Ephesians: Destined to Win In Christ! Part 7 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue – 12/09/24

Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today. We’re gonna be continuing to share on the Book of Ephesians. And we’re talking about Jesus lives in you. Let Him live through you. How do we walk out this Christian life? And the Bible has a lot to say about it. Stay tuned. I believe you’ll be blessed and empowered today. Friends, it’s so good to have you with us today. We are sharing from the Book of Ephesians. We are in Ephesians 4. And last week, we were in the first three chapters where Paul talked about the fact that we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And it’s really because it’s a gift of God’s grace, and not only that, He talks about all these good things that we have in Christ, that we’re blessed, that we’re chosen, that we’re holy, that we’re blameless, that we’re predestined to succeed, that we’re accepted in the Beloved, that we’re redeemed from every curse and forgiven for every sin. And when you understand that, it changes how you walk.

Mm-hm, yeah, your position in Christ, knowing your position in Christ, having that revelation of that, will affect your walk. It’ll affect how you relate to other people, other believers. It’ll affect your purpose. You know, a lot of people kind of mess up and don’t really live the life that God has for them because they don’t understand that they have purpose.

Right, you know, Paul says this in Philemon 6. He says, “the communication of our faith becomes effective by acknowledging every good thing that is in us in Christ.” So it’s imperative that we understand every good thing in us in Christ, but when we begin to understand that, it completely changes how we walk. And the first thing he said in Ephesians 4:1 is “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you’re called.” There’s a job, there’s a purpose, there’s something God called us to do. And we’re to walk worthy. We do it through humility, through unity, through the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit that have been given to the church, and through the ministry gifts, being part of the local church where God’s called us to be connected in a local body. And right here in Ephesians 4:11 and 12, Paul says, Jesus “gave some, apostles; some, prophets; some, evangelists; some, pastors and teachers. He did this for the perfecting,” or the maturing, the completing “of the saints, for the work of the ministry.” Who does the work of the ministry?

The saints do.

The saints do, right, to build up the body of Christ. When we as the fivefold ministry begin to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry, the body is gonna be built up. And he says, “Till we all come in the unity of faith.” So we’re not there yet. And so he says, “I don’t want you to be children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine.” I want you to mature. I want you to grow up. And he says, “I want you to speak the truth in love and grow up in Christ, who is the head from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies according to the effective working in the measure of every part will make it increase to the edifying of itself in love.” You know, God wants the body to grow and mature, right? And when we grow and we mature, you know, in the love of God, then we’re able to make a tremendous difference in the world. Then he begins to talk about the second aspect of our walk right here in Ephesians 4:17, and he says, “From now on, don’t walk as other unbelievers walk, in the vanity of their mind, in the futility and the emptiness of their mind.” It’s not just to be our mind that’s guiding us, but we’re to be guided and directed by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit bring in to light the Word of God.

And you know, in Romans 1, Paul kind of talks about how, you know, the kind of trajectory that unbelievers are on, how they don’t glorify God, they’re unthankful, and they became, you know, vain in their thoughts and their hearts were darkened. So really, for your mind to be filled with light, to work the way God wants it to, you first of all have to glorify God, you have to know Him, glorify Him, and then thankfulness. Now thankfulness is a big part of that. There’s a lot of, you know, entitlement type mentality out there that’s really being pushed by the world, like you’re just entitled, and it breeds unthankfulness, ungratefulness, and then people’s imaginations are really screwy. And you know, there’s a lot of, you know, mental health problems, you know, especially amongst young people today in the world, and you see it. You know, people’s minds aren’t working right because they’re not glorifying God, they’re not being thankful, they’re not really living the way that God has created us to live.

You know, I had a medical doctor that heard me teaching years ago at Charis Bible College, and he said, “Listen, if people would get ahold of what you teach in Romans,” right, talking about that we are the righteousness of God in Christ, “and in your series on ‘In Christ Realities,'” he said, “we would empty out mental institutions and hospitals in a heartbeat.” And that’s kind of what you’re saying. And you know, Paul basically said in Romans 1, the Gentiles also have this problem that follows what you’re talking about in verse 20 and 21, where he says, “They’re caught up in philosophy, idolatry, lust, all kinds of ungodliness.” And so he says, “Listen, don’t walk like the world walks, having their understanding darkened, alienated.” Now this is a biblical definition, right, of spiritual death. He says there, “Your understanding is darkened. You are alienated, separated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in you.” God doesn’t want you to be ignorant. Ignorance is not blessed. You know, the Bible says that “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge,” in Hosea 4:6. It says in Isaiah 5:13 that they’re “kept in bondage because they have no knowledge.” He said, “Because of the blindness of their heart, who in the past have given themselves over to licentiousness, just living like the devil, to work all uncleanliness with greediness.” He said, “You have not learned this in Christ, but you have heard Him and have been taught by Him that the truth is in Jesus.” So he says, “I want you to put off the former lifestyle, the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitfulness, of lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” You gotta change the way you think. That word for renewed is the Greek word ananeoo, and it means renewal or to renovate, to take on anew. We need to renovate our mind and take on a new mind, the mind of Christ. Praise God, we need to go by what the Word says, not the world says. And he says, “Put on the new man which in the likeness of God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” True holiness isn’t all these things that you do to the outward man, your hair’s so short, your hair’s so long, no makeup, dress only in black and white. True holiness is something that comes from your spirit, the spirit of man, right? It’s the candle of the Lord lighting all the inward parts of the belly. And when God does a work in your spirit, you don’t wanna live like the world. You don’t want to talk like the world or act like the world. And that’s what he goes on to say, “Put away lying.”

When you see in verse 22, just talking about putting off these things, you know, the world, it’s talking about this corruption according to deceitful lusts.” You know, it says it grows corrupt. You know, the world, apart from Christ, it’s gonna get worse and worse. It’s gonna grow more and more corrupt, and we see that. You know, and people who’ve just lived complete, you know, lives apart from Christ and just are completely calloused to the life of God, they’re gonna grow more and more corrupt.

Right. And that’s what Romans 1 talks about too, when you said, what, they’re unthankful, they’re unholy, all these different things. Paul talks about that in II Timothy 3, I think it is, or I Timothy 3. We’re not to live like the world. We’re to live like God wants us to be, in Christ. And so he says, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Put on the new man, which in the likeness of God is created in righteousness.” You are the righteousness of God in Christ. The moment that you believe on Jesus, your spirit is made righteous. You are given the righteousness of God as a gift.

And you have to be renewed continually. You know, it’s not just a one-time thing, but you need to continually be renewed in the spirit of your mind. So the ways that you do that, you spend time on a daily basis in the Word of God. You know, you connect with other believers on a regular basis. You have people that can speak into your life on a regular basis. It’s a continual thing. It’s not just a one-time thing.

Amen. You know, I got baptized in the Holy Spirit and called to preach 46 years ago. And I’ve read my Bible nearly every day since then and I spend a lot of time in the Word. And if I haven’t prayed in tongues every day in the last 46 years, I’ve prayed in tongues nearly every day. And you know, I go to church usually six days a week now, but, you know, even before I was a pastor, I would go to church at least two or three days a week. Praise God. And I stayed in fellowship with other believers. I stayed built up. And you know what? We’re in a world that’s been affected by sin and by Satan, and if you don’t stay built up in the Word and encourage yourself in the Spirit and stay connected to other believers, you’ll be acting like the world instead of like who God made you to be.

Or just burn out. You know, I think a lot of people kind of burn out. They’re just trying to run off of the fumes of, you know, some experience with God that they had or revelation they had several years ago, but you need to be… You know, it’s a continual renewing. You know, I go and gas up my truck once a week, you know, once every other week. It’s a continual thing. If I just try to run that thing without ever getting refueled again, it’s gonna run out of gas.

Ephesians 5, the Bible says, “be being filled” in the literal Greek, “with the Holy Spirit.” You need to stay filled with the Spirit of God. You know, you need to stay filled with the things of God. If you look at that in the Greek in Ephesians 5. I’ll tell you the verse. It’s in verse 18. He says, “Be not drunk with wine, wherein there’s excess, but be being filled with the Spirit.” Stay filled, be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. Some of you watching today have never been baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, and I’m telling you, it is a life-changer. And if you haven’t been filled with the Holy Spirit, I encourage you to call in in the middle of this broadcast or at the end of this broadcast and receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. If the phones are busy, just keep trying. Somebody will get a hold of you, they’ll pray for you, they’ll minister to you. And you need to receive Jesus. It’s a baptism of fire given by the Lord Jesus Christ and it will empower you to minister to other people and it’ll help you in your Christian walk. Praise God.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Yeah, so we’re gonna go to a short break here in a moment, so if that’s you, if you’d like to be filled with the Holy Spirit, if you never experienced that, never prayed for that, never believed for that, Jesus actually, you know, told His disciples to wait for that in Jerusalem. That’s how the church began.

Amen.

The church began with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I believe that we need that today. The church, every believer needs that today as well. So if that’s you, you can give us a call right now. Stay tuned. We’ll be right back after this short break.

Hi friends, we’ve been teaching from the Book of Ephesians, and I’ve just written a new book from the Book of Ephesians that I’ve wanted to do for years, “Destined to Win,” breakthrough revelation from the Book of Ephesians. You’ll wanna get this book, and we’re gonna offer this book actually free to anyone who calls in and becomes a new partner this week. Blessings.

Look what God has done for you. You know, I mean, aren’t you so glad God restores all of us?

Yes.

And even to above and beyond. When He does it, when He restores something, it’s even more than you could have imagined. And I love that, again, when God does something for us, it affects others and then other people even see it and testify to the goodness of God.

Praise the Lord, friends. I’m so glad that you’re with us. We’ve been talking about don’t live like the world, don’t talk like the world, don’t be like the world, but be filled with the Spirit. Renew your mind in the Word of God and begin to live like God wants you to live, from Ephesians 4. And you know, last week we talked about this. We talked about the fact that when we understand who we are in Christ and what we’ve been given in Christ, it changes how we live. And so Paul goes on with this, after he says, you know, in verse 23 and 24 of Ephesians 4, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Put on the new man, which in the likeness of God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” He goes on and says this in verse 25, “Wherefore, put away lying. Tell the truth, for we are members of one another.” Man, lying is an epidemic in this world and it’s just really not good.

I saw a great post, I think I sent it to you,

You did.

of this, you know, Christian apologist and minister by the name of Martyn Iles. And he talked about lying and just how it’s so rampant in the world, but even in the body of Christ. He said he is sat at tables, you know, with other prominent ministers and he just knows they’re just flat-out lying. And you know, it’s such a common thing, such a habit that they don’t even realize that they’re lying. And you know, Jesus says who the father of lies is, and that’s the devil. We need to stay away from that. Just be honest, be truthful.

Yes, and you know what? If you’ve been doing it, repent. Change, turn around from it, quit. Amen? You know, Mom and I were at a table in a restaurant and this minister came and, you know, we had been separated for a period of time, but we heard certain things and we knew everybody around this person was leaving our church. And, you know, they didn’t own up to any of it, but Mom said, in her head… And your mother operates in a lot of discernment. You’ve operated in discernment. Since you’ve been five years old, I’ve seen a tremendous amount of discernment that you operated in. But Mom said, in her head, when this person was saying, “No, I didn’t do this and that,” her head, she said it was saying, “Liar, liar, liar.” But the person did come the next day and in their own way, apologized for their bad ways. Anyway, praise God.

Yeah, honesty’s always the best policy.

Amen.

I like this too. It says, “Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath nor give place to the devil.”

Yeah, now there’s a couple ways you can look at that. One is, did you know what? You can be mad all the time if you direct your anger at the devil. I hate the devil. He’s the author of sin, sickness, poverty, mental anxiety. I hate the devil. You know what? I hate his works. So you can always be mad at the devil. The other way to look at this is don’t go to bed mad. In other words, if you got a problem, get over it, you know? I had a person write me this email and they were mad and they brought up stuff from 10 years ago, and I’ve been in a pretty fairly close relationship with them. And they just had all these grievances and I told them, I said, “Listen, if I’m upset with you, I guarantee you, I’ll get with you in a week or 10 days. I’m not gonna hold grudges. I’m not gonna let that stuff rent space in my mind.” And so, praise God, we gotta get over some things. So when you hold on to anger and bitterness and resentment, you’re really giving place to the devil. And so he says, “Let him who stole steal no more.” This is actually talking about people, but the devil is the ultimate thief. But he says, “Let him labor.” This ought to be our attitude instead of stealing. Did you know what, if you’re not working, you’re probably stealing. He says, “working with your hands that which is good, that he might have to give to him that needs.” You know, God has a program to take care of your physical needs, and that’s work. If you don’t work, you don’t eat. That was my dad’s favorite scripture. That’s in II Thessalonians 3:10. But he’s like, “We ought to work.” And he tells us why we should work. He said, “We should work so that we can give.” Do you know what, if you’ll make giving your goal, your living will be no problem. Praise God. And so if we work to give, I’m thinking, “I’m just making a living,” that is the sorriest attitude. Man, I work, you know. I make far more than a living because I’m a giver.

Well, your purpose, it’s beyond just yourself.

Amen.

You know, your spiritual purpose too. God created you to affect other people, other believers.

Amen.

You know, you’re needed in the body of believers. Other believers need you. You need to be around to encourage them, to help them to serve one another, to minister to one another. And you’re also needed too to impact this world.

Amen.

To be a shining light wherever you’re at.

Man, I’m giving. Mom and I give about 30% of our income to the ministry. And you know what? We live far better than we did when we were giving 10 or 20%. We’ve always given a lot. Some of the time we’ve given 50%. But man, Jesus has taken care of us in grand style. And so he says, “Work so you can give.” And then he goes on and kind of switches here, and he says, “Don’t let any corrupt communication proceed outta your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers.” That scripture is a lot easier to talk about than live. But he said, “You need to guard the words of your tongue and speak words that build other people up.” And he says, “Don’t grieve the holy Spirit of God, whereby you’re sealed to the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking be put away from you with all hatred,” or all malice. Malice means determined, lasting anger. Man, you gotta, don’t be mad at people. Forgive people. Let it go.

I know you’ve been teaching on James recently here, Sunday mornings at church, and James has a lot to say about, you know, your words that you speak, the tongue, you know, how it can be a consuming fire. You know, some people just, whatever thought comes to mind, they just let it unleash out of their mouth. And you know, it’s better to just kind of process things before you just say whatever.

Amen. And I’m gonna talk about something else. It’s an epidemic. It’s a terrible problem. People get on social media and just vent, and it is horrible. And they say all kind of stuff. They don’t have any accountability. That is very, very negative. And you don’t wanna just run off at the mouth.

So really, you know, look at what you’re saying. Is it necessary for edification? You know, is it actually building things up? It’s a lot easier to tear things down than it is to build things up. A lot of people think they’re ministering and then all they’re doing is just tearing people down, just trying to build an audience off of just criticism. That’s not real ministry. Real ministry is gonna actually have a lot of edification.

Amen.

Grace will be there. It’s imparting grace to the hearers.

Right. You know, the Bible actually talks about, in II Corinthians 3, comparing the law and grace. And he compared the law as a ministry of death. And these people that are always criticizing, that are always finding things wrong, that don’t look for the good, they really have a ministry of death and I don’t wanna be that way. And so he says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgive one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.” God, for Christ’s sake has forgiven us. Man, he has let it go. And if God has, we need to do it.

I like that word, impart. You know, in verse 1, it’s talking about imparting grace to the hearers. You know, I think one reason why we come together as believers and grow together as believers, you know, we need to worship Jesus together.

Amen.

You know, most church services, at least a good church, there’s true worship going on to Jesus, corporate worship. There’s also, you know, that there needs to be teaching that is going on, teaching the Word, communicating the Word of God. But also there needs to be some type of impartation. You know, Jesus said, when He… Sorry Paul, when he was writing to the church at Rome, he said, “I want to come there to impart a spiritual gift to you.”

Amen.

You know, there needs to be impartation.

Amen, from the Holy Spirit and from God. I want to jump into chapter five because it flows right with the end of chapter four. And he’s been talking about not living like the world. So he said, “Walk,” in Ephesians 4:1, “worthy of the vocation,” the purpose, the job, “that God called you to do.” He said, “Don’t walk as other Gentiles walk.” But then he moves into this, and he’s really talking about this in the end of chapter four, “Be there for followers of God as dear children;” Ephesians 5:1, “and walk in love.” You know, we have one commandment, actually two commandments as New Testament believers. Number one, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the end of I John 3. And number two, walk in love. And he says, “Walk in love as Christ has loved us and given himself as an offering, a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling saver.” When we walk in the love of God… You know, the Bible says this in Colossians 3:14, “Put on charity,” put on the God kind of love, which is the bond of maturity. You know what, I can tell how mature you are by how well you walk in love. And the Bible actually talks about how love is the fulfilling of the law in Romans 13:10. And so it says, “Fornication, sexual sin, all uncleanliness, covetousness, let it not be once named among you as is beautifying, becoming to saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient.” Don’t be telling dirty jokes. He says, “but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, sexual pervert, nor covetous man who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of God and of Christ. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things the judgment of God, the wrath of God comes on children of disobedience. Do not be partakers with them.” We don’t have to live like the world. We have the exact same spirit living in us that raised up Jesus from the dead. And when we renew our mind in the Word, we can begin to live by the grace of God, by the Spirit of God, by the truth of the Word of God, by the fruit of the Spirit. Let the love of God rule you, amen, to which we’re called, and we can live in a completely different way.

Yeah, and verse eight says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.”

Amen, you know, we’re gonna talk about that in our next broadcast. But you know what, we have a lot more information than this and it’s available on our website. And you can get the live teachings from church where I taught this, and it was a great teaching. I taught a series on Ephesians, eight messages long. Or you can get all of these broadcasts on our website at Charis Christian Center. They’re absolutely free of charge, amen? You can get on our YouTube channel. And we want to invite you to come to church at Charis Christian Center if you happen to be in Colorado Springs on a Sunday morning, on a Wednesday night. We have great spirit-filled ministry at this church and people are built up and set free, healed, filled with the Holy Ghost. Great things are happening.

Yeah, and if you’re receiving too, if this helps build you up, encourages you, builds your faith, I’d encourage you to partner with us too. You know, it’s important that where my wife and I, where we receive from, we like to give, we like to give back and to invest into that.

Amen. Thanks so much. Give us a call. Blessings.

Announcer When Jesus saved you, your destiny changed completely. He radically transformed us and brought us from death to life, from sin to righteousness, and from defeat to victory. Discover these life-changing truths in Pastor Lawson’s eight-part teaching, “Destined to Win,” a $40 value, yours free today. Download them now at CharisChristianCenter.com.

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