SERMON INTRO:

“I want to start this morning with a word, a word called euphemism. The dictionary definition is the use of a pleasant, polite, or harmless-sounding word or expression to mask harsh, rude, or infamous truths. Now you always use euphemisms, whether you know it or not.

“When somebody dies, we say they passed away, that is a euphemism. Or if we talk about adult beverages, that's a euphemism. Or we unfortunately bring our dog to the vet and we put them to sleep. That's a euphemism.

“Or we have other kinds of euphemisms, something like alternative lifestyle. Or even the month that we're in is pride month—that's a euphemism. Or reproductive health care. Or even something like premarital sex is a euphemism. There's this old word that we don't use anymore. It's called fornication. That's what we're talking about when we talk about that.

"We euphemize many, many things in our culture especially when they come to religious issues or issues of sin or the things that we don't really like to talk about so we find pleasant, polite, harmless-sounding expressions for things we don't want to talk about. And the problem becomes that people begin to believe the euphemism is the reality. And that's the issue. So we're going to talk more about what that means as we go on.

“I just want to go back. We've talked about the fact that the Christian life is based on the foundational realities of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Chapters one through three of the Book of Ephesians, it's all about that foundation. The foundation that God is a Savior, that God saves sinners, that he unites people to Jesus Christ, he makes them a part of his community, his family, the church we call that. He continues to reveal himself to us and strengthen us and the church to comprehend the fullness of his love. And from this gospel comes the exhortation in chapter four, verse one, that we are to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, it says.

“The gospel fundamentally changes individuals. And it fundamentally changes us as a body of believers. That's what the gospel does.

“It transforms, and today this fundamental change is described in our passage in stark and in powerful ways. So we're going to see in our primary claim: Believers no longer are the old worldly humanity, but they are a new humanity that bears the likeness of God himself.

“When you read that, as I do, and I see a statement like that and say, is this actually true that are we a new humanity in the likeness of God himself? Do we not walk in the ways of the world? Those are questions that come up. Do Christians bear the likeness of God? And that's a good question for us this morning.

"We're also going to ask in the description in our passage of life without Christ, is this a true and accurate description of reality? We're going to try to answer that question as well. And these questions come out of our passage and we want to wrestle with these kind of questions here this morning.”

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