Its very true that we cant control a lot of times the cards that we have. What we can control is how we respond to them, what we do with the cards that weve been dealt. Were going to talk this morning about our will. Were going to talk about consequences. Were going to talk about decisions. If youve been following the news, you were probably as taken back as I was by the atrocities that happened at Fort Hood in Texas. A military psychiatrist went ballistic, killed 13 people-13 soldiers, and then was shot and is apparently going to recover. [Hes in] critical but stable condition. The irony is that his job was that of a military psychiatrist, trained to help his fellow soldiers cope with the stress of war. He was trained to help them through their problems, psychologically or emotionally, that they were struggling with. From all accounts, he seemed to be doing a reasonably good job, and yet he was conflicted inside. He felt like the war in Afghanistan and Iraq was a war against Islam; and he, being a Muslim, began to be vexed inside and troubled and then finally snapped and took innocent lives. You read the account of his activities the day he perpetrated that act. The words of kindness he spoke to his neighbors, the acts of generosity, the words that were spoken in love to the people in his life; and you wonder how a man like that could commit such atrocities. The truth of the matter is that all of us are capable of deeds of good and kindness; and all of us are capable of evil and darkness. God has given you and me a free will, and He has set before us life and death, blessings and curses. The Word of God encourages us to put on Christ, to put on the new self, which is made in His likeness; and thats what were going to talk about today. Were going to talk about the power of our choices, how we respond to cards that we have been given-whether we choose bitterness, resentment, forgiveness-whether we choose life or death. Lets turn in our Bibles to the Book of Ephesians 4:17(page 1158 of pew Bibles). Our series is called Meet the Ephesians, and were going through this Book, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. We last left off in Verse 17, and Paul is going to begin a new theme called living as children of the light. Verse 17 reads this way; Paul writes and says, 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 in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in very kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. He describes a very bleak picture. He describes a culture that had become desensitized to sin. If you recall, we were talking about historical background. The focal point of this community was the worship of the fertility goddess, Artemis. Shes represented in a statue in the top column there. She was the goddess who gave you healthy children and a healthy hunt, and she would help with your crops and so forth; so really she represented life. This temple was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was the center of their economy. It was the center of their religion, and in this temple, being a fertility goddess, there were many priests and priestesses of the goddess. Part of the ritual was you would come and engage in sexual acts with these temple priests and priestesses, so this religion became a veiled expression of promiscuity and immorality. Because they grew up with it, they became desensitized to it. They no longer saw it as something wrong. It was just simply their religion that they were practicing. Their hearts became hardened towards sin. When I was a boy, I had a cat named Cuddles. It was kind of an oxymoron name for Cuddles because Cuddles was not cuddly at all. We did not have our cat declawed, and I would engage in boxing with my cat. This was my right and this was my left-my thumb and my middle finger. This was kind of a head. He really didnt do anything, but I would just go up like this; and then Cuddles and I would box. As soon as the cat would see that, her ears would go back; and shed jump on the hand, and Id flip her over and wed start to fight. I would just play with my cat, and it would just be a lot of fun. She would kick me with her claws down here and just kind of rip the skin. Then back here those claws would just rip across my hand both ways, just leaving these red marks-red scratches, deep red scratches-all the way. In fact, I still have scars on the back of my hands from that cat. I would go, Oh, man! It hurts! Cuddles! Id look down and say, Boy, that one hurt. Itd be bleeding and Id be like, Ow! and Id stop. My mom would say, You have to stop doing that! You know, youre hurting yourself. And it really looked the sight; it really looked ugly. After a few days, it would heal up, and Id come back for more. Wed have round two, All right. Lets go! And Id flip, box, box, box, scratch, Ow, man! That one hurt! This process repeated itself for weeks, months and years. By the time years had gone by, my skin was like leather back here. I mean my cat could just do her darndest, and it wouldnt do a thing because the skin had become so hard because it became scarred, torn and healed back so many times that it became desensitized-the pain. It didnt hurt anymore, and Id be like, Ha ha! That does not hurt anymore! Now put this hand in there, and you have a whole other story. This hand had become desensitized. That's what sin does. At first when we sin, it causes grief. It causes pain. Our soul bleeds; we feel remorse; we feel sorry, and we say, Im not going to do that again; but over time we forget, and over time things kind of heal up, and we end up repeating the same offense. We still feel guilty; we still feel bad but maybe not as bad as we did at first. If that cycle repeats long enough and often enough, pretty soon in that area, our hearts become calloused, desensitized, unable to feel the remorse of sin. Thats what Paul is talking about. He says, As Christians, I have a higher expectation of you. As people who name the name of Christ, there is a responsibility that you carry. Paul is going to remind them of that in Verse 20. He says, You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him in accordance with the Truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires… Notice its still there. It hasnt gone anywhere. Youve come to Christ. Youve received the Spirit of God, but the sin nature is still very much present, isnt it? Its something that must be put off. …to be made new in the attitude of your minds… And thats key. …and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. This new self is a new card. It is introduced to your hand, the Holy Spirit of God who is present in your life all the time, all the time. So what does it mean to put on Christ? Obviously Jesus is not a garment that we [put on]. We dont put on our Jesus garment. How do you put on someone whos always present with you? What does Paul mean with this, you know, you put on Christ? Well, Christ is always with me. How can I put on Him who is always with me? I dont put on my hair. I dont put on my teeth. Some of you might put in your teeth; I dont know. Some of you might even put on your hair; I dont know. Im not even going to ask. That's your business but normally things that you put on and have with you all the time-okay, well use our ears. That's safe. Nobodys putting on their ears. You dont put on ears. You dont put on your nose. Its there. Well, why do you put on Christ if Christ is always there? Number one, though Christ is always there, He does not overwhelm us with His presence, does He? He does not overwhelm us and prevent us from saying wrong things, doing wrong things. He does not violate our free will, and He will speak to us in our wrong choices. He will convict us of sin, but He does not overwhelm us to the presence to the point where we are not free any longer. Paul is talking about being aware of the presence of Christ. Hes talking about decisions based on Whose likeness we have been made. He reminds us that this new self is in the likeness of Christ, that you are called to be like Christ, so there are certain responsibilities. Sometimes being reminded of that can be very painful. Some of you know that while Im able to, I like to play basketball. That's how I get my cardio in, and now Im playing ball most of the time against guys that are much younger than me. Sometimes on the basketball court-if youre a basketball player, youll understand this-it gets competitive. Tempers can fly even amongst friends, and such was the case in my life this week. We were engaged in a pretty heated competition. I was guarding a very good player. Hes the kind of player that can shoot from the outside and drive inside and score as well. [He has] a big body, is strong, and I knew I had my hands full as I was guarding him. In basketball, when theres a good shooter, a lot of times the other team will set picks. What the offense does then is theyll stand in the way of the defender and try to get you to run into them. When they do that, then it frees up their man to get the ball or to take a shot. So I was getting picked all the time. Whats supposed to happen is when somebody is going to pick you, the other teammate, Youre playing defense, youre playing defense. Youre looking at your guy, so your defenders are to say pick, pick left, pick right, so that you are aware of the pick coming, so you can get ready to go around the pick, through the pick, whatever. If they dont do that and if they miss the pick, then theyre supposed to help you out. If you lose your guy, theyre supposed to go off their guy and try to stop the shot. You kind of switch guys. Well, that was happening. The picks werent being called. The guys werent switching, and before I could get around the pick, he was hitting a shot. Everything was okay after that first shot, but once he hit a second shot, one of the guys on our team started getting mad. He said, Let me cover him then! Im going, Yeah, like you could do any better. How about calling picks? How about switching? Words are going back and forth. He hits another shot. Im upset because I dont like to be scored on like this, and hes even madder; so words are going back and forth. I can feel myself just getting angrier and angrier. I dont remember what he said to me, but he pushed a button. I am embarrassed to tell you this, but I lost my cool. As soon as he said whatever he said, I shoved him as hard as I could. I just went bam! I pushed him. As soon as I did that, I went, Oh, no. Oh, no. This is a friend of mine, so I feel bad on that level because I pushed a friend. It would be one thing if it was a schnook. You know you wouldnt care so badly, but this is a friend. I was like, Oh, man! And I knew I was wrong. I immediately thought about a young man on the other side of the gym who goes to our church, a teenager whos watching this game. What does he think seeing his pastor shove another guy? So this guy is mad, and he shoves me back. I said, Yup, I deserve that. We run down the court, and hes still jawing. Then he kind of comes up to me, and he goes bam! He kind of lowered his shoulder into me. I was like, Yup, deserve that too. Thats probably all I deserve. That's probably sufficient payback. You know Ill take the two shots, but you know you got a third; and that might be a problem. But, yeah, I deserve that. So I dont remember all the things hes saying, but one of the things he said to me really stood out. He said, Youre a pastor! Act like it! I couldnt argue with him. He had me dead to rights. I was like, Hes right. At this time, anger was gone. I was just embarrassed and ashamed. I wanted to apologize to him, but he was just so mad that you couldnt. So we played the game out, and we lost. My guy didnt score anymore, thankfully, but we lost the game. I go walking over to him, and I just have to tell you hes a real stand-up guy. Im the one thats at fault, and before I could even get a word out of my mouth, his hand is out; and hes saying, Im sorry about my mouth and making you mad. Im really sorry. I said, Man, its my fault. I shouldnt have done what I did. I love you, man, and Im really sorry. I shook his hand and we are friends. We were talking. We were talking about his job and his life. We played ball yesterday, and everythings fine. You know, thats kind of how guys are. You leave it on the court, and were fine. We can go on and play. But I was just ashamed because who was watching me? Whos been thinking about coming to our church that might reconsider now since theyve seen me lose my cool? We have a responsibility in how we act. He says, Remember who you belong to. You have been made in the image of Christ. Paul says, I expect better things from you. You dont control where youre born. You dont control when youre born, the family youre born into, the city youre born into, the culture youre born into; you dont control those cards, but you control how you respond. All of these temptations are going to be around these Ephesians. The temple of Diana or Artemis is still going to be there. All these temptations are still going to be there. This way of life is still acceptable, but you need to be different. You need to put on Christ. There are opportunities for blessings and curses every day. There are rewards for right decisions; there are consequences for wrong decisions. Paul says, Be aware of whom you are. Be aware of Whom you belong to. Be aware of the Spirit which youve received in righteousness and holiness. That's very similar to what God says in the Book of Deuteronomy 30, if youd please turn to the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 30, God is going to give commands to his people. God could have revealed Himself to us in many ways, but the way he chose to reveal Himself to man is through whats called a Covenant Treaty. God speaks to us in the language of a covenant. When a king made a treaty with his people, in agreement with his people, the first thing it would be would be the preamble; and hed talk about who he was. Hed talk about how great he was, his majesty, his authority and his rule, his sovereignty. God talks in the preamble; if you read the law, He talks about who He is. He talks about His greatness, His glory, His grandeur. Then theres an historic prologue, and thats where the king talks about what he has done for his people, how hes protected for them, how hes provided for them; and thats what God does in His Word as well. He talks about what He has done for His people, how He has guided them, how He has led them, how He has taught them, how He has been patient with them. Then there are stipulations. The king talks about what is expected of his subjects. Here are the rules; heres how you should conduct yourself; heres what I expect from you. Then there are blessings and curses. The king says, If you follow my decrees, here are the good things that will happen in your life. If you choose to disobey what I have said, here are the bad things that are going to happen. Its like a parent says to a child, You do this. You do this. You do that, and youre going to get privileges. Youll get allowances. Youll get freedoms. Youll have fun. But if you disobey me… Not that your children would ever disobey you. I bet in the 11 oclock service, some of those kids get a little out of control-not you guys kids, but… Here are the bad things that are going to happen. Youre going to lose some privileges. Youre going to lose some freedoms. Things are not going to go well for you. So God gives these blessings and curses to the people of Israel. We find that in Verse 11 of Chapter 30 (page 201 of pew Bibles). He says, Now what I am commanding you today is too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in Heaven, so that you have to ask, Who will ascend into Heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it? Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it? No, My Word isnt in Heaven. My Word isnt in the sea. My Word, My expectations are right here. No, the Word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so that you may obey it. If this is true for the people of the Old Covenant who did not have the Spirit of God, how much truer is it for us of the New Covenant who have the Holy Spirit residing in our hearts? He says, See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if you turn your hearts away and are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them… Can we do that today? Absolutely. Weve talked about idols not long ago, and we definitely do bow down and worship other gods in our society. I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call Heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life… In other words, God says, Im on your side. I want you to win. I want you to succeed. Choose life so that you and your children may live. The choices that we make every day, the cards that weve been dealt-how do we respond? What do we do with the opportunities that God has given to us? I want to present to you a microcosm thats going on in your life right now. I want to use an illustration of the here and now-this very moment in time-to illustrate this point. A lot of you made a decision-well, all of you, not a lot of you-all of you made the decision to come to church today. Number one, that is a correct choice. Hopefully, you agree with that choice now, and youre glad you came. Its a choice of obedience because God says in His Word, Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Its a command. Dont do it. Yet, there are many who arent here this morning who have chosen not to obey that command. They chose not to come to church. Now we know coming to church is beneficial. We know its a commandment of God. We know that we come not just for our benefit, but for what we can give to the body as well. I was talking with somebody recently, and I said, So are you going to church? She said, No, Im not going to church, but theres this program on TV I like to watch. Thats my church. I said, Well, thats just a small part of church. Hearing the sermons, thats one thing, but you come not just for what you can receive, but you come because of what you want to give. The Bible says that when we come together, were to encourage one another and share with one another. Youve got spiritual gifts that you can give to the body and so forth. She was having none of that. She didnt want to listen. Thats what Gods Word says, so you made the right decision to come today. You had a choice to choose to attend church or to clean your garage, rake your leaves, garden, plant your tulips-whatever youre going to do. You chose to come here today, and Im grateful for that; but thats just the beginning of the choices that you have made or are going to make while youre here. First of all, when you come through this door and as you leave when we are done, you have a choice to enter into community or into isolation. Some of you will come late and leave early. Some of you come in without hardly talking to anybody except those you have to-take your bulletin or whatever. You sit down; you dont talk to a soul. We say amen, and you leave without talking. You dont make eye contact. You dont initiate contact, just bee-line for the car. Now youve come to church, but you havent entered into community, have you? Theres potentially a new friend for you to meet. You could welcome a visitor. You could renew a friendship. You could spend time with somebody whos already your friend; and you know the benefits of community, right? You know the benefits of friendship. We have friends in our lives. It helps us to bare the load. We have people to help carry the load. It divides our sorrows; it multiples our joys. We have someone to share our joys with as well. Its reciprocal. I give to my friend. My friend gives to me; and there are benefits from community, but some of us choose-even though community is available-we choose isolation even though we know there are harmful consequences for being isolated, for being a loner. We know there are consequences for that; yet many times well choose that anyway, so then you sit down. Now its time to sing. Youve got a choice to make. When you sing are you going to express worship to the Lord, or are you just going to kind of stand there and not participate and say, Lets wait for this part to get over with, so that we can get to the good stuff. Some of you think the singing is the good stuff. Lets make that last forever, right? I understand that, but when it comes to worship, is that the time when your mind is wandering? Are you engaged? You say, Aw! I dont sing. Its not about the quality of your voice. There is no microphone on you if youre out in the congregation. Its about expressing your love for God. Are you going to be passive, or are you going to be active? Are there benefits to worship? Absolutely. This is our time to say, God, I love you, to focus on Him, meditate upon Him, and really enjoy His fellowship. You can choose to do that and enter in and express, or you can choose that song time to be a time when you just tune out. You are just kind of standing up, listening, but youre not participating. Then we pray. Its usually what we do. What are you going to do when we pray? Is that a time when you say, Boy, I hope the prayer is long because my eyes are really tired. I could use a little rest; or are you going to enter into that prayer. Are you going to engage in that prayer and say, Lord, yes, we agree with that, and kind of pray to the Lord on your own too and be in agreement with the prayer thats being shared; but you are engaging mentally with that prayer, and you are participating in that prayer. Sometime we should pray like the Haitian church does. In the Haitian church when its time to pray, everybody prays out loud-everybody, and its just whoa! It is wild, but they are participating. In our culture, we simply agree; but are you agreeing? Are you engaged? Are you using that time to talk with God? How many of you think prayer is beneficial? We think prayer is beneficial, yet there are times when prayer comes, and were using that time to just space out, think about the ball game, think about what were going to have for lunch, think about this or that. Its an opportunity that's wasted. Then the message starts. You have a choice to make. I could be Billy Graham up here preaching, but unless your heart is open and receptive to receive the Word of God, it wouldnt matter. Sometimes you can sit and be present, but youre really not listening to a thing. You have a choice to make. Are you going to engage in whats being said? Are you going to study the Scripture as we read it? Are you going to ponder and think about it, be challenged by it, and commit to change as Gods Truth is spoken? We know the benefits of the Word of God, yet sometimes during the message time, we can drift. Everybody drifts. Everybodys mind can drift on occasion during the message. The chances of you being 100 percent tuned into the sermon, 100 percent of the time, are pretty slim. Im not even tuned into the sermon 100 percent of the time (congregation laughing), and Im the one giving it. I thought about the Bears game 25 times since the 8 oclock service-just kidding, 24. But we try to engage. Its having that mindset that today, I want to hear from God. Im going to engage. Then we take the offering, and the offering bag passes by. We have an opportunity. We have an opportunity to respond. Do we know the benefits of giving? We do. God loves a cheerful giver. God blesses the person who gives. We have a chance to honor the Lord with our tithe or maybe you choose to tip God, Heres five bucks. What are you going to do? How are you going to respond when its time to give? This is an opportunity for blessing. Are you going to ignore that opportunity, or are you going to participate in giving? We have announcement time. We talk about ways you can get involved. We talk about opportunities to serve. You walk by flyers on the table. You walk by the angel tree. You walk by the ministry display board, and you see these opportunities for outreach; and you have a decision to make. GPS is coming today. Will I go to that or not? Will I use my gifts for God or not? Will I serve the church or not? You have a choice to make. Are there benefits for serving God? Absolutely. Were going to grow and mature as a Christian if we use our gifts. Were going to build up the Body of Christ. Were going to glorify God if we use our gifts and talents for Him. At the same token, you have a chance to not become involved at all. There are people whove come to our church-and Im not thinking of any specific person right now, so dont get offended-but there are people whove come-because there are many-to our church for years and years and never got involved, never served. They have no intention of serving. I could preach a year-long series on service, and they will not change or budge. A friend of mine-hes a good teacher of the Word of God-used to say the smallest package in the world is a person all wrapped up in themselves. You have an opportunity to give of yourself, serve the body, and reap the benefits and blessings of that, or you can choose to simply serve yourself. Its your choice. That leads to self-centeredness. It leads to stinginess. Youre not going to grow, but thats a choice. God gives you the opportunity to make that choice. You walk out in the patio, and theres a person that maybe you had a bad experience with. I promise you in a church like ours, there are hundreds of people. There are all kinds of ministry going on throughout the week. There will be people who rub you the wrong way, who say something they shouldnt say, who do something they shouldnt have done, dont do something they should have done, of look at you funny. Whatever it is, you have an opportunity to make amends. You have an opportunity to say, Listen, did I hear that right? Listen, I apologize for what I said. Can we talk? You have that opportunity to engage that person and mend. See, heres the choice. Are you going to choose forgiveness or bitterness? You have a choice to make. Are there benefits for forgiveness? Absolutely. The benefit of forgiveness is that it removes bitterness from your life. If you have unforgiveness, you have bitterness. If you have unforgiveness, it hinders your walk spiritually. Unforgiveness binds you to the past, but if you have forgiveness, you have freedom and joy. So you have a choice because I promise you… Some people have a bad experience with somebody or somebody hurts their feelings; and believe it or not, they will even leave the church rather than work it out. Well, Im mad at so and so, so Im leaving and going to church XYZ. Oh, thats good because nobody will ever hurt your feelings over there. Everybodys perfect over there, so everything will always go wonderfully for you. Thats a good decision. Dont work it out; just leave. You have a choice. How are you going to respond to this opportunity? Then you get in your car, and its still not done. You drive home and now guess what? You are responsible for what youve just heard from Gods Word. Are you going to seek to apply this message? Is it going to bring about life change in you? Are you determined to change things and say, You know; thats true. Im not giving; thats true. Im not serving; its true. Im not experiencing community; its true. Im not engaged in worship; its true. Im not attentive to the Word; its true. All of these things-are you going to change them or is it status quo for you? Are you just going to pretend like you didnt hear? Thats a choice that you make. God sets these choices before us every day, blessings and curses, life and death. There are consequences and there are rewards. Gods Word says put on Christ. Put on that new self. Remember who you are. Be aware of His presence in our life. Allow Him to use you. Make right decisions, and as you make those decisions, the Word of God says in Romans 12:2, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the Will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect. As you do the Will of God, you prove the Will of God; and there is a reward, and that reward is a reinforcement. It reinforces that behavior, reinforces that attitude. That person begins to engage in service, and he/she reaps the benefits of that. That person begins to give; and he/she reaps the benefits, so they want to give more. The person enters into community, reaps the benefits, and begins to get more involved with community. Brenda, Ill use this illustration. She is an exercise fanatic now. She will get up at 5 in the morning to exercise. She exercises at least four days a week, sometimes five days a week. That was not always the case. There was a time when she didnt exercise at all, and we had memberships at the YMCA. She didnt like exercise. It just was painful for her, and it was drudgery. She wasnt reaping the benefits when she did. I said, Thats because its too sporadic. It needs to be something thats regular in your life. I said, Listen, you either have to go, or were going to cancel your membership because Im not going to keep paying for something youre not going to use. Fine, she said, so she goes there, and she starts to work out. I remember seeing her on the Stairmaster. I said, How you doing? She was not happy, not happy with me; but over time as she continued to do it for weeks, pretty soon she went from walking to jogging to running. She began to feel better about herself. She began to fit into clothes that she hadnt fit into for a while. She would say, I like this, and she began to reap the rewards of putting on this new self. That became a lifestyle. It became a habit, and now its like you cant keep her away from the gym. We put on Christ. As we do that, there are rewards-inner rewards-that will cause us to continue to come back, continue to put on Christ as we reap the benefits of those decisions, of those blessings. Lets pray together, Father, we thank You for challenging us this morning in Your Word through the writings of the Apostle Paul. He challenged us to put on the new self. He challenges us to exercise our will; to practice an awareness of your presence; to think about the consequences for our decisions and our actions; to think about the responsibility that we have as a child of God, as someone who bears your name; that our lives are being examined and judged by others. We are called to a higher responsibility. We are called to take the cards we have been dealt and play them in a way that honors You and gives glory to You. Lord Jesus, help us to apply this message today. Help us to make the changes we need to make, to put on the new self, made in your likeness-in true righteousness and holiness. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.