November 12, 2017 · Ephesians 4:17–24

Living Church

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

“He's saying to you, I want you to have joy in your heart. I want you to understand that you can be a light that shines. We talk about the vision for the church, and God's vision. What he has a vision of is new people seeing Jesus because you are living in your new self. That is a church where everyone is living in this new way, and people are attracted to Jesus. I want to see that. It's a lifelong process, but it is worth the makeover time. So I pray that our church is kind of like a change room. We're in this process where some of us are taking off this sweater and others are putting on new things. And we're in this place. When we come together to recognize, hey, God is working on me. He's working with me. As long as I'm journeying with him and growing in this, he is going to look at me, and — he smiles. You can please him. He is happy with you, because you are living a life where you're allowing him to speak into this. God's vision is of a people who are growing in him, in this makeover of old self to new self. … They mocked him. Much like the persecuted church that we saw earlier, who, by the way, are living this life of change to the point where they're risking their lives.”