Title: “Xtreme-Makeover: The Old Way Has to Go”
Scripture: Ephesians 4:17 -24
Intro:Even for Christians who have been made alive in Christ can find it difficult to “be in the world and not of it”. Once you are redeemed from your sin you are still in/around the same family, the same friends, the same school and if were not careful we will pick that way of life right back up unless we learn to walk a new way. It is this new way that we will continue to chew on this morning and over the coming weeks. I invite you to come with me on the journey to an Xtreme Makeover.
Lets read from God’s word to the Ephesians.
17So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
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Did you catch the command “no longer live as the Gentiles do” Who are the gentiles and what does that have to do with you? Remember the worldview of the Jews was simple there were Jews and then their was everyone else (Gentiles). But what were the distinguishing characteristics of the Gentiles and what did it mean to live as they do?
Generally, the Gentiles were those who were clueless about God, who made up their own version of God that would suite them. But from this passage we see that “Paul describes the mind of God as futile (aimless) in its thinking, and ignorant and darkened in its understanding.” (Conduct of the Kingdom) In Ephesians 2 it describes them as dead in their trespasses and sins. Who are these people? They are anyone who has not be made alive in Christ. They are often the crowds of people we talk with, laugh with, play with, sit next to at school. They can even be friends and family.
I. Let Go of the crowd.
Paul says of these people, You must no longer live as (they) do! Or think of it this way… Stop following the crowd. Stop following your friends just because their your friends. Get your head on straight. Can’t you see thy are walking dead. What business do you have just copying their behavior? But why Paul, I have some really smart friends, successful many are even popular? How can so many people be so wrong?
Paul’s points to the issue of their thinking, their understanding, ignorance and hardened hearts. Why because they think differently than those who are saved. At the core its not their intellect. Because the issue is deeper it their heart. Its hardened to God. This condition influences their thinking values, goals, and their worldview (the way they look at life).
They could care less what God’s word has to say about their life and their beliefs. They don’t value God and don’t value his word. Notice the crowd is not just blind to God but they are ignorant and have lost their moral compass.
How do I know that the Ephesians really understood how serious this was just as maybe you might not understand? Because that’s exactly what they were doing, living just like them. They were acting like they had never know Jesus, they were drawn back into the matrix of the Gentiles. They thinking was becoming distorted.
II. The damage of hanging with the crowd
Whats the effect? Paul warned another church about this “Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”1 Corinthians 15:33 (biblegateway)
Who you hang with will determine to a greater than lessor degree how close you will walk with Jesus. Since the crowd are the people who have harden their hearts if you hang with them don’t be surprised if your spiritual life becomes less and less exciting less and less important, less and less clear. Like so what is church for anyways? What will happened to you? Much like Pinocchio you will find your self being changed. He hung with the crowd and weeped after it was too late. And make no mistake you and I are always being changed and shaped either by the world/crowd or by God.
Don’t be surprised if your friends are pulling you to watch raunchier and raunchier movies and listen to raunchier and raunchier songs. And you watch if you too don’t begin to look and listen for them even when your not with your friends.
Paul says they are the ones who have ceased from feeling pain, i.e., apathetic. This is where (youth/adults) continually give themselves over to evil, and God gives them up to its power. (Vincent word studies) This is a fearful place to be.
Paul points them and us to v20. have you not learned! You are hear today because somebody cares either its you are your parents or your friends cared enough to encouraged you to come. If you are hear you likely have been under the teaching of God words and have heard the truth. But even this implies more, that there was a point in these Ephesians lives where they turned to Jesus and invited him into their lives and began to walk with Him. Yet, now they were sliding back into their old ways, old habits. Their minds growing dull. The stench of their old selves was returning. If you do watch it even though you are redeemed you can begin to live like when you were spiritually stupid spiritually clueless, actually spiritually dead.
What’s the impact of living with the dead? In prep for this message I remembered someone sharing about how Romans would tied a corpse to a mans body and stumble on this website. But think about this…
As Christians, we live and walk in two natures: the flesh and the Spirit. The flesh is the old nature that is sinful and that won’t go away until we meet the Lord face to face. The Spirit is God’s nature that works itself out as we mature in Christ. The conflict goes on as long as we are here on earth.
During Roman times, if you murdered somebody, there is a very unusual penalty for you. You would be tied to the corpse of the person you killed, and you had to walk around carrying that corpse. The corpse starts to rot and smell bad, but you still had to carry it. This is what the Apostle Paul talks about when he said in the book of Romans, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! Pasted from
But not only that I recall that having to breath in the stench and the decaying body would literally infect the living. So it is with us if we hang with the Crowd without having a godly understanding. That is to say we were redeemed from this. We not suppose to sink back in with our friends but instead…
20You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Pasted from
III. Grab hold of God’s way of life.
What does it mean to grab hold of God’s way of life? First it means we have to let go of what we were holding to(old self) before we can pick up the Life in Christ. Otherwise, you are going to stink of your old you. Paul describes it further in Phillipians..[ Pressing on Toward the Goal ] Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Phil. 3:12
What does this involve? It involves not just renewing our mind in Jesus but the Greek describes the spirit of our mind that inner attitude of our life. When our inner man is renewed it changes everything.
How can we move in this direction? Well first you need to look at who are you hanging with? You don’t think you’ve been taken in by your friends? Your generation? Have you bought into their world view? Check out your ipods- what are you listening to? It is what feeds your mind and spirit, what are you watching TV/internet its what you let into the eyegate of your mind, body and soul. Think about how much influence your friends have had on you? Have they fostered faith or fostered doubt. I trust some have done the first but most have drawn you to the second. Its hard enough to press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of us. With out being burden by the corpse of our old self’s. Maybe you have returned to your old life and not even noticed. If that is you today. Wake up. Open your eyes and ears. Don’t loose heart only come back return to your savior.
Remember last week we spoke of
B – Believe that God is the only source for a true me makeover.Pasted from
And so it is, God alone is our source for overcoming our sinful past and overcoming the very power of sin in our lives.
Conclusion:
Even though you may not realize it, as a believer you are continually faced with the choice to pursue Christ or to turn away. The reality is that in this world there will be many temptations from within and from without that will strive to influence you toward the old way the old crowd and the old habits. The only way stop smelling like a pig is to get out of the pigsty. We have to take of the old (old me) and put on the new (me Christ directed).
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