Hope Church LV Sermons
Out with the Old, In with the New :: Part 1
How many of you are grateful that we have the opportunity to be made new in Christ, amen? A couple of weeks ago on Easter, I showed you a verse of Scripture out of one of my favorite translations. It's not a very well-known translation of the New Testament, but it's a translation by a man named J.B. Phillips, and I showed you 2 Corinthians 5-17 out of that translation. I want to put it back up on the screen this morning, and I want us to read it out loud together. You ready? 1-2-3. "For if any man is in Christ, he becomes a new person altogether. The past is finished and gone; everything has become fresh and new." That's good news, amen? In Christ, we have been made new. Two weeks ago on Easter, we unpacked that dynamic truth that in Jesus, we have the opportunity to be made new last weekend, we celebrated new life as together in our three services. We saw 72 people followed Jesus Christ publicly in baptism, amen? Praise God for that, 72 people that were celebrating the life change that has taken place in a relationship with Jesus, 72 people that have been made new. This idea of being made new in Christ is the same message that we have been learning as we've been studying together as a family of faith through the New Testament letter called Colossians. If you have your Bible this morning, I'm going to go ahead and invite you to open to the book of Colossians in just a moment. We're going to be diving into chapter 3, beginning there in verse number 5, but before we do that, let me just kind of bring you up to speed. We've been studying together as a family of faith now for a while through the New Testament book of Colossians and we've been learning Paul has been teaching us through the New Testament that through our relationship with Jesus, we have been made new. If you'll remember as we've been studying together through this letter, there are really two overarching truths that are the umbrella under which everything in the letter of Colossians falls. One, Paul is writing to us about who Jesus is. There was an attack going on in the local church there in Colossae, and that's why Paul is writing this letter. He's writing it to respond to what's going on around the church there, and he's writing to remind them about who Jesus is, that Jesus is 100% God in the flesh. Jesus is God, and Paul is in the first two chapters of the book of Colossians, Paul is making this point, and he's defining this statement about the person of Jesus Christ, but then the second underlying or overarching truth of the book of Colossians is who we now are because of who Jesus is. You see, because of who Jesus is, now in Christ, we have a new identity we have been made new, and just for sake of reminder, because I know it's been a couple of three weeks since we were in Colossians, and I know you remember absolutely everything that we say every weekend, and you have this incredible recall, and you never forget any of it, but just in case you've slept since the last time we were in the book of Colossians, and some of it has leaked out, I want to just remind you, and then also because after Easter, I know we have some new folks that are with us, I want to catch you up with where we've been in the book of Colossians. There are some incredible truths that Paul has been laying down for us about who we now are in Christ, and there are many truths, but I want to just summarize and give you three. First of all, Paul has told us in the first two chapters that our sin has been dealt with, and let me show you where he says that in Colossians chapter two, verse 13, look at it. It says, "When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together." How? Said out loud, "With him, having forgiven us," what's the next word? Oh, that's a good word, amen? Having forgiven us, it's a good thing it didn't say most, right? Or Psalm, he says, "And him, we've been forgiven." How many? All hour, what, transgressions? It's another word for sin. Every way that we've stepped outside of God's bound, every way that we've broken the laws of God, and Jesus, we have been forgiven. And as we've unpacked that over the last several weeks together, we looked at the reality that our forgiveness in Christ is forgiveness for every sin in our past, every sin in our present, and oh my goodness, every sin in our future. Here's what that means. In Christ, I'm already forgiven, not just for everything that I've already done, but in Christ, I'm forgiven for everything I'll ever do. You say, "That sounds too good to be true." Listen, it is too good for us to comprehend, but it's not too good to be true. It is the truth. It's what the Bible teaches us, and the reality is, when Jesus died on the cross, every sin of your mind was in the present or in the future, right? None of them had been committed yet, so I'm thankful that the blood of Jesus is sufficient to cover sins in the future. Here's what that means. We are so forgiven by God in Christ. Our position of forgiveness is so great that you will never be any more forgiven than you are right now. After you've been in heaven for 10,000 years, you won't be any more forgiven than you are right now. You know why? Because your forgiveness is based on Christ. It's not based on me. It's not based on my performance. It's not based on my ability to do something. My forgiveness is rooted in who Jesus is and all that Jesus finished for us. We're forgiven. Let me give you a second truth we've been looking at in the book of Colossians. Number two, my eternity is secure. My eternity is secure. Look at it here on the screen. Paul said it this way in Colossians 3-3. Where you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. That is so loaded. Is hidden. Meaning it's something that's continuous. It's a present tense. It's hidden. But it's passive. Meaning it's not something I'm doing. It's something that's being done for me. The word hidden means to be locked together with, to be hidden inside of something. Here the text says you and I, because of Jesus, we've been hidden with Christ in God. You can't get any more secure than that. We've been locked away. It's as if we're already seated at the right hand of the Father with him. We're secure. Now here's what that means, my security is not rooted in my ability to hold on to him, but in his ability to hold on to me. And that's a very different way to think about our security in Christ. You see a lot of times we think I'm secure as long as I'm faithful. I'm holding on to him. But that's not what the text says. The text doesn't say I'm hiding myself with Christ in God. No. I'm being hidden by some God himself is the faithful one who is hiding me, locking me away together with Christ in God for all eternity. I'm secure. Let me give you a third truth. All I need I have in him. Paul said in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 10, "In him you have been made complete." It means that in Christ you and I lack nothing to be all the man or woman God made us to be. It means that I'm not waiting on God to give me some other blessing. I'm not waiting on some other movement of God in my life, but in Christ I already have everything I need to be all that he desires me to be in him. Now that's just a thumbnail sketch of truths that we've been looking at for the last several months here in our church. If you're new to our fellowship, you can go online to our website, hopechurchonline.com and under our resources we have a media link where you can go and all of those sermons, all of those message series are there on the website, they're completely free so you can go and you can dig into this text of Scripture and understand who Jesus is and all that Jesus has accomplished for us. And here's why I'm laying that foundation again this morning because this weekend we come to a turning point in the book of Colossians. We have been now for months in Colossians chapter one, chapter two, and even the beginning of chapter three, laying a theological foundation about who Jesus is and who I now am in him positionally before God. You understand what I mean when I say positionally? It's my position. It's how God sees me. God sees me as righteous. God sees me as eternally secure. God sees me as complete. Now when I look at me, sometimes I don't see all that, but that's my position. That's who I now am in Christ. That's not what's going to be true about me. Listen, that's what is true about me. But here's the turning point. I want to give it to you in a life changing reality. Look at it on the screen. Everything that is true about me positionally, God is working out in my life practically. Let's read that together. Let's read it out loud, one, two, three, everything that is true about me positionally, God is working out in my life practically. This is who I am in him. This is how he sees me, forgiven, complete, righteous, holy, son, redeemed. Now what's happening is, what's true about me positionally, he is now over the course of my life working that out in my life practically. I don't see all of it immediately yet, but I'm seeing more and more and more of that in my life on a daily basis. Now Paul in the book of Colossians in chapter 3 verse 5 turns a corner and the rest of Colossians, so far we've been chapter 1, chapter 2, up to verse 5 of chapter 3 laying that foundation. Who Jesus is, who I am in him positionally. The rest of the letter Paul is describing what it looks like practically as that is worked out in my life by God. So if you don't get that, listen, it's very important that you understand that. We're turning a corner today. Now we're going to describe, because if you're not careful, here's what happens. You just pick up the end of the letter and you try to somehow become all of this on your own through willpower and self effort and religion and committing and you wind up frustrated and defeated because no matter how hard I try, listen, it's not me doing it on my own. It's who I am in him and now it's God in me working that out in my life practically. You see the difference? If you see it, say amen. It's important. So Colossians 3, now I'm going to read verse 5 all the way to verse 17, don't panic. We're not studying all that this morning, all right? We're actually going to unpack this over the next three weekends, but it's important that you see the whole context. In verse 3, verse 5, we'll put it up on the screen, if you don't have a Bible, say the first word out loud. Come on now, I've told you anytime you see the word therefore in the New Testament, it's therefore a reason, right? The word therefore means based on what I've been saying, now I want to draw a conclusion. Paul's been saying, this is who Jesus is, this is who you are positionally in Christ, now I want to draw some conclusion. You see the transition is taking place? Chapter 5, therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality and purity, passion, evil, desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry, for just because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked when you were living in them, man that's so good. That's who you used to be, verse 8, but now you also put them all aside. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, why, since you've laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self who's being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him, a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek or Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, skidion, slave, and free man, but Christ is all and in all. Listen, it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, we all have the possibility in Christ to be made new. Verse 12, "So as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone just as the Lord forgave you. So also should you forgive. Beyond all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thank thankfulness in your hearts to God and whatever you do," and word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks through Him to God the Father. That is good stuff. The more I read the Bible, the more I'm convinced. This is a really good book. What we're going to unpack over these next three weekends together is so life-changing if you understand what Paul is saying. In the verses that I've read for you this morning, there are three imperatives. It means there are three command statements in the Greek text where Paul is not offering up suggestions. Paul is giving us imperatives. Now it's important that you understand the imperatives are built on the foundation of everything he said in the first two chapters. These are not do's and don'ts. They are rooted in our identity, but Paul gives us some imperatives. First of all, Paul says, and I'm just going to give you a big picture of you here, but in verse 5, he says, "There are some things that should be put to death. Consider the members of your earthly body as dead." And then he starts the list in morality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed. Then Paul says, not only are there some things that need to be put to death, Paul says there are some things you need to put off. Things like anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech, lies. He gives us this list in two imperatives. There are some things you need to put to death. There are some things you need to put off. You need to take them off. You need to be done with them. Then he gives us another imperative. There are some things you need to put on, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another, forgiveness, love, thanksgiving, wisdom. You see these? You see, this is what needs to be done with. This is who I need to become. This is the old life sin. This is my new life in Christ. You know what this really is? This is a description of who Jesus is. Now why is Paul saying that I need to put this off and I need to put this on? Look at verse number nine. Paul says, don't lie to one another, since the word sense here identifies that what we're about to unpack here are, and I'm not trying to be super technical, I want you to see this in the text. The word sense here identifies these next two verbs as participles that are modifying the main verb. The main verbs are these imperatives. Put off, put on, but then he gives us these two participles that are like adverbs. They modify and describe these two imperatives, put off and put on. Listen what he says, why? Since you have laid aside the old self, now it's important, that's not ongoing, this laying aside is done. And then he says, and you've put on the new self. Here's what he's saying. When you were born again at that moment that you were saying, positionally, the old man died, positionally, who I was in Christ died, and I put on a new man, now I'm new in Christ. And here's what Paul says, now it's time for us to put that aside and put this on why. Here's why, because that's not who you are anymore. You see what he's saying? It's not, you need to stop doing this, stop doing this, stop doing this, and you need to start doing this and start doing this so that God will accept you someday. No, what Paul is saying is, you need to do this because you've already laid it aside. That's not who you are anymore. You've been given a new identity in Christ. You know what's interesting? You know who the most miserable people are on planet Earth? Now, they don't answer out loud because here's what we think. Lost people, people that don't know Jesus, but that's not true. You know why? Those lost people are just living based on who they are. That is their identity. They're lost, they're dead to God and alive to sin. They're not complete. They know there's something more, but often the misery is not there because they're just living according to their nature too. They are. You know, those miserable people on planet Earth are safe people trying to live out of their own resources. You know why? Listen, because that's not who you are anymore. Now, sometimes I think it is, and I'll grab ahold of what used to make me happy. What used to give me some, pick me up and now when I grab hold of that, then there's a bitterness in my soul. You know what I'm experiencing? An identity crisis. That's not who I am anymore. And when I try to pick that up and live out of who I used to be, there's a misery and a soul sickness. That's one of the so many Christians that are battling things like depression and anxiety because we're trying to live out of who we used to be. We're not embracing who we now are in him. You see, God has changed me positionally. Listen. And now he's working that out in my life practically and my responsibility is to simply respond. Look back in verse 10. I think this one's up on the screen. Yeah. He said, "less out the old self and put on the new self who is being renewed." Isn't that a little bit, I mean that just sounds a little bit funny, right? Put on the new self, past tense, it's done, completed action, who is being renewed, which is not completed action. Here it's present tense action, which means you can literally translate it this way. He says, "You should stop living like this and you should start living like this because you've already laid this aside. You've already put this on positionally in Christ, but here's what he says now, continuously, you are being renewed. It's passive, meaning God is at work in my life, pressing out in me what is true about me positionally on a day in and day out basis practically." Is that making sense? It's not, listen, it's not me trying to, through behavior modification, become something that I'm not. It's me allowing God to have his way in me so that I become that which I am. That's going to hit some of you later. That's why Paul said in another letter, "I am confident." Paul said in Philippians 1, "I'm confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you," listen, "will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus and the misery comes when you fight it." He's going to finish what he started in Christ. How does this happen? Look at it in verse 10, "Have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him." The word "knowledge" here is a word that implies personal fellowship. It means more than just to know about it, it means to know personally. It's a very specific Greek word, means knowledge acquired through participation and it emphasizes the relationship. I read this week in Henry Blackabe's devotional, this quote, look at it on the screen, "Blackabe said, 'Your life is the sum of the responses you have made toward God.'" You see, God is at work, fleshing out in you practically what is true about us positionally. And where I am in the journey is largely in part in my response to what God's doing in my life. Am I fighting that? Am I warring against the relationship? Am I pursuing him and yielding to him on a moment by moment basis, letting him finish in me what he began? So let me give you two defining statements about being new in Christ and we'll be finished with the introduction this morning. You're laughing like I'm kidding. The good thing about splitting it over three weeks is if y'all don't listen fast enough, we'll just take some of it and move it to next week, right? Let me give you two defining statements that I want you to see today. Being new in Christ means, and we're talking practically, being new in Christ means daily walking away from the old life of sin. You see, this is not who I am anymore. So daily moment by moment in response to God's activity in my life, I have to die to this. Walk away from this. And here's the second one. It means walking in my new life in him. You see, being new in Christ means daily walking away from my old life of sin and daily walking in my new life in him. That's why I love in verse seven, he says, "This is who you were when you used to walk in this. This is where you used to live, but that's not who you are anymore. You're now new in Christ." And so Paul is not throwing down this gauntlet for you to try to be something that you're not. I mean, if you go show up at the NFL combine and think you're going to run a 4, 4, 40, that's probably pretty unrealistic for most of us, right? Some of us, we look at this stuff in the Bible and we think it's like running a 4, 4, 40 at the NFL combine. I can't do that. And in some ways, you're very true, very right. You and I in our own strength can't, but that's not who I am anymore. You see, this is now who I am in Christ. And that's why these foundational truths have been so important. You see, all that I have to be everything God wants me to be, I already have in him. So the capacity within every one of us to be described like this is there in Christ. And now God is working that out in my life, practically. Now, I want you to put those two summary statements back up on the screen. If I can get those two back up because I'm new in Christ daily, it means walking away from the old life of sin, walking in my new life in Christ. Now, here's what we're going to do today. We're just going to look at the top half of that. And then over the next two weekends, we're going to unpack the bottom half of that, all right? Now, here's why I'm telling you that. You can't just get half of this. Now, I know for some of you coming to church, three weekends in a row, is going to be a serious challenge. But here's what I'm asking you. I'm asking you to come for three weeks in a row because not we're checking attendance. We don't do that. You know our heart. I want you to get this. And the problem is, religion's done a real good part with the top half of that. We emphasize, oh, you need to get rid of this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and so most people don't even want to come to the church because all they know is what we're against, right? So we're going to only talk about that today. And then for the next two weeks, we're going to talk about what it looks like to walk in my new life in Him. You good so far? All right. Let me give you two statements this morning and we'll be finished. Two statements that take what Paul's given us here. Paul gives us two lists in the first half of what I read for you this morning that we've got over here on this out with the old sign. I want to take those two lists and summarize them into two statements, all right? Here's the first statement. We should lay aside every desire that seeks satisfaction in something other than my relationship with God. We should lay aside every desire that seeks satisfaction in something other than my relationship with God. And Paul says it in verse five very graphically. Now I really think here the New American standard is not the best translation, even us what I teach out of a verse five when he says therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead. It's really an imperative here. What he's really saying is put to death, executed, mortify, crucify, kill it. It's violent terminology. And Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, chooses these words to communicate the graphic nature with which he's speaking here. Barkley, the great Greek scholar, says it means to put to death every part of yourself and personality which is against God. It's the same idea Paul expressed in Romans 12 when he said in verse one, "Therefore I urge you brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy." What's the next word? What do you do to the animal when you sacrifice it? You kill it. Now we've so churched that up that we read living in holy sacrifice as this beautiful expression of worship. Here's what he said, "Therefore brethren, here's what I encourage you to do daily. Call on the altar and die." And that shouldn't surprise us because Jesus said it like this in Luke chapter 9. If anyone wishes to come after me, let him, what, deny himself, take up his, what? Now we've made that this little symbol you wear on your neck, but the cross was the most brutal form of execution ever created by humanity. It's violent. It's nailing human flesh to a piece of wood and watching as the body writhes in anguish and dies of suffocation and bleeding out. Jesus said, "If anybody wants to come after me, let him deny himself. Take up his cross." What's the next word? Daily. And follow me. Now, the reason that even as I say it, the reason that greats on some of us this morning is because we've embraced a Christian philosophy in America that somehow God exists for me. You can find them in our town and every town across the United States of America, you can find them on television, preachers who will tell you if you just get saved, Jesus is going to bless you. If you just get saved, everything in your life is going to go up, up, up, your stock portfolio, your net worth. So when we hear things like, "Dye," that's not really what I signed up for. Listen, you need to make sure you signed up for the right thing. I mean, we've read it already in four books of the New Testament this morning. It's just not like a little strange mentioned only one-time philosophy. Where to die? And Paul starts giving us some examples. In verse five, he says, "Emmerality," which is the basic word in the Greek language for any sexual sin. That's the word "Porna'a," we get our English word pornography from it. He says, "Impurity," "Impurity" is simply just dirty-mindedness. Just let your mind think on stuff that's dirty. It says, "passion," the word "passion" is a word that describes a drive which does not rest until it's satisfied. It's a consuming passion or possibly an arvernacular, best-translated sexual lust. It's a sensual passion. Then he uses a more broad term, "evil desire." The word "desire" is a word here that just simply means a desire for wrong things. It's the same idea as passion, but it's broader and it includes a lust not just for sexual things, but a lust for power, a lust for wealth, a lust for influence. Then he says, "Greed." Greed in the New Testament is an interesting word. It's a compound word. It's two words put together. The word "play on," which means "more," and the word "echo," which means "to have." Those two words put together, we translate with the English word "greed." You put it together and it just means "to have more." You see how all of these are deep-rooted desires? A desire for fulfillment? In sexual pleasure, a desire for fulfillment through achieving success? A desire for fulfillment by attaining a certain degree of power or influence? It's just simply a desire to have more. It's a lack of contentment, not content with who I am in Christ. Then at the end, he says in verse 5, "Which amounts to idolatry?" Here's what he does. He takes these first five and he said, "All of that," let me tell you what that is. You want to boil all that down? It's idolatry. Now, you know what idolatry is? We think of idolatry where you put something up on a shelf and you worship that something, but idolatry simply means to worship something other than God. Here's what Paul is saying. "I'm living out of these passions, I'm not worshiping God, I'm worshiping me. I've put me up on the shelf and said, "I want what I want. I want more money, I want more success, I want more fame, I want more power, I want more pleasure." That is the consuming passion of my life that's driving me. Paul says it's idolatry. Listen to the way John MacArthur wrote about it, "I read two quotes this week that just stopped me in my tracks and I want to give you both of them this morning." Here's the first one by John MacArthur, listen to what he said. "When people sin, it is at its basis they're doing what they desire rather than what God desires." That is in essence to worship themselves instead of God and that is idolatry. And don't forget why Paul is saying this, that's not who you are anymore. You can try to live out of this, you can try to have your little Christianity in a Sunday morning box and then live Monday through Saturday to fulfill these passions and desires. And here's what Paul says, that's not who you are anymore. You need to put that to death. Let me read you the second quote, this one's not by a contemporary author, it's by a Puritan from the 1600s and I'm telling you this quote just listen to it. All sin is founded in a secret atheism. Every sin invades the rights of God and strips him of one or other of his perfections. Every sin is a kind of cursing God in the heart and aim at the destruction of the being of God, not actually but virtually, a man in every sin aims to set up his own will as his rule and his own glory as the end of his actions against the will and glory of God. And I choose to live out of this. What I'm really saying is God I wish you didn't even exist because my way is better than your way. Now that's not our heart because that's not who we are anymore. And that's why Paul is saying here, I need to put that to death and he uses graphic language. How does this happen, how do I put these desires to death? Listen carefully, daily moment by moment, walking in fellowship with God and being sensitive to his spirit. Here's what it looks like. I'm going through my day and all of a sudden it seems like I don't know where. One of these old desires wants to reach up and grab control. Maybe it's lust, maybe it's greed, self-centeredness, whatever it is, and that instant I have the opportunity to say Lord, thank you that that's not who I am anymore. Lord, I confess that sometimes it seems like everything in me sure wants to grab ahold of that, but God that's not who I am anymore. So Lord, by the power of your spirit would you put that to death? And sometimes days in my life I feel like I'm constantly having that conversation with God. Don't you look up here at me like I'm on some kind of pedestal? There are days in my life that I feel like I'm constantly having that conversation with God. That's how wicked our flesh is. And don't kid yourself for a minute. The Bible says though the outer man is decaying, the inner man's being renewed day by day. Inside this is happening, but the old man, listen, it's not getting better. It's just getting worse. Daily moment, let me tell you what that means. The relationship is everything. You see how when we tell you it's important that you spend time with God daily, that's not a thing you have to do to be a good Christian? No, it's the key to victory and living in this and not in that. Because it's out of the overflow of the daily relationship that I'm able to have communion with God where I'm daily moment by moment able to say, "God, that's not who I am anymore." Listen, when I distance myself from the relationship, let me tell you what happens. I gravitate towards this. You ever seen a Christian fall in an unbelievable, ungodly, moral kind of way and you think, how in the world, listen to me, every one of us is capable of every desire and action on this list apart from living out of this new man who we are in Christ. If you think for a second you got something on that board knocked off and you don't have to worry about that anymore, you are deceiving yourself. That's why he said, "Take up your cross daily." Let me give you the second one and we really have to finish. There are more people coming in a few moments. Number two, we should lay aside every attitude and action that disrupts my fellowship with others. Not only every desire seeks satisfaction in something other than my relationship with God, but every attitude and action that disrupts my fellowship with others. You see the second half of the list, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech lies. See the second half of the list? Paul gives us examples of attitudes or actions that damage our relationship with others. The word anger is a word that describes simmering or smoldering. The word wrath is an outburst of anger. It's when that simmering smoldering reaches a boiling point and it just bursts out. That's wrath. The word malice is a word that describes vicious attitude that's bent on doing harm to somebody else. It's harboring a viciousness where I want something wrong or harm to happen to somebody else. It's a boiling over of anger and wrath. The word slander, strong word. It's wounding someone's reputation with your words. I must say that again. It's wounding somebody's reputation with your words. It's an attempt to belittle somebody and often we'll use words to belittle somebody to try to make ourselves look better. Abusive speech, it's really just filthy talk or conversation. Zodiaces is a great Greek scholar. He says this word explains that as a Christian we should have a changed vocabulary. Wow. It's not, well, don't say that. No, it's not who he is. If it's coming out of me and it's not who he is, I'm living out of my old resources instead of allowing him to manifest. That's medley. We'll move on. Lying, speaking falsely, it's in a present tense describing a lifestyle of dishonesty. You see how it's interesting. All of these are really desires seeking satisfaction in something other than God, but all of these are more where these are more this way, these are more this way, you see it? And it's interesting when you study the Ten Commandments, the Ten Commandments, the first half of the Ten Commandments are all this way and then the last half are all this way. It's almost like this whole book's written by the same person, right? It's like somebody's got a plan. Why is it, I understand, but why is this, look at this quote by Roy Hessian, look at it on the screen, "All things that come between us and others come between us and God and spoil our fellowship with Him so that our hearts are not overflowing with the divine life?" You see, anger, wrath, malice, that's not who I am anymore. Some of you hanging on to some of this stuff, see, I hung on to some of this for a while after I got saved because I have some temper in my family lineage and this is being recorded so we won't say any more than that, I just have some temper in my family lineage and always just said, well, that's just who I am, it is who I was, but it's not who I am and I get the opportunity, I get the opportunity daily, moment by moment to either live out of who I was or live out of who I am, how does this happen? Man moment by moment is I see those things creeping up in my life, anger, malice, slander, lying, you know what you need to get in this practice of, you need to get in a practice of keeping a real short list. What do you mean, here's what I mean, immediately take it to God and immediately make it right with that other person. Daily, moment by moment, when I sense myself saying something about somebody and listen, if you're walking with Jesus as soon as it comes out of your mouth, you immediately go, I shouldn't be saying this, what do you do, right then you stop and you say, hey, I shouldn't have said that. And I'm about to take this to the Lord, but before I do I want to ask you to forgive me and if there's about somebody else you need to go to him and say, I need to ask you to forgive me, then you take it to Jesus and you, and here's the, it's interesting, in verse five, he says, put it to death and this one, it's interesting, he doesn't use that verb, but he says, take it off, it's like, it's like old clothes, you just keep taking that off, just keep taking that off and you just keep putting on new, now, don't miss next week, I know I've been long this morning, what am I intent to be, listen, listen, I know some of you that, we don't have time, we don't have time, some of you are so encouraging and you're so hungry there, I know for some of you a guy going this long, you're thinking, my Lord, what in the world, listen, listen, I just want you to understand this, there is, the Bible says, if you know the truth, the truth will set you free, if you get this, man, it's free, it's free, next week we're going to pack the second half of it, walking daily, putting off the old, but also putting on the new, what does it look like, they're not just lay aside the old, but to put on the new, that's important, because Christianity is not just about what I'm not doing, it's about what I listen, am becoming. [ Silence ]