All Things Are Possible

Dr. Bernie Miller: Your heart makes a terrible GPS. It reroutes you to comfort, to revenge, to hate, pride, and fear. God doesn't give you any of those things. God doesn't just want to correct your choices. He wants to direct your path.

I'd rather be under God's mighty hand and wrong than not be under His hand and right. Because if I'm under His hand, wrong or right, I know that I'm protected by the power of God.

A man was taking a long time getting dressed. It took nearly an hour getting dressed to go to church. He tried on three suits, two ties, and a pair of shoes so shiny they could guide airplanes on a runway. When he finally came downstairs, he asked his wife, "How do I look?" She said, "You look great, honey, but your attitude is wrinkled."

Isn't it amazing how we spend so much time choosing what goes on us and so little time choosing what comes out of us? Last week we talked about humility and how it helped with unity. This week, just as a reminder, you cannot walk in unity if you're not wearing humility. Humility creates unity, and unity creates civility.

Disunity is the attitude of the old life. The unity of the spirit is not achieved by changing churches. It's not achieved by changing people. It's not achieved by changing circumstances. It is achieved by putting off the old self that's full of pride and putting on the new self that looks like Christ.

Just imagine if you will for a moment. A football team can have the same logo, the same stadium, the same coach, and the same playbook, but if the players refuse to wear the uniform, follow the plays, and work together, they will lose every game. The world judges the best-dressed person by labels like Armani, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton.

I remember when I met my wife, we got married and everything. I was trying to impress her. I gave her a Louis Vuitton. She said, "What are these Ls and Vs on here for?" I thought I had done something. I thought I knew I was going to hit a lick. She said, "What is this for?" I said, "Well, it's a well-known person. It's Louis Vuitton." She says, "I don't want it." So I got it and I use it when I'm going out of town. I put some stuff in it and it's a nice little thing to carry around, but she didn't want it.

But God has a different clothing line. The best-dressed believer isn't wearing designer brands. The best-dressed believer wears humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and love. All of those five things represent Jesus Christ, our Savior. You can't have humility if you have pride because your pride cancels out humility.

If you are kind, you can't be critical. You are always waiting for an opportunity to stab them with something. That is not kindness. Patience means you won't be irritable. Is anything okay with you, or are you always irritated by something? Forgiveness means I'd rather forgive instead of carrying around bitterness. Love means I'd rather love you instead of hating you. You know how much energy it takes to hate somebody? Do you know how depressed you can get by hating somebody else? It's not worth it.

Aren't you glad God didn't hate you? He hates sin, but He does not hate us. Unity in the church requires a change of spiritual clothes designed by the Master Designer, God Almighty. I love what Colossians says in Chapter 3, Verse 12. It says we're to put on a heart of compassion and kindness, humility, gentleness, and also patience.

That kind of sounds like Ephesians. The church has one Lord, one faith, one spirit, one mission, and that is to glorify God. That's our mission statement. It's to show people Christ, grow people in Christ, and glorify God. Showing people Christ means evangelism. Growing people in Christ means discipleship, and glorifying God is our chief end.

If what we do does not glorify God, then why are we doing it? It doesn't make any sense. When we make decisions as elders and deacons, we ask ourselves that question. First, will it lead somebody to Christ? Second, will it be able to disciple some people? Third, will it glorify God? Glorifying God is the main thing.

Somebody put something up on the internet, and I took it down. They said, "You all are charging for the Chicago Mass?" Yeah. You realize how many times CeCe Winans was here? We've had so many people come over and do free things until finally you all got used to it and we said no.

In fact, one of our members, Buster, said, "Pastor, you're spoiling them people. You need to put some skin in the game. They need to pay for something." So I said, "Alright, well what about just a little bit here?" He said, "Well, at least you're charging them something." He said, "Yeah, that'd be fine."

This time, they had a meeting, and I wasn't in that meeting. They decided what was going to be, and then they met again and decided what it was going to be again. I ain't in it. I just wanted to make sure we got money to pay for them to get here, and we did. We had it in our budget.

I didn't know what God was going to do, but the Chicago Mass is a wonderful group. We love them. Let me mention this because it really bothers me that there's one particular group that shuts out all the little persons who bring in groups. There used to be a time we used to have a lot of gospel groups coming in town, but we have one person or group that basically says who can come in and who can't.

Now the average ticket price for any concert is $60. Did you all hear me? You are nowhere near that. You try to see CeCe Winans when she was at Alva’s House, you are talking about $100 and $100 plus. That's what I said. But it's our anniversary, and if people don't like the fact that we're charging somebody, don't come. Don't worry about it, don't come. I don't know what the big deal is. I hit delete, and then I hit block.

I don't need that. Everybody charges for something. I bet you can't go to Kentucky Fried and tell them to give me something for free. No. I guess the church is just supposed to do everything for free. But I've gotten off my subject.

To wear the new wardrobe, we must first renounce the old walk. In other words, stop living according to the patterns of the old life. Receive the new word. Learn Christ and submit to His truth because you've been living by the truth of the world. Replace the old way by putting off the old man that's full of pride and putting on the new man that looks like Christ.

In verses 1 through 16, Paul explained the importance of unity. Now we're going to look at verses 17 to 24, and he explains how believers can maintain unity. The greatest threat to unity isn't outside the church. It's believers when they bring their old lifestyle inside the church and they say, "Well, you know, I'm used to doing it this way."

Then why are you here? Because some people want to bring their old way here and want us to conform to the way they were used to doing things when we have our own way of doing things. We don't mind suggestions, but some people take it to the next degree. They want us to change to fit them. We don't change to fit one person. We change to glorify God.

And if He's not glorified, we're not changing anything. That's the bottom line in our place. I love the way God has worked everything out. But I am very leery and suspicious of people who always want to be in charge, take over, whatever the case may be. Sit down for a while and listen and learn. That's what I had to do.

Last week, I talked about the word Apostle. Let me explain something to you because some people probably misunderstood it. There are apostles with a capital A. Those are the ones that saw Jesus. But then there are the lowercase apostles. Those apostles are ones who have been sent by a sending ministry or church to do a job or to do ministry.

I was sent from Woodland Park Baptist Church to Tucker Baptist after I was ordained. Tucker Baptist then sent me to New Emmanuel, where they installed me as their pastor after I had graduated out of seminary. And then God laid this on my heart. He says, "Look, I want something different."

I told my wife, and she says, "Well, honey, you know, you told me God told you to go here. What are we doing?" So I said, "Well, let me go back to the chapter that He gave me to call me to New Emmanuel." I went back there, and I didn't read the whole chapter the first time around, but I read the whole chapter the second time around.

I got to the point where God was telling me explicitly in that chapter to leave. I called my wife, read it to her, and she said, "Let's go." Because as long as it's in here, she's fine with it. But you know, when you fly by yourself and you don't rely on this here, it's a dangerous situation. So we were glad to be able to start New Covenant, but I didn't start it until I was sent.

I was a member over at Alva’s House after I left the church at New Emmanuel. Alva’s House put me under their ministry. They tried to get me a building and they tried to get me resources, and they had me plug into the Baptist Association and all that. I just didn't feel comfortable being labeled, and I wanted to be independent.

But people who knew me knew that I liked to study the Bible. So yeah, we're Baptistic in our doctrine, but I'm not so tight that the Bible gives us a lot of grace, and I'd rather err on the side of grace than legalism. A lot of people have left churches because of legalism. You can't wear this, can't wear that, you got to wear a suit.

I used to wear a suit when I was an executive. If I wore a suit for CBS Epic Records when I was the Vice President of Artist and Repertoire, if I did it for the world, you got to know that I'm going to wear a suit for God. I did it for them because they required it. They said you are an executive and this is how executives dress. And when God says, "Look, I want you to represent me," I said, "Okay." So if you're waiting on me to come in with some raggedy jeans, Mama ain't going to let me out the house.

Back to my message. Paul says the greatest threat is not outside. It's folks inside the church, these little petty things that go on inside the church and people nipping at one another. Don't bring that to anybody. If you've got a problem with something, go to that person in private. That's what the Bible says.

So the first thing we want to do is renounce the old walk. Let me show you how we do that in Ephesians 4:17. It says, "So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles," the non-Jews, the way they walk in the futility of their mind because if you weren't a Jew, they considered you to be an imbecile.

"Being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their hearts. And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness." I went through each one of those words and pulled out some ones that I thought would really mean something to you.

The word walk means our daily conduct and our lifestyle. He's describing people living apart from God, characteristics of the old walk. That means futility of mind, and that means emptiness. It means meaningless, it means vanity. There's nothing up here when it comes to God, but boy, when it comes to the world, you got everything up here.

A life without God keeps walking but never ever arrives. Unity begins when we stop bringing old attitudes into new relationships like bitterness, pride, and jealousy. Self-centeredness is the old walk. The old walk always produces division. You can't walk in unity with God while walking in lockstep with godlessness.

Darkened understanding means unable to perceive truth because your mind, your life, your soul, and spirit are covered in darkness. Hardness of the heart means your heart is callous. You have no feelings for anybody. I saw this guy pull out a gun on YouTube and went up to a guy who was putting something in his car, and about three other guys were with him. He went up and pointed the gun at him and was going to shoot him.

I'm thinking, why would you want to do that? Why would you want to ruin your life and take his life? But people just do some things that are callous because their hearts are hardened. Elder Jose often says God wants to break that heart of stone and make it a heart of flesh. That's what it says in the Old Testament.

It's spiritual insensitivity, like a worker whose hands grow callous and numb from years of labor. Let me tell you, these hands here when I got here, I was digging ditches. I was picking up trash. I was doing all kinds of things because I was a laborer. These hands got cramps in them because they weren't used to doing all this different kind of work. I'm used to signing contracts.

But man, I tell you, when I got here and it was June of 1990 and it was hot, it was something hot. They told me, you know, this is your job because I was waiting on the other job to open up. But until it did, the guy who owned the place, he was the president of it, and he said, "You can work for me." And I thought I was going to get a cushy job.

He said, "Since you don't have a car, you can walk across the street." I said, "Really?" I said, "Man, I see that mall over there, so I must be going to be working in a mall or something." He said, "You'll see a trailer when you get over there."

So I walked over there, sure enough, there was a trailer. I went inside and I said, "I'm supposed to be working in the mall." He says, "Are you the one that Jim sent over here?" I said, "Yeah." He says, "You're not working in no mall." I said, "Well what am I doing?" He said, "Get a hard hat up there."

So I got the hard hat. I pulled it down off the shelf. There's so much dirt and gunk in there. I said, "What is this?" But you see, God was working on pride because He knew what I was thinking. "I'm too good for this." God said, "Oh yeah, okay. Let me break you. Let me just show you who's in charge. You got to work and here's a job."

And I was glad to work for $3 an hour. You all probably wouldn't even think twice about working $3 an hour, but back then, I wanted to get whatever I could because I was hungry and I had to pay the rent and it was paid up for two months. But I wanted to make sure I had something else coming in so I could eat too.

It's a callous heart. My hands were calloused. It reminded me of another time I was working when I worked at Bethlehem Steel. I worked down there, man, I was pulling ore. There were strips of stuff coming down, I had to pull it and pull it on the thing and it just rolled around and then they reused it.

I would go home and take a bath and I'd see a ring around the tub from all that dust and stuff that I had on me when I was at work. So callous, I know. Callous heart means you have no sensitivity at all. Sin hardens our sensitivity to God. It's a heart of stone that God wants to turn into a heart of flesh.

So we must receive the new word. We must renounce the old walk and now receive the new word. Ephesians 4:20, it says, "But you did not learn Christ in this way." Now that's an unusual statement. Learn him refers to receiving Christ's truth. And then it says, "If indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus."

The whole idea is you learn Christ. You heard him, referring to receiving the truth that others have talked about regarding Christ. And you've been taught in him by people who know the truth and who know the word. And it means a continual discipleship, a growth and truth that's coming from God's word because Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

If you don't have him, you don't know what way you're heading. If you don't have him, you have no truth. If you don't have him, you have no life, no eternal life with him. And it means continual discipleship if you're going to be taught and you have to grow in and through God's word. I tell some folks often that the day you stop learning is the day that you lose your right to lead.

A lot of folks have really got it all twisted because they think, well, I got all I need. I'm still learning. I have never stopped learning. I'd rather be close to the edge because if I'm not close to the edge, I'm taking up too much room. Please don't ever think you know enough of the Bible that you don't need to learn anymore because you're in a dangerous spot.

Your ego has got the best of you. Even the greatest scholars keep learning because God always has something to say to me. I don't care, I have read the Bible from cover to cover and more than once. But then when you go back and you go through a Bible study to preach on or teach on Sundays, as I do, I have to dig deeper into a particular subject that God wants me to cover.

By doing that, I'm learning more about God and more truth. So don't ever think that because you can quote a couple of scriptures that you're all that. The day that you stop learning, you might as well say you're not in a position to lead anybody. Christianity isn't just information. It is a transformation through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Truth is in Jesus. The world says truth is relative. No, Paul says truth has a name, and the name that Paul gives it is Jesus. Jesus is the truth. Unity is impossible where truth is ignored. A guy bought a treadmill hoping to get in shape. Six months later, it was being used to hang his laundry on. He learned about exercise but never practiced it.

Many Christians know Bible verses like a cookbook owner knows recipes. They possess the information, but they've never made a meal anyone enjoyed. But Paul says, don't just learn about Christ, learn Christ. Unity grows when believers are taught by the same Savior, shaped by the same truth, surrendered to the same Lord. Unity isn't found in common preferences but in an uncommon person who is Jesus Christ.

So we've seen renounce the old walk, receive the new word, next, replace the ways. Ephesians 4:22, "In reference to your former manner of life, lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth."

Whenever you wear Christ, you're wearing truth. You are becoming a new person in Christ. Paul uses the imagery of changing clothes. Put off means to remove something. Lay aside means strip off, take off the old garment, the old self, the person you were before Christ, the old sinful patterns, and put on the new clothing, the new outfit, Christ Jesus, His way.

Imagine someone putting on yesterday's sweaty gym clothes after taking a bath today. So they go in the closet and get the gym clothes off the floor wherever they got them. They've taken a bath, smelling nice, got on deodorant, then they put on the old funky clothes. It doesn't make any sense to me, does it make any sense to you?

Unfortunately, that's how believers live. They keep putting on their old funky, sweaty, sinful stuff, and they think they smell okay if they put a little Jesus in it. So they quote a scripture, but they're wearing sinful, smelly clothes. No, you need a bath and you need to wash them clothes again or you need to wash them because you haven't washed them the first time.

But God washes us. He cleanses us from all unrighteousness. He does the cleansing in me and I can't clean myself spiritually. I have to have Jesus and the spirit and the word working in me, agitating me, telling me that's wrong or that's right and getting me clean so that I can have the right attitude, so that I can do the right thing, so that I can please Him because He is my Lord and my Savior.

I work for Him and I am supposed to glorify Him in everything that I say and do. Do I make a mistake? I do. Do I have the wrong attitude sometimes? Yes, I do. But you know what I do? I go boldly to the throne of grace. I say, "God, you know I had a bad attitude about that." He says, "I know it, but I'm glad you're here. I forgive you. In fact, I forgave you when you did it. You know why I forgave you? Because I knew that my spirit was in you and that you were going to do something. I knew you were going to come to me because that's what you do. You got a pattern with me. You're always quick to tell on yourself."

And I do. I go to God and say, "God, you know this." He says, "Like you're telling me something I don't know. I'm all-knowing. I'm an all-knowing God." And He says, "If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness," it says in 1 John.

So we all get dirty sometimes, don't we? Dirty attitude, dirty actions, dirty mouth. I remember, I've told this story before for those of you that are new. I don't know why they call it a funny bone, but I was getting in a cab in New York City. I'd just gotten saved, I'd been saved for maybe a hot minute, but I thought I was all that. Yeah, I'm saved, born again, blood-bought son of God.

I was going to this church, it was Pentecostal, but I was so happy to be there. They were having a good time and I was having a good time with them. I just knew that I was close to God, I was probably right there by the throne. And one day God woke me up. What I did was I was getting in the cab and I hit my knee as I was getting in. Something came out. I don't even remember saying that word when I was unsaved.

God said, "Yeah, you think you're all that? No." Man, I was so embarrassed. I was just so embarrassed. And then I had to get in the cab with a guy with a cross coming down on the window. He said, "Where you going?" I said, "I'm going to church."

I said, "Lord," I mean, I prayed and I said, "Lord, baptize my tongue. Thank you, Jesus." Oh my goodness. Take off the old clothes and put on the new wardrobe. It reminds me of a little boy who put on his father's suit jacket and shoes. The sleeves, of course, covered his hands, and the shoes looked like boats on his feet. He walked around the house saying, "Look, I'm Daddy." And everyone laughed because he didn't fit the clothes yet.

That's the Christian life. When we first put on Christ, it doesn't fit us perfectly yet. But after time, God then tailormakes it to fit you and your personality. And there are things that you used to do and people say, "Why don't you like to do that?" I don't like to do that anymore. "What happened?" God just took the desire from me and I don't desire to do that anymore. Why? Because there's a new self in me.

The new self doesn't like doing those things. You can have fun, but the Christian life is we first put on Christ when we don't fit perfectly yet, but we stumble and we trip in ways because this is new to some people and we make mistakes. But every day we grow into the character of the one wearing the scars.

The battle for unity is won in the head, between the ears, before it's lived out in the heart and through the hands. You need to know that because sometimes people think, "I need to be doing this now. I'm ready for this." And when you think you're ready for something, you're not. I'm never ready when I get up here. The day that I think I am, that's the day that God's going to say, "Time for you to do something else. Go back to digging ditches."

And I'm not too proud to beg. Look, we have to have the mind of Christ, and the mind of Christ was this. He humbled Himself. He washed dirty feet of His disciples. And some of you don't even want to wash anybody's clothes, especially yours. Humility is something that pride was eating me alive.

I was always telling people, "Yeah, I did that, did this, and did that." And it really doesn't matter. People that are close to me that I know know that it doesn't matter to me. I'll let them in on some things, but when I'm here, I try to be guarded about what I say about what I've done because people get the wrong impression. They think, "Oh, he's bragging." No, you don't know what I was saved from. And if I tell you some stories, I have to include the whole thing.

The first garment that we put on is Christ Himself. When people see us, they should see His character. They should sense His love. They should see His grace. They should see His humility in us. To become a best-dressed believer, we must put off the old man, be renewed in your mind, put on the new man.

When you put off the old man, you're admitting that you have sinned and that you need a Savior because you've fallen short of the glory of God. When you're renewed in your mind, that means our minds need to be transformed, and it's transformed by the renewing of our mind and spirit and soul and all that so we can let the mind be in us that was also in Christ Jesus.

And when you put on the new man, which is in the likeness of God, then we'll be created in righteousness day by day, moment by moment, and in holiness and truth. A person can wear a $2,000 suit and still be dressed in anger. A person can wear a thrift store suit and be clothed with Christ in humility.

Imagine arriving in heaven and hearing, "Nice suit, lovely dress, but where's your compassion? That's a sharp tie, but I don't see any kindness. Great looking shoes, they really are clean, but your feet weren't equipped with the Gospel of peace." So what difference does it make that you've got a $2,000 suit and you go to heaven and God says it's all rubbish because you can't take it with you? That ain't going to work in heaven. God's going to give you a new wardrobe and a new body.

And I don't think that $2,000 suit is going to make it. They may bury you in it, and it'll be right there when you take your last breath. You'll be buried in that suit you thought was $2,000 and you thought it was worth so much, but you can't take it to heaven.

The Gospel of peace gives us traction when the world gets slippery. So let me ask you a few questions as we close out. Are you still wearing old bitterness? Are you still wearing old anger? Are you still wearing old pride, old habits, old wounds? God is asking us to take off what divides and put on what unites.

Those things divide us from one another, and also it puts a wedge between us and Christ. So you need to get rid of those things because you don't want to be disconnected from Him. You want to be connected to Him. And when Christ clothes His church, the unity of the spirit becomes visible in our family, among our friends, and wherever we go in the world.

But without Christ, we're naked and people see our nakedness because it's in our attitude. It's in the way we respond to people. And folks, when you treat people wrongly, what you're doing is you're representing Jesus. Jesus said, "I wouldn't have said that like that. Why are you saying that? You think you're better than me? I washed dirty feet." Why are you so full of pride?

Being out there for those six months, I learned a lot about digging ditches. First, I had to learn how to use a post-hole digger. I didn't know what a post-hole digger was. God told me to go in the trailer and get it. I said, "I don't see it." He told one of the other workers, "Did you put the post-hole digger back?" He says, "Yes." He said, "Go in there and get that post-hole digger. Where you from?" I said, "New York." He said, "Oh, no wonder."

He gave me the post-hole digger. He said, "Now dig up that sign towards the road, that thing, dig that. That's your job. I want you to dig that, dig down deep on that." And I still don't know how to use this thing. So I got two shovels. So I get one out of the way of the other, and I'm digging with the one at the bottom, but the one at the top keeps flopping down. And I'm frustrated. I'm saying, who made this dumb thing that keeps flopping down here? Why can't it lock so I can dig?

The guys were laughing in the trailer. They were in stitches. "Go help him, will you? Show him how to use that thing." And then I knew how to use that thing. Not that I'm past all that, but I don't have to use it. I was trying to help out my wife with something in the backyard and I had a regular shovel. And I was thinking back to the days when I was a laborer.

I said, "I'm going to help my wife out with this." And I went and I started digging. That dirt was so hard, and I got down on it and I lost my balance and I fell back. I went and saw my doctor. The doctor said, "What were you doing?" I said, "I was just..." She said, "Don't you have deacons?" I said, "Yeah."

She said, "Pastor, you're too old to be doing this kind of stuff." I said, "Okay." She said, "Don't do this anymore." She said, "Look, get somebody else to help you because you don't need to fall down. Your hips and back and all these kinds of things. You already got a bad back anyway and now you're falling backwards?" I said, "I'll do anything for her because she's my helpmate and I'm supposed to be taking care of things."

How's your relationship with God? Can He trust you? Are you faithful to Him? What is it that you love more than God? Can I ask you today, let it go? If you love anything more than God, then that's an idol. And God will not allow you to have an idol before Him. There are a lot of people that thought they could have idols in the Bible. Read the word, and you'll find out that God takes care of people who have idols.

You want to have the kind of attitude you've got? Okay. God will take care of it. I am a witness. He knows how to take care of it. And you know, when God takes care of it, you know it has been taken care of and you're not the same. At least I'm not. I don't know about you, but when God takes care of it with me, I've been trying to walk the walk and talk the talk and do whatever He needs me to do.

Some people say they get on my last nerve. You better get some more because they got a lot of people in this world that have a lot of nerve to get on your nerve. And God is just using them as tools so He can grow you up because He wants you to have humility, kindness, love, and grace. Do you need any of those? Do you have the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? If not, you can put Him on before you leave.

If you believe God will never put more on you than you can bear, pretty soon you're going to be like a cell phone at 1%. Some of our lives are at 1% spiritually and emotionally. If you don't know Jesus, you cannot be charged.