Eph 4:17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.
Eph 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
Eph 4:19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
Eph 4:20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—
Eph 4:21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,
Eph 4:22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,
Eph 4:23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
Eph 4:24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Eph 4:25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Eph 4:26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
Eph 4:27 and give no opportunity to the devil. —ESV
Unity in the Body of ChristEph 4:1 In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere.
Eph 4:2 And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love,
Eph 4:3 alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.
Eph 4:4 You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly.
Eph 4:5 You have one Master, one faith, one baptism,
Eph 4:6 one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.
Eph 4:7 But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift.
Eph 4:8 The text for this is, He climbed the high mountain, He captured the enemy and seized the booty, He handed it all out in gifts to the people.
Eph 4:9 It’s true, is it not, that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth?
Eph 4:10 And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts,
Eph 4:11 filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher
Eph 4:12 to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church,
Eph 4:13 until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.
Eph 4:14 No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors.
Eph 4:15 God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do.
Eph 4:16 He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.
The New LifeEph 4:17 And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd.
Eph 4:18 They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself.
Eph 4:19 They can’t think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.
Eph 4:20 But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ!
Eph 4:21 My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus.
Eph 4:22 Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life,
Eph 4:23 a life renewed from the inside
Eph 4:24 and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.
Eph 4:25 What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.
Eph 4:26 Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry.
Eph 4:27 Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.
Eph 4:28 Did you used to make ends meet by stealing? Well, no more! Get an honest job so that you can help others who can’t work.
Eph 4:29 Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.
Eph 4:30 Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.
Eph 4:31 Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk.
Eph 4:32 Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you. —MSG
Christ is the Lesson
The Holy Spirit is the Teacher
The Bible is the Text Book
and we just keep on learning
Righteousness Through Faith in Christ
Php 3:3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—
Php 3:4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:
Php 3:5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
Php 3:6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
Php 3:7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Php 3:8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Php 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
Php 3:10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
Php 3:11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. —ESV
1. Knowing Jesus means enroling in the The School of Christ and the school of Christ Requires total
.
“That I may know Him”
If we are going to Know Him we will need to make the
to totally
.
Surrender to the
Surrender to the
Surrender to the
Surrender to the
Eph 1:17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
Eph 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,
Eph 1:19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength
Eph 1:20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
Eph 1:21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
Eph 1:22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church,
Eph 1:23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. —NIV
2. Learning Christ Requires
The Revelation of Jesus is
your job, It is the
of the Holy Spirit.
OPEN THE EYES OF MY HEART
“the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better”.
Revealed In His
The Bible is God’s message to us.
It was not Man’s idea It is God’s Message
JESUS IS THE WORD
2Ti 3:14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,
2Ti 3:15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
2Ti 3:17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. —NIV
Revealed In Times of
Not a quest for enlightenment (Human quest for a higher state of being) it is holy spirit illumination
Revealed In the
“You are the only Jesus some will ever see”
2Co 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2Co 3:18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. —NIVRom 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. —NIV
3. Learning Christ Requires Faith
Heb 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. —ESV
Whatever you are facing, Faith is the answer.
Rom 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 5:2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Rom 5:3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
Rom 5:4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
Rom 5:5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. —ESV