to 8PM for a free meal, free music, and free message? Love to have you over there. The gear swap is over. First BBQ, these are really super fun. Between services, normally, we have food down the hallway.

But on these dates, starting May 17, we'll have food out here on the on the lawn outside in the sun. Bring your sunglasses and some sunscreen, and fill up your bellies and meet the folks at the church. We would love to have volunteers to come help us set up and clean up too. That's always a wonderful time. The dates are there and on the website.

My sister's closet is May 30. It's a women's clothing exchange down the hall in the fellowship hall. And it's jewelry, it's shoes, it's all kinda cool stuff. Please gently use or or new items only, please, and and reserve bringing them in until the week before if possible. But Casey McCooey is right up here.

If anybody wants to meet her, she's looking for volunteers to help set up and clean up. It's a big deal, so we would love to have you be a part of that. And the lost and found, speaking of clothing, if you've lost something, it's been found back there on the bookshelf. I'm pointing right at it back there. If you have any questions, let us know.

Please check, especially we have a lot of kids stuff in there at this moment. Vacation Bible School sign up has begun. The dates are there, June 22 through the twenty fifth. You can also look on there for things that we need to have donated to help set up and decorate. We're decorating cookies.

I mean, there's something for everybody. If you if you don't wanna be here for the kids section, you can decorate. If you wanna be there for the kids, like, we've got everything for you. So please show up and and be a part of that. And if nothing else, please pray for that.

All the other information is on the church website. There's tons of small groups and events to get together and get to know everybody. Would you please show up and and and participate? It's that's what the church is. It's all about community, working together, meeting people, and interacting, and and getting to share a life with each other.

One last announcement, everybody's favorite since it is becoming summertime. We're asking people to move towards the center aisle. If there's a gap between you, would you just shift over so as people come in a little bit late, they'll have a spot to to sit too. So consider moving in and up. The front row is here.

If these are Bruce Springsteen tickets, these would be the best in the house. Come on up, folks. Let's go. Alright. Stand up and greet each other.

We'll bring you back with some music. Thanks.

It is good to praise you and make music to your name oh most high it is good to praise you lord and make music to your it is good to praise you and make music to your name oh most high it is good to praise you lord and make music to your name, oh most high, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness my song to you rise almost high.

Amen.

The winter storms made way for spring. And every season from where I'm standing, I see the evidence of your goodness all over my life, all over my life. I see your promises me Fear may come, but fear will lead. You lead my heart to victory. For spirit as When I pass through death, as I enter rest, I depend on you.

I depend on you for eternal life to be raised with

Amen. You can have a seat for a minute. Thanks for being here. We're just singing songs and praying to God as we're singing. This is we're gonna enter the time of worship through giving part of the service, And we're gonna sing a song called Fall Afresh.

And Ray, can you pray for us?

Sure. God, thank you for the group that's gathered here in your name this morning to hear from you, to praise you. It's a two way communication, Lord. I pray that we'd be actively seeking and in touch and sensitive to the still small voice of your Holy Spirit. Lord, would you direct us in the way that you'd have us go?

And Lord, without any pride buildup, would you allow us the power to move forward in the direction you want us to go? We ask that your gospel would advance with us, that your kingdom would advance. Lord, humble, obedient servants of the king is what we want to be. So, Lord, I pray that you'd use the resources that are placed in these plates and those that are metaphorically placed in the plates where we take the time to speak to a neighbor or a stranger, that we take the time to meditate on your word and just sit and be still, know that you're God. I pray that you'd fill us up to the point of overflowing, lord, and that your will would be done on earth.

Your will done in your way on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus name, I pray. Would you do whatever you wanna do with

Amen. Your strength come wake

Children's Church Gonna leave a little bit of space.

There's a car parked in front

of Van's house that needs

be moved.

Alright. This is getting to be a regular occurrence. There's a Toyota RAV four champagne in color parked in front of the person that's right out here so the neighbors can't get out. So if that's you, champagne colored RAV four, please, if you would, head on out. I'm gonna invite up right now the family Anderson.

This is Alex and Emily and their young ones. And here they are. Alex and Emily and the kids are headed to Alaska to be missionaries. I'll let them tell you more about that. But we are sending them out.

I want you to be praying for them. I want you to know who they are. They sit in the back. They come over the hill virtually every Sunday. So I let him say what he has to say and then we'll go forward in Ephesians.

Glad you're here.

Good morning. Good morning. I'm gonna read this because I do not wanna be up here. Victory Bible Camp in Glacier View, Alaska exists to evangelize and disciple children, youth, and adults through Christian camping and many other events. Christian camps are the biggest catalyst for leading Americans to Jesus.

Last October, a chapel called Spruce Lodge at Victory Bible Camp burned down. For many years, this building was the heart of the camp where children, teens, and adults gathered to hear the gospel, worship together, and grow in their faith. Many people first placed their trust in Christ in that building. After it burned, the camp asked people to pray for the right person to help rebuild it. When we heard that prayer request, we immediately felt led to reach out and offer our services.

Earlier this year, our family traveled to Alaska to visit the camp, meet the staff, and learn more about this project. During our time there, we heard many testimonies of lives changed through the ministry of Victory Bible Camp. Every year, hundreds of children and adults gather to attend camps, retreats, and programs where they hear the message of Jesus and are discipled in their faith. While the previous building served the camp well, the ministry had already outgrown it. The new Spruce Lodge will be larger and better located to serve the growing ministry of Victory Bible Camp for many years to come.

By the end of our visit, the camp had formally asked me to serve as the general contractor for the rebuilding of Spruce Lodge. And after much prayer, we accepted with the full peace and joy from the Lord. My role will be to assist with the design and coordination of the construction of the new chapel and work with many volunteer teams who come to serve. As we build, the primary focus will be to share God's word and love with the volunteer work crews and subcontractors. This position is a ministry role, which means our family will be serving as self supported missionaries while we work at the camp.

We will be raising financial support for our living expenses during our time there. Our goal is to move to Alaska at the end of this month or beginning of June to begin the work of rebuilding the chapel for at least the next two years. We have been blessed to experience, sorry, answers to prayer and begun to see This is just because I don't like being up here. I'd much rather be under your car in the parking lot fixing things. To see answers to our prayers and begin to see God's provision in many ways.

We are excited for this opportunity God has brought before us to look for and look forward to being a part what he's doing. Man, I almost made it through. This is my wife Emily. This is Callan. This is Jack and Evelyn and I am Alex.

Thank you for listening. We will be, sorry, we will be in the back after this service and the next and milling around. Gotta stay here for one more second.

Church, we're sending out missionaries to Alaska. This is on this is on us to support them, right, in in in financial, in encouragement, and in prayer. I'm gonna start that here, and the hope is that you will continue this as they get sent out and as they stay out. K? God, thank you for the unique way that you have blessed, encouraged, and and just created the Andersons, Lord.

That you have provisioned them, that you have given them the talents and the resources to take on this endeavor for you, Lord. I pray as they step out into the mission field that you would protect this family, that you would protect this marriage, that you would bless this ministry. Lord, I pray for all the hearts that are here, Lord, that you would move those that you would have moved towards them in prayer and towards financial support. I pray, Lord, for this camp in Alaska. I pray that you would use it powerfully, that people would come to know you, the only true source of life and joy and hope in this world.

Thank you for the Andersons. Would you bless them? Would you protect them? And would you help us to encourage them? Thank you, Lord.

Amen.

Amen. So we Tanya and I were sent out as construction missionaries almost exactly twenty six years ago. We left at the beginning of June twenty six years ago. And so I was a builder before I was doing this and I hated being up here. Van, what were you doing immediately before doing this?

Builder. Yeah. Builder. Steve, what were you doing before running the missions committee? There's hands on stuff to be done, and it takes people who are willing to put hands to the work.

So it's pretty awesome that that's happening. Ascent youth group is here this morning. That's awesome. I'm glad that y'all are here not to to call you out, but I am glad that y'all are all here. They've been church hopping.

It's a multi church youth group, and they have been bouncing around kind of as a unit, and I'm glad you're here this morning. So here we go. This is what we're going through today. Ephesians four seventeen through 32. I wanna start though with a quick story.

So a guy I was having breakfast. It's been several years ago now, but I think of it all the time. And I was talking about life and the future as a guy who had just kind of accepted Christ. And he was wanting to know what to do to grow in his faith and so, he wanted to grow in the knowledge of God. He was intense, sincere, pure hearted, and he wanted to serve the Lord and he wanted to grow spiritually.

So, what do I do? What book do I need to read? And he was just asking book in general and I said, Ephesians, you know Jesus already, right? Yes. So, for growing in the church and for growing in your faith, I say Ephesians because it is short.

It is easy to understand and it is very, very encouraging. Properly understood. It's short. It's easy to understand. It's very encouraging.

We agreed we'd meet again in a couple weeks. So we met in a couple weeks and when he met me, he met me with a kind of a sour face and he shook hands and I said, well, how'd you like the book I told you to read? He goes, I didn't like it. Ephesians? You didn't like Ephesians?

That's crazy, you know. So I said, why not? He said, well, you said it was gonna be short and it wasn't short. You said it was easy to understand and it was anything but. And you said it was very encouraging and it's the most depressing thing I've ever read.

He had read Ecclesiastes. I'm like, brother, brother, I never would have started you there, you know. My very first day of seminary, I sat down kinda earnestly wanting to get this, scared to death that I'd have to do this. Right? And I sat down and I said, Lord, help me to understand what you'd have for me.

Help me understand so I might be able to do what you want me to do. And my eyes fell upon. I opened up, you know, in the middle of the Bible. It was Ecclesiastes 12 and it said, furthermore, my son, be admonished by these. Of the making of many books, there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the bones.

Fear God and keep his commandments. That's the long and short of it, right? So, Ephesians four seventeen, I hope it's going to be encouraging and helpful. I want to start off with and I'm got another visual aid here. I thought, let's do some solid truth though.

Before we get to four seventeen because this is instructive. This is an instructive teaching passage about how to live. In fact, it starts out with, I urge you to walk in four one and then in four seventeen where we're starting today. Now, I say this and I testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. When it's talking about your practice, I wanted to say, if you don't get the first three chapters of Ephesians and you start reading right here, it feels like a wagging finger and it's saying, do this, do that, do that.

There's a list of do's and don'ts. That's not the way Ephesians is though. So solid truth from the first three chapters of Ephesians. I started off and I said, I'm just gonna highlight the encouraging part. So that's the first page.

That's the second page, and that's the third page. All of it's encouraging, and it's the ground for how we get to do what it is. So if you would, we got a lot of sugar to put in this bag, 10 pounds of sugar in a five pound bag. It's a Sunday morning. We got just limited time.

But would you close your eyes and listen to this for just a minute? I'm gonna read you the first three chapters of Ephesians. Paul, an apostle Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints, if you're sitting there and go, oh, saints. A sinner saved by grace is a saint. To the saints who are at Ephesus, who are those who are faithful in Christ Jesus and that's them and that's you if you believe.

Grace to you and peace from God our father and Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. It's already true. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we'd be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ himself according to the good pleasure of his will.

To the praise and glory of his grace which he favored us in the beloved. That's Christ Jesus. In Christ, we have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of our wrongdoings. You've already won.

According to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us, in all wisdom and insight, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he set forth in Christ. Regarding his plan for the fullness of times to bring all things together in Christ. Things in the heavens and things on earth and him, we have obtained an inheritance. Having been chosen according to the purpose of him who works all things together in accordance with the plan of his will. To the end that we who were first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory, in him you also after listening to the message of truth, the good news of your salvation, you also believed and you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise who is the first installment of our inheritance in regards to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of God's glory.

Does that sound encouraging to you? It is thoroughly encouraging. For this reason, I too haven't heard of the faith of the Lord Jesus which exist among you and your love for all of the saints. I never cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers. Does it sound like he's wagging his finger?

He's not. He's saying these things are already true in the heavenlies. Let's be walking it out. Don't cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. I pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling.

What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, in the church, and what is the boundless greatness of his power towards those of us who believe. These are all in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ, which he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all rule, earthly rule, all authority, all power, all dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things in subjection under Christ's feet and made him head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Though you were dead in your offenses and sins in which you previously walked, that was the past according to the course of this world like everybody else.

According to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that's now working in the sons of disobedience, among them, we too all previously lived in the lust of our flesh, all of us, indulge in whatever desires of the flesh and of the mind. We were by nature children of wrath just like everybody else. But God being rich in mercy and because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ. It's by grace that you've been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in ages to come, he might show you the boundless riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you've been saved through faith.

It's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God that's not a result of your works. No one can boast for we are his workmanship. We were created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them. Therefore, remember that previously, y'all, Gentiles in the flesh, you who are called on some circumcision by the so called circumcision which is performed by human hands.

Remember that you were at one time separate from Christ and excluded from the people of God and strangers to the covenants of the promise and having no hope and without God in the world but now, in Christ Jesus, you who previously were far away, y'all have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace. It ultimately comes down to what are you gonna do with Jesus. He himself is our peace. He made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh all of the hostility which the law composed of commandments expressed in ordinances so that in him, he might take the two and make them one.

In this way, establishing peace and he might reconcile them both into one body to God through the cross by it having put to death all hostility and he came and he preached peace to all of y'all who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him, we both have our access in one spirit to the father. Jesus said, there's no way except through me. So then you're no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with all of the saints. Sinners saved by grace are saints.

And you are of God's household having been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the spirit. So for this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of all of y'all Gentiles, if indeed you've heard of the administration that God gave me, that by revelation, there was made known to me, this mystery, just as I wrote to you before. By referring this when you read it and understand my insight, it's the mystery of Christ which in other generations was not made known to mankind. God is revealing his will.

It has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the spirit. To be specific that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of that one body, fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the good news of the gospel of which I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of his power. To me, me, the very least of all the saints. This grace was given to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ and to enlighten all people as to what the plan of the mystery is, which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things, so that the multifaceted wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the whole cosmos, to the rulers, to the authorities in the heavenly places, and this was all in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's in Christ that we have boldness and confident access through faith in Jesus.

Therefore, I ask you not to become discouraged about any tribulations on your behalf since they are for your glory. And for this reason, I bend my knees before the father and I'm praying for whom from whom every family on earth derives its name that he would grant to you. This is what Paul is praying for you. That he would grant to you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner self so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and that you being rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints. What is the width and the length and the height and the depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the fullness of God and now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to power that works in us.

To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Y'all can open up your eyes. That all came before any instruction. Did you hear him say do anything in there?

So y'all are at first b this morning. Can I ask you to first be? Just be and then do. Okay? The being precedes the doing.

He wants you to know who you are in Christ Jesus, what is already true in the heavenlies. And then as you sit and meditate and think and pray and relate to people, listen to the still small voice of God and see what it is he wants you to do. But just be. Be still. First be.

Be still and know. Then the doing, that'll follow. Dwell with him for a while. This is the way Ephesians four starts off. Therefore, I, prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner that's worthy of the calling.

You've been called out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light. So act like it, basically. If I go to the new text for the morning, here we are at seventeen. Now, this I say and I testify in the Lord, Paul says, that you must no longer walk just like everybody else as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They're darkened in their understanding and I know they have a loud voice and you can hear them hollering out all the time, but they're darkened in their understanding.

They just don't get it. They're alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that's in them due to the hardness of heart. That's the way our text starts off. Now, gonna give you a couple visual aids this morning. You are either in sins or in Christ positionally.

So our position is either we're part of the kingdom of darkness or part of the kingdom of light. So it's a binary function, straight up. In sins or in Christ. So that's our position. And that is what we have been saying, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, that whole all those three chapters.

In Christ, in Christ, and then it says, there's a stark difference between the two. The kingdom of darkness and light. We're gonna cover two paragraphs today, and one of them is about the kingdom of darkness, and one of is about the kingdom of light. Now, this is a non binary function. In sincerin Christ, in practice, looks more like this.

You're moving from the kingdom of darkness towards the kingdom of light, and you are not perfected. Your theology might tell you that you can be. I would ask you to examine the scriptures. Positionally, yes, you're a part of the kingdom of light when you believe in Jesus. But our practice, a lot of times we're shielded from even knowing our own motives for stuff.

Our hearts are desperately wicked, deceptive. Who can understand them? So a little bit of humility goes a long way. God resist the proud, he gives grace to the humble. So here's a timeline.

The timeline is God chose from the beginning. You heard me say predestined a couple of times. I hope it didn't hang anybody up. I hope your mind's not smoking just thinking about that. God chose from the beginning a way.

He knew that any creative thing would not measure up to his majesty and his glory and his goodness. So he chose from the very beginning before the foundations of the world a way that sinful mankind could be saved and Christ work is that way. It's the only way presented in scripture. Christ work, it includes his obedient life, his sacrificial death, his voluntary sacrificial death on behalf of anyone who would believe, his burial, his resurrection. I could go further and say his session where he's seated.

We've already mentioned it twice at the right hand of God interceding for you. So that's Christ's work and then with his apostles, the gospel witness goes forward. This is the good news that there is a way. This is that way. They point to Jesus.

And the gospel witness is followed either by rejection or by belief. Rejection means the wrath of God remains on you. You are still in the kingdom of darkness. Belief means you are no longer a part of the kingdom of darkness you have brought into a kingdom, the kingdom of light. Okay?

So belief, that's where we say you got saved. Okay? God chose from the beginning the way and you accepted the way you're saved. And then, our practice. Right there between belief and death is sanctification.

Okay? The sanctification process is up and down. Sometimes we gain a few yards, sometimes we lose a few yards. Kinda like football. Right?

It's the work of the Holy Spirit though. So the Holy Spirit is a the spirit of God speaks and he speaks with a a very sincere and very still voice that is urging us in the direction of what he would have us do. To answer the still small voice with obedience is to gain ground. Right? It really is.

It's to gain ground. And then when we kick it back and we go, I don't wanna do that, then we lose ground. So the sanctification process, hills and valleys, here we are in the valley looking up at these mountains and we've got a ways to go and keep a little humility because any growth we get is because we're just being obedient to the still small voice of God. And the sanctification process goes on until we're ultimately saved. There's a there's one that says the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the very power of God.

Okay? So ultimately saved is the day of the Lord or the day of our death when we meet Jesus. Right? So that's ultimately saved. And then glorification there, if I were to put this, it's like that.

Here we go, from darkness to light and it's it's a movement towards and yeah, the hills and valleys maybe a little more darkness in there, but we know how it is. Glorification, we're looking forward to that, but we ain't there yet. Can I get a witness? Yeah. Here we go.

So now, yield to righteousness for your sanctification and we'll go back to the text. Here it is. 17 says this, now this I say and I testify in the Lord that y'all must no longer walk just as everybody else does. I'm calling you out of them, I'm calling you out of the darkness and into the light and so you wanna avoid the futility that the world is spinning its wheels in. That's what this looks like.

They're darkened in their understanding, professing to be wise. They really are acting as fools. They're alienated from the life of God insisting that they know all because of the ignorance that is in them. They just don't get it. Now this essay I testify, they're dark, do the hardness of heart and they they have become callous and they've given themselves over to all types of sensuality whatever they want, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

That's the paragraph I'm talking about. That is kind of this is the way of the world. So there's a sequence to futility and it looks like this. There's a hardness of heart. I don't wanna do that.

I wanna do what I wanna do. I don't wanna listen to that. I wanna be right. Not so much righteous, but right. God's given me free will, I'm gonna use it.

And there's darkness there, it says so. There's profound ignorance to the point of not even be able to see what you can't see, and that breeds licentiousness. Licentious is a big old word. It just means you feel like you got a license to do whatever you wanna do. Licentiousness is the opposite of legalism.

Legalism is one ditch that church folks often fall into, but licentiousness is what we fall into when we just feel like I'm going headlong into whatever I want, snorting, doing whatever I want. Like a hog and slop. Just doing whatever you wanna do. Right? Licentiousness, I've got license to do anything and some people even would have the nerve to call that liberty in Christ.

I've been saved. Can do whatever I want. They're all forgiven. Past, present, and future sins are all forgiven, so I'm gonna just do whatever I want to. This is not the way you learn from Christ actually.

Paul will say that in just a minute. Okay? So you'll be practicing all kinds of uncleanness. There's a sequence to this futility. And you'd recognize it's going down.

It looks a whole lot like the prodigal son. Yeah. And you're alienated from the life of God. Now just like the prodigal son, when you realize, hey, I've had all of this sequence going on in my life, and I find myself in a place that it's not making any sense and it's not going well, and I realized that I gotta go back. God's ready to run out and meet you.

Okay. That's the prodigal son story. Can go find that one in Luke. But here it is. That's not the way you learn in Christ.

That's not the way you learn in Christ. If assuming that you've heard about him as he is and that you were taught in him as the truth itself is in Jesus. The truth is in Jesus. He's the way, the truth, and the life. He's the well that never runs dry.

We just been singing that this morning. Assuming that you've heard about him and that you're taught in him as the truth is in Jesus, it's not just somebody telling you about him and you didn't get it or it's not just something where you're professing it, but you don't really understand it and it hadn't hit your heart yet, really. That's not the way you learn in Christ. Assuming you've heard about him, the truth is in Jesus to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life. It's corrupt through its deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and true holiness.

Put off your old self. So the truth is in Jesus. He said, if anybody would follow after me, let him deny himself, put off the old self, and take up the cross and follow me. Put off your old self which belongs to the former manner of life. It's corrupt through its deceitful desires and be renewed in the spirit of your minds.

Does this sound like anything else we've heard before? Brad had a sermon about this one not too long ago. So, that sounds familiar. That's from Romans 12. I appeal to you brothers and sisters.

Now, in Romans, he's given us eight chapters of full, pure, good theology. Then three chapters answering a question about what goes on with the Jews. And 12 starts with the application. Boom. Stomps his foot.

I appeal to you then, brothers and sisters. By the mercies of God, be presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. That's your spiritual worship. Don't be conformed to the world. Don't just be like everybody else, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

That by the testing you may discern, what is the will of God? What is he saying to me? What is good and acceptable and perfect? He says it in his word. He says it in the church.

He says it through Christian witness. He says it through his spirit. He says it in prayer. Be putting on the new self. That sounds familiar too.

If you've read Colossians lately, oh, what a chapter. Colossians three, probably written written within two weeks of Ephesians four. Put off the old self, put on the new self. He says, put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and in true holiness. Remember all three of those first chapters?

He's saying this is yours. It's already yours. It's already yours and to lay claim to it, it just takes the humility of stepping in saying, Lord, lead me away from that darkness and lead me into your light. Lord, I long to do your will. Show me your way.

I'll walk in it. So the binary function is either we're in sin or in Christ. Kingdom of darkness or kingdom of light choice is yours that's out there. But our practice recognize that you might be looking around and you see Christians and you go, well, I'm better than him. He's not the goal.

Okay? Our practice is walking from the darkness into the light because we've been empowered by holy God and his spirit. It's the only way that it's possible. So, yield to righteousness for your sanctification. I think we've said enough.

I'm not going to go to thirty two. We're going to stop right there. I want to pray. I'm going ask the ushers and the elders to come forward and this is an open table. So, communion, the Lord's supper, you might have heard it called the Eucharist, whatever.

We're practicing an open table today. So, if you recognize that you have been called out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and you believe in Jesus that he is the way that that has happened to you, this is an open table. All it requires is faith in him. Whether that happened eighty five years ago or whether it happened during this little chapter of Ephesians where he said, that's what I want, Lord. Do that to me.

It's an open table. Anyone who's placed placed their faith in Christ may partake. We are gonna go spread this out. Okay. Oh, wow.

Florina's calling me to the piano. Let me finish this business first. We're gonna distribute the bread first. This is a little cracker and is representative of the body of Christ. He walked out a perfect life and had a perfect record that could be given voluntarily and sacrificially for anyone who would put their trust in him.

This is representative of that. We will follow this with a little individual cup, plastic cup full of grape juice and that is representative of his innocent blood that was shed on behalf of all who come to believe. I'm gonna say a prayer before we distribute the bread which I think is gluten free if that matters to you. Yes. Lord God Almighty, I pray that this little representation of your life, of your perfect record, Lord Jesus, Your humble submission to the spirit in obedience to the father.

Lord, I pray that this little representative would be a blessing to all who would partake. And Lord, for those who know that they have not placed their faith in Christ and they are rejecting it. I pray lord that as they let this pass, that you would begin to soften their hearts. That you would begin to enlighten their understanding and that by the witness of those seated around them that partake, they would see something in their lives and hear something in the words of those that would draw them into your kingdom. In Jesus name, we pray.

Amen. Amen. On the same evening that that Jesus was betrayed, he gathered his disciples in the upper room and he said to those original disciples and by their witness it, his voice rings out to us here today. He said to them, he says to us, this is my body which is given for you. Take this, eat of it as often as you will in remembrance of me.

Lord, thank you for your humble submission and obedience. Obedience unto death, even death of a cross. It's for this reason that your name is above every name. Every knee will eventually bow, Lord. So I pray that we would be submitted to you and to your spirit in the same way.

Just as God the father sent you out, you have sent us out. I pray that we'd be walking it out, Lord. Worthy of the calling. Lord, would you bless this little representation of your blood? This little plastic cup of grape juice as we distribute it, Lord, I pray that you would bless it and that everyone who would partake would sense your presence in their life and their power that is in the blood of Christ to cleanse, to break every chain, to cleanse every sin, to sanctify us completely.

In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. You know rock of ages by heart? Yes. Rock of ages.

We go. Don't just go ahead. You can play. Play something pretty. So during the old rugged cross, I thought of the line from Rock of Ages.

Excuse me. Rock of Ages cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed. Be of sin, the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure.

So this is a representation of blood that was shed so that we would be saved. It is not just that though. It's saved and made pure. So it's salvation and sanctification. It's possible in Christ following his example would be impossible without his spirit.

So allow for Jesus's words to sink deep in. After supper, after he had already broken the bread and passed it to his disciples, it says, after that, he took also the cup and he said to them and he says to us, this is the new covenant in my blood. Take this, drink it in, do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. When he said that, he said the old covenant, yes, it was on you, but the new covenant is on me. It's in my blood that you're saved and that you will be sanctified.

He said, do this as often as you will in remembrance of me. And Paul tells us that as often as we do this, remember his death until he comes again. Would you stand? And we'll sing the doxology to close. So praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise father, son, and holy ghost. Amen. As as a blessing as you go, there is one body, one faith, one baptism, and next week, we will be doing at least one baptism.

If it's time for you, let me know this week. In Jesus name, go and be blessed. Amen.