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Jan 22, 2023

The Dance is a State of Mind

The Dance is a State of Mind

Passage: Ephesians 4:17-24

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Song & Dance - The Gospel Melody that Moves in Ephesians

Keywords: holiness, righteousness, image of god, renewed, new self

It’s a longstanding and regular conversation among psychologists about whether people can meaningfully change. Some approaches suggest real promise, but prove ineffective. Other ideas that no one imagined would help end up showing a real impact on liberating people from old ways to find new ones. What is that change that comes with, to borrow Paul’s phrase, “learning Jesus”? What constitutes the change, and moreover, what facilitates it? If we think of the life in Jesus is like a dance, a way of moving to the “inward music” of the Gospel of grace, this passage will argue that the dance is a state of mind.

Readings & Scripture

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH/SCRIPTURE READING/CORPORATE PRAYER: Mark 12:28-34
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

CENTRAL TEXT: Ephesians 4:17-24
Eph. 4:17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 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. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

CONFESSION OF SIN: Psalm 51:7-12
ALL: Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.

BENEDICTION: Philippians 2:12-13
LEADER: Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

ALL: Amen!

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

  • Genesis 1:26-28
  • Proverbs 26:11 / 2 Peter 2:22
  • Isaiah 63:10
  • Jeremiah 31:33
  • Matthew 5:43-48
  • Matthew 28:16-20
  • Romans 1:18-28
  • Romans 12:1-2
  • Romans 13:14
  • 1 Corinthians 5:6, 15:33
  • 2 Corinthians 3:18
  • 2 Corinthians 5:17
  • Philippians 2:12-13
  • Colossians 2:6-7
  • Colossians 3:9, 10
  • Hebrews 8:10, 10:16
  • James 3:9-10

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. What’s something in you that someone who knows you can say has changed in noticeable ways? Maybe not completely or consistently, but noticeably? How would you say that change occurred?
  2. Take your best shot: how do our minds (what we think) and our desires (what we want) relate? What insight does vv.22-23 provide to help you with your answer?
  3. Change in light of the gospel: it’s not all on you but it’s not without your participation. How would you explain that to someone? What’s one example of that idea in real life?
  4. What’s something in you know you can still see as stuck within that imprisoned mind of “futility?” 

QUOTES: 

 

  • Those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. - Friedrich Nietzsche
  • All this stuff in your mind - these beliefs, assumptions, expectations that you've gotten from your friends, your family, your culture - those things, Mischel explained, are the filter through which you see the world. Your mind stands between who you are, your personality and whatever situation you're in and profoundly influences how your brain interprets the world around it. Those beliefs, expectations, assumptions - they direct what your mind pays attention to quite literally - even what it physically sees in a situation and how it feels about what it sees. And so when the stuff inside the mind changes, people change. They begin to interpret their situations differently or themselves differently, and so situations act on them differently. - Alix Spiegel, host of Invisibilia, citing psychologist Walter Mischel
  • My problem is that I’m too relaxed, too laidback. Most of the time I feel like a flat tire; totally unmotivated, positively lifeless. I can fall asleep at any time during the day. It takes a lot to get me stimulated, and I’m an excessively sensitive person, which complicates things. I can be totally at ease one minute, and then, for no reason whatsoever, I get restless and fidgety; doesn’t seem to be any middle ground. Two or three hours in front of the tube is a lot of binge watching for me. Too much time to be involved with the screen. Or maybe I’m too old for it. . . . I’m not a fan of packaged programs, or news shows, so I don’t watch them. I never watch anything foul smelling or evil. Nothing disgusting. . . .I’m a religious person. I read the scriptures a lot, meditate and pray, light candles in church. I believe in damnation and salvation, as well as predestination. - The Five Books of Moses, Pauline Epistles, Invocation of the Saints, all of it. Bob Dylan
  • It is not really a small thing when in small things we resist self. . . . It is vanity then to seek after, and to trust in, the riches that shall perish. It is vanity, too, to covet honors, and to lift up ourselves on high. It is vanity to follow the desires of the flesh and be led by them, for this shall bring misery at the last. It is vanity to desire a long life, and to have little care for a good life. It is vanity to take thought only for the life which now is, and not to look forward to the things which shall be hereafter. It is vanity to love that which quickly passes away, and not to hasten where eternal joy abides. - Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
  • [We frequently find ourselves] in fierce competition with people and institutions who offer something more exciting to do than they do. But our task is the opposite of distraction. Our task is to help people concentrate on the real but often hidden event of God’s active presence in their lives. Hence, the question that must guide all organizing activity in a parish is not how to keep people busy, but how to keep them from being so busy that they can no longer hear the voice of God who speaks in silence. - Henri Nouwen

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