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Heath Kirkwood: Every Don’t Has a Do (Ephesians 4:25-32)
Heath Kirkwood, lead pastor of First Baptist Church in Lorena, summarized religion as “how you do what you believe.” As long as people have engaged in religion, they’ve “done what they can to not make their god mad.” To that end, every religion has “things you do and things you don’t do.” Christianity is no different, Kirkwood asserted, except in its motive, which is to love God as God first loved us.
Kirkwood described Paul’s letter to the Ephesians as telling “what it means to go from living like the world to living like Jesus.” In Ephesians 4, Paul lists things Christians should not do followed by the more important things Christians should do, such as kindness, compassion and forgiveness.
Being kind, compassionate and forgiving is a struggle for us. Therefore, we need to repeatedly remind ourselves to be kind, compassionate and forgiving. To that end, Kirkwood led his hearers in memorizing Ephesians 4:32.
This sermon was delivered during the morning worship service Nov. 7, 2021, at First Baptist Church in Lorena, as part of a series titled “Living in the Spirit.” This series, as well as corresponding Bible studies at the church, is aligned with the Living in the Spirit study published by GC2 Press, formerly BaptistWay Press.
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