Sin, apart from the violation against God, has a damaging impact on our lives. Like a cancer, sin eats away at our conscience. And anger, resentment, and deceit are transgressions that, like a tornado, leave a trail of destruction in their path. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll invites us to confront our human nature and to employ the tools God has provided to break free from our sinful patterns. In doing so, we begin to experience true liberty in Christ.
Teaching from Ephesians 4, Chuck titled his message, Steps That Lead to Freedom. If wrong is going on and that doesn't anger you, there's something wrong with your scale of values. If there is abuse and mistreatment and violence committed against another individual and you calmly walk by saying we need to tolerate life as it really is, I do not think that is the right response. I think it ought to make you angry. Anger is a great motivator to stand alone and to stand for what is right. So there's nothing wrong with the right kind of anger.
This is an uncontrolled anger. In fact, look at the do nots. Always notice in your Bible the repeated statements or the repeated words, do not, do not, do not. Verses 26 and 27, do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your anger, do not give the devil an opportunity.
Now you and I know that one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control. If anger reaches the level that you lose control, you've moved into the realm of sin. If the enraged condition is to that point that you blank out, you've moved into sin. Temper usually does that.
Causes us to act or react in a violent manner and that's sinful. He says do not let the sun go down on your anger, do not give the devil a place. You know he takes an opportunity to do that when you fester. That's why festered anger always gets worse. That's why you're not less angry, you just have sublimated it. You've just shoved it aside. You've got it on hold waiting to pounce when it comes up again.
Now here's the third area. You think old sins are hard to break? I mean, you think I've gotten personal? Verse 28, he really starts to meddle. He who steals. Some of you are thinking, Chuck, you're going to talk to us like a pack of thieves? Well, I'm just reading from the Bible here.
I'm just doing my best to be true to the scripture. It was a common practice in the first century. And when people became Christians, they had been doing this all their lives, and now a Christian they still would steal. You say, well, my goodness, I wouldn't steal.
Well, let's see. Shoplifting is stealing. Padding expense accounts is stealing. Using a credit card for other reasons than its purpose is stealing. Intentionally overestimating the cost of service or a product is stealing from your customer. Failure to report accurately to the IRS is stealing. Falsifying cost overruns is an act of stealing. Accepting more change after one's purchase, that is more than you should be receiving, is stealing. Outright embezzlement, obviously. Reneging on a debt is stealing. Not paying fair wages is stealing. Common occurrences, all.
Some of them even among Christians. You work at a place that has a full supply of paper. You want to use the paper for your own purposes. You steal paper when you use it in that way.
You should buy your own paper and do it in your own, under your own expense. They have paper clips and rubber bands and pens and pencils and other petty items. You say, how petty can you get?
More than that. How do I find freedom from stealing? What if I have a son who steals from the bureau where I have my wallet and I find $5 gone every now and then and I know he's doing it?
What do I do with an individual who seems unable to solve this? Look at verse 28. But rather, see the verse, let him who steals stop it. But rather, two suggestions. He must labor performing with his own hands what is good.
Hard work, hard manual labor, hard work is good. Second, he will then have something to share with the one who has need, the cultivation of a generous spirit is the second. Chances are good that your problem with not being generous is that you are still stealing. I don't know what you're stealing. It may be stealing time when you promised your children you would spend it with them. I have a very good psychologist friend who said it was a great day in his life when he realized that he was awfully proud of never having stolen anything from the organization he was a part of only to realize he was over committed and had stolen time from his wife and his children. Over commitment is a form of stealing. You break your promises. You leave them believing one thing when in fact you've stolen that. It's their trust you've stolen.
I might as well face it head on. Some of you work for organizations where there is a surplus amount. It's very possible you have fallen into the trap of taking from that organization.
Listen to this report. A paper was given at an American Psychological Association symposium on employee theft and they presented a breakdown of the $8 billion that inventory shortages cost department and chain stores every year. Can you imagine that figure? $8 billion.
Of these losses, 10% were due to clerical errors, 30% due to shoplifting, a shocking 60%, that's $16 million a day, to theft by employees. I once stole a dozen softballs from the store I worked for when I was the stock boy in the back. I don't know what in the world I was going to do with a dozen softballs. First of all, it's hard to hide them from a very curious mother. I put them in my drawer and I tucked them back in the back underneath my underwear as if that was going to keep her out. I had a note on my dresser that evening from my mother. I want to talk to you about the softballs that are in your drawer. Of course, my mind just raced.
I could see me being beaten to the end of my life by my father. I said to her, I took them. Obviously, you took them and you're going to take them back and you're going to tell the manager that you stole from the store. Mother, I could even put them back and I could even buy some and put extras in there. You know how you'll do. You will put them back, but first you will tell him what you have done and your father will hear about this tonight.
Those are the worst words a 14-year-old kid can hear. Your father will hear about it. So my dad comes in. He worked second shift. He woke me up.
I didn't realize I was raising a thief. Those were the words that woke me up. So I sat down and the next morning I didn't sleep the rest of the night. The next morning I went over to Cress's where I was working and I walked in and I spoke to Mr. Hubbard, who was the manager, and I had the balls in my hand.
My father said, I will sit in this car and wait to see what's going to happen. You need to be fired. I walked in. I showed him the balls and he fired me. I thought, I have worked here, lo, these many months so faithfully.
Just in a little moment I've taken these for just overnight. And he said, we don't keep thieves in our employment. You're fired. I will never forget that. Not only was that bad, I had to go back to the car where my dad is sitting, waiting for his wish to be fulfilled.
I get in the car and he unloads the truck on me. It was one of the most humiliating moments of my entire life. It was the last time I ever took something that wasn't mine, even a paperclip, even a piece of paper. You learn. I got another job that was a lot more hard work, a lot less money. And interestingly, my mother said, what you need to learn to do is to give, which you've never learned before.
So that sort of kicked in as well. And I learned to share with some mothers who have need. I'm not a flawless example of any of this. I just want you to know what I learned from very faithful, confronting and unbending parents who didn't cover for me. Don't ever do that for your children when they've done what is wrong. Walk to the edge with them.
Stay with what's right. If they don't learn it from you, it's doubtful they're going to ever learn it from anybody else. Verse 29 addresses unwholesome words. You know what the word unwholesome means in the Greek? It means rotten.
It's used for rotten vegetables, sour and rotten fruit. It means foul and corrupt, bad and worthless, as it appears. Unwholesome. Talk about a hard habit to break. If you cursed when you were on the street, if you were cursing in school, if you picked up profanity in the military, if you learned to say words that were unwholesome there, chances are good the cross has not erased that habit. And it comes out from your mouth. But it's not just profanity. It can include put-downs and sarcasm and needless words.
It can be lack of confidentiality. It can be words that don't have to be spoken, but you just somehow feel the need to put them in there. It doesn't do good. In this case, it does harm, and they proceed from our mouths. So he says, stop it.
How do I get freedom from this? Well, look at what he says in 29. Say only the words that are good for edification according to the need of the moment. Words that build up rather than tear down. By the way, parents, this is a great time for me to add that it's easy for us to see the two or three wrongs they've done rather than the 15 or 20 right things. Address the wrongs, but remember to camp just as well and just as often on the right, according to the need of the moment. Why? That it may give grace to those who hear.
Words that are unwholesome are wrong words set against a person who isn't there to defend himself. Don't go there. St. Augustine hung an interesting motto in his dining room that read, He who speaks evil of an absent man or woman is not welcome at this table. Start with your table talk.
That's usually where we are most free with our family. Just watch your mouth. Just guard your tongue. If you don't have to add something there that could put another down, don't do it.
If you're dealing with a resume and working with hiring the person, that's where you have to do it, but that's done confidentially behind closed doors and it goes no further. But how great it is to add grace to those who hear. Isn't that a wonderful way to put it?
We all could learn a lesson from the Scottish pastor Alexander White, of whom it was said all of his geese became swans. I think it's significant that on the heels of the unwholesome words are the words about the grieving of the Holy Spirit. He has deep feelings about his residence within you. Your words cause him pain when they're unwholesome words. You've been sealed to the day of redemption, so that would be a good limit to put on unwholesome words. Until the day of redemption, why don't you stay away from them? Finally, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you with all malice.
What a list, huh? Bitterness, wrath, anger, loud talking, slander? Why would a person live in such malice? The next verse tells us there's someone he hasn't forgiven. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other.
That's where all that stuff comes from. You look back far enough, you'll find someone that you've not forgiven. Your grudge is making you ugly. It's causing you to say things that are unkind, lacking in tenderness, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, malice.
How do I get free from that? Forgive. Forgive. We all have at least one thing in common. We've all been hurt by someone else. Every face I look at in this place knows pain because of somebody else's words or actions.
Mine too. If I thought, I'd try to forget them, but if I thought about a list, I could give you some names of people who have hurt me deeply. My responsibility is to forgive them.
Because if I don't, I'm the one who suffers the most. There is released within me the acid of resentment and bitterness and this uncontrollable anger that comes out. And of all things, I'm taking it out on a pet or someone who is near me and I love dearly when I really have not looked the person in the eye and said, you know what, I need to let you know all is forgiven.
If they won't listen, I need to write them a letter. And if they're dead, I need to tell their tombstone or a counselor or a pastor that it's all over. Some of you who have been married before in horrible situations, seeing yourself as a terrible victim of that, and you may have been, need to get past it.
Or you will remain hard to live with. You need to forgive them. I don't say they deserve it. You and I didn't deserve it and Christ died for us. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
That's why the cross stands so tall. No one can say, He held that against me. Father, forgive them, they don't even know what they're doing. Some of the sins are sins of ignorance. The person you were married to was violent and had all these unresolved problems and you became the punching bag. It was wrong.
It was horrible. But for you not to forgive is worse. That way, by forgiving, you can be kind. My sister has the best line, just be nice.
That good? I love to meet people who are fairly well known in the Christian life, who can hold an audience in their hand and do a fairly good job of communicating, who when nobody is looking are still nice and tender and merciful. You know those who aren't? They've got somebody they haven't forgiven.
Just that simple. That's what keeps you from being nice, kind, tender. Frederick Buechner in his provocative work, Wishful Thinking, A Theological ABC, writes this. Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. It's okay, you can laugh. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back in many ways is a feast fit for a king.
The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you. When will we learn? I'd like us to bow our heads. Just close your eyes. The Lord has given us the anatomy so that we can just blank out all visual interruptions. Just close your eyes, open your mind. Just sit there. There's a word in the Psalms that says selah, S-E-L-A-H. I sometimes paraphrase, pause and let that sink in.
That's what I want you to do right now. Lying, stealing, unwholesome words, anger that's out of control, refusing to forgive. What a list.
What a list. The good news is that you're free. Don't let anybody tell you you can't help yourself. It's one of the major lies that comes from the devil.
I've just always been like that. Well, you've been saved. The only real excuse you've got is that you're not saved. If you're going to hang on to this lifestyle, then you really are bound to the stake. You serve the enemy.
You've never been bought with a price. Today's the day to solve that one as well. And now that you're in the family of God, how wonderful it is that you can say when confronting whatever may be on whatever list, Lord God, everything within me wants to move in that direction, but I know I don't have to walk in that circle anymore. I'm freed from that.
You've cut the string. You've set me free. Right now, give me power to say no, to close my mouth, to guard my lips, to respond kindly, to forgive that enemy, to say no to that temptation, to steal, to curse, to lie. Father, thank you for the great grace that there is in the Lord Jesus. Thank you for knowing all about us and loving us more than anybody we've ever known. Thank you for forgiving us, for seeing within us the inability to solve these dilemmas and rushing to our rescue and helping us through them. Just as faithfully as you bring this rain to our land, I pray that you will bring mercy to our hearts and refreshment to our spirits as we live as free women and men, no longer in bondage. Help us as we take these steps toward freedom to be encouraged along the way with your favor and blessing. And now to Him who is able to guard us from stumbling and to present us faultless before the presence of His throne with exceeding joy to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty and dominion and power forever and ever. And all the people of God said, Amen. At Insight for Living, it's our hope and prayer that today's message has brought a ray of sunshine into your day as we step into the light of God's truth. You're listening to the Bible teaching of pastor and author Chuck Swindoll. He titled this study in Ephesians 4, Steps That Lead to Freedom.
To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. Earlier, we heard Chuck describe the debilitating impact of anger, bitterness, slander, and malice. 2020 started with a global pandemic that has resulted in unprecedented social unrest, and we've seen the escalation of these emotional sins over the past year.
But these unwanted forces have given us a choice. We can either choose fear and resentment, or we can walk in the light. To guide you through the new year, we recommend a desk calendar that will bring a small beam of light for your journey. It's a flip calendar called Quotable Chuck, Daily Insights from the Pulpit. Psalm 119 105 says, Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. By displaying this calendar on your desk or kitchen counter, you'll be reminded of your freedom in Christ every single day in 2021.
To purchase the flip calendar called Quotable Chuck, call us if you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888, or go online to insight.org slash store. In addition to your purchase, we invite you to add a voluntary donation so others can have access to the same authentic Bible teaching you've come to rely upon as well. Insight for Living Ministries is not subsidized or underwritten by a large church or organization. Instead, we rely on devoted friends like you to provide Chuck's teaching. So thanks for giving generously so others can embrace the true freedom in Christ that Chuck described today. To give a donation, go to insight.org, or if you prefer, you can call us if you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888, or once again, you can easily give online at insight.org. Tomorrow, Chuck Swindoll continues his study in Ephesians titled Becoming a People of Grace, right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, steps that lead to freedom, was copyrighted in 2000, 2001, and 2009, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
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