INTRODUCTION
• VIDEO
• SLIDE #1
• It’s is already that time of the year again, time to make those awesome life-changing New Year’s resolutions.
• You know, those heartfelt resolutions that you made about this time last year, you know, the ones that lasted a few days to a few weeks, you know, the resolutions that changed your life (for a few days).
• The New York Post ran an article on December 31, 2018.
• The study they wrote about said that 55% of New Year's Resolutions were health-related.
• Research conducted by Strava (a popular exercise app), the social network for athletes, has discovered that Saturday, January 12, is the fateful day of the death of New Year’s resolutions.
• After analyzing more than 31.5 million online global activities last January, Strava was able to pinpoint the date when most people report failing their resolution. https://nypost.com/2018/12/21/new-years-resolutions-last-exactly-this-long/
• What is it that drives us to make these crazy resolutions that usually end up going nowhere?
• I think we do it because we sense that something is wrong with our life as well as the world that we live.
• Beyond looking at the great brokenness of the world that humans have tried to fix, at a personal level, we know there are areas in which we all have brokenness.
• We have addictions that we can’t stop.
• We try to fill the emptiness in our lives with money, sex, power, stuff, relationships.
• We fail to live up to even our own ideals. Our insecurities get the best of us, and we become prideful, envious, lacking any love for other people.
• You might be a businessman who seems to have it all together, but you can’t stop losing your temper with your kids, and you don’t know how to have self-control.
• Or maybe you're depressed over your body image, so you work out regularly, at the expense of your family, obsessing over your happiness and sense of worth.
• When we get to the cusp of the New Year, we start to think of the things we need to correct, and each year we probably do not do too well with the effort to change.
• Today we are going to look at a great passage that can help us to grow.
• One thing I have always said about the past is it is in the past.
• You have to decide if you’re going to let the past define you, imprison you, or will you learn from the past and move forward and grow in the future?
• Human beings can strive to fix the brokenness in their lives, only to fail. Christ brings new life and a death to the old self and old way of living.
• If you want to change your life, your situation in life, maybe you are in a lousy marriage, perhaps you are not happy with your life to this point?
• There is something that you can do about it.
• Let me propose this to you for your consideration.
• We have a new life and a new identity in Jesus; the old way of living life doesn't matter anymore.
• We have to be able to leave the past behind, and we need to do three things so that we can accomplish this feat.
• In the passage, we will examine from Ephesians 4:20-24; Paul will give us three imperatives we need to implement so we can enjoy the salvation we can have in Christ!
• SLIDE #2
• Ephesians 4:20–22 (CSB) — 20 But that is not how you came to know Christ, 21 assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires,
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
Leaving the past behind requires one to…
I. Lay aside the old self.
• I want to focus on verse 22 for this observation; however, I wanted to us think about verses 20-21 for a moment because those verses give us some context.
• Paul was trying to encourage the Christians at Ephesus to start living the life they were called to live in Christ.
• The word YOU in verse 20 is EMPHATIC in the Greek. In verses 17-19, Paul speaks of those who were living life to satisfy their own lusts and desires.
• Apparently, there were enough "Christians" in Ephesus who were living a life as they did when they were lost.
• He reminds his readers that they were not taught to live that way in Christ.
• When you think about it, a great deal (but not all) of our problems and failures in life flow from not following what we are encouraged to do in verse 22.
• 22 to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires,
• Paul uses a metaphor to show us that we have to take off the old way of life, the life we lived before Jesus.
• The phrase TAKE OFF denotes taking off and casting away outworn filthy clothing.
• This happens when we are baptized into Christ. Romans 6:6 tells us the old self was buried with Christ in baptism.
• SLIDE #4
• Galatians 3:27 (CSB) — 27 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.
• Usually, when you are going to wear new clothing, you take off the old first.
• One thing we have to be sure not to do is to try to put the old clothes back on.
• The old “self” is the personality corrupted by deceitful desires and alienated from God.
• It is the “old self” that was crucified with Christ and buried in baptism (Rom 6:6).
• But Paul finds it necessary to instruct those who are already saints (Eph 1:1) that they must still “put off” the old way of life, just as they would remove a soiled, worn-out garment.
• They are already God's holy people; now, they must act like it!
• Part of the reasons we fail is that we seem to want to run back to the old ways.
• The phrase used to speak of the old self, is corrupted by deceitful desires, is written in the present tense.
• This tells us that corruption spoken of is an ongoing process that we experienced when we were living that life.
• The unsaved person, as well as the Christian who continues to walk as they did before they were saved, will experience a continual state of corruption, which, as time passes, will continue to get worse.
• SLIDE #5
• Galatians 6:8 (CSB) — 8 because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.
• The desires are called deceitful because they promise thrills and satisfaction, but instead, they deliver shame, disappointment, disgrace, as well as destruction.
• Leaving the past behind requires us to lay aside our old self, permanently!
• Let’s look at verse 23.
• SLIDE #6
• Ephesians 4:23 (CSB) — 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
• SLIDE #7
Leaving the past behind requires one to…
II. Allow the spirit of your mind to be renewed.
• JUST as in verse 22, where corruption is a continual process, so is the renewal process!
• Whereas laying aside in verse 22 and putting on in verse 24 are decisive acts past acts with continual results, RENEWED is a continuing present-day process.
• The agent of our renewal is the Holy Spirit as found in Titus 3:5
• SLIDE #8
• Titus 3:5 (CSB) — 5 he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
• Now, where does this renewal take place?
• In the SPIRIT OF OUR MINDS!
• The word SPIRIT in this context represents an attitude or sentiment that continually needs renewal.
• This thought harmonizes with many passages like Romans 12:2, Colossians 3:2, Philippians 4:8, to name a few.
• The battle for the soul takes place in the mind.
• We have to allow the spirit of our minds to be renewed if we want to be able to leave the past behind.
• We have to feed healthy things into our minds if we want to have a renewed mind.
• SLIDE #9
• Philippians 4:8 (CSB) — 8 Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things.
• YOU BECOME WHAT YOU PUT INTO YOUR MIND!
• This is why it is essential to spend time in the word. It is essential we be careful of what we put into our minds.
• When you are filled with negativity and filth, you will think and become the same.
• I know this from personal experience.
• PETRA NOT OF THIS WORLD cassette.
• Let’s turn to verse 24!
• SLIDE #10
• Ephesians 4:24 (CSB) — 24 and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.
• SLIDE #11
Leaving the past behind requires one to…
III. Put on the new self.
• The time when we were baptized into Christ is the time when we initially put on the new self.
• Galatians 3:27 tells us that when we were baptized into Christ, we put on Christ.
• 2 Corinthian 5:17 says when we are in Christ, we are a NEW CREATION!
• The new creation that we become is created in the likeness of God. The old self is dead.
• Why is it that we seek to go back to the old self? Why Is Paul telling Christians to put on the new self?
• It is because the world pulls us toward doing so.
• Our new self is created in the image of God. We have to nourish the new self; we have to feed it properly.
• Think of it this way. Look at your physical build right now. For the most part, outside of a medical reason, we look like we do because of how we treat our body, how we feed our body, and how we exercise our body.
• Let's say today we will all get a body that has only 7% body fat, and we are all firm and ripped.
• Gentlemen, we all look like the 300.
• SLIDE #12
• How long would we go from that to the way we look now? Not long if we would treat the new body like we did the old!
• How long will your new self look like your old self? How long will your new self think and act like your old self if you keep watching, reading, listening to the same you used to indulge into?
• Not long.
• Being a new creation in Christ means that we have to put on the new self each day, we have to CHOOSE to be what God re-created us to be!
CONCLUSION
• You can't fit a round peg into a square hole. Children are given geometric pegboards when they are toddlers to help them learn shapes.
• They quickly find out that they cannot fit one shape in the hole of a different shape, sometimes to great frustration.
• When we who have been given new life in Christ still try to live the old way, we also experience frustration.
• In Christ, we have a different shape to life, a different identity.
• We have a new life and a new identity in Jesus; the old way of living life doesn't matter anymore.
• Leave the past behind and reach forward to the future as you put on the new self each day!
