Awake to Righteousness

Open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, meet me at verse 21, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21. The Apostle Paul tells us in this passage of scripture, for God made Christ who never sinned to be the offering for our sin so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Over the last several weeks, we've been talking about the ministry of the Holy Spirit, his purpose in the earth, his function in our lives, why Jesus left us the Holy Spirit, and how the Holy Spirit helps us, comforts us, strengthens us. He's our intercessory. He's our standby. He's our friend. He's our guide. He's our teacher. And what the Holy Spirit means to us in the earth and what the Holy Spirit means to us personally.

And so we've been really diving into the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and we're going to continue on as the summer continues on. And I want to piggyback on what we talked about last week regarding the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Just a quick review. Last week, we talked about how the Holy Spirit is convicting the world of sin, but he's convincing the saint or the believer of his righteousness. Now, that word convict means to pronounce guilt.

In a court of law, someone can be indicted, but until there is a conviction, there is no determination if they're guilty or not guilty, so on and so forth. So convict means to pronounce guilt. And what the Holy Spirit does to the unbeliever is he really is pronouncing guilt on the unbeliever. You, you need a savior. You are in your sin. You need help. You need to be delivered.

I am here. here i'm here to tell you to show you to rescue you to deliver you to sanctify you to bless you i'm here and he's convicting the sinner of their sin now the the sinner in and of themselves has a decision to make are they going to receive the conviction of the holy spirit or are they going to reject the conviction of the holy spirit and we see today that a lot of people are rejecting but we're not going to give up on them amen we were once sinners were we not we were once looking

to have a savior from our sins. And I'm glad that the Holy Spirit continued to convict me. And I'm glad that there were preachers that were continued to preach so that I could continue to be convicted. Somebody say amen. Now the believer, once the believer gives their life to Jesus, the believer now is not being convicted of sin.

So the Holy Spirit's not telling us that you're you're guilty, you're guilty, you're guilty, the believer is, the Holy Spirit is convincing the believer that he is righteous. And we find in this passage of scripture, the great exchange took place. God incarnate, which is a big word that simply means put on flesh, came to the earth in the form of his son, Jesus, lived a sinless lifestyle, never did anything wrong.

Always obeyed the Father, did everything the Father instructed, never missed a mark, never made a mistake, and he walked this earth a sinless life. But you and I woke up, was born into sin. We were born into trespass, and we missed the mark, and we make a mistake, and we get it wrong a lot of times per day. And a great exchange took place where God, who is the righteous in Jesus Christ, got on the cross and he was made sin on the cross. He didn't become sin by sinning.

He was made sin by the ultimate exchange that took place. God placed upon him on the cross all the sin of humanity. Humanity every sin that we could commit every sin we ever did every sin every every mishap every transgression everything that we've ever done God nailed it to Jesus on the cross and then the exchange took place he was made sin so that you and I could be made righteous all right so God God in Jesus was made a sinner.

He didn't do any sin, but he was made sin. You in Christ Jesus was made righteous. So you have to identify with the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. You as a believer are no longer considered a sinner. Now, the prevalent thought in most churches is we're all sinners. I was in a pastor meeting just the other day, and one of the pastors said that he was the chiefest sinner of them all.

And he was sitting around the table, and I'm sitting there like, brother, I don't want want to hear anything you have to say if you identify with being a sinner. No, you were a sinner and then you gave your life to Jesus and he made you righteous. And righteousness is the condition acceptable to God. Sinner is the condition unacceptable to God. So you are not just someone that believes in Jesus and you identify as a sinner. No, you are someone that believes in Jesus and God calls you righteous.

God says you are in right standing with me. God says that you are acceptable in my sight. Now, does that mean that righteous people don't sin? No, No, righteous people miss the mark. Righteous people don't always get it right. But 1 John 2, verse 1 says that if you sin, notice the writer of John didn't say when you sin, because he's not expecting you to sin. Come on, somebody. He says, if you sin, then you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus the righteous.

And then in verse 9, it goes on there to say, 1 John 1, verse 9, if you will confess your sin. He's faithful and just to forgive your sin and to cleanse you from all of unrighteousness. So I'm not saying that a saint cannot sin. I am saying a saint is not a sinner. A saint is the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. A saint is acceptable in the sight of God. A saint is made in right standing with God.

And when you believe the finished works of Jesus, you are no longer a sinner. Say, I am not a sinner. Say it like you mean it. I am not a sinner. I am not a sinner. You are not a sinner if you believe in the finished works of Christ Jesus. You are righteous. You are in right standing with God. You are what the Bible calls a saint. And I'll talk about that in a little bit. You are a Christian and you don't identify with being a sinner.

There are two different people on the earth. It's not black and it's not white. It's not male and it's not female. It is sinner and it is saint. Those are the two categories of people on the earth.

Sinner and saint and if you have given your life to Jesus you are a saint say I am a saint now 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verse 34 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verse 34. Paul tells us through the unction of the Holy Spirit, awake to righteousness and do not sin. I just want to stop right there. Awake to righteousness. Somebody shout awake. Awake. That means wake up. That means be aware. That means get excited. What are we waking up to? To righteousness.

Awake to righteousness. When you awake to righteousness, notice what you will do next. you will not sin. So if I want to talk to someone today that doesn't feel like they're acceptable to God, they don't feel like that they can get over a habitual sin, they keep missing the mark each and every time. You want to get better. You want to stop doing this. You want to stop participating in this, but it feels like you can't.

I want to talk to somebody that's maybe addicted to substance abuse or you're addicted to porn or you're addicted to these negative things that are in the earth and you want to stop. You want to get over it. You want to quit. I want to talk to somebody today that is filled with pride and rage and anger and maybe you can't stop lying. I want to talk to you today and you're trying but you can't. The answer, listen to me, is found in 1 Corinthians 15, 34. Let's put it back on the screen.

1 Corinthians 15, 34. When you awake to righteousness, you will not sin. So there must be an awakening that takes place, an awakening to, I am acceptable to God because of the finished works of Jesus. I am acceptable to God because of my belief in Jesus. In Romans chapter 3, it says, for all have sinned, all fall short of the glory of God. That very next verse says, but God, through Christ Jesus, has made you righteous.

And so once you wake up to this righteousness, it doesn't even matter how you feel, whether you feel righteous, whether you don't feel righteous, none of that matters.

What matters is I have faith in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit has made me the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus it's not about self-righteousness it's not about modifying your behavior it's not about trying to do everything right it's simply receiving the righteousness of God in Christ and when you awake to the righteousness of God in Christ, you'll begin to no longer sin. Now, I know many of you are sitting there thinking, well, I mean,

I'm human. I'm going to sin. You haven't awakened to your righteousness in Christ. Well, I mean, I'm going to miss tomorrow. I'm always going to make a mistake. Awake unto your righteousness and you'll stop doing those things that you're doing. Well, you know what? I mean, I just, I mean, it's okay. okay, I'm going to get a little weed, just a little bit.

Awaken until your righteousness, and you'll stop doing those things when you begin to realize I'm the righteousness of God, and God accepts me because of my faith in Jesus. I'm in right standing with God, and God loves me because I'm in righteous standing with him. Now, I want to show you something here last week, and I'm going to give credit to Don Moser on this. He said this to me last week, and I thought it was really good. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 1.

Ephesians chapter 1, verse 1. This is the Apostle Paul. Watch this. Paul is the apostle that wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. He says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints. Somebody say saints. Say saints again. To the saints who are in Ephesus and and faithful in Christ Jesus. Let's go to the next one there. Is that Philippians? Philippians chapter one, verse one as well.

It says, Paul and Timothy bond service of Jesus Christ to all the saints. Somebody shout saints. Saints. In Christ Jesus. Let's go to Colossians chapter one, verse two. Colossians chapter one, verse two. To the saints. Somebody shout saints. Saints. And faithful brethren in Christ Jesus who are in Colossus. What Don said last week and what impacted my heart is notice Paul did not write to the sinners of these places. He's not writing to the sinners. So there has to be a difference.

You either are a sinner or you're a saint. You can't be both. He's writing to the saints, to the ones that have confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. Matter of fact, in all of Paul's books, I could have went through it today. That's how he started out. He's talking to the saints. He's not talking to the sinners. He's talking to the saints. He's talking to the ones that identify with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

And the scriptures, more often than not, refer to you and I as saints than it does as Christians. We've adopted this word Christians, and I like the origin of it is great. Christ means the anointed one. Christians, the anointed ones. So we're anointed ones on the earth. I love the origin of Christians. but do you know that 85% of our Congress say that they are Christians?

85% identify as Christians. Do you think 85% of them are saved, believed in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? Absolutely not. So Christians has become a political term now. It's a political group, right? It has nothing to do with following Jesus, just I identify with a standard of beliefs. That's why I believe the scriptures talk about us being saints.

More than it talks about us being christians and we don't want to identify with being a saint because we figure that a saint is someone that does everything right well saint joseph and saint paul and saint mary and he's i'm not a saint if i would have started i didn't want to embarrass you but if i would start out how many identified saints mostly would not even raise your hand because that's someone that just is perfect and doesn't do anything wrong no a saint

is someone Someone that's righteous in Christ Jesus. Someone that has given their life to Jesus and now God accepts their decision and their condition is acceptable in the sight of God. And so Paul is talking to the saints. Say, I'm a saint. Say it again. I'm a saint. You are a saint. And we need to begin to awaken until this realization that I am a saint. I am the righteousness of God. I am acceptable in the sight of God.

There's nothing I can do that won't make me acceptable in the sight of God. Now, I gave the example of my children. I love them, and they're Alexanders, and if they act crazy, they'll always be Alexanders. Now, I remind them all the time, This is not how Alexanders act. Alexanders don't act this way. This is not how we respond. This is not what we say. Alexanders say thank you. Alexanders do this, we do that. This is not how we act. But they can act crazy and they'll always be an Alexander.

They're always going to be in my family, but they're not always, watch this, pleasing to me. And this is where holiness comes in. Holiness is the conduct that is in line with God. Holiness is the conduct, meaning I think like God. If God says this is black, I say it's black. If God says it's red, I say it's red. I don't say, well, God says it's black. I say it looks a little purple. That would be unholy. No, holiness actually says the same thing God says about it.

Holiness thinks the same way God thinks about it, and holiness responds the same way God responds. And this is what holiness is all about. Holiness is more about your conduct and your behavior, which is in line with your thinking. Let me say this real quick. Those of you that are maybe your leaders at work, or your parents, or you're working with people, and you have some people maybe underneath you, a lot of times we are trying to change behavior.

We're looking at someone, and we're trying to modify their behavior. I think about my children. Okay, I need you to stop doing this. And I'm trying to modify their behavior, but what I need to be addressing is the way they think, which is connected to their heart. If I can address the way they think, if I can address the way they process, then I can modify their behavior by just addressing the way they think. Can I give you a real-life example? This just happened a couple weeks ago.

I told Zavin, lock the door when you come in from playing outside. And okay, he wasn't locking the door. Lock the door, Zavin. He come in, wasn't locking the door. Wasn't locking the door. Lock the door. Lock the door. This is on and on. Lock the door, man. Lock the door. So finally, I said to him, are you ready for this? I said, Zayven, are you ready to attack and confront and jump on somebody that walks into this house because you didn't lock the door? I mean, that is not always home.

Are you ready to attack them if they come in here unwelcome, unannounced and try to do us some harm?

The door has been locked ever since so when you address how someone thinks it changed the behavior, he's like I ain't trying to attack nobody I ain't trying to you know I ain't trying to confront nobody you know if you're not home I'm not trying to do it you know he the mindset changed the door is locked now so what God is after is the way we think this is why we got to renew our minds and the Lord is also after our hearts because for as a man thinks, so is he.

So if the scriptures can get you to think that you're righteous, your behavior will change. If the word of God can convince you to awaken into righteousness, you're in a right standing with God, you're acceptable, you're in a good condition, that God accepts you just the way you are, your behavior will be modified and you will change. Somebody say amen to that. Not a lot of times in this righteousness teaching, and this is all under the function and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is helping us. The Holy Spirit is convincing us. This is one of his duties is to convince you that you're righteous he's not attacking you when you mess up that's your own spirit your own conscience is is causing you to feel guilty shame condemnation so on and so forth the holy spirit is actually convincing you now remember you're the righteousness of god remember you're in right standing with god righteous people don't act like that come on let's stop doing that.

Righteous people don't respond like that. Let's stop doing that. It's almost like a friend. The Holy Spirit is called a friend, but how many of you want a friend walking around with you all day long talking about how terrible you are? You know, your friend's with you, and you're so bad, you're so evil, you're so wicked, you're so...at some point, leave me alone, right? That's not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not walking around you saying, you're so evil, you're so bad, you're so terrible.

No, the Holy Spirit says, you are in right standing with God.

You are loved by God you are accepted by God God is here with you and he is convincing you that you are the apple of his eye and when you begin to see that you'll begin to think like he thinks and your behavior will be modified somebody say amen now a lot of times when you talk about this righteousness teaching.

We kind of leave it like this, and a lot of people kind of feel like, well, if there's nothing I can do to be made unrighteous in the sight of God, then I'm just going to, you know, go do what I feel like doing all the time. And then I submit to you, then you're probably not saved.

You probably have not given your life to the Lord. If you can take this kind of teaching and say, I'm going to keep being sin, I'm going to keep going to sin because I am the righteousness of God, then you're probably not saved and you need to give your life to Jesus, okay? But a lot of times we don't address what righteous living looks like. And I want to do that in Ephesians chapter 4 and look at verse 22, Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 22. I want to address what righteous living looks like.

And Paul tells us here in verse 22 Ephesians 4 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life which is corrupted by lust and deception now notice here he says we're going to have to throw off that old sinful nature the King James says put it off it's your former way of life. Now look at verse 23. Then he says, instead, do something different. Let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

So notice we're going to have to take off our old way of thinking, our old life, and let the spirit of God change the way we think, our thoughts and our attitudes. Look at verse 24. Put on, now we're going to put on your new nature, created to be like God, God, truly righteous and holy. Pause right there for a second. We're going to put on this nature and this nature is created like God. So when we're talking about righteous living, we're not talking about being someone that you're not.

We're talking about actually being who you really are. You have put on a new nature. your spirit has been changed recreated a new creation you are the righteousness of God you have the nature the characteristics of God you have the fruit of the spirit because the Holy Spirit came to live on on the inside of you so all the scriptures is asking you to do is yield to who you already are on the inside and so he says there put that back on the screen if you don't mind, sir.

Verse 24, put on your new nature created to be like God. What is this new nature like? Truly righteous and holy. The Holy Spirit is helping you be truly righteous and holy. Look at the next verse. So step one in righteous living, we're going to have to stop telling lies. Okay, stop telling lies. Say this out to me. I will stop telling lies. Okay, you can take that off the screen. I got to tell a quick story.

One of the things that we're going to, one of the ways that we're mostly like the enemy is when we lie. Pride is one, but when we begin to lie, Satan is a liar. And he's incapable of telling the truth. If he's talking to you, he's lying, okay? So when he tells me that something terrible is gonna happen to me today, I say, I start praising God because he's lying because God is good and Psalms 91 is before me, in me, on me, and everything's gonna be all right. Somebody say amen to that.

He is a liar. And so one of the ways we're mostly like him is telling lies. There was a particular gentleman who used to go to our church and the brother lied all the time. If he was talking, he was lying. I just never believed anything he was saying. He was lying all the time. And I was trying to get him to see that you're like the devil, but you know, when you get the line and get in the line and get in the line, you start believing those lies.

And then he started telling me he wasn't lying. Then other people said he's lying, right? And listen, we got to stop lying if we're going to to live righteously. You're going to have to tell the truth even if it hurts you. Even if it causes you to get in trouble, you need to tell the truth because lying is not part of your righteous living. Somebody shout amen. Look at the next verse or the same verse. Is that verse 25 of Ephesians 4? Stop telling lies.

Let us tell our neighbors the truth for we are all parts of the same body. Look at verse 26. And don't sin by letting anger control you. That's number two of righteous living. Stop letting anger control you. Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry. I want to talk about that for a second. Anger is an emotion. We all feel anger, but how we respond to anger is what determines if we are operating in self-control or not. You can be angry. Sometimes anger will propel some good works.

I'm angry that these people are not eating over here. I'm going to do something about that, right? It can cause good works, but we have let the emotion of anger take over to when at this point we have some offense against a brother or sister. We're mad at mom and dad. We're mad at our son and daughter. Or we're mad at our siblings, and this anger has come in as an emotion that is controlling you. And if you don't respond the right way to anger, anger will control your life.

This is why he said, this is why Paul tells us, don't let the sun go down on your anger. Address it. Address it. Meet with someone. Whatever you need to do, address it. Now, even if it's, hey, can we talk about this tomorrow? You know, even if it's, hey, I don't want to go to sleep angry. I love you, but I need to, we need to, we can, can we, can we just put this off tomorrow?

Let's, I love you. Give me a kiss. If it's a spouse situation, whatever, you know, you know, let's put the anger away and then wake up and maybe get some fresh perspective on it. But I will tell you this. another thing where anger is concerned if you are angry ask yourself this question what am I afraid of. Anger is closely associated with your greatest fear. What am I afraid of? When Stacey and I first got married, and one of the hardest

things for us to collaborate was the money. I don't know, everybody has a different story. But putting the monies together, man, that was difficult, you know, because I like to save, and my girl, she liked to spend, you know. And so it was difficult, you know. And when we, in our first year, I think it was the very first month, she went out to get some groceries. I said, this is, I handle the bills in the house. I said, this is how much we have allocated.

And she doubled that. It was double. She came home and doubled what I had. And I was angry. Now understand, I don't cook, so I don't know how much really groceries cost. I was eating Hot Pockets and little pizzas and Jack in the Box, okay, before I got married. And so she was like, I can't get enough groceries with this little budget. She spent double. I was angry. I can't believe you spent. And I was upset. Oh, you spent. You just deliberately did that. Oh, my gosh.

And I sat back and I'm going to my office. Oh, my goodness. And the Lord said, what are you afraid of? That's the first thing I heard in my heart. What are you afraid of? And the anger started because of fear. I said, I'm afraid she's going to spend all of our money. We're not going to have any more money. And the Lord said, I will supply all your need. You need to eat. You need groceries in the house. Amen? And I like to eat, okay?

And so I said, you know what? I went back and apologized. I'm sorry for getting angry. God's going to take care of us. If that's how much groceries cost, that's how much it costs, you know? And we just keep it moving. And so, but I had to ask myself, the Lord told me, what are you afraid of? If you ever get angry, let that be your very first question. What am I afraid of? And then answer that question and then address it because then that's when the anger will subside.

Come on, somebody say amen. All right, put the verse on the screen, guys. If you don't mind, don't let sin and don't sin by letting anger control you. Don't let the sun go down while you're still angry. Verse 27, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. That means that gives the devil an opportunity to control your life. Anger gives the devil a chance to control your life. Look at verse 28. If you are a thief, quit stealing. Okay.

So there's another way of righteous living. We're going to have to quit stealing. Stealing our company time. Oh, I know I said it. You're supposed to be doing something in the company. You're doing something else. You're stealing. All right? We're going to have to work. I knew I wasn't going to get a lot of good amens on that, but that's the truth. We're going to have to do what's right while we're at work. Say amen to that. Amen.

If you're a thief, quit stealing. I remember, you know, people used to, the company I worked for, they had a store.

And you can go in the store. it was the store that you needed for to do your job and they had unlimited amount of ink pans, and highlighters and no unlimited you just go in and get it I mean it was unlimited I used to think man I need some of this at home that's stealing I said oh lord let me take that back to the to the office I don't want to steal say amen to that amen I said no no no you know what? No, I am not a thief. Say, I am not a thief.

In John 10.10, Jesus compares Satan to what? A thief. Let's put that back on the screen. He says here, if you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good hard work and then give generously to others in need. Give generously is a characteristic also of righteous living. When you awake to righteousness, it's easy for you to give generously. Look at verse 29. Don't use foul or abusive language. Stop cussing. Got quiet in here again. Stop using harsh or foul, abusive language.

If I can go deeper with this, stop saying things that are contrary to what the word of God says. That would be considered foul and abusive language. Well, I'm ugly. That's foul and abusive language because the spirit of God says you're a masterpiece created in his name. Well, I'm broke, busted, and disgusted. Well, God says I'm going to supply all your need. Well, I am, you know, I'm just sick. I'm sick. I'm sick. And God said, by my stripes, you are healed.

Well, I'm so tired. Well, the Lord said, let the weak say, I'm strong. This is foul and abusive language. He says, righteous people don't use foul and abusive language. With everything you say, watch this, be good and helpful so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. Be an encourager to those who hear your words. Look at verse 30. And do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live. Pause right there. The way you live can bring God sorrow.

It's important. You're the righteousness of God in Christ. You are acceptable in his sight. He always will accept you because of your faith in Jesus Christ. There's nothing you can do if you continue to have faith in Jesus Christ to make you unacceptable to God. But then he tells us here, the way you live can bring God sorrow. You're acceptable, but you can bring God's sorrow by the way you live. For example, with my children, the way they live can bring me sorrow.

They're always accepted with Stacy and I, but they can bring me sorrow by the way they live. Somebody say amen to that. It says, do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit. You have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of you. Don't bring him sorrow.

Remember, he's identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved the day of redemption on the day of redemption don't bring sorrow to the holy spirit by the way you live righteous people live right say this after me righteous people live right say it again like you mean it righteous people live right look at verse Verse 31, get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.

Now, I broke this thing down for you. Bitterness is unmet expectations from others. You feel let down, and so your whole demeanor changes. Get rid of the unmet expectations from others. I want to help you with this today. If you will expect nothing from others, you will appreciate everything from them. Now, listen, yes, are we expecting people to be truthful and honest and that sort of thing? Yes, am I expecting my wife to be faithful and she, yes, yes.

But if she begins to just simply expect nothing, meaning, you know what? Everything he does, I'll begin to appreciate it if it's good, right? My wife makes my plate every single time I eat. I am so thankful for that. She makes my plate every single time. I don't expect her to do it. But I appreciate it. And so when she doesn't do it, and sometimes she doesn't, I don't get all, where's my plate at? Where's my plate? I don't do that because I'm not expecting it. I appreciate it.

And when she doesn't, I just, I get up and I go to the kitchen and I put it on my plate and I go sit down. Somebody say amen to that. When we begin from other people, there are there are situations that I hear about families that, well, you know, my sister don't call me enough. Well, you can't make them do that. You're just going to have to expect that they're not going to call you, okay? And if they do, you're going to have to just appreciate it, right?

This will calm you down. When you realize you can't control another person, you're not even called to do that. You can't make another adult do something they don't want to do. You can't and spouses try to do this all the time with each other I'm gonna make you do this it's impossible matter of fact the last person that can make you do something is gonna be your spouse. That's usually the last person going to make me do it. Stacy told me, you do this.

I'm a grown man, right? That's just kind of how what happens. That doesn't happen. But then John can ask me to do it. Okay, I'll do it. Well, why did you do it? Well, because, you know, John asked me, you know. You know, that's kind of how it is. You can't make anybody do anything. And what happens with bitterness is there's unmet expectations. We're expecting someone to do this, and we're let down, and we become bitter.

Anger. We just talked about anger. Harsh words in that verse is mean. Stop saying mean words. Rage. I looked this up the other day. Rage is different than anger. Anger is an emotion, but rage is an explosive outburst with destructive behavior. A lot of times, rage occurs when the act, the behavior is not even consistent with what happened.

I've seen this happen where grown men will spill something on their shirt while they're eating and go off in a rage, cussing and, oh, I'm a dummy, I'm stupid, am I a baby? And I mean, just literally, and go off in a rage. And it's like, that's not even consistent with what happened. I mean, you got something on your shirt, so be it. So be it, you know? And then, you know, one guy, he used to get something on his tie all the time. And, you know, ties are expensive. He would pitch a fit.

And finally, I told him, I said, you do realize the purpose of the tie was to catch stuff that falls from your mouth. That's actually the purpose of the tie. You close it, it was supposed to catch stuff. And so you do know it's serving its purpose. You missed your mouth, it fell on your tie, that's what was supposed to happen, you know? But these rage, rage takes place and you'll blurt out in some explosive outburst, you'll say stuff you don't mean.

You'll tell your spouse, well, you know, I wish I never married you. Where did that come from? An outburst of rage. I hate you. That's rage and that's not righteous living. It's really destructive behavior. And then the last thing he said there was slander, which is false statements about someone to damage their reputation. False statements about someone to damage their reputation. What does that mean? It means you're lying on someone.

You're talking to other people about someone that's not true, or you're only telling your side of the story, and you're causing people to think another way about a person. That is what slander is all about. out. So verse 31, if you don't mind, back on the screen, Ephesians 4.31, get rid of all bitterness. This is what righteous living will do. This is what a righteous person, how a righteous person lives. Gets rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander,

as well as all types of evil behavior. And look at verse 32. Instead, this is how a righteous person should live. Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

And look, if you don't mind, let's go to chapter 5, verse 1 there, Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 1. I want you to see the first two words that pop up when Ephesians chapter 5, verse 1 comes on the screen, because we want to be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. In Ephesians 5, 1, it says here, imitate God. That's it right there. How are righteous people supposed to live? We are to imitate God.

God's spirit, through the precious Holy Spirit, is a permanent resident in the believer, in the saint. You have the fruit of the spirit already in operation in you. We may talk a little bit about that next week all of him is in you your spirit is recreated to a brand new spirit.

Now there is contention with your flesh, but you are righteous and your body, your flesh has to do what you, the righteous Sierra, the righteous Renee, the righteous Adrian, we dominate our flesh because our spirit is stronger than our flesh. And the way we dominate is we begin to change our mind, renew our mind with the word of God. What does the word of God say about this? Who am I? I'm the righteousness of God. If you don't feel accepted by God, I'm the righteousness of God.

Begin to declare, I'm the righteousness of God. of God. Too often, many of us don't feel accepted by each other, by our friends. We don't feel accepted in our community. We feel like we don't fit in. Righteousness makes us accepted. When we know who we are in Christ, we understand that we are righteous and God accepts us just the way we are. Now, we can be more pleasing to him when we live righteously. I mean, the scripture said, don't bring sorrow to God's heart by the way you live.

When we walk by faith, when we yield to the spirit of God, we can be more pleasing to him, but we're always accepted by him when we believe in the finished works of Jesus. This is how you experience true life.