A WOW Moment - Ephesians 4:32

Hello. Hi. Hi guys. We want to welcome you back to our study session with me and Mercedes.

Tonight we have a special visitor to a wow moment and it's a he.

It's the one and only base face. I don't know which way I'm going. But this is his lovely wife

Jenny Hart. And tonight we had other plans for the evening and things happened.

So I want to thank both of you for welcoming us into your home because I know that it's okay when you and I can make this.

I understand it. I thank you for having us over. Oh yeah. Not a thing honey. Not a thing.

I love you. So tonight we've invited

Mike to join us simply because you know we are the women of but most of us have spouses.

Indeed most of us do. So I would like to get a viewpoint of Mike's version of how he looks at or interprets different scripture also.

So I called Jenny and I said Jenny how would you like to do a study session with us tonight?

And she said that'd be great. And I said well I know Mike will be home so do you think

Mike might want to be involved also? And she said well I'll ask him. So guess what

Mike said? Sure. I wasn't aware it was a question. But anyways.

So then we asked Mike what his favorite verse was. And Mike what was your response to your favorite verse?

My what is my favorite is Ephesians 4 32. Ephesians 4 32.

Well to be honest with y 'all I said what is Ephesians 4 32 because I don't know scripture like I should.

Number one I'm old. Number two things I do did know I don't know anymore.

But that's okay. It's kind of like my glasses. I came in without them again and Mercedes had to go to the car.

So anyways Mercedes if you will read Ephesians 4 32 for us and then we've had a little bit of this.

I'll be honest with y 'all. We had a little bit of discussion before we started this. And it's very very interesting and Mike has an insight that I've never looked at it this way before.

So I'm really excited about it. I have been writing down some notes and some things.

So we're gonna just start out and if y 'all got anything you want to say or anything you want to ask

I have my phone here because you know Mercedes is up there. So we'll just try to get to it if we have time because we were rolling before we got on here.

So just bear with us. Yeah go ahead. All right Ephesians 4 32 and be kind and compassionate to one another forgiving one another just as God also forgave you in Christ.

So Mike you were telling us before we started actually on the live feed here.

I'm sorry. Why this was one of your favorite verses or your favorite verse.

So would you like to share now? Sure okay so what I like about this verse is that it's it's a good picture of how to treat other people especially fellow believers but also kind of people that you live with or you know just just just to grease the wheels and make things run easier.

If you're put being kind first and the word the word here is not love but the word love is all around this.

If you look at it in context and one of my joke is is my favorite part about this verse and this is not true.

My favorite part about this verse is that it's so much so easy to read to the end of the chapter because it's the last verse in this chapter but but but the very next thing is to walk in love as Christ is love right.

And so so that chapter 4 the beginning is is a little bit about defining church roles and obtaining spiritual maturity and the end of that chapter ends with and be ye kind.

I'm King James I'm old. So and be ye kind one to another tender -hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you right.

So and the and the word there for Christ's sake is really just and so by Christ but anyway so so forgiveness and love and kindness that we show each other is is really what makes the church strong and what makes us mature

Christians and strong Christians is our ability to be be loving to each other and taking care of each other.

Right because right before we started this discussion you said if you go all the way back to 416. 414 maybe?

414. Okay cuz I was reading 416 because 416 talks about from him the whole body fitted and knit together.

Mm -hmm yes so the end of the church role stuff is is like the 13 and then it hints then 14 is that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive.

So that's where I go from so we're all familiar with the with the metaphor of the wolf in sheep's clothing right.

So what I like about 432 is that it shows you the difference between somebody who's a wolf pretending to be a sheep and someone who's a sheep because the sheep don't attack and devour each other right.

Right. So you see so in 14 it's talking the the preface to to the love thing is that there is danger right and for you to not be the danger to your fellow

Christians we have to act and love and walk in love as you know as Christ does and so that um that's that's that that's the context for 432 is that there are dangers and the dangers are false teachings and and and the thing is if we all come out of love then we'll kind of be right because there's just the two great commandments and they're both about love and 432 is not just about love but it's kind of specifically refers to Christ God forgives us through Christ we should forgive each other in that same way through Christ for Christ's sake let's forgive each other regardless of you know right because in chapter 5 it says being to be in good therefore be imitators of God as dearly loved children and walk in love as the

Messiah also loved us and gave himself for us a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God right that's what you're coming yeah love love love this

Christ loved yeah right because then it like I was saying while ago in 16 it also has because when you said that love is it's all around in this scripture you're right because in 16 it says promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part well and when you are loving each other when you're loving your fellow believer both believer the people who see that from the outside they see that love it makes that it makes some of them ask questions and then gives you an ample opportunity to share the gospel with them because they go there's something different about these people what is it so true

Jenny do you have any thoughts share please

I can't feel it I don't know y 'all are talking about everything that I'm thinking about so you don't have anything is there something particularly that stands out to you from what the things that we've said

I mean like I said everything that stands out

I've already touched on the one thing I remember most about this verse though is that when we were when

I was visiting at Bolton when you and I first started dating every time they in their worship service they as a congregation say this verse and I think it is a really good verse because it's a reminder daily to speak kindly to one another to act kindly to one another and to be you know to be more like Christ every minute so let me ask you a question

Mike in 430 don't and don't grieve

God's Holy Spirit right yeah so so so the beginning of chapter 5 and the end of verse 4 kind of kind of bookend each other and and I had mentioned that I would like for for this this chapter run from chapter 14 of Ephesians but the problem with that is that the first half is about defining church roles so like you really can't do that but that would be a good thing because one of the things that's happening here is right before 30 there's a bunch of warnings of the things that you don't do right like like don't don't steal from each other don't give place to the devil don't be angry or be angry it doesn't say don't be angry one of my favorite things is be angry the

Bible tells you to be angry and sin not because being being angry is not wrong right but acting out of anger that is wrong is wrong acting out of anger that is right is right there's nothing wrong with being angry but you have to focus your anger appropriately but the thing is is that it also tells now that's all leading you into and grieve not the

Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed into the day of redemption so so God has forgiven us right we and and so a lot of a lot of teachings will be that grieving the

Holy Spirit is where you you know right and wrong and you're forgiven for all your wrongdoings but we don't want to continue to dwell in our wrongness we want to move out of that through the and then we get back to tip of fortune verse 14 apostle ship teaching preaching prophecy all that those different things that's how we build each other up and we don't want to get involved in giving the devil a place stealing from each other being angry at each other it's so like in the thing where it says be angry and sin not also says don't let the

Sun go down on your anger and then for 32 says forgiving one another it leads right into that so we need to be forgiving of each other and we will we will mess up we will do things that are bad to each other but we need not to dwell there not to leave a place for the devil by holding those grudges against each other we need to seek reconciliation or something maybe a good church

I don't

I don't want to leave that there because I feel like that's like the opposite of what this is letting it go is where you pretend a thing didn't happen no work it out and it's yeah it's not about letting it go it's about actively forgiving which is a different action and it's an important action that we identify what was done wrong and that we we say hey

I understand that this is what happened and I love you and I forgive you and we don't have to put a barrier between us because we are what builds each other up and we don't connect anymore because we have this stupid thing where I sat in your seat and I don't really know that you like sitting there and we can you can hope you can hold it like older Christians that are not mature

Christians can hold that stuff for decades yeah you know yeah and it's it's just and it's one of the things that kind of shows you

I'm not going to say that it shows you who's really Christian or who's not but like your ability to love each other is one of the defining traits to help you identify who the

Christians are who they are yeah well and forgiving somebody when you've forgiven somebody it doesn't when you've been forgiven it doesn't mean that you can continue to do the things that you were forgiven for because when you're forgiven for something you you should really try really hard yeah you're gonna screw up you might end up doing it again but you put your best effort into not continuing to do it and by that same token you know someone is doing you wrong and you have sought them out explained to them how you feel given them forgiveness even if it's not asked for and they are not changing their actions letting someone go after that is also something that's kind of important you know you can't someone who is let's just say begin abusive or mistreats you over and over again you don't have to continue to have them in your life but you do still have to forgive them yeah and there's a church discipline mechanism for that which is right where you if you have a problem with somebody you approach them first and then if that doesn't work for you then you get an elder right somebody who understands the word somebody who knows maybe knows about the situation and then you address it to kind of also the same kind of determine who's right and who's wrong because sometimes the reason you're having trouble forgiving somebody is because they should be forgiving you because you're the one who's in the wrong and you don't really know the situation and so you need a more mature person to come in there and help sort it out kind of a mediator and then once the elder has come in and we have determined who's right who's wrong what should really be going on here and one person still doesn't want to get involved at that point the church as a group can decide well then this person doesn't need to be part of this situation and that's that's actually in scripture it's in scripture it's a

Timothy that's what I thought I mean it's what first Timothy yes I think it's first Timothy is right before the deacon easy whatever what kind of work didn't eat deacon it's a word tonight yeah who gets to decide who gets which which role yeah yeah cuz right here it says deacons must be husbands of yeah yeah yeah yeah

I think it's right before that so I didn't know that I was gonna get to this cuz because it just goes where it goes man well the thing is that like it's it's a

I said it before it's like a golden scripture so if you if any of y 'all were Pentecostal growing up you're you would have a golden scripture in your in your book for the

Bible lesson for the week and if you miss everything else if you get this one verse you'll have everything it's it's got salvation in it

God for Christ's sake is forgiving you and that's the picture of what you should do is when you walk in Christ you should also forgive the way that he does and when

God forgives you it's not just you know because it's it's that you repent and right repentance is not that you ask for forgiveness so you get forgiven repentance is that you know like that turning away right so I was going wrong going wrong and now

I'm going right by the way if you guys don't know this is my left this is my right so right so you know so like you're going towards the wrong thing and you don't want to get to that so before you get there you turn around and go the other way and this is where forgiveness happens it's not just the thing where we forgive each other regardless of what somebody's doing but we do need to forgive somebody for what they've done and let the past be in the past but not forgive it not just pretend it didn't happen but like recognize what happened and create a love action that is forgiveness not a forgetful action or an apathetic action

I'm sorry

I didn't mean to I could be wrong

I thought it was to any other time

I could get right to this see

I feel like somebody should sing a song while they're looking at yes you would

I don't every time every time I think see it says pebble can be those who that the rest will be afraid but that's not what we're looking at that's not we're looking for so for next time well like a discipline yeah oh

Jim Matusik said well put my heart so he's a woman of winter too that's great yeah that's wonderful thanks now you're telling me where is it at Jim Matusik where's it at what we're looking for Jim's gonna say what this is not we weren't supposed to say last names either he's already on there oh yes you're already on there okay well anyways let's go back

I can't find it would you notice Timothy um so back to Ephesians that'll be another one let me write that down we'll have to do a study on especially it's like conflict resolution this is this is why we do these like this 18 5 through 20 yeah 15 through 20

Wow restoring okay oh yeah 1815 if your brother sends against you go and review

Kim in private if he listens to you you have won your brother if he won't listen take one or two more with you so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established if he pays no attention to them tell the church that's it that's it no ma 'am but there's one where it specifically mentions an elder though that's when

I was but it would make sense that Jesus would have said it first though because most everything that Paul is writing about is something that Jesus already said and then it says if he pays no attention to them or no if he doesn't pay attention even to the church let him be like an unbeliever right look like that church doesn't let him be like an unbeliever so that's yeah yeah excommunicate him because at that point you have done your job right so that's basically when you just say well we've had to forgive each other but how does the forgiving process work and one of the interesting things here is that forgiveness does not begin with a person apologizing forgiveness actually begins with the person who's been transgressed against or rebuking in in private although rebuking there doesn't necessarily mean like you know cussing at somebody it mostly means teaching them about the like correct giving a course a course correction right because they might they may not have realized that they have done anything wrong to begin with oh but honey back in the day

I could light one up I've just let him have it you can't can't put peanuts in food at the pop -up because all the babies will die

Wow what that's a rebuke it's not a good rebuke it's not scriptural it's not really correct because the peanut allergy bring it up to their attention talk about it yeah talk about it and if you guys can't come about it cuz

I sure was like because we were talking about forgiving forgiveness forgiving people and then you start talking about peanuts

I was kind of shocked for just a moment I like I like peanuts

Jimmy Carter was the greatest president of all time okay so anyways back to so tonight what time is it

Wow this has been fun yeah I really enjoyed yeah we might have to come back to y 'all's house sometime anytime next time

I have more notice and I'll cook hey can we share food through the live feed no but we can we can see it they can be like yeah they can see what

Jenny cooks yeah maybe I'll pick up some chicken from Anna Wesson's oh is he really best chicken in Memphis Tennessee yeah cuz y 'all do drive away to church every

Sunday yeah it's at least five minutes but it's worth every minute it's at least five minutes at least

I've never gotten there in less than five minutes not one time it's true

I love these people it's true they y 'all these are my people so just to recap on everything be kind to one another love one another forgive one another justice

Christ has loved us and been compassionate towards us and forgiving towards us and strive daily to be imitators of God yep should we do the

Greek thing too just quick if you want to that's fine it's okay nobody's after us we can go

Ephesians 432 is is one of my favorite verses I've read it a lot right and I've read it in Greek and stuff and I've tried to translate

Greek to Hebrew or whatever but the cool thing is and be kind one to another that word kind there is the word

Christos with an E and even as God for Christ's sake is forgiving you it's

Christos with an I that's the difference the kindness is being Christlike it's it's specific all about Christ the whole thing is just this this verse is just shopping shopping with the love of God that's so so you can't see that in your if you're a visual person like I am

Google the Greek translation of kind kindness and Christ well specifically

Ephesians 432 yeah just the whole Greek translation for Ephesians 432 yeah and compare it to some of the other words like for kind compared to Christ if you look at the spelling of kind in Greek and the spelling of Christ in Greek they're they're real yeah yeah it even brings that up in my little footnotes at the in my study

Bible oh does it mm -hmm well that must be a good study Bible it is it's a whole you know you know

I've nobody's ever told me that before about the kind and the Christ oh it's right here yeah you have it too

I didn't notice until tonight but yeah it's in here good job Michael Wayne it wasn't me somebody else found it first is your middle name

Wayne my middle name is Wayne I'm named after the Archangel Michael and John Wayne my dad's middle name is

Wayne my brother's middle name is Wayne my son's middle name is Wayne it's great my ex -wife's new husband's middle name is

Wayne okay well y 'all I really hope you've enjoyed this because I have really really really enjoyed this time tonight and it just astounds me every time when we study we go from one scripture because we were looking at Ephesians we ended up in Timothy then we went to Matthew I don't know how he ended up in Timothy because that's where we thought it was yeah but anyway again

Jenny and Mike I want to thank you both for allowing us to come into your house tonight and sit at your coffee table this is this is where I studied though this is it it doesn't matter where we are if we're in the

Wow room I'm sitting at our coffee table on the floor because there's two perfectly good couches in there yes she eventually gets in the floor but again

I want to thank y 'all again for coming into and coming into our study I don't know where we'll be next

Thursday we might be in Mississippi we might be in Fayette County we have members of our church spread out all over the