The Old Man Is Dead (Eph 4:22-32)
Intro: Testimony
Some time ago, a person I worked with came up to me and said, “if I didn’t know you, I would be terrified to meet you on the street”. If my coworker only knew half of what I’d been, He would never even talk to me. God took the most vile, evil, misguided person in the world and transformed Me into someone who was able show compassion and love. The old man was full of hate and violence, but God changed me. Whatever you are and no mater where you are, God’s love can reach you
Lead in: Just like God changed me, every Christian is in the process of being changed, more and more, into the nature of Jesus Christ .
Text:
NCV 22 You were taught to leave your old self—to stop living the evil way you lived before. That old self becomes worse, because people are fooled by the evil things they want to do. 23 But you were taught to be made new in your hearts, 24 to become a new person. That new person is made to be like God—made to be truly good and holy.
25 So you must stop telling lies. Tell each other the truth, because we all belong to each other in the same body. 26 When you are angry, do not sin, and be sure to stop being angry before the end of the day. 27 Do not give the devil a way to defeat you. 28 Those who are stealing must stop stealing and start working. They should earn an honest living for themselves. Then they will have something to share with those who are poor.
29 When you talk, do not say harmful things, but say what people need—words that will help others become stronger. Then what you say will do good to those who listen to you. 30 And do not make the Holy Spirit sad. The Spirit is God’s proof that you belong to him. God gave you the Spirit to show that God will make you free when the final day comes. 31 Do not be bitter or angry or mad. Never shout angrily or say things to hurt others. Never do anything evil. 32 Be kind and loving to each other, and forgive each other just as God forgave you in Christ.
A person who seeks to change himself spiritually is a person who believes that if he can just do more good deeds, learn more about God, or accomplish more for God's kingdom, he will be a “better” person. This approach inevitably results in anxiety, frustration, discouragement, feelings of failure, and perhaps even depression.
The encouraging news of the Bible is that you cannot change yourself spiritually, but God is in the process of changing you! The Bible tells us that we are being transformed in two ways:
1. We are being transformed by the renewal of our minds.
2. We are being conformed into the image of Christ.
In each case, the Holy Spirit is the “agent of the change” that occurs within us. We have a part to play, but the Holy Spirit is the One who causes the change to take place within us.
You will not be the person in the future that you are today if you submit yourself to God's transformation process. You are going to be more like Jesus. And that's good news!
Changed in Attitude
The Changing of your mind is a Change from the way the world thinks to the way God thinks.
The two points of view—God's and man's—are nearly always opposite.
A. Let me give you just a few examples:
1. The world tells you to get even with your enemies. God says to leave vengeance up to him and to love your enemies, do good to them, and pray for them (Matt. 5:43–44, Rom. 12:19–21).
2. The world tells you to fight for your rights and defend yourself at all costs. God says to turn the other cheek (Matt. 5:38–39).
3. The world tells you that hard work and education will result in success. God says that faith and learning to listen to His voice and obey Him are what bring a person to success (Heb. 11).
As Christians, we are called to think like God thinks, and then, with of our renewed minds, to act as Jesus would act if He walked in our shoes on the earth today. A difference in thinking results in a difference in living.
B. The Word Renews Our Thinking
1. We get a renewed mind through a habit of reading God's Word frequently and regularly. Ephesians 5:26 refers to a cleansing by the “washing of water by the word.” The more we read God's Word and trust the Holy Spirit to quicken what we read to our spirits, the more the Word acts to cleanse our thoughts so that we think the pure thoughts of Christ.
2. The more we read God's Word, the more we are confronted with God's truth. The Word of God convicts us of error and points out to us the need for change. It presents to us the truth and compels us to act on the truth.
3. The more we read God's Word, the more we become familiar with “God's opinion” and the more the Holy Spirit makes His opinion our opinion. The Word of God becomes the way we think. And when that happens, we experience a genuine change. We begin to speak differently, act differently, make wiser choices, and adopt new priorities. Our lives take on a new nature that flows from our new mind.
4. For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb. 4:12)
5. You must also put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him. (Col. 3:8–10)
C. We Can Choose What We Think
1. The mind is subject to the will. We each have control over what we choose to think about. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that they should be engaged in “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).
2. We have the ability to screen, select, admit, and cultivate what goes into our minds. We can keep our minds from wandering into evil thoughts by choosing to focus our minds, instead, upon what is good in God's eyes (Phil. 4:8).
3. We also have the ability to choose how we will think about what we perceive with our senses. While we have no control over some things that come into our field of vision or within our range of hearing as we live our daily lives, we do have control over what we will think about what we perceive or sense, and how we will act on that information.
For example, David saw Bathsheba. He wasn't looking for her. He was out walking on his balcony one night and while surveying the city below him, he saw a beautiful woman bathing. That could have been the end of the story. David could have turned and walked back into his palace and thought nothing more about what he had seen.
Instead, David began to think about what he saw. He “sent and inquired about the woman.” He did some research, he began to dwell in his mind on what it would be like to get a closer look at her and what it might be like to be with her. Eventually he sent for her, sinned with her, and suffered serious consequences for that sin (2 Sam. 11:2–4).
(Personal Example)
4. When things come into our range of sensation or perception, we immediately are to evaluate them with the “filter” of God's Word. If we find ourselves dwelling on a thought, we must ask ourselves, “Why am I thinking this? What is at the root of my thought? What will happen if I continue to think this way? Is that really the direction I want my life to go?” We do not need to act out of impulses, desires, and lusts. We can govern what we choose to think and then choose to do.
Many people are discouraged today because they are confused, plagued by recurring negative thoughts, or because they don't know which way to turn in their lives. What an encouraging word you can share with them that God can transform their lives by the renewing of their minds! They can experience a real change in their lives, one that begins in the way they think.
Conformed to Christ's Image
1. God's desire is that we become more and more like Jesus in the things we do, which means that our “automatic responses” to life—our habitual daily rituals and the routine way in which we handle life—must reflect Christ's nature.
2. The conformation process begins with our acknowledgment that Christ dwells within us. His Spirit occupies and fills our spirit. Jesus told His disciples that when the Holy Spirit came, He would dwell within them (John 14:17). Paul wrote repeatedly that the “Spirit of God dwells in you,” that we have “the Spirit of Christ,” and that “Christ is in you” (Rom. 8:9–10).
(John 14:17)
A/C : Caterpillar to Butterfly
Are you tired of being defeated at everything you do, why not let God change you into his image? Maybe it’s time to kill off the old sinful man that you once were, and become a brand new man in Jesus
