Oh God, forgive me".Īnd I was talking really about all my wretched past. Read a chapter of the Bible every day that I didn't understand at all because I wasn't enlightened by the Holy Ghost, and said one little pitiful prayer, the same prayer, every night. I went to church on a regular basis, even did my little duty doing a few good works. I had actually received Christ when I was a 9-year-old child. I was filled with bitterness, resentment because of the difficulties in my past life. I was unhappy, no peace, drifting through one day after another, no real purpose, finding fault with everyone and everything. How many of you can recall how miserable you were before receiving Christ? Anybody in here remember that? You know, it's actually kind of good sometimes to think about that because it gives you so much appreciation for what you have now. And then we realize that our lives are just filled with every kind of misery. You just think that you should have what you think you should have, and do what you feel like you should do, and you treat people the way you feel like you want to treat them, and say to people what you feel like you want to say, and so on and so forth. But until you know Christ, you don't know any better. And as long as we do, we cannot have anything but destruction in our lives. Thoughts turn into feelings, we walk according to those feelings. And so, we walk according to those thoughts. So, satan comes against our thoughts, he tries to put evil thoughts in our mind. And that the mind is the battleground on where that battle is fought. I'm sure most of you can feel that sometimes. Well, in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, it tells us that there's a battle going on, a spiritual battle. But Jesus said, "I came that you might have and enjoy your life". And in John 10:10, it says that this enemy, satan, the thief, comes only to kill, steal, and destroy. Well, that's not coming from God, it's coming from your enemy and his, satan. Maybe you've never thought about it even in those terms, but surely if you're watching today, you recognize that there's an evil force at work in the world today. Well, 2 Corinthians 10:4 and 5 teaches us that we do have an enemy, satan, the devil, whatever name you prefer to call him. Do any of you remember when you just did what you felt like, and did what you thought, and didn't even know that, that was a problem at all? It says we obeyed the passions of the flesh and the impulses of the mind. The Bible says that who we were when we were following the ways of the world and were under the control of satan. Who I was, who I am, and the hope of what I still will yet be. It speaks of who we were before accepting Christ, who we are now in Christ, and who we are foreordained to become as we continue to grow spiritually in him. You might say that Ephesians chapter 2 reveals the Christian's past, their present, and their future. And now he's saying, "Just respond to what I've done in your heart".Īnd chapter 2 kinda continues to go along the same lines, only I love the way it presents this. He's done everything to bring us into relationship with him. He approves of you, he chose you, he picked you out, he adopted you. He loves you, he loves you, he loves you, he loves you. That's what the first three chapters in Ephesians gets across. He did not say, "If you obey me, I will love you". Jesus said, "If you'd love me, you will obey me". Once you fall deeply in love with Jesus and you know what he's done for you, then you're going to want, with all of your heart, to do what he wants you to do. You can't just be one way when you think nobody's looking, and another way when you think people are looking.Īnd so, once again, can't really change your behavior until you know who you are in Christ. So, let me say again, I believe that how we behave is very important, not only when you're in front of people, but at home behind closed doors. Now, there are many that are, but compared to the number of people who claim to be a Christian, if everybody that is one would act like one, behave like one, especially from the standpoint of walking in love and maintaining decent moral behavior, I think that the rest of the world would already be so impressed that they would want to know Christ too. You know, I personally think that, that's one of the biggest problems that we have in the world today is that so many Christians are not letting their light shine. And then it talks about now let's behave as though we were Christians. And I just love the whole book of Ephesians because it spends three chapters telling us who we are in Christ, how much he loves us, our relationship with him is covered. We are in the midst of a Bible study on the book of Ephesians, and I'm going to do Ephesians chapter 2 today.
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