Walk This Way, Talk This Way
Text: Ephesians 4:17-19
By: Ken McKinley
(Read Text)
A country farmer and his son came to the city for the first time. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but were especially awe struck by the elevator. Neither of them had ever seen one before. The boy asked his father, “What is that father?” The old man just shook his head as he continued to watch as an old lady with a cane walked into the elevator. The doors shut and a few seconds later a young, beautiful woman came walking out of the elevator. The farmer looked at his son and said, “Son, I don’t know what it is, but go get your mamma.” (Taken from a Sermon heard by Chuck Swindoll)
I think there are times in our lives when we would all like to change something about ourselves. There are at least 20 different brands of diet pills in the Woodward Wal-Mart pharmacy. Plastic surgery is a multi-million dollar industry, gym memberships are too. We live in a world that promises of change are often made, but they are rarely kept. Just watch a few TV commercials where you might hear someone promise to restore lost hair, remove unwanted pounds, hide wrinkles, and we won’t even get into some of the other things commercials promise. And so we live in a world that promises change, and many people want to change something, and they want to do it as quickly as possible. They want a magic pill that makes them whatever they want to be or do. But our desire for change isn’t just physical. We might have certain character issues that we struggle with, or financial issues, or marital issues, or even spiritual issues. Many people and I would even dare say that some within this church struggle with certain issues of faith and of living out our faith in a consistent manner.
Well if you remember; last time we talked about how God expects a change in us. He expects us to mature, to grow up. There should be progress in our Christian walk. But how do we do it? How do we get from where we are, to where we need to be?
Well; before we learn how change happens, we need to look at why it doesn’t.
Paul starts this passage with the command of the Law. He says, “You should no longer live like the rest of the world does.”
If you’ve been with us at the start of this study of Ephesians then maybe you’ll remember that the first half of the letter talks about what God has done, Paul focused a lot on God’s grace and mercy. Now in light of that, in light of the Spirit of God indwelling the people of God, here is how you are to live.
Now Paul’s command to no longer walk as the Gentiles walk assumes that we are walking as the Gentiles walk, it assumes that we do have struggles. So what is it that makes it so hard to live like Jesus? Verse 17 tells us that Gentiles walk in the futility of their minds. Paul doesn’t begin with external, outward behaviors. He doesn’t say that the problems in Ephesus have to do with the environment, or upbringing (like so many psychologists and sociologists would say today). No; he says the problem is with a persons mind. The word “mind” used here, literally encompasses the reason, the understanding, the conscience, and the affections of a person.
So what Paul is saying to us through the Holy Spirit is that the way a person thinks, what a person understands, a persons morality, and a persons desires all affect the way he or she lives (as a man thinketh, so is he).
But here’s the thing, in verse 18 he says that their understanding has been darkened. So it’s not a matter of a proper education. Education can be good but this goes beyond education. Paul says that their understanding has been darkened because they are alienated from God. For the apostle Paul it’s pretty clear that the mind that rejects God is a mind that is dark and debased.
Let’s turn to Romans 1:18-32 (read). Paul wrote this as well, and you see what he says in verse 21? He says they became futile in their thoughts. In verse 28 he says, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their KNOWLEDGE, God gave them over to a debased mind.”
In other words, if you are looking to Dr. Phill, Oprah, or Obama for change, then you’re making a huge mistake. The mind without God is in darkness. Let me give you an example from history. How many of you know who William Wilberforce was? If not there is a movie titled Amazing Grace, I think it came out in 2007 and it details Wilberforces struggle to end slavery in England. Well; one of Wilberforce’s good friends was William Pitt, the Prime Minister of England. Pitt was a highly educated man and said to be a brilliant thinker, but he was a Christian in name only. Wilberforce would attend church services every Sunday, and his pastor was a man named Richard Cecil. And in Wilberforce’s own words he said that Cecil’s preaching fed his soul and warmed his heart, and he was delighted by it, encouraged by it, and challenged by it. Every Sunday Wilberforce would invite Pitt to come to church, but the Prime Minister would refuse, but finally one Sunday he came to church and listened to Richard Cecil preach. After the service was over and Pitt and Wilberforce were leaving the church, Pitt said to Wilberforce, “You know, I have not the slightest idea what that man was talking about.” So as sharp as Pitt was, as educated as he was, he was incapable of understanding the things of God. That’s one of the reasons Wilberforce had such a struggle to end slavery in England. Because he was dealing with people whose minds were darkened and were alienated from God.
I personally know people whose lives are a mess, they’ve lost their families, they’ve lost good paying jobs, they’ve turned to alcohol, they’ve basically prostituted themselves for whatever reason; and I’ve talked to those people and told them that they need to make a change, and of the two people I have in mind, both have said to me, “I can’t change.” And you know what? That’s partially true, but also largely false. See the ability to change is absent because the will to change isn’t there.
You all have heard me say this before, A dog barks because it’s a dog, a cat meows because it’s a cat, and a sinner sins because he’s a sinner. They can’t live a life of consistent righteousness because it’s not in their will or nature to do so. Paul says their hearts have been blinded – another way to say it is that they are hard hearted, they are past feeling, they have become totally insensitive to what really matters. The heart of the human problem is the problem with the human heart. And mankind needs a transplant.
If you want to change, and I mean – real, lasting change, then you must have a heart that isn’t alienated from God, and a mind that is not darkened against Him.
Our world is in a downward spiral; we’ve done away with God and in doing so we’ve down away with meaning, and when meaning goes so does values and morality.
But let me just say this: Being dead to God doesn’t mean being dead to emotion or passion.
We just read about how passionate people are in Romans, they didn’t loose their passions, it’s that their passions were focused on themselves. God gave them over to the sinful desires of their heart. They become hedonists. And sinful behavior begets more sinful behavior until finally it destroys you. I believe it was Augustine who said, “The punishment of sinful behavior is a sinful world.”
So why is change so hard? Because we buy into the lie that life apart from God is what we want and need. There are many people in churches all across America who are professing Christians but practicing atheists. They seek the answers to their marital problems from a tabloid news paper rather than from God’s Word. And when they do that they are walking like the Gentiles. When they listen to Oprah on how to be spiritual instead of Scripture, they are walking like Gentiles. When they are looking to Obama to bring heaven on earth instead of Jesus Christ, they are walking like the Gentiles.
So now that we’ve looked at why change doesn’t happen we can look at how we can change, but… I’m going to save that for next time.
But verse 20 gives you a glimpse of what we’ll be looking at. It gives a glimpse of the cure for what ails humanity.
“But you have not so learned Christ.”
How did you come to know Jesus Christ?
When it comes to your mind, what does your relationship with the Lord tell us?
When you first were saved, a change took place, your sin was replaced with Christ’s righteousness. Your failures were replaced with His victory.
But like I said, we are going to look at this more closely next time, because it will take more time than the few minutes I have left here today.
But the first step is receiving Him as your Lord and Savior.
Have you done that?
INVITATION AND PRAYER
