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Hey, welcome. We're really glad you are a part of this, uh, family this weekend. Really good job. Um, remember, uh, who we are at Prairie Lakes, no matter who you are, where you've been, what you've done, or even what's been done to you, God does love you.

Uh, some of you right now may be sitting there saying, I don't know that he loves me. I've made too many mistakes. I've got, I've got too much junk in my past. Um, and I'm here to say to you, that's a lie. He loves you no matter what.

Now, it does matter that we don't stay stuck, right? It does matter. But man, walk in here and look for him and begin the journey no matter who you are. So, welcome to Prairie Lakes. Alright, we're in a series, uh, that we started the New Year off with, and it's called Everything is Different.

And, and the premise of the title is this, that, that with Jesus, with God, with the relationship with God. But some of you have, some of you are working on it. Some of you maybe aren't quite there yet, but we have a relationship with God. Everything is different.

So we've been in the book of Ephesians, and, and Ephesians is a letter that Paul wrote, um, pastor Jesse made a really good kind of history of, or kinda where it comes from in the Book of Acts. But, but, uh, in the book of Ephesians, uh, Paul's writing a letter to some people that he spent significant time with, and now he's coaching him up and reminding him of some things.

So let's do a very quick recap of, of where we've been. Remember what we said in Ephesians one, he all, Ephesians one, he says, Hey, you, Ephesians and us today, Prairie Lakes, okay? In Iowa, God's great and crazy love for you, right? It's, it's, it's, it's great for you.

And, and in verse 19 and 20, okay, in verse 1920, he says, I pray that you may know, and here's what he prays. And part of the prayer is this, that you would know his incomparably great power for us, who believe that power is the same as the mighty strength.

He exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realm. So Paul's saying, listen, God's got this great and crazy love for us that he's shown us in Christ. And he says, I want you to know that love. I want you to know the power of Christ, not someday heaven, but today on this earth.

That's where we started. Here's God's great and crazy love. He wants us to know about the power of Christ. Okay? Then, uh, in Ephesians two, he says this. He says, here's what we used to be. Now here's what Christ did. Here's where you were. But now because of Christ, here's where you are or where you can be if you're not there yet.

Right? So, so here's what he said in Ephesians two, some, some phrases that really clue us in right away. In verse one, he says, but as for you, you were, notice the past tense. You were dead in your transgressions and sins. Verse three says, but now you were, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ, right?

So in, in two, he says, man, this is, this is it. This is it. You used to be, but now you are. Last week in, in chapter three, uh, here's what Jesse hit. He hit this idea that then Paula goes and he says, okay, now be the church that God imagines. So chapter three, it's all about this kind of place that we can be, not, not what's what's weird or what's manmade or what's crazy, but really this, this place that God wants us to be.

Imagine what that would be like, and, and, and let's be that. Okay? So all of this, right? One, two, and three, all of this leads to where we're at today. These next two chapters, Paul turns this corner.

He says, here's great. Jesus was, and here's what he did for you, right? You, you were, but now you are, and you can now be this church that God imagined, right? And then he turns this corner, and, and he, and he, and he moves to this theme, let your life reflect this new reality of being in Jesus, right?

So God's great. Here's what God did. Here's, here's, here's what you were, here's what Christ has done for you. Here's the church. Here's what, here's what we can kind of be. And then he turns this corner and he says, now you, when you step over the faith line and trust Christ, let your life reflect this new reality of being in Jesus.

Because remember, everything is different. Everything is different. Let your faith show by the way you live every day. Now, I wanna be super square on this one, okay? And let's be honest about this.

'cause this is, all of us are gonna gonna go, yeah, yeah, that was true of me. Or it's true of somebody, or maybe true of you. Right? Now, the most damaging things to the cause are people who claim to know Christ, but look nothing like Christ. So Paul turns this corn, he says, now, let's live differently.

But we have to acknowledge this, this matters so much because it's one of the most damaging things to the cause of Christ. People who claim Christ, but whose life don't show Christ at all. I wanna be real clear here, okay?

We're not talking about perfectionism, right? All of us are hypocrites, right? All of us, all of us. It's a process. And it's not legalism that you know, you, you follow the rules, even if you don't believe it, and you just do it so you'll look good. It's not perfectionism that, that, oh, I just gotta be perfect.

And it's this anxious and anxiety inducing life with Jesus. It's, it's, it's not, it's just a, it's a new way to live. It's, it's a new way to, to operate in, in this world, in your own life, the shoes that you walk in, the family that you're in, the, the, the, the town that you live in, the places where you work out, where you go to school, it's, it's a different way to live.

So we're gonna hit Ephesians four and five, okay? And so I want everybody, everybody, I want you to just get your Bibles open, use your use your phone, the Bible app, okay? But you have Matthew, mark, Luke, and John. Those are the first four gospels, okay?

Those are the first four. Then you get acts in Romans, the story of the church, and the first real theological discourse from Paul, the Romans. Then he writes two letters, first two Corinthians, then he gets to Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians.

And we're in Ephesians, and we're gonna hit Ephesians four and five today. Now, we're got a lot of ground to cover. I'm not gonna cover it all. I'm gonna go high level. Then you're gonna spend this week digging into the details, uh, through the devotional and through your your own study.

Okay? So here's where we're gonna go. First, let's start with this one. All right? Let's start with this one. You are called, okay, to live differently, alright? You're called to live differently again, not perfect. Again, not some kinda weird cultish thing, but you're simply called to live differently.

You see, Paul takes the first three chapters, then he turns this corner at chapter four and five, and he says, now, because of all of this, it should show up in your life the way that you live. In fact, it's so clear, he says, it's so clear that you have to be from Nebraska not to grab a hold of this one.

Okay? It's so clear. Lemme just, lemme just start and lemme show you what it is. Okay? So right away, chapter four, verse one, here's what he says, as a prisoner for the Lord, remember, remember Paul was actually in prison when he was writing this.

Pastor Jesse, you talked about that last week. He says, as a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you, okay? Everybody ready? Say it out loud together. Ready to what? Live a life worthy of the calling you've received. Okay? So that starts it off. Listen, live a life worthy, live differently.

And, and, and there's just a constant phrase, uh, uh, re refrain. Here's the next one, right In, in chapter four, verse 17. He says, so I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, right?

So, so live differently. Don't live this way. Live differently, live differently. Keep going. There, there's more. Look at the next one, and here's one and four or five, one, and two. And he says this, follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children, and here it is, walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God, right?

Walk in the way of love, live differently. And I think there's one more. Okay. And 15, 5, 15. Then he says this, be very careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise. Okay? So just, just sit on that with me, okay? So, so you, you have your Bible or you have your, or you have it on your, on your phone, okay?

And, and, and you look where it starts with chapter four. And you just realize that in four and five and six, which we'll get to next weekend, he says, now you can live differently because of what Christ has done. You can live differently, be covered. He's, he's literally leaving.

He's leaving no room to be saved by Christ and not be changed by Christ. He's leaving no room, uh, to detach your belief from your behavior, right? He's saying, if you're gonna follow this Christ, look what God has done.

Look what he's done. He did the heavy lifting. He did this, he did this, he did this. And now here's what's possible for you. In fact, here's what is needed from you. And in fact, here's what is obligated to you. Live your life differently.

And again, not legalistic, like follow the rules. Not that, and not perfectionism that just that, that produces an anxiousness that I've, I've gotta perform for everybody. But literally because of what Jesus did, and because of who he is and because of your faith in him, he says, now, let your faith, your belief, your following show in your life, your life now can reflect who Jesus is.

It can reflect who Jesus is. All right? So he says, we starch this. He says, you're called to live differently, okay? And then you gotta kinda ask this question, okay? So, so why is he making such a big deal out of this? Here's why. Because the old way is terrible. Okay?

So, so some of you now, you've, you've, you've been following Christ and you know, you remember what it was like before you stepped over the faith line. I I, I remember what it was like. And he says, listen, you could live differently.

And, and you, you, because the, the old way of living is terrible. And the descriptions here, which he goes into, they're ugly. And as I'm studying through this passage this week, and I'm reading, it's a lot, it's four and five. So it's a lot. And every time he gets to these descriptions of kind of like the, the, the, the ugly life, right?

The life you used to live, the life that, that was kind of natural as a pre-Christian, right? That life, every one of 'em, I could go, yes. I remember being completely, completely drowning that way. And some of 'em, I even go, yeah, I'm still struggling with that one.

I still have to, I still have to submit that one to him. But he says, you're called a little differently. 'cause the old way is terrible. So let's just start to walk, walk down it here, okay? So go to go to chapter four in your Bible, and I want you to, to, to look over to, to verse 14.

Okay? Look over to verse 14. So, so remember already said at the beginning, look at, look at the beginning. He says, as a prisoner for the Lord. Then verse one, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you've received.

And he describes a little, he says, be completely humble and gentle. Be patient bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unit of the spirit through the bond of peace, right? So, so he's laying this out, laying this out, live differently.

And, and then it gets down to to to 14. And he says, if you do this, then here's, here's the, here's the, here's one of the results of that. Then you'll no longer be infants, infantile, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the conning and craftiness of people in the deceitful scheming.

Everybody, just look at verse 14. Look at it. You can live differently and you can live this, this different life for God. And then here's, here's what can happen to you. You'll no longer be like a small child or a baby that just tossed around back and forth.

None of us wants to be like, like none of us wants to be like a baby. Babies are are helpless. Ba babies demand. They don't give, they just simply demand. Babies have no, no, um, volition of what they can do or what they can't do.

And they poop and cry, okay? And know all about that. But think gullible, think rudderless. They just get hauled around by somebody else. And Paul says, listen, you can have this power of Christ in you, working in you, so that you no longer have to be this person that gets tossed around and swayed by, I want to be liked by this person.

Oh, nope, I, I, but I really want to be seen as, as as important over here. And well, but I better act like this over here because I want them to like me. Well, I better do this over here because I want to be accepted this way.

Well, I better do this because I want to be seen this way. And listen, that's a spineless terrible way to live. That's hypocrisy at its highest. Paul says, you don't let Jesus do his work in you. Then one of the descriptions of you will be this, you will be tossed around by whatever the loudest voice is, whatever the next thing is, whatever the next teaching is.

It it, it's a terrible way to live. And I can confess this, right? I can confess this, that even for me even today, um, I can be like an infant and kind of grabbing on so that I'll be seen a certain way.

And I want these to like me, then I want them to like me and I want them to like me. And it's a horrible, it's a horrible way to live and remember who he's talking to here, right? So he knows these Ephesians so well, and then don't, don't turn there now, but, but write in your notes.

Write in your notes to read Acts 19. Jesse hit a little bit last week, and in 19, and, and particularly starting to verse 22, and, and it tells this story, right, of, of Paul and his companions. They come to Ephesus and all kinds of people are, are, are stepping over the faith line.

They're trusting Christ. Their lives are being changed. In fact, there's the, in, in Ephesus at that time, there was the, the, the temple to Artemis. Alright? Artem, Emmaus, right? This the goddess, the Greek goddess, right? Of fertility. And, and, and so it was crazy.

And they had like pro priestess prostitutes. And it was this crazy, and it was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Paul comes in, people start coming to Christ, they start stepping away from that. They start throwing away their books.

They start throwing away their, their idols. They're throwing away their statues. They start getting rid of all this stuff that, that, that, that had them here before. And then the, the text is this, in 19, it says, and then the metal workers, they got mad and they stirred up the city because they said, listen, um, if we, if if we let this Christianity take root, then we're gonna lose our business.

And all the city got behind him, and pretty soon their rioting. And then the council member has to, the clerk has to stand up and tell him to settle down. And, and it's like this, do you know what? They got tossed here. And then they got tossed here.

He knows exactly who he's talking to. My friends, listen, listen, you don't wanna be that person who doesn't know where she stands or where he stands, but just bends to everybody's will around you. And that's what he means with this.

I'm gonna be really vulnerable here. I'm getting really frustrated with older followers of Jesus. I'm in the older camp now. I'm in the older camp now who gets swayed back and forth by the latest YouTube or the latest teacher or the latest book.

And just get swung around. And then you start to get to be known for more what you're mad about and what you're against than what you're for. Here's my goal. 60 years old, I'm gonna grow up standing where I stand with Jesus, and I'm gonna be more gracious and less grumpy and more happy and less angry and less polled to and fro by whether it's the newscast or the stock market or some YouTube teacher.

Okay? All right. So he says this. He says at 14, he says, he says, here's what happens, right? Here's what happens. You can be like an infant toss, which none of us want to be like, okay? So stay in four and just go, go a few verses down in verse 17.

So he says this, so I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord, he must no longer live as the Gentiles do. And then he starts with this, says, this is very interesting. He must no longer do as the Gentiles do.

And and he says this, in the futility of their thinking, they're darkened in their understanding separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that's in them due to the hardening of their hearts having lost all sensitivity. They've given themselves over to sensuality, so as to indulge in every kind of impurity and they're full of greed.

And then in, and then in 22, he says, you were taught with regard to your former way of life to pull off, put off your old self, which is being corrupt, corrupted by its deceitful desires. And I want you just to, just to see this. And when you sit in this week, I want you just to see this.

When you're outside of Christ, your thinking, your inside stuff, your mind and your heart are dulled. They are, they have lost sensitivity to the things of God. They've lost sensitivity to the, to the way of God. They've, they've lost it. And when you're doled in your mind and your heart, it leads to this endless pursuit of what's next.

And, and, and, and he says it right here. He, he says it and he says, he says, you, you, you get in this train, right? You get in this train and, and, and, and you get stuck in this. And, and, and, and then he says, you'll just keep going.

You'll just keep wanting more. You'll just keep wanting the next thing. You'll just keep wanting to do what's next. And listen, my friends, you don't wanna be this squishy spineless tossed here and there.

You don't want to have your mind dulled and your heart dulled, because what that leads to is these, this endless pursuit of things that never satisfy. And what that leads to is these deceitful desires that, that, that, that start to manifest themselves in, in, in outward behaviors, right?

So, so in 25, he starts to talk about your mouth and your talk and your anger and your bitterness and your, and your envy. And, and he, and he says it, he says, listen, once this gets corrupted, once this doesn't get redeemed, once your mind and your heart stay closed off to God, that just leads to places that you don't want to be.

It leads to not just a lust for more things and more stuff, and whether it's the usual sex and money, but power, but control, but recognition and it's never enough. And then that leads to all kinds of stuff coming out of you. And here's the crazy thing.

There are some of us right now who in our homes, we are at our worst behavior. It comes out of us. And Paul, when he gets to this and he's, he says, this is a cycle that stays on repeat. If you're unredeemed in the inside life, right? Your mind and your heart, if that's unredeemed, then that leads to an unredeemed outside life.

The issue isn't that you fix the, the, the, the, the one thing that you do. It's that you let him fix the inside. Because the inside determines what comes to the outside. What's in the depths comes to the surface.

And my friend, listen, he says, you can live differently, right? You can live differently because the old way or the natural way or the way, without Christ, it's a terrible way to live. It hurts you and it hurts those around you.

And here's the craziest thing. If you're a mom or a dad, or a grandpa or grandma, or aunt and uncle, right? You've got influence underneath you, it will always leak on the people around you and usually to those who are most vulnerable around you.

So that's why Paul makes this big deal out of this. And he, he makes this big turn. And, and that's why this is the cycle that stays on. Repeat that he says, don't let it happen. It's a terrible way to live. Jesus offers something way better, and he wants you to be free.

So let's get down to real practical now, okay? For all of us, real practical. Now you're called to live different because the old way is terrible. So the question is, well, how do I get this different life, right?

How do I get it? Okay? Now, listen, some of you aren't there yet. Some of you have not made the decision to trust Christ. You, you, you're pushing away, okay? I love you. So glad you're here. I'm so glad you're listening. So glad you're watching. I'm, I'm, I'm so glad.

But whether you're longtime follower of Jesus or you're one of the 140 soer people that have recently just said, I'm, I'm in, I'm in. Here's the deal, how you live differently, how you get to this different life doesn't change. Okay? Let's start with the first one, okay?

The first one's this. And, and again, step over the faith line and trust Jesus. Here's what that simply means. Simply means that you've been driving your life and you keep ending up in places you don't wanna be. It, it's not what you want.

You keep getting in the ditch, you keep wrecking, it just isn't working. And you're, you're tired of it. And when you get sick of yourself and you realize, I can't fix myself, I can't save myself, I can't be good enough to get to heaven.

When you finally realize that, that I'm a sinner, and you finally say, okay, I can't drive anymore, and you say, Jesus, you got me. You drive, you step, whatever we call the faith line. And you simply say, my faith now is not in my ability, but it's in what you've done in your ability and who you are, Jesus.

And I surrender to you. I trust you. Okay? That's what it's, if you've never made that decision, make it today. You could be free from that terrible life. You can be free from the stuffed on the inside that can be changed and redeemed.

Okay? So that's first, how do I get there? Step over the faith line. Here's the second part that you've gotta remember this. It's always an inside process. It's an inside process. Jesus says this again and again and again, says, what's in your heart comes out of your mouth, right?

And here's, here's the deal. Religion says this. Religion says, man, I wanna be a better person. What look great, I, I want everybody to be a better person. That's great. I wanna be the best version of myself. Great. Okay, fine. But you gotta understand this. You can clean up the outside as much as you want.

You, you can, you can wear different clothes. You can, you, you can get a different haircut. You can stop doing certain things. And okay, listen, I'm not, I'm not against any of that. But here's the deal. That never lasts because real change, Jesus, change the power of God.

That, that of, of, of raising Christ from the dead and seeding Christ in his right hand, that powers that work in you. Therefore, if you want real change, you have to receive and accept that power of Jesus in you. And he will change the out you.

He will change the outer stuff. Let him have the inside stuff, your mind and your heart. Let him change the way you think, the way you view the world, the way you love. Let him change it all the way you forgive. Even they don't deserve it.

And you let him have this, it changes this out here, but it's a process. It's an inside job. It's an inside job, and it's a process. We're not shooting for perfection. What we're shooting for is moral obedience. And you, you find yourself in the spot, ah, how did I get here?

Forgive me, Jesus, come back. Okay? It's a process. You don't have to be perfect. Now, here's the part that I wanna be real clear on. Okay? Now, God did the heavy lifting, right? He saw that we were helpless. He saw that we can't fix it. So the great master plan from the time the first sin started with Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis, the master plan was, we have to fix this, but the only one who can fix it is the Savior, Jesus the Son.

So he sends Jesus at just the right time. 2000 years ago, Jesus came, he lived a sinless life. He died in the cross. He rose from the grave, right? So he did all the heavy lifting, right? Ephesians one, Ephesians two, you used to be, but with Jesus, now you are.

So he did all the heavy lifting. But here's this, there's this subtlety, this tension that you have to hold and I have to hold. It takes your cooperating, okay? Not your doing, but you are cooperating. You're cooperating. And, and, and, and, and, and what do I mean by that?

Okay, so, so what do I mean by that? Paul gives this really good picture in Colossians 1 29, he gives this picture, and he says this, he says to this end, the Colossians verse to this end, I strenuously contend, okay, so, so I, I put effort in, right? I, I work at it, but I strenuously contend with all the energy.

Christ so powerfully works in me, right? So, so yes, following Christ is submission. It's I let go. You've got it. But it also begins a cooperation of cooperating with what he wants to do. Even though you step over the faith line and trust Christ, you still have a free will that you can still choose to sin.

You can still choose disobey. You can still choose to shake your fist at him. You still can choose that. But there's this cooperating. Now, I want to, I want to cooperate with Jesus wants to do in me. I want to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, as as, as he speaks with me, as he speaks.

And, and, and Paul, I think it's just perfect when he says it. I strenuously contend. I, I work okay? Not for my salvation, but I work with the energy. Christ so powerfully works in me. It's his energy. All right? So let's get real practical.

What's that look like? Okay? So here we go. Last two minutes with this. Um, here we go. You give attention to Jesus, okay? It's deliberate decision by you. So here, here, here's where you cooperate. Here's where it starts. Whether you accepted Christ just now today, or you're going to just a little bit, or you did two weeks ago, or three weeks ago, or a month ago, or a year ago, 10 years ago, this doesn't change.

You give attention to Jesus. You give him room every day, you give him room. It's deliberate. It's a decision by you. And there are so many, and here's this frustrating, it's frustrating in my own life at times, and it's frustrating when I hear about it.

I know buddies of mine have been walking with Jesus for 10 years and still go, yeah, I just can't, I, I just can't, I just can't give him room. I just can't figure out, I, I run this multimillion dollar company, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to squeeze out some time to give Jesus some, some, some room to me to give him any attention to my life.

Okay? So, so give attention to Jesus. And when you do that, here's what needs to happen. You need to pay attention. This is you're cooperating now, you pay attention to what he's up to in you and around you, okay? You pay attention. And that's the mirror in the window, the mirrors where you go, okay, what are you doing in me?

God, what are you doing in me? And you're looking, and you're letting him dig through the Holy Spirit, dig through the stuff of your heart that dig through the stuff of your past, right? What are you doing in me? What are you trying to change in me?

What are you, what are you trying to grow in me? It's the mirror. And then there's the window where you're looking out and say, okay, what are you up to out there? What are you up to in here? And what are you up to out there with my friends, my neighbors, my coworkers, my relatives, my little Iowa.

And all of a sudden, when you, when you say, I'm gonna give attention to Jesus, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be deliberate about this, and I'm gonna pay attention to what he's up to in me and around me that's living differently. And, and then, then here's what happens, right?

If you'll give attention to him and you'll pay attention what he's up to, then you'll bring attention to him in your little Iowa. And lemme tell you this right now, that bringing attention to Jesus isn't this right? That, that, nope.

Bringing attention to Jesus is a person who says, I follow Jesus, and I want you to see it in me. By the way I live, I follow Jesus. And I want my following to show not perfect, not everything figured out. But by the way, I love, and by the way, I follow him and my friends.

Listen, listen, if you'll very simply give attention to Jesus, let him speak. Right? Read the Bible, get in the Bible. Listen. Let him speak. Give him attention. Get to church, get to church, get to get to the word right? And then you'll just stop and you'll pay attention to what he's up to.

You're gonna bring attention to him. And you're little Iowa. And if you're a parent, what would it be like for your kids to rise up and someday say, my dad, my mom, my grandpa, my grandma, my aunt, my uncle, whoever it is, if you're a teacher, if you're a coach, if you're a boss, if you're, if you've got coworkers around you, if they were to say this about you, she, he showed me what it's like to look like Jesus.

He could do that in you. And he wants to. He wants to. So let's pray right now. Okay? All of us cross Iowa right now. Let's pray. Father, we give this to you. We can't do this on our own. God, we can't fix ourselves. We can't save ourselves. You're the one. And here's our prayer today that we would look more and more like you, more obedient, more submissive, more quick to listen, slow to speak right?

Slow to become angry that all those around us would get a little glimpse of Jesus because of the way we follow you. We ask for that. God, change us one step at a time. And name of Jesus we pray. Amen.