INTRO.- When you hear those words, "the new you," what do they mean to you? You may think, "it sounds good but I don’t believe it." Of course, we think in physical terms.
For example, did you ever watch that TV show, "Extreme Makeover?" I’m referring to the one where they take perhaps homely looking man or woman and give them an extreme physical makeover. Sometimes they give them a facelift, a lift here and a lift there, liposuction, a new hair dew, etc. And I admit, some of those people come out looking mighty good!
Anyway, it’s a nice thought but for most of us it’s not going to happen. We are not going to get a "new you" in that way!
Most of us would like a better or newer body. But as we know, it isn’t going to happen. All we can do is take care of ourselves, exercise, eat right and hope for the best.
I would like to be a "new me," but I realize there is only so much I can do and only so much body WILL DO!
I’ve been walking an hour a day to improve my cardiovascular health, and I’ve been eating better food and less food in order to lose some weight. BUT NO MATTER WHAT I DO, I WILL NEVER BE A "NEW ME."
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
According to our text, the only real "new you" is going to take place in Christ.
II Cor. 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
The "new you" is possible in Christ. When a person truly surrenders to Christ by faith and obedience they begin the process of becoming a new and different person.
THEY BEGIN THE PROCESS. Why would I say those words? Because Christian growth is a process that doesn’t happen overnight. Some things may well change overnight but some things take time and prayer and God’s grace to overcome.
Did you change overnight? Have you changed for the better? I bet it’s taken many years, many prayers, and most of all, God’s grace!
Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Like Christ. Like God. God wants you to be like Him and like Christ. Why? Because that would be your best person or self.
ILL.- Longfellow could take a worthless sheet of paper, write a poem on it, and make it worth $6,000—that’s genius.
- Some artists can take a fifty-cent piece of canvas, paint a picture on it, and make it worth $1,000—that’s art.
But God can take a worthless, sinful life, wash it in the blood of Christ, put His Spirit in it, and make it a blessing to humanity—that’s salvation.
PROP.- According to our text, how are we to live as new people in Christ? These are qualities that we should work at it.
1- Speak the truth
2- Sin not in anger
3- Steal no longer
4- Speak no evil
5- Slander not
1. SPEAK THE TRUTH
25Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
ILL.- A Baptist pastor was walking down the street when he came upon a group of about a dozen boys, all of them between 10 and 12 years of age. The group surrounded a dog. Concerned the boys were hurting the dog, he went over and asked, "What are you doing with that dog?"
One of the boys replied, "This dog is just an old neighborhood stray. We all want him, but only one of us can take him home. So we’ve decided that whichever one of us can tell the biggest lie will get to keep the dog."
The Baptist preacher was shocked. "You boys shouldn’t be having a contest telling lies!" he exclaimed. He then launched into a 10-minute sermon against lying, beginning, "Don’t you boys know it’s a sin to lie?" and ending with, "Why, when I was your age, I never told a lie."
There was dead silence for about a minute. Just as the preacher was beginning to think he’d gotten through to them, the smallest boy gave a deep sigh and said, "All right, give him the dog."
The truth is: most of have told some lies in life whether we realized it or not. The realization is the problem.
ILL.- "I don’t dig into people’s private lives. I never have." Ross Perot’s brief statement on ABC News in July 1992 was meant to end allegations that he secretly investigated his presidential campaign volunteers. The allegations ended, but not the way Perot intended. Within hours, irrefutable evidence appeared that proved Perot had hired others to probe his people’s pasts. By the next day, there was no question on anyone’s mind: Ross Perot lied.
Sometimes we are put between a rock and a hard place, consequently, it’s hard to know what to say.
ILL.- For example, suppose I were you to ask you, "Did you like the sermon that I preached this morning?" In the first place, I wouldn’t do that to you. I wouldn’t put you in that situation where you might be tempted to lie and say, "Well, er uh, yes, it was ok." Or "Yes, great, wonderful sermon!"
Here are some examples of lying and/or deception.
1. Causing others to have to choose whether to tell a lie just to spare your feelings.
2. Convincing yourself that the truth doesn’t matter if it is about something unimportant.
3. Saying as long as no one gets hurt, it doesn’t matter if I tell the truth.
4. Claiming your own selfish desires are someone else’s fault (e.g., “Your roommate said this would be okay to do.”).
5. Putting a "spin" on the actions or words of others to make yourself appear to be a victim.
6. Paying insincere compliments in order to appear friendly.
7. Withholding critical information in order to appear more desirable.
8. Saying something other than the truth to avoid an unpleasant situation.
9. Making up excuses in place of the real reason for your personal failures.
10. Purposely using unverifiable "facts" or "sources", because they are impossible to verify.
11. Enlarging on a story in order to get attention.
There are many ways to tell a lie. 25Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
2. SIN NOT IN ANGER
26"In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27and do not give the devil a foothold."
ILL.- In New York City last week a taxi clipped a red Beetle while veering across four lanes of traffic to pick-up a fare. The two drivers got out to examine the damage the cabbie a short man of Middle Eastern origin, the Beetle driver a hulking giant.
As the cabbie approached, the Beetle driver grabbed him by the shirt and hoisted him off the ground. There, at eye level with the cabbie’s feet dangling in the air, the Beetle owner began screaming, every third sentence being, "This is your lucky day!"
Eventually, the cabbie was lowered back to the ground, but, then, the Beetle guy asked, "Don’t you want to know why this is your lucky day?" He then proceeded to answer his own question: "Because I’m on my way to anger management class and I don’t dare show-up with blood on my shirt!"
Does anger ever pay? What a question. Only when it is directed toward evil.
Romans 12:9 "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good." Obviously, we should hate the evil that we see or hear about in this world of ours and there is plenty of it!
Every day we hear of people, even kids, killing one another, and all kinds of violence and abuse. WE SHOULD HATE THESE THINGS. Of course, at the same time we must love people. Hate the sin, love the sinner.
Jude 22-23 "Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh."
Beyond hating the sin and evil in this world, we must guard against anger.
ILL.- Ben Franklin said, "Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame." Often true.
ILL.- Someone said, "A person who is angry on the right grounds, against the right persons, in the right manner, at the right moment, and for the right length of time deserves great praise. "
True, but this doesn’t happen very often. Most of the time when we become angry we also sin. IN YOUR ANGER DO NOT SIN. When we become angry, the anger controls and often causes us to say or do things that we normally wouldn’t do.
We must get over our anger before sundown. WHY? Because if we don’t it may only intensify and/or we may give the devil a foothold in our lives.
How do we keep from sinning when we get angry? Walk away. Don’t count to ten. Pray. Seek the Lord. Ask for mercy and grace. The Lord is the only answer to any negative problem that we face in life. He alone gives the power to victory.
3. STEAL NO LONGER
28He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.
There is not just one way to steal, there are many ways.
ILL.- Recently, someone told me about an internet site called "Craigslist" classifieds: jobs, housing, personals, for sale, etc. You can even go to your own state so I clicked on Arkansas and then Jonesboro. I clicked on "cars" just to see what people were selling and almost immediately I found a 2004 German Audi A4, convertible with 74,000 miles for only $2,900. And I thought, "How could this be? This is too good to be true."
I emailed the supposed seller and asked about the car. The woman emailed back. I wrote back and asked, "How could you only want $2,900 for a car that’s worth over $20,000?" The lady wrote back that she was going through divorce and that’s all she wanted.
Well, it sounded good but it was too good to be true. I did some research and found out it was nothing but a scam. The owners of craigslist said there were scammers out there and that if you complied with their instructions your money would end up in some foreign country like England, Spain, etc. and you’ll end up with nothing! That’s stealing! HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS?
As I said, there are many ways to steal from others. Borrowing money that you never pay back. Using someone’s property and then forgetting to return it. Taking things from your workplace for home use. Going to work late and taking extra long breaks, etc. Leaving work early, etc., etc.
ILL.- When I worked for the Trees ’n Trend in Cape Girardeau, MO, the manager hired a young lady to manage our bridal department. She didn’t last but about a month. All employees were supposed to clock out when they went to lunch and then clock back in but this girl wouldn’t clock out but she would clock back in.
What was wrong with that? Just this. Whenever she clocked back in then she would ’write in’ the time she supposedly left for lunch so as to look like she was gone for only an hour when several employees said she was taking an hour and a half lunch.
WHAT IS THAT? Stealing.
28He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.
4. SPEAK NO EVIL
ILL.- A woman said: MY FRIEND, a wallpaper hanger, usually works in solitude in homes while the owners are at their jobs. But one day, hanging paper in a suite of offices, he forgot he wasn’t alone. When a piece of paper failed to stick, he let go a string of expletives.
Embarrassed, he turned and saw the computer operator, whose office he was papering, staring at him. "Sorry," he muttered. "That’s paper-hanging talk." "Don’t worry about it, honey," she replied. "It’s computer talk too."
Do these words sound familiar? Ever happen to you? It has to most of us. Of course, some of us may use different words or wording, like, "Oh baloney!" or something similar.
In this sin-cursed and sin-cursing world of ours we all have to be careful what we learn or imitate from others. Did you ever learn some not-so-good words from someone in your past? Some words that you still speak today?
ILL.- I remember when I was in high school that it was considered to be something of a big deal if you said certain cuss words, which I can’t repeat here. Some people thought it made you appear mature, but in reality, it didn’t.
ILL.- As I a little kid I used to go with my daddy to the Joplin Stockyards occasionally. That was a big deal to me. My daddy drove a BIG truck and I got to ride with him. But sometimes as we walked through the stockyards my dad would meet someone he knew and soon, he and the other guy were cussing a blue streak. I heard words that I’d never heard before, because my dad never said those words at home!!!
Regardless of what we once said, as we hopefully matured in Christ our speech improved. We all have our times when people or things irritate us to the point where we might say some not-so-nice words or be tempted to. HOW CAN WE OVERCOME? The Lord. Much prayer. Much surrender. Much work.
29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
5. SLANDER NOT
ILL.- A girl said: THREE YEARS AGO my friend Viorel immigrated to the United States from Romania. He still finds many things about his new country amazing, and often excessive. Recently, as we were riding in my car, he questioned several BUMP signs along the road. When I explained the rationale behind the practice he was silent for a minute. Then he asked, "Would it not be easier to fix the bumps, instead of putting up signs announcing them?"
Fixing the bumps. Sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it? And guess what? Those words apply to our lives as well.
ILL.- I remember one lady in a certain church who was very mouthy. She said whatever she wanted and whenever she wanted. And often defended herself by saying, "Well, that’s just the way I am. Take me or leave me."
She had a very big bump in her life and she would put her "bump" sign instead of trying to remove her bump. Many times we do the same thing. If we find we can’t overcome something, we just excuse ourselves, saying, "That’s just the way I am."
30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
How do we grieve God’s Spirit who lives within? Many ways. By being bitter, full of rage, anger, brawling, by slandering others, etc.
Anything that we do that is opposite to Christ and Christianity is how we grieve God’s Spirit. How can we overcome these things? Again. Worship. Much time before the Lord in prayer, in confession, asking for mercy and grace.
CONCLUSION-------------------------------------
ILL.- There is a song entitled, "You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby," which is the second studio album by Fatboy Slim and was released in 1998. The album comes with a Parental Advisory because of horrible language or wording. And, of course, I don’t want to hear it nor would I advise anyone else to hear it. But
what a name! What a title!
YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY. We’ve all come a long way in life but guess what? We still have a long way to go! We all need to grow in Christ more than we have. There is still room for improvement in me and in you!
