A DIFFERENT WALK
EPHESIANS 4: 17-24
INTRO:
This week, I was working in Atlanta and spent a little time in an area that is called little five points. Some of you may know the area. It’s the intersections of Moreland Ave, Euclid Ave, and McClendon Ave. This little area is quite unique in that it draws many different and peculiar people. I stopped at a store there and as I was standing in line for the register, I looked at the guy in front of me and kind of took a step back. He had chains and piercing all over his face. Now I’m not one to say much about how people dress and look because if I didn’t have Pam, God only knows what I would dress like but my disease took over. You know, that foot in mouth disease that I told you I had. Well before I could put the parking brake on my mouth, it engaged and I looked at the guy and said DOESN”T THAT HURT? The guy just stared at me for a minute and paid for his stuff and walked off, never saying a word. In hindsight, I’m glad he had better sense than me. There was another guy in line behind me though and he and the guy with all the piercing were friends. He started telling me that no this stuff didn’t hurt. We got to talking and I asked him why they dressed and did these things to their body that they did and he told me something interesting. He said that they just wanted to be different from everybody else. They wanted to be unique. Basically they want to be different from the world. That’s what our message is about this morning. Being different from the World. This is another message in our Walk Worthy series. This walking worthy of our citizenship in Heaven. This walking worthy of being called or calling ourselves Christians.
. In our passage this morning, Paul is telling us that we are to WALK DIFFERENT FROM THE WORLD.
. Eph 4: 17-24
This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of[c] the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
The first thing we must do if we are to be different from the world is that we must TRUST IN THE TRUTH OF JESUS.
. In verse 20-21 Paul writes that the new man, a man different from the “Heathens” as one translation puts it, a person who does not walk like the rest of the world must believe in the truth of Jesus.
. 20-21 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:
. There is truth in Jesus
. They say that a way to a mans heart is through his stomach.
. Paul says that the way to become different from the lost is through Jesus Christ.
. verse 17,18 19, talks about the futility of the unsaved mind.
. being alienated from God.
. Their mind being darkened by their unbelief of god and who Jesus is.
. In john chapter 18, the story of Jesus before Pilate is told.
The Jewish council and the high priest had questioned Jesus and had struck Him and spat on Him and the high priest sent Him to Pilate saying that Jesus should be put to death but that because of roman law , they could not put anyone to death so Pilate needed to do this. Pilate spoke with Jesus and Jesus told him that …” He had come into the world to bear witness to the truth …”
. Pilate then uttered those famous words “ What Is Truth”
. Folks, let me tell you what the truth of Jesus Christ is.
. There is a God who exists and loves you.
. There is a God who created you.
. There is a God who wants a relationship with you.
. There is a God who made a way for you to have eternal life.
. There is a God who gave His Son to save you
. This is the foundation of everything. The truth of Jesus Christ.
. Our society and world today are always trying to find ways to distort or even deny the truth.
A few years ago, a major Multinational company was looking for a new Marketing Director. After much advertising and many application, three candidates entered the final selection process. A mathematician, a statistician and a solicitor. The first to be invited in for the final interview was the mathematician and the Managing Director asked him a simple question: What is 2+2. The mathematician was surprised, thought about it for a bit, wondered if it might be a trick question and then simply answered 4. The Managing Director looked at the Board, shook his head and thanked him for coming, but he wasn’t the candidate they were looking for.
The statistician was the next in and the Managing Director asked him too the simple question: What is 2+2. He paused, thought about it for a bit and then replied that statistically it was a number between 3 and 5. The Managing Director smiled and Board were quite impressed. The candidate was thanked and ushered out. The last candidate, the solicitor was then invited in to the interview and the Managing Director asked him too the simple question: What is 2+2. Without batting an eyelid he replied: “What do you want it to be”. And was promptly hired on the spot. (Sermon Central.com)
. The truth of Jesus is not arbitrary.
PAUL WRITES THAT WE MUST TRUST IN THE TRUTH OF JESUS in order to walk different from the world .
ONCE WE PLACE OUR TRUST IN JESUS THEN WE MUST TURN FROM THE OLD
Vs 22, 23 says , that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
. Once we accept the truth of Jesus, Paul writes that we are to be different from who we were.
. We can’t be the same person that we were.
. You can no longer walk as you used to walk in the world.
. You should no longer talk as you had.
. you must turn away from these things.
. You have to basically throw them away.
. It’s like getting new clothes.
As I’m sure some of you have noticed, my wife dresses me. By that I mean that she color coordinates me. I can’t count the times that she has sent me back into the closet to change my clothes. She doesn’t say go change. She is more subtle than that. She looks at me and says are you going to wear that? Then I get the hint and say would you pick out what you would like me to wear. She is the fashion person in the house. When my clothes get old or torn or maybe too big for me, she is the one to do the shopping for my wardrobe. All of that is well and good but the problems start when she starts trying to throw my old stuff away. We will go through the closet and she will pull out a piece of clothing and say, this isn’t any good anymore, we need to throw it away. I start crying foul. No I like that shirt. That’s my favorite shirt. I’ve had that shirt longer than we’ve been married. I think I still have a leisure suit or two in my closet. I just can’t seem to let the old stuff go.
. Paul writes that we must turn from the old.
. We must let these old things go.
. we can’t hold on to who we were, no matter how comfortable they are.
. I heard a sermon once in chapel at the seminary about Jesus visiting someone’s home, and what that visit might be like. What would He see as he walked through the home. Were there any places that Jesus would not be allowed to go within the home. Were there things maybe stored in the attic that you couldn’t throw away. Things that maybe you were ashamed of. Then the homeowner told Jesus that he had an appointment and he needed to go. Jesus asked if He could go and the homeowner stated that where he was going Jesus probably wouldn’t want to go. He was embarrassed for Jesus to know where and what he was doing.
. If we are to be different from the world.
. If we are to walk different from the Unsaved we have to turn away from the old self.
. When we accept Jesus, when we receive the Holy Spirit, we are convicted to change.
. Not only are we convicted to change, we are empowered to change by the Holy spirit.
. This old self must be put off as Paul writes.
. Much like changing our clothes when they get dirty.
.We are to change, to repent and turn away from our old self.
ONCE WE TURN FROM THE OLD, Paul writes that we are to TURN TO THE NEW.
In Vs. 24 he says that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
. This new man is supposed to be different from the old man.
. These things that you turn away from are supposed to be replaced by this new man.
. I have a question, do people know that you are a Christian.
. Can they look at you and see this new man.
There was a guy who worked in construction all his life. We will call him Jim.
If you been around construction as I know some of you have and are, then you know that the much of the behavior is far from Godly. He was saved one Sunday. The next week he went into a job meeting. In the meeting were all the supervisors and managers for this particular job. The overall Project Manager started the meeting and eventually it got to where all that was going on was vulgar language and jokes involving sexual contents that just shouldn’t be talked about. Jim simply got up and walked out. He didn’t say a word. The next day, the project manager saw him and started apologizing for what had happened in the meeting. You see, he had told one of the other guys before the meeting that he had accepted Jesus. After he walked out, somebody said I wonder what got into him. The guy that he had talked to told them what he had said about Jesus.
Jim looked at the project manager and told him that he understood that he had a job to do and that he could run his meetings any way that he saw fit but that if the meetings went like that every time then he would leave just as he had at the last meeting. The project manager told him that he was a mighty peculiar person.
Jim went on to tell me that he was on that particular for another year and never again did the weekly meetings go like that one had. Everything was nothing but business with none of the lewd vulgarity. He also said that this particular manager treated him differently than before. He stopped all of the vulgarity and other actions that would be offensive to him.
When I heard this story, I thought about what Peter wrote in 1 peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people;
. Jim had put on the new.
. He had turned to the new and he was walking different from the world around him.
. Guess what, the world was watching, the world was seeing this new man.
. People could look at him and tell that he was different from them.
. We talked about non conformity as we opened this message.
. A born again person does not conform to this world.
. A Christian should stand out as a different person.
. A Christian should be a peculiar person.
As we close, do you act different from the world.
. Can people look at you and tell that your different.
. Can they tell by the way that you live your life that you are different from those who are lost.
HAVE YOU TRUSTED IN THE TRUTH OF JESUS
HAVE YOU GIVEN YOUR LIFE TO JESUS
Christian
HAVE YOU TURNED FROM THE OLD
HAVE YOU PUT OFF THE OLD SELF
HAVE YOU TURNED TO THE NEW
DO YOU WALK DIFFERENT FROM THE WORLD.
