Off and on Christian. This series we started from Ephesians, back a few weeks ago from this passage of scripture. As we read it, hopefully, it seemed a bit familiar to you if you've been here over the past month because we've read it a few times. And as we do each week, we're going a little further in the passage in addressing some specific areas as Christians if things were to put off and things were to put on. This week, put on work and giving and put off stealing.

So we'll come back to that in a second. Just a quick review, we we took a break last week because it was Father's Day to address fathers, and so this week we're gonna come back. So just a quick review this morning. First of all, when we're talking about putting off and putting on as God's children, you need to first understand who you are. If you are saved, if you put your faith in Jesus Christ to be the Lord and savior of your life, then you are in Christ.

And in Christ, you are a new creature. There if any therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new person. We don't like to use the word creature today. I mean, you know, like a bug or something, but he is a you are a new creation. Okay?

Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become what? New. You are a new person. You're a different person in Christ than you were before you came to Christ.

Romans Ephesians two ten says this, as a new creature, a new person in Jesus Christ, it says, we are his workmanship. We are his masterpiece created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Are we saved by good works? The answer to that is no. We're not saved by good works.

The verses that precede this one make that very clear. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. You can't earn heaven. Jesus earned heaven for you if you will receive him and his gift, but you can't earn it yourself. You just can't because everything we do is tainted by by sin.

However, when you come to Christ and become a child of God, does God have expectations for his children? The answer to that is yes, he does. He expects us by his grace and with his help to become more like him, to live in a fashion that brings glory to him, to do works that reflect the works of our and the nature of our God who is our father in heaven. And he is working workmanship. He is working in us to make us more like him.

Romans eight twenty nine says, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Why did God save you? Not just to take you to heaven. Yes, he did save you to take you to heaven, but that's not the only reason you're not in heaven. Not yet, you're still here on earth.

And he wants to make a difference in your life when? Today. Now. On earth. He wants to make you more like Jesus.

He wants to be glorified in your life and he deserves to because he gave his son for you, because he is your creator. And so, as children of God representing the Lord whom we serve, who've been saved by his grace, who have been made new creations in Christ Jesus. We need to put off the ways of the old life, the ways of the old nature, the ways of the world, and we need to put on the ways of the Lord Jesus Christ as we find it in his word. Put off the old, put on the new. First Peter one fourteen says, as obedient children, and that's who we are in Christ, We are God's children.

Not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust in your ignorance. Don't don't don't pattern your life after the things that you did before you came to Christ. Don't pattern your life after the world around you. You've been saved from that. You you've been given a wonderful gift.

You've been freed from the power and slavery of sin. Don't pattern your life after the world around you. Pattern your life after who? After Jesus Christ. Put off the old ways.

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside, let us cast off every weight in the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. As we serve the Lord and live a life for the glory of God, let us cast off the old things of sin and the world. Let us put on the new things in Christ that are ours. First Peter one fifteen and sixteen. We just read 14 here a second ago.

14 said this, as obedient children not fashioning yourselves according to former lusts and your ignorance. Verse 15, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written, be ye holy for I am holy. God says, put off the old the old ways. Don't pattern your life. Don't be conform do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Be transformed. To be like who? To be more like Jesus every day. To be holy like him. To be set apart under his service.

That's what the word holy means. To be set apart in his service, to be set apart under the one who saved us, to be set apart to do those things that reflect the nature and the love and the power of God that dwells in the heart of every child of God called the Holy Spirit. So then in Ephesians four here, Paul begins to get a little more specific about the things, A few things here that we need to put off and what we need to put on. The first we looked at a few weeks ago, we find in verse 25, he says, wherefore putting away lying speak every man truth with his neighbor for we are members one of another. So the first thing he addresses here is lying.

Does the world lie? Yes. Is it human nature to lie? Yes. Is it wrong to lie?

Yes. Does it bring glory to God? No. Okay. Do Christians often often sweep little white lies under the rug?

Yes, they do. Where did we learn that from? We learn it from the world. We learn it from our past life before we came to know Christ as savior. We do not need to follow that pattern.

We need to follow a new pattern and new example. Not the example of the world, but the example of who? The example of Jesus Christ. And we need to put off lying and we need to put on honesty. We need to put off the old man, the dishonest one, and we need to put on the new man which is made in the similitude, the pattern of Jesus Christ.

Be the person of integrity and honest character in whom others can trust. That in itself will make you salt and light in the world. Just be an honest person and you will bring glory to God. Number two, we find in verse 26, be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. So, next of all, we need not only to put away lying, we need to put away anger.

Well, not altogether, but we need to react differently to anger than our human nature tells us to react. That is we need to deal with anger swiftly and righteously. We need to deal with our anger swiftly and righteously. It says here in this verse, be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down on your wrath. What is Paul communicating there to the Christians at Ephesus?

He is saying this, anger is an emotion but you can be angry and not what? Sin. How do you do that? You deal with your anger swiftly. You do not let it linger.

You do not let it fester in your heart, it will make you a bitter person. And, you'll be of little use to God if your heart is full of bitterness. Deal with it swiftly. Do not let the sun go down upon your wrath. Deal with it righteously.

Do not let it erupt in angry words and actions doing irreversible damage to yourself and others. Do not let it consume you giving a foothold to who? To the devil. Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath neither give place to who? The devil.

When we harbor anger in our hearts, we give place to who? The devil to get his foot in the door. When we erupt with a hot temper and we we lash out at people physically or verbally, we're giving place to the devil. How many people are in prison because they got what? Angry and they did something in anger that they can never reverse.

Anger is not our friend. Anger, 99% of the time, is our enemy. Do not let anger control you. You, by God's grace and through his spirit, control your anger and you can. You can.

Control your anger with the help of the spirit for just as you cannot be drunk with wine and filled with the spirit, neither can you be filled with anger and filled with the spirit also. And then today brings us to verse 28. Let him that stole, steal no more, but let but rather let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth. In second Thessalonians three ten, Paul writes this, for for even when we were with you, this we commanded you that if any would not work, neither should he eat. Now, that sounds awful harsh, does it not?

So if any doesn't work, neither do they eat. Now, what was going on in the church at Thessalonica? There were some that were teaching the people that the end of the world was upon them and that Christ's return was was like days or weeks away. And so in response, they decided that there was no need for them to what? To work.

Well, the end is coming. I'm not gonna work. Well, Paul spent a good bit of Thessalonians saying, no, the end is coming but it is not here yet. We don't know when Christ's return is. God was very clear about that.

No man knows the day or the hour. So assume that Christ coming is yet in the future and you need still need to what? To work. So some had quit working and then everybody else had to pick up the slack for the people who said, well, if Christ is coming, I don't have to work anymore. Okay.

It helps to know the context sometimes, does it not? However, God's way to gain the things which you and your family need and desires, God's method, God's plan is something called work and work is not a bad word. For many people today, they treat it like that. Work. That's a bad word.

No. Work is not bad. Work is actually good. It is good. It is a good word.

It is a good idea. It is a good use of your time. Ordained by God to give man something both productive and fulfilling to do. God gave you time here. What are gonna fill it up with?

Well, do you think the God who made you and created you might want you to fill it up with things that are productive? I think so. And not only are they productive, but they're also fulfilling. When we accomplish something, it gives fulfillment, gives meaning to our life. Man was created in the image of who?

In the image of God and as such, man is both capable of providing for himself or herself and for their family. God has given you that ability, created in his image, both men and women, made with the need to do something productive and creative like who? Like God. Did God do something productive and creative? Yeah.

You. You. He created you. He created this world. He is sovereign over this world.

He is aware and working in your life. He is very, very busy. He created us to be like who? Like him. He gave us the ability to be productive.

He gave us the ability to be creative, and he expects us to use those things. It gives us great pleasure in being productive and creative and using our talents, time, and energy to better ourselves and also to better others. Work is generally the answer to meeting our needs and one of the answers to finding fulfillment in life. So, don't treat work like a bad word. What is bad?

Stealing. Stealing is bad. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor or work. Stealing is a sin. A transgression of God's clear cut commands.

One of the 10 commandments, thou shalt not steal. So breaking one of God's commandments, therefore, is a sin. When we transgress God's clear command to us, we are sinning. It is bad. And is therefore something that should be what?

Put off, cast aside out of the life of the child of God. Not only is it as a sin that transgresses God's law, it is inconsiderate of others. Most of whom have worked hard to get what they have. Does God does God value his personal possessions? What do you think?

Does he value his personal possessions? Who they're good. Who is his personal possession? You are. Does he value you?

Yes. Did it anger God when Satan came in the garden and rob God of his most precious creation? Yes. It did. Did God make a way through Jesus Christ to redeem you and bring you back?

Yes, he did. He values you greatly. You are his personal creation and his personal possession. So when he gave the 10 commandments to Israel, one of the things he told them is, thou shalt not steal. In other words, you need to value your possessions and you need to value the possessions of others.

You need to be considerate of other people. You don't simply take what you want because it belongs to them. So be considerate of them. It is a shortcut to gain which not only angers God and harms others, but robs us of the benefits of working and providing honestly for ourselves and those whom we love. Stealing isn't only wrong.

Stealing isn't only being inconsiderate of others. Stealing is robbing yourself. Robbing yourself of the fulfillment that you would get by earning things for yourself. Stealing, thievery, burglary, cheating, fraud, embezzlement, shoplifting are all wicked sins that have no place in the life of who? A child of God.

You need to put those things off. You need to replace them with hard honest labor and a spirit of giving rather than a spirit of what? Spirit of taking. Envy, covetous greed, and discontentedness are the ways of the world and our human sinful nature. But it's not the way of Christ.

These sinful desires, envy, covetousness, greed, discontentedness often lead to the act that Paul tells us not to do right here. Don't steal. Why do people steal? They're envious of what others have. Why do people steal?

Because they're greedy. Why do people steal? Because they're not what? Content with what they have. These sin these sinful desires often lead to stealing and attempts to justify it.

Isn't it isn't fair that they should have so much and I should have so what? Little. Well, look what they have and look what I have. It just isn't fair. Therefore therefore, I have the right to cheat them out of something that is theirs because it isn't fair.

That's what some people say. An attitude that is ungodly. They therefore owe me. I deserve to have better. If they won't give it, then I'll just what?

Then I'll just take it. That is not the mind of Christ. That is the mind of the world. Both the devil and his malcontents in society that wish to destroy society and empower themselves use this against the masses all the time. They're being unfair.

Look what they have and look what you don't have. If they would just if they would just give you some of what they have, if they would just quit being greedy, then everything would be great in your life. All the problems you have is because of these greedy people over here that have all this and you have so little and so therefore, you have the right to rise up and rebel and be angry and take what they have amassed that is unfair for yourself. What is that born of? That's born of envy and covetousness and discontent.

That is not the way of Christ. Those powerful sinful desires obstruct people from seeing the truth. It draws them into rebellious causes which are unjustifiable and then the end bring misery to everyone. Don't get caught up. As a Christian, you know better.

As a Christian, you know better. There are many things about this world that aren't fair. They aren't fair because we live in a sin cursed world. That all started back with Adam and Eve in the garden. But if God has given you breath and life and health, thank the Lord.

Thank the Lord for what you do have. In this particularly in this nation, even the poorer people here are richer than most people have been throughout human history. And we bellyache and we complain. We are not content. As Christians, we should know better.

Paul says in Philippians four, not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned in what so ever state I am there with to be content. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound and everywhere and all things I'm instructed to be full and to be hungry, to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. I find that interesting. We take that last verse out of context all the time.

I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me and we we kind of apply it to whatever it is we think we wanna do. I can do. I I God's gonna give me the ability to do anything. In context, what Paul is saying, God will help me to endure anything. God will give me a heart of contentment and peace and ability to go on for Christ through any hardship the world throws at me.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. How could he do all things through Christ who strengthen him? Because God gave him contentment in his heart. Because as he worked for Jesus, he found fulfillment in serving the Lord. And regardless of whether he had plenty or whether he had little, he still had who?

He still had Jesus and he was content. Contentment wouldn't be a problem. I mean, stealing was not a problem if you're content with what you have. First Timothy six six through eight says, but godliness with contentment is great what? Gain.

You want gain? Don't steal it. Be content with what you have. Be thankful for what you have. David lost sight of that, king David.

He was had a big palace. He had several wives, which wasn't wise to begin with. In Deuteronomy, it said specifically for kings not to multiply wives, but he did. And he's up on top of the roof of his palace. His armies are off the war.

He's not with them, which he usually was. He is kind of reveling in all that he has and then he looks over off his roof and he sees a young lady bathing next door. And all of a sudden, he became disc ontent with what he had. And he stole another man's wife. He broke the commandment, thou shalt not steal.

He broke the commandment thou shalt not commit adultery. He broke the commandment thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. He deceived her husband. And eventually, he had him what? Murdered to cover up his own sin.

How did that all start? With discontentment in his heart. It led him to steal, it led him to lie, and it led him to murder somebody else. You see, the sins that we commit often start think often is not the right word. Always start with problems in our heart, problems with our thoughts that lead to actions.

Us giving in to the desires of the flesh rather than walking in the what? Spirit. Walk in the spirit and you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But if you're not walking and listening to the spirit, then you're like to be overcome by things like greed and discontentment and that may lead you to some other terrible things. Say, I'd never do that.

Well, I'm sure David would have said that hours before he did it. I'm sure he would have, but he did it anyway. We must always be on guard. The devil, our enemy is like a roaming roaring lion, roaming about seeking whom he may devour. He'll find your weakness and he will exploit it.

And that's why we must be eager to put off the old things and we must be eager to put on the what? The new things in Christ. We need to draw close to the Lord. Submit yourselves to the Lord. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you follows the phrase submit yourself to who? To Lord. And then resist the devil and he will flee from you. We must learn to focus our efforts not just on amassing treasure on earth, but laying up treasure where? In heaven.

By serving God and by serving others. The same as our savior Jesus did who came to do the will of his father in heaven. Another problem which leads to thievery is laziness. Most thieves prefer stealing to working because they're lazy and do not want to put in the work. It's just easier to take than it is to what?

To work. Excuse me. To work. Paul deals with this here in the verse. He says, stop stealing and start what?

Working. Okay? He doesn't just say, oh, you need to stop this. He says, you need to stop this, put this off and you need to put this on. Okay?

How do you provide for yourself if you don't steal? Work. There you go. Stop stealing and start working. Working is a gift from God.

Laziness is a sin and it's one which leads to envy and discontentment in life when we don't have the things we want because we don't work for. Paul's conclusion, God wants you to find work, make work, do something to earn your keep on this earth to benefit society while taking care of your family. I know what some of you are thinking. Yes, there have been times in this world and places in this world where men have made it very difficult to work and provide. Nearly impossible for some.

Yes. That has happened. In that instance, do you think God knows? Do you think God understands? Yes.

There are instances where people lose the ability to work and provide for themselves and they need help. Do you think God knows? Yes. Do you think God understands? Yes.

And so do other people, some more than others. Yes, there are exceptions. And this is why if you're able to work, you should do so not only to help who you, but also to help who? To help others. You see, look look back at your verse here.

Ephesians four twenty eight, let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good that he can fill his pockets with all kinds of money and have everything he wants. Is that what it says? No. That he may have to give to him that what? That needeth.

So here's God's solution. There are those who cannot work. So you that can work, you need to what? Work and earn so that you can take care of yourself, so that you can take care of your family, so that you in turn can help others who can't what? Work.

Can't help themselves. Does that sound like a good solution to you? Well, whether it does or not, it's God's solution. It's a good one. Okay?

But it probably does and it's one that works when it's tried. So be givers rather than takers. Have a changed heart rather than living off the backs of others, be there to help them. Work so you can give to others who cannot. This is the example of the early church.

Acts chapter two, if you look up here verse 44, all and all that believe were together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods and part of them to all men as every man had need. Well, that sounds like communism. No, that is not communism because communism is forced And communism's goal is to get rid of discontentedness not by coming to Christ, but to get rid of discontentedness, can get all that word out, by making everybody equal in everything. Now, first of all, a, that's not possible because we're all what? We're all different.

Okay? That doesn't work. But does it stop discontentedness? Does it does it fix the problem? No.

Because the problem's in here. It doesn't work. This is not communism. What this is is God's way. What's God's method?

Work, earn, take care of yourself, take care of your family, and then as God leads, as God puts on your heart, as people have need, you can do what? You can be a help to them as well. Not out of compulsion, but out of a willing heart. You can share with those in need. Not so that everybody's got the same amount of money, but so that nobody, particularly your neighbors and particularly your your church brethren, go without food because something happened and they need help.

They who had more than they needed were willing to part with at least some of it to help their brethren, widows, orphans, elderly, and firm. They did it willingly of their own free will and not by compulsion. They did not do it to make everybody equal, it's simply to help those who desperately were in genuine need, who could not, for various reasons, provide for themselves. However, there's nothing wrong with having more than others, even a great amount more, particularly if you've worked hard and studied hard, Use God given abilities to earn it. There's nothing wrong with passing it on to your children.

There's nothing wrong with having wealth in itself. It is how highly you value it that makes a difference. If that's what you live for, then you're not living for who? Not living for God. And it becomes the root of many kinds of evil.

What you do to get it? Well, that matters. What you do with it once you get it? Yeah, that matters. It's those things that make you virtuous or immoral in respect to your wealth.

Not whether you have it or whether you don't. What is Paul calling us to do here? To earn a living honestly with hard work, to provide for the needs of ourselves and our families, and then to help others whose needs they cannot meet themselves. Work not just to fill your pockets, work to serve who? Your Lord who cares for all of his creatures.

Many years back, some in our country recognized this principle and they passed laws requiring our citizens to set aside funds from our paychecks to help others. Call that Social Security, welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare. Sadly, that system has become quite corrupted and sadly was not voluntary but but mandatory. Yet, even despite the vast amount of money which the government takes from us, millions of Americans each year give billions in donations to help others less fortunate than themselves in The United States and all around the world. No nation in history has ever given as much to help others as we have, nor worked so hard as Americans did to have that opportunity to do so.

Yet, that work ethic is vanishing. Those donations are harder to come by, not because of COVID or declining economy, but because we are tracking further from who? Further from God. The God who made us and rejecting his principles and his salvation. We see mobs ransacking Walgreens, gas stations, Walmarts for the most ridiculous of reasons and justifying their actions.

This obviously should neither be should never be the actions nor the attitudes of God's people. We must be givers and not takers. Like our father in heaven who made all this for us, he is a giver. He causes it to rain on the just and on the unjust. He gives us health and strength to work.

He has given us one another to help. He has given us his son Jesus Christ, heaven's good Samaritan who gave of himself to help us when we were helpless, to restore us when we were broken, to refresh us when we were thirsty, to provide for us when we were destitute, and who promised to take care of the bill in the future, and has reserved for us a place with him in heaven. All things we we have not earned, but Jesus earned for us on the cross of Calvary. He did the hardest work of all. When he came to this earth and he bore our sins and our sorrows, And he bore them and he suffered for them on the cross.

We need to be more like him and less like the world around us. Show the compassion of Christ to those who need it. Be not greedy nor covetous. If you have Jesus, you have no reason to be discontent. Hebrews thirteen five, let your conversation, your conduct, your manner of life be without what?

Covetousness, greed, discontent. But be content with such things as you have For he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. You can be content because this, no matter what the world throws at you, Jesus has said, if you have received me as your Lord and savior, I won't leave you. Your money might leave you. Your friends might leave you.

I won't leave you. I'll be I'll stay with you. I'll be there for you. I will help you. Is he your savior?

Do you have Jesus? If you don't, you can. You can have him today if you'll trust in him who died for you on the cross of Calvary. If you'll put your faith and trust in him and call on him to save you from your sins, he will do so. He will welcome you into his family.

He will make you his child and he will not leave you. Do you know him? He knows you, died for you. He offers you a gift if you will receive it. Eternal life in Jesus Christ.

And child of God, how are we doing at being like Jesus? Are we following in the steps of Jesus? Are we givers or are we takers? Are we content or are we discontent? Are we doing the work and the will of God in our life or are we lazy and selfish doing our own?

Are we working and doing our best for the Lord and not on the man? And are we sharing with those who need? Maybe there's something in that for you today. I know there was for me. Let's pray.

Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for your word and thank you for this passage and reminder, Lord, put off the things of the world and to put on the things of Jesus. Lord, forgive us for our covetous heart. Forgive us, Lord, for the greed that sometimes creeps in and the discontent. Lord, help us to stop looking at the things of others. Look at the things that we have in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Lord, help us to be able to count our blessings, And Lord, to thank you each day. Help us, Lord, to look on others not with envy, but with gratitude for what you have done for them and look for opportunities that we can do the same. And Lord, we pray if there's one here that's yet to receive Christ as savior, they'd come as we sing this song of invitation this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.