Pastor Adam MacDonald · July 12, 2026
About This Message
This week at Westhill Park Baptist Church, Pastor Adam MacDonald continued our “One Another” series with a message on kindness from Ephesians 4. Using two well-worn pieces of clothing — an old jacket and his daughter’s favorite t-shirt — he asked a question that’s easy to answer in theory and hard to live out in practice: what does it actually look like to take off our old habits and put on the character of Christ?
Background and Context
The passage comes from Ephesians 4:22–32, in the middle of Paul’s letter to a young church learning what it means to follow Jesus in a culture that didn’t. Paul had just reminded them that a mind “full of darkness” and a life shaped by truth in Christ are two entirely different ways of being human. Verse 22 tells us to “throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life,” and verse 24 immediately follows with the positive command: “put on your new nature, created to be like God, truly righteous and holy.” Everything Paul says next — about honesty, anger, work, and words — flows out of that one exchange: off with the old, on with the new. The chapter builds toward its climax in verse 32: “Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”
What We Explored
Pastor Adam opened with two pieces of clothing. The first was a 35-year-old jacket he’s owned since he was a teenager — comfortable, familiar, full of good memories, and completely unnecessary to wear on a summer Sunday morning. The second was a t-shirt worn by both of his daughters that reads, “Kind people are my kind of people.” Both became a picture of Ephesians 4: some old habits are as worn-in and comfortable as that jacket, and taking them off isn’t as simple as unzipping a coat. It takes an active choice to put something else on in its place.
From there, he walked through Paul’s list of “off” and “on” pairs: stop lying, start telling the truth, because we belong to the same body. Stop letting anger drive the bus, and instead use your hands for good work and generosity — illustrated with a story about losing his temper over a video game as a teenager, only to realize his friend’s whole family had turned to watch. Stop the harsh, careless word, and instead let your speech be something that actually helps the people who hear it — he brought up a lighthearted survey about people talking to their houseplants to make a serious point: if we believe words can help a plant grow, we should be even more careful with the words we give each other.
The message’s turning point came in verse 30, where Paul reminds the Ephesians that they are marked as God’s own. Pastor Adam connected this to a picture from the judo club he coaches, where adults sometimes return after 10 or 20 years away, wondering if their old belt “still counts.” His answer: your identity in Christ doesn’t expire, and it was never something you earned in the first place. “Who you really are isn’t who you think of yourself,” he said. “It’s what Jesus thinks of you.” That truth, he argued, is what makes real kindness possible — we can only give away what we’ve first received.
He closed with Paul’s summary in Ephesians 5:1–2: imitate God as his dearly loved children, and live a life of love following the example of Christ. Using a “five Ws” framework — who, what, when, where, why — he showed how those two verses answer every question about what it means to be like Jesus: we imitate God, we do it through love, we do it in everything, we follow Christ’s example of sacrifice, and we do it because we are his beloved children.
Key Takeaways
- Taking off the old requires putting on the new.
It’s not enough to simply stop a bad habit. Paul’s pattern throughout Ephesians 4 pairs every “don’t” with a “do” — because who we are is shaped by what we actively choose, not just what we avoid.
- Anger and pride usually travel together.
Much of what we call righteous anger is really wounded pride. Learning to take offense less personally removes a surprising amount of anger before it even has a chance to take hold.
- Your identity in Christ doesn’t expire.
Whether you’ve followed Jesus your whole life or you’re coming back after years away, your standing as God’s beloved child was never something you earned — which means it’s never something you can lose track of either.
- Kindness flows from being loved, not from trying harder.
Ephesians 5:1–2 grounds every command in Ephesians 4 in one identity: you are God’s dear child. Kindness isn’t a New Year’s resolution — it’s the natural overflow of knowing how deeply you’ve already been forgiven.
A Question Worth Sitting With
“If who you really are is what Jesus thinks of you rather than what you think of yourself, what would change about the way you treat yourself this week?”
This Week’s Challenge
Pick one relationship where an old habit — a sharp word, a grudge, a quick temper — keeps resurfacing. This week, instead of just trying to stop it, choose one specific, kind action to put in its place.
Watch the Full Message
Catch the full sermon at westhillchurch.ca or join us Sundays at 8025 Sherwood Drive, Regina, SK.
Watch online at: https://youtu.be/X_Mc28VSlwA
This post was prepared as a ministry resource for Westhill Park Baptist Church. An initial draft was generated with the assistance of Claude AI (claude.ai), developed by Anthropic. All AI-assisted content is reviewed, edited, and approved by church leadership before publication to ensure it faithfully reflects the message and values of our community.
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