April 4, 2025 • 28 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham. A
little later in the program, we'll tell you how you
can get a copy of doctor Graham's book Ask. But
first here's the message the Much More Life, Part.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Two, beginning at Ephesians four.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Now this I say and testify in the Lord that
you must no longer walk as the gentiles do in
the futility.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Of their minds.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life
of God because of the ignorance that is in them.
Due to their hardness of heart, they have become callous
and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Every kind of impurity.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
But that is not the way you learn earned Christ,
assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught
in Him.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
As the truth is in.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Jesus, all truth is in Jesus, all the praise, all
the truth coast to Jesus. And verse twenty two key
verse to put off your old self, which belongs to
your former way of life or manner of life, and
is corrupt through deceitful desires. To put off, as though
(01:30):
you were taking off old, filthy, dirty clothes. He says,
put off your old self your humanness and circle Verse
twenty three, be.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Renewed in the spirit of your.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Minds, and put on the new self created after the
likeness of God, in what true righteousness and holiness. Therefore,
because you no longer live the way you used to live,
(02:05):
because you now have a brand new life in Jesus,
having put away all falsehood, let each one of you
speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members
of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Do
not let the sun go down on your anger, and
give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no
longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work
(02:28):
with his own hands, so that he may have something
to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk
come out of your mouth, but only such as is
good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it
may give grace to those who hear Verse thirty key verse,
(02:49):
and do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you
were sealed for the day of redemption. We have the
Holy Spirit. We have been marked by the Spirit. Now
we are to mature in the spirit. Let all bitterness
and wrath, and anger and clamor and slender be put
away from you along with all malice.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Be kind to one.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Now listen up.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
This extraordinary life, this much more life that we've been
talking about, this elevated life in Christ, is an exchanged life.
The very heart of the Gospel is the great exchange
(03:42):
that takes place when we who were dead in our
trespasses and sin, are made alive in Christ and we
receive the righteousness of Christ for our sin. The exchange
was made at the cross when Jesus died and paid
in full for all of our sins, past, present, and future.
And we exchange our filthy unrighteousness. Even the best that
(04:05):
we can do is filthy rags. We exchange our unrighteousness
for His righteousness. We exchange hell for heaven. We exchange
sin for godliness. In our lives. It is that exchanged life.
Christians do not live like the world. We are called
(04:32):
up higher. We are called to godliness and righteousness and holiness.
Why because we don't think like the unsaved world thinks.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Therefore we do not live the way the world lives.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Beware of the.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Feudal, vain, foolish, empty, thoughtless thinking of the world. Our
brains are bombarded with what the world says. But as Christians,
we are to saturate our minds with what God says,
(05:20):
the truth of God in Jesus Christ, because everything else
is empty. No wonder people are so emotionally spent and
broken because ultimately the problems that people have today are
not psychological problems, but spiritual problems that have a psychological
(05:44):
impact that destroy the soul. And it is incredible the
way people think. They it's all about their minds, it's
all about their mouths, what they say, and is all
about their mentality, all about their moral Ultimately, this vain,
feudal thinking results in moral and spiritual collapse. Because where
(06:08):
there is no God, there is no light, and where
there is no light, there is no lighte The unsafe
person thinks that they are enlightened because they have rejected God.
But the scripture says, professing themselves wise, they have become fools.
Why are we seeing such sinful behavior? Turned to Romans
(06:31):
chapter one, verse twenty one. Romans one, for although they
knew God, they did not honor him as God or
give thanks to him, but they became feutile in their thinking.
There it is again, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the
(06:55):
glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man,
and birds and animal animals and creeping things. And therefore
God gave them up in the lust of their hearts,
to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
(07:17):
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.
Satan is the father of lies, and what we're seeing
in our world today, including America today, is the exchange
of truth for a lie and the lies of the enemy,
(07:42):
and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,
who is blessed forever.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Amen.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Paul just had to get that in there. Praise God.
He had to take a breath and praise God in
the midst of this, and so should we verse twenty six.
For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions
for their women exchange natural relations for those that are
(08:09):
contrary to nature. And the men that likewise gave up
natural relations that speaks of course, of sexual relations with women,
and were consumed with passions for one another men committing
shameless acts with men, and receiving in themselves that do penalty.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
In their era.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
In other words, there is judgment in this sin in
and of itself.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Verse twenty eight.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,
God gave them up. In other words, God judged them guilty.
God gave them over. God gave them up to a
debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
And they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness and evil,
(08:58):
and coveteousness and mass. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful,
inventors of evil, disobedience to parents.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Why not throw down all authority?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
If you throw down the authority of God in your life,
you will ultimately dismiss, dishonor all authority in your life. Foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Though they know God's righteous degree that those who practice
such things deserve to die, they not only do them,
(09:40):
but give approval to those.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Who practice them.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
In other words, shameless, sinful, sensuous, seditious lives.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
This is the world.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
It is depraved, it is distorted, it is defiled, it
is dirty. And this is the reason God has established
according to Romans thirteen, law and order and principles of.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Keeping the peace.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
But here it is living in impurity and immorality, lewdness.
Paul back in Ephesius chapter four, when you see the
word in the ESV, I read it as sensuality, as
a word called lasciviousness.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
And you know what las civiousness is.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
It is wanton, wickedness.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
It is shameless sexual sin. That's what it is. Back
in the fourth chapter, it includes greediness, which is a
word that has a business connotation, greediness, trafficking in sin, pornography,
(10:58):
billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars, trafficking
in the souls of men and women, sexual trafficking in
the World's that's the kind of thing he's talking about.
So Paul paints this very lurid, dark picture.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
To remind us.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
As Christians, we cannot live like this, we can't think
like this, we cannot live like this. Jesus did not
die on the cross bearing the penalty and the power
of sin, the weight of sin, Jesus did not die
(11:44):
on the cross for us to go to heaven, but
live like hell. He's called us to a brand new
life the Tewod Corinthians five point seventeen.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
All things are past away, and everything has become brand new.
We change a disgusting lifestyle to a lifestyle of purity
and faith.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
You are listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the
message The Much More Life, Part two in his powerful
book Ask. Doctor Graham helps you unlock the power of
prayer in your life using Jesus's teaching to ask, seek,
and knock. As you follow these three simple commands, you'll
completely transform how you pray. We want to help you
(12:32):
discover a deeper, more meaningful, and more powerful prayer life
by sending you a copy of Ask as our thanks
for your gift of ten dollars or more. Call now
to request your copy of this powerful resource. Call one
eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven. That's
one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
(12:53):
You can also text the word ask to five nine
seven eight nine. Don't let stress rob you of peace.
It is possible to break the destructive grip of stress
on your life and enjoy the peace and abundance God
desires for you. That's what doctor Graham helps you do
in his booklet Breaking Free from Stress. We'll send you
a digital download of Breaking Free from Stress when you
(13:13):
sign up for email updates from PowerPoint Today. Just go
to PowerPoint dot org slash stress and sign up today.
Now let's get back to today's message, the Much More
Life Part two.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
But again in chapter four, he says, if you have
so learned Christ, what does it mean to learn Christ?
Notice it doesn't say that you have learned about Christ,
but you have learned Christ.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
There's a big difference.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
You can know things about Christ, know things about God,
learn things about Him, and not learn Christ. This is
really a synonym, which means you are now following Christ.
You're learning, You're a disciple of Jesus Christ. You have
(14:08):
learned and you are learning of Christ. To know Him
and then to get to know him better and better
each day. That should be the goal of every godly
person listening to me right now, to know Him and
to make him known. Paul said it in the Philippians three,
(14:31):
that I may know him in the Power of His resurrection,
that I may know Him progressively and one day perfectly
face to face.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
We have a lifestyle. It is a much more.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Life.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I've been around for a few decades now I'm still
learning Christ. I know Christ, owing him and learning him
more and more.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
There's so much more to learn.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Christ is to live Christ in the presence and the
power of the Holy Spirit. For the Christian life is
not feudile and foolish. It is full and filled with
meaning and purpose. Our minds are filled with God's eternal Word,
(15:27):
which is life's giving. Our hearts are satisfied with the
fullness of God.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
God is in us.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Enthusiasm takes its note from the word in theos in
the Greek language in Theaos, enthusiasm is to.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Be filled with God.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
So we live life enthusiastically, elevated, extraordinary, much more lives
because God.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Is in us.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
The old person is gone, the new person is alive
and growing. Your past is past. You are no longer enslaved.
If you are in Christ, you are free from the
(16:18):
power of the enemy. You are no longer held captive
by Satan and living like a child of darkness. You
are now living in Christ, and therefore in the fullness
of his love and in the beauty of his lights.
There's a vivid illustration of this in the New Testament Gospels.
(16:41):
When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus had been
in the tomb for three days. He was wrapped in
grave clothes like a mummy. And when Christ spoke his name,
he said, Lazarus, come out. And they rolled away the stone,
(17:05):
and Lazarus came hopping out in those grave clothes. The
stench must have been something to behold or to experience.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Decaying dead.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Those grave clothes bore the stench of death and decay.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
So what did Jesus say to do.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
He told some servants standing by, loose him and let
him go. In other words, take off those old grave clothes,
the grave clothes of death and the past.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Take those off.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
And they did, and the next scene is Lazarus alive
and sitting at the table with Jesus with a brand
new life. What Paul is saying to us here is
in Christ, we take off those grave clothes, and the
(18:10):
stench and the shame and the filth.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Of our past.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
We are stripped of that, we are cleansed by the
blood of the Lord Jesus, Christ made brand new. And
now we put off the grave clothes and put on
the grace clothes, because we have been saved by grace.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
This is not.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Because we're better than others. We've done something that others
would not or could not do. We are dependent upon
Christ and what Christ has done for us.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
That's the exchange.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
And it is the role and the responsibility of the Church.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
To help people get the grave clothes off.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Just as Jesus said to those standing by, loose him
and let him go. It is the responsibility of God's people,
God's Church to help people turn loose of their past
and those old, filthy clothes of life without God, and
(19:24):
to be renewed in their minds, to recover their lives,
to be born again in their spirits and alive forever
in Christ.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Lose him and let him go.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
That's what Christ will do for you. There's a list here,
and one by one we're going to take a look
at the list. I like lists, and there's a list
right here that is given to us as to what
this new life looks like, what this exchange life looks like.
(20:02):
You don't need a lot of explanation for these words
because what he says is we're to exchange lies for truth.
That's verse twenty five. You never more like the devil
than when you're telling a lie. We live in a
(20:24):
world filled with lies. The word here falsehood actually means
fraudulent fake. Let each one of you speak truth with
his neighbor, for we are members of one another. I
remember when my son Jason was first beginning to practice law,
(20:49):
and he.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Was a good lawyer.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
He now is the COO for PowerPoint, But while he
was practicing, I remember as a young lawyer he said
to me, Dad, it's almost becoming cynical that everybody lies.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
And it's true.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Everybody lies. The Bible says, we go forth from the
womb speaking lies. So we exchange lies for simply telling
the truth. Like Jesus said, let your yes be what yes,
(21:38):
and your no be no. They're all kinds of lies, phoniness,
fraudulent behavior. That's all in the category of lying. Hypocrisy
is lying. He says, don't lie, and then he says,
exchange your anger.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
For forgiveness.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Do not sin.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Be angry, and do not sin. Do not let the
sun go down on your anger. That you give opportunity
to the devil. And then he says, let the thief
no longer steal, exchange stealing for sharing, but rather let
him labor doing honest work with his own hands. Why
so that you can put more and more money in
the bank, invest more and more in your investment account,
(22:27):
so you'll have more stuff. No, so that you may
certainly take care of your family, there's that in the scripture.
But also so that he may have something to share
with anyone in need. So we exchange stealing, and that
would include robbing God of tithes and offerings for generosity.
(22:51):
And then he says, exchange corrupt talk for edifying speech.
Let no corrupt talk come out of your mouths, but
only that which is good for building up. And all
of this settles in at verse thirty, which says, do
not grieve the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a person,
and only a person can be grieved. I don't grieve
(23:17):
this pulpit. If I do something to it. I hit
this pulpit. That doesn't grieve it. It hurts my hand,
but it doesn't grieve the pulpit. It's an inanimate option.
The Holy Spirit is not a force or an impersonal.
The Holy Spirit is the person, the third person of
the Trinity, and we hurt the Holy Spirit. We grieve
(23:37):
the Holy Spirit when we do not tell the truth,
when we steal, when we do not work hard, when
we're not generous. These are all very practical things. Because
back to the beginning, we're close. The first part of
Ephesias is about who we are in Christ. The next
three chapters it's all about how we live good Christ.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message
the Much More Life Part two. Nothing lights a fire
in your faith like experiencing the power of prayer firsthand.
As you begin to see God as a personal, loving
father who desires to hear and answer your prayers, it
transforms your life, and thanks to friends like you, more
(24:27):
people all around the world are hearing about their loving
God and his Son Jesus through the TV, radio and
online outreach of PowerPoint. That's why your support of this
ministry is so vital. We'll say thanks for your gift
of ten dollars or more by sending you a copy
of doctor Graham's book Ask. This is a great resource
to help you strengthen your own prayer life and teach
(24:49):
you to approach God with boldness and confidence. So call
now to request your copy. When you give call one
eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven. That's
one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
You can also text the word ask to five nine
seven eight nine, and don't forget to visit Jack Graham
(25:10):
dot org where you can shop our eastore, give a
gift online, or sign up for doctor Graham's free daily
email devotional. Our website again is Jack Graham dot org.
Pastor what is your PowerPoint for today?
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Well, you know, it's always important to dress appropriately. All
of us have had the experience of going to an
engagement of some kind, maybe a party, or maybe even
to church and felt like that we weren't dressed appropriately.
And when we are dressed inappropriately, we can be embarrassed.
I remember one time I showed up at a party
that was a formal party that I didn't know it
(25:47):
was a formal party, and I was dressed way underdressed,
and it was an embarrassment. Well, in life, it's important
that we dress appropriately, and more importantly, it is cordant,
that is Christians, that we dress God's way, that we
take off all the inappropriate clothing. The things that are
not becoming of Christ. Those things in our lives that
(26:10):
are ugly to those who don't know Jesus are ugly
to those who do know Jesus. There's so many ways
in which the Christian life is inappropriately lived in the
world today. So what we need to do is to
get up every day and put on the appropriate clothes.
These are the grace clothes that I talked about. And
rather than living in the darkness and the filth of
(26:32):
the past, we live in the life and the beauty
of Jesus who lives in us. It's my prayer that you,
as a listener today, would make up your mind to
put on Jesus Christ. Someone's watching you, someone's looking at
your life. Are you appropriately dressing living so that others
see Jesus in you? Make sure that your life is
(26:53):
a beautiful picture and portrait of Jesus Christ. You can't
do that on your own, but if you will discos
the old and put on the new life in Christ
every day through prayer and Bible reading and your focused
attention upon Him. Someone said I'd rather see a sermon
than hear a sermon.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Any day.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Somebody's looking at your life today. I hope they see
the beautiful message of Jesus through you.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
And that is today's power Point. Remember when you give
a gift of ten dollars or more to PowerPoint, we'll
send you doctor Graham's book, Ask as Our Thanks. Call
one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
That's one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
You can also text the word ask to five nine
(27:39):
seven eight nine and join us again next time when
doctor Graham brings a message about how being a new
creation in Christ transforms your mind. That's next time on
PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored
by PowerPoint Ministries.
Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham. A
little later in the program, we'll tell you how you
can get a copy of doctor Graham's book Ask. But
first here's the message the Much More Life, Part.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Two, beginning at Ephesians four.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Now this I say and testify in the Lord that
you must no longer walk as the gentiles do in
the futility.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Of their minds.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life
of God because of the ignorance that is in them.
Due to their hardness of heart, they have become callous
and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Every kind of impurity.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
But that is not the way you learn earned Christ,
assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught
in Him.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
As the truth is in.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Jesus, all truth is in Jesus, all the praise, all
the truth coast to Jesus. And verse twenty two key
verse to put off your old self, which belongs to
your former way of life or manner of life, and
is corrupt through deceitful desires. To put off, as though
(01:30):
you were taking off old, filthy, dirty clothes. He says,
put off your old self your humanness and circle Verse
twenty three, be.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Renewed in the spirit of your.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Minds, and put on the new self created after the
likeness of God, in what true righteousness and holiness. Therefore,
because you no longer live the way you used to live,
(02:05):
because you now have a brand new life in Jesus,
having put away all falsehood, let each one of you
speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members
of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Do
not let the sun go down on your anger, and
give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no
longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work
(02:28):
with his own hands, so that he may have something
to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk
come out of your mouth, but only such as is
good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it
may give grace to those who hear Verse thirty key verse,
(02:49):
and do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you
were sealed for the day of redemption. We have the
Holy Spirit. We have been marked by the Spirit. Now
we are to mature in the spirit. Let all bitterness
and wrath, and anger and clamor and slender be put
away from you along with all malice.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Be kind to one.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Now listen up.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
This extraordinary life, this much more life that we've been
talking about, this elevated life in Christ, is an exchanged life.
The very heart of the Gospel is the great exchange
(03:42):
that takes place when we who were dead in our
trespasses and sin, are made alive in Christ and we
receive the righteousness of Christ for our sin. The exchange
was made at the cross when Jesus died and paid
in full for all of our sins, past, present, and future.
And we exchange our filthy unrighteousness. Even the best that
(04:05):
we can do is filthy rags. We exchange our unrighteousness
for His righteousness. We exchange hell for heaven. We exchange
sin for godliness. In our lives. It is that exchanged life.
Christians do not live like the world. We are called
(04:32):
up higher. We are called to godliness and righteousness and holiness.
Why because we don't think like the unsaved world thinks.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Therefore we do not live the way the world lives.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Beware of the.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Feudal, vain, foolish, empty, thoughtless thinking of the world. Our
brains are bombarded with what the world says. But as Christians,
we are to saturate our minds with what God says,
(05:20):
the truth of God in Jesus Christ, because everything else
is empty. No wonder people are so emotionally spent and
broken because ultimately the problems that people have today are
not psychological problems, but spiritual problems that have a psychological
(05:44):
impact that destroy the soul. And it is incredible the
way people think. They it's all about their minds, it's
all about their mouths, what they say, and is all
about their mentality, all about their moral Ultimately, this vain,
feudal thinking results in moral and spiritual collapse. Because where
(06:08):
there is no God, there is no light, and where
there is no light, there is no lighte The unsafe
person thinks that they are enlightened because they have rejected God.
But the scripture says, professing themselves wise, they have become fools.
Why are we seeing such sinful behavior? Turned to Romans
(06:31):
chapter one, verse twenty one. Romans one, for although they
knew God, they did not honor him as God or
give thanks to him, but they became feutile in their thinking.
There it is again, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the
(06:55):
glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man,
and birds and animal animals and creeping things. And therefore
God gave them up in the lust of their hearts,
to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
(07:17):
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.
Satan is the father of lies, and what we're seeing
in our world today, including America today, is the exchange
of truth for a lie and the lies of the enemy,
(07:42):
and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,
who is blessed forever.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Amen.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Paul just had to get that in there. Praise God.
He had to take a breath and praise God in
the midst of this, and so should we verse twenty six.
For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions
for their women exchange natural relations for those that are
(08:09):
contrary to nature. And the men that likewise gave up
natural relations that speaks of course, of sexual relations with women,
and were consumed with passions for one another men committing
shameless acts with men, and receiving in themselves that do penalty.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
In their era.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
In other words, there is judgment in this sin in
and of itself.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Verse twenty eight.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,
God gave them up. In other words, God judged them guilty.
God gave them over. God gave them up to a
debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
And they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness and evil,
(08:58):
and coveteousness and mass. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful,
inventors of evil, disobedience to parents.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Why not throw down all authority?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
If you throw down the authority of God in your life,
you will ultimately dismiss, dishonor all authority in your life. Foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Though they know God's righteous degree that those who practice
such things deserve to die, they not only do them,
(09:40):
but give approval to those.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Who practice them.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
In other words, shameless, sinful, sensuous, seditious lives.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
This is the world.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
It is depraved, it is distorted, it is defiled, it
is dirty. And this is the reason God has established
according to Romans thirteen, law and order and principles of.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Keeping the peace.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
But here it is living in impurity and immorality, lewdness.
Paul back in Ephesius chapter four, when you see the
word in the ESV, I read it as sensuality, as
a word called lasciviousness.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
And you know what las civiousness is.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
It is wanton, wickedness.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
It is shameless sexual sin. That's what it is. Back
in the fourth chapter, it includes greediness, which is a
word that has a business connotation, greediness, trafficking in sin, pornography,
(10:58):
billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars, trafficking
in the souls of men and women, sexual trafficking in
the World's that's the kind of thing he's talking about.
So Paul paints this very lurid, dark picture.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
To remind us.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
As Christians, we cannot live like this, we can't think
like this, we cannot live like this. Jesus did not
die on the cross bearing the penalty and the power
of sin, the weight of sin, Jesus did not die
(11:44):
on the cross for us to go to heaven, but
live like hell. He's called us to a brand new
life the Tewod Corinthians five point seventeen.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
All things are past away, and everything has become brand new.
We change a disgusting lifestyle to a lifestyle of purity
and faith.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
You are listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the
message The Much More Life, Part two in his powerful
book Ask. Doctor Graham helps you unlock the power of
prayer in your life using Jesus's teaching to ask, seek,
and knock. As you follow these three simple commands, you'll
completely transform how you pray. We want to help you
(12:32):
discover a deeper, more meaningful, and more powerful prayer life
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(12:53):
You can also text the word ask to five nine
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It is possible to break the destructive grip of stress
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(13:13):
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Now let's get back to today's message, the Much More
Life Part two.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
But again in chapter four, he says, if you have
so learned Christ, what does it mean to learn Christ?
Notice it doesn't say that you have learned about Christ,
but you have learned Christ.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
There's a big difference.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
You can know things about Christ, know things about God,
learn things about Him, and not learn Christ. This is
really a synonym, which means you are now following Christ.
You're learning, You're a disciple of Jesus Christ. You have
(14:08):
learned and you are learning of Christ. To know Him
and then to get to know him better and better
each day. That should be the goal of every godly
person listening to me right now, to know Him and
to make him known. Paul said it in the Philippians three,
(14:31):
that I may know him in the Power of His resurrection,
that I may know Him progressively and one day perfectly
face to face.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
We have a lifestyle. It is a much more.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Life.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I've been around for a few decades now I'm still
learning Christ. I know Christ, owing him and learning him
more and more.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
There's so much more to learn.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Christ is to live Christ in the presence and the
power of the Holy Spirit. For the Christian life is
not feudile and foolish. It is full and filled with
meaning and purpose. Our minds are filled with God's eternal Word,
(15:27):
which is life's giving. Our hearts are satisfied with the
fullness of God.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
God is in us.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Enthusiasm takes its note from the word in theos in
the Greek language in Theaos, enthusiasm is to.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Be filled with God.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
So we live life enthusiastically, elevated, extraordinary, much more lives
because God.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Is in us.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
The old person is gone, the new person is alive
and growing. Your past is past. You are no longer enslaved.
If you are in Christ, you are free from the
(16:18):
power of the enemy. You are no longer held captive
by Satan and living like a child of darkness. You
are now living in Christ, and therefore in the fullness
of his love and in the beauty of his lights.
There's a vivid illustration of this in the New Testament Gospels.
(16:41):
When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus had been
in the tomb for three days. He was wrapped in
grave clothes like a mummy. And when Christ spoke his name,
he said, Lazarus, come out. And they rolled away the stone,
(17:05):
and Lazarus came hopping out in those grave clothes. The
stench must have been something to behold or to experience.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Decaying dead.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Those grave clothes bore the stench of death and decay.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
So what did Jesus say to do.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
He told some servants standing by, loose him and let
him go. In other words, take off those old grave clothes,
the grave clothes of death and the past.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Take those off.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
And they did, and the next scene is Lazarus alive
and sitting at the table with Jesus with a brand
new life. What Paul is saying to us here is
in Christ, we take off those grave clothes, and the
(18:10):
stench and the shame and the filth.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Of our past.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
We are stripped of that, we are cleansed by the
blood of the Lord Jesus, Christ made brand new. And
now we put off the grave clothes and put on
the grace clothes, because we have been saved by grace.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
This is not.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Because we're better than others. We've done something that others
would not or could not do. We are dependent upon
Christ and what Christ has done for us.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
That's the exchange.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
And it is the role and the responsibility of the Church.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
To help people get the grave clothes off.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Just as Jesus said to those standing by, loose him
and let him go. It is the responsibility of God's people,
God's Church to help people turn loose of their past
and those old, filthy clothes of life without God, and
(19:24):
to be renewed in their minds, to recover their lives,
to be born again in their spirits and alive forever
in Christ.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Lose him and let him go.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
That's what Christ will do for you. There's a list here,
and one by one we're going to take a look
at the list. I like lists, and there's a list
right here that is given to us as to what
this new life looks like, what this exchange life looks like.
(20:02):
You don't need a lot of explanation for these words
because what he says is we're to exchange lies for truth.
That's verse twenty five. You never more like the devil
than when you're telling a lie. We live in a
(20:24):
world filled with lies. The word here falsehood actually means
fraudulent fake. Let each one of you speak truth with
his neighbor, for we are members of one another. I
remember when my son Jason was first beginning to practice law,
(20:49):
and he.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Was a good lawyer.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
He now is the COO for PowerPoint, But while he
was practicing, I remember as a young lawyer he said
to me, Dad, it's almost becoming cynical that everybody lies.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
And it's true.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Everybody lies. The Bible says, we go forth from the
womb speaking lies. So we exchange lies for simply telling
the truth. Like Jesus said, let your yes be what yes,
(21:38):
and your no be no. They're all kinds of lies, phoniness,
fraudulent behavior. That's all in the category of lying. Hypocrisy
is lying. He says, don't lie, and then he says,
exchange your anger.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
For forgiveness.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Do not sin.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Be angry, and do not sin. Do not let the
sun go down on your anger. That you give opportunity
to the devil. And then he says, let the thief
no longer steal, exchange stealing for sharing, but rather let
him labor doing honest work with his own hands. Why
so that you can put more and more money in
the bank, invest more and more in your investment account,
(22:27):
so you'll have more stuff. No, so that you may
certainly take care of your family, there's that in the scripture.
But also so that he may have something to share
with anyone in need. So we exchange stealing, and that
would include robbing God of tithes and offerings for generosity.
(22:51):
And then he says, exchange corrupt talk for edifying speech.
Let no corrupt talk come out of your mouths, but
only that which is good for building up. And all
of this settles in at verse thirty, which says, do
not grieve the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a person,
and only a person can be grieved. I don't grieve
(23:17):
this pulpit. If I do something to it. I hit
this pulpit. That doesn't grieve it. It hurts my hand,
but it doesn't grieve the pulpit. It's an inanimate option.
The Holy Spirit is not a force or an impersonal.
The Holy Spirit is the person, the third person of
the Trinity, and we hurt the Holy Spirit. We grieve
(23:37):
the Holy Spirit when we do not tell the truth,
when we steal, when we do not work hard, when
we're not generous. These are all very practical things. Because
back to the beginning, we're close. The first part of
Ephesias is about who we are in Christ. The next
three chapters it's all about how we live good Christ.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message
the Much More Life Part two. Nothing lights a fire
in your faith like experiencing the power of prayer firsthand.
As you begin to see God as a personal, loving
father who desires to hear and answer your prayers, it
transforms your life, and thanks to friends like you, more
(24:27):
people all around the world are hearing about their loving
God and his Son Jesus through the TV, radio and
online outreach of PowerPoint. That's why your support of this
ministry is so vital. We'll say thanks for your gift
of ten dollars or more by sending you a copy
of doctor Graham's book Ask. This is a great resource
to help you strengthen your own prayer life and teach
(24:49):
you to approach God with boldness and confidence. So call
now to request your copy. When you give call one
eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven. That's
one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
You can also text the word ask to five nine
seven eight nine, and don't forget to visit Jack Graham
(25:10):
dot org where you can shop our eastore, give a
gift online, or sign up for doctor Graham's free daily
email devotional. Our website again is Jack Graham dot org.
Pastor what is your PowerPoint for today?
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Well, you know, it's always important to dress appropriately. All
of us have had the experience of going to an
engagement of some kind, maybe a party, or maybe even
to church and felt like that we weren't dressed appropriately.
And when we are dressed inappropriately, we can be embarrassed.
I remember one time I showed up at a party
that was a formal party that I didn't know it
(25:47):
was a formal party, and I was dressed way underdressed,
and it was an embarrassment. Well, in life, it's important
that we dress appropriately, and more importantly, it is cordant,
that is Christians, that we dress God's way, that we
take off all the inappropriate clothing. The things that are
not becoming of Christ. Those things in our lives that
(26:10):
are ugly to those who don't know Jesus are ugly
to those who do know Jesus. There's so many ways
in which the Christian life is inappropriately lived in the
world today. So what we need to do is to
get up every day and put on the appropriate clothes.
These are the grace clothes that I talked about. And
rather than living in the darkness and the filth of
(26:32):
the past, we live in the life and the beauty
of Jesus who lives in us. It's my prayer that you,
as a listener today, would make up your mind to
put on Jesus Christ. Someone's watching you, someone's looking at
your life. Are you appropriately dressing living so that others
see Jesus in you? Make sure that your life is
(26:53):
a beautiful picture and portrait of Jesus Christ. You can't
do that on your own, but if you will discos
the old and put on the new life in Christ
every day through prayer and Bible reading and your focused
attention upon Him. Someone said I'd rather see a sermon
than hear a sermon.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Any day.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Somebody's looking at your life today. I hope they see
the beautiful message of Jesus through you.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
And that is today's power Point. Remember when you give
a gift of ten dollars or more to PowerPoint, we'll
send you doctor Graham's book, Ask as Our Thanks. Call
one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
That's one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
You can also text the word ask to five nine
(27:39):
seven eight nine and join us again next time when
doctor Graham brings a message about how being a new
creation in Christ transforms your mind. That's next time on
PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored
by PowerPoint Ministries.
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