A New Understanding Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• As a public service today, I would like to offer up a few home remedies today. Please do not attempt these unless you are a professional.

o If you are choking on an ice cube, don't panic. Simply pour a cup of boiling water down your throat and presto! The blockage will be almost instantly removed.

o Clumsy? Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.

o Avoid arguments with the Mrs. about lifting the toilet seat by simply using the sink.

o High blood pressure sufferers: Simply cut yourself and bleed for awhile, thus reducing the pressure in your veins.

o A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep when you hit the snooze button.

o If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives, then you will be afraid to cough.

o Have a bad tooth ache? Hit your thumb with a hammer, then you will forget about the tooth ache. Mikey’s Funnies. http://www.mikeysfunnies.com/

• These TIPS are rather foolish, aren’t they?

• Next week we will conclude our Turning Over a New Leaf series, today as we continue in this series, we will examine the contrast of our old thinking versus a new understanding we are to have as we face life and the tough questions concerning life and eternity.

• One of the important lessons of life we need to understand is that the battle we fight as we seek to live for Jesus is a battle not against people, but rather against the forces of darkness.

• We also need to understand that battleground is the mind. Satan has known this from the beginning, Christians need to wise up and understand this though also so that we can protect ourselves from the minute by minute attacks we face from the enemy.

• Once one realizes where the real battle takes place, one can mount a defense and can achieve victory in life in the name of Jesus!

• Today we will examine Ephesians 5:17 together as we unfold the concept of a new understanding.

• SLIDE #2

• Ephesians 5:17 (HCSB) — 17 So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

I. An old way of thinking.

• The first part of verse 17 is the focus of this thought. “SO DON’T BE FOOLISH.”

• Throughout the chapters four and five, Paul has been offering a contrast between the life we used to live versus the life we are called to live in Christ!

• VERSE 17 begins with the word SO, which means what Paul shares ties back to what he has written in the previous verses.

• Don’t be foolish emphasizes the absurdity of conduct that is contrary to the will of God.

• The foolish ways we used to follow flowed from our lack of understanding concerning the will of God.

• It all ties back to Ephesians 4:1

• SLIDE #4

• Ephesians 4:1 (HCSB) Therefore I, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received,

• We see examples throughout chapters four and five of things that are foolish. I need not go through the list.

• The word translated FOOLISH is a word that means; TO BE DEVOID OF WISDOM OR GOOD SENSE OR SOUND JUDGMENT. It points to not have good judgment or not to exercise it when the time comes.

• What we need to realize all those FOOLISH actions spring forth from a mind that is set in the world. Put another way, a foolish life springs from a foolish mind.

• A foolish person is one who does not know God’s purpose for oneself in this world, so they blissfully and foolishly squander their opportunities for Jesus in this life.

• The old way of thinking was to rely on and depend on human advise of wisdom.

• When you think of the way we lived outside of Christ, think about the endgame.

• The way I used to live, where would that path lead me?

• The world thinks it knows more than God. Our society thinks we are the foolish ones for believing in and following Jesus.

• SLIDE #5

• 1 Corinthians 2:14 (HCSB) But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.

• Why do you think we get ridiculed? A blindness to the truth.

• Those who would think we are the fools are the same ones who think we came from nothing by accident.

• They are the same ones who will fight tooth and nail to save an eagle egg, but will turn a blind eye to the extinguishing of a human baby, claiming it is just a blob of tissue.