Get A New Life
Eph. 4:14-32
All the time I hear people talking about starting a new life. People say I am starting over. I am going to move and create a new life for myself. I am going to leave my past behind and start over somewhere where no one knows me. But all of these fail. Someone or something from your past will show up and everything falls apart.
I can’t help but think about the man who lived in Phoenix AZ. For twenty years he had lived there. He was a leader in the community, an activist. He owned a business there and he was much respected throughout the community. Two years ago he made a decision to run for public office. When a reporter interviewed the man they realized that there was something not quite right about the past that the man claimed to have had. After investigation the reporter discovered that this man, this pillar of the community had as a young man dodged the draft and had been in hiding for the past twenty years. When the news came out the man was arrested and he lost the election. He had thought that after twenty years no one would ever find out about what he had done as a young man. But it had and it cost him two years form his life, his reputation in the community, and his business. His family lost his presence in their lives for two years as he went through the federal legal system and today he lives 50 miles away from Phoenix and is starting over once again but no longer does he have the fear of being discovered hanging over him. He finally discovered that he could not escape from who he really was.
The only true way to become a new person or a new creation is in Jesus Christ. Jesus will take you clean you up and create a new person in you. He does this without wiping out your past. It is still there but now it can be used to measure how much Jesus is doing for you. So many people are never living the new life that Jesus has created for them. They continue on in their old lives never seeing the changes that Jesus has wrought for them. Way too many Christians are running to and fro chasing answers here and there. They are like children in a candy store with some money and wanting to buy everything. But Paul teaches us that we are not to be like that. That we don’t have to live like that. In fact once Jesus saves us we no longer have the need for that. No longer are we to be deceived by false doctrines and lies. You know who they are they are on our T.V. claiming that if you send them some money they will send you a handkerchief and you would be healed or some other outrageous claim. Many Christian who is not strong in their faith, who are immature in their understanding, fall for this. They are unable to discern the truth from fiction because they are not growing spiritually. They are not allowing the Holy Spirit to lead them but are being lead instead by the Holy Spirit. Paul says that once we are saved and are being lead by the Holy Spirit we want be tricked by them.
But Bro. David why are so many good Christians deceived by them? The answer is simple they have stopped growing in their new person. They may feel that they have reached maturity but they have not. None of us will ever reach full spiritual maturity while we are alive because our lives are an ongoing process and learning experience. We must grow to spiritual maturity. Only through Spiritual maturity can we avoid being deceived by lies and cheaters. Charlatans that want to take advantage of immature Christians. As we grow toward spiritual maturity two results occur. 1. no longer will we be children or immature Christians who are easily deceived by false doctrine because we will know the truth. And secondly we will grow to be more Christ like as we study God’s word. We will live our lives for Him by His doctrines, through our conduct, and serve Him. Christian maturity is only attained through thorough instruction in sound doctrine given in a loving manner.
But many Christians are spinning their wheels because they would rather have someone else tell them what the Bible says then pick up a Bible, study it, and let the Holy Spirit teach them about what it says. Today in our world we are taught to follow instruction and we are told everyday what to do and when we do it by new reporters, teachers, doctors, lawyers, preachers, politicians, judges and so forth that we come to expect someone else to do the work for us. But God says hide my world in your heart. To do that we must read and study God’s word and understand it under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Our new life actually begins at our birth into the kingdom and it grows as we study God’s word. In fact we will continue to grow until the day we die.
This new life does not come upon us all of a sudden. In fact it is a gradual building process. We continue to grow as long as we allow Christ to be our head and we study His word and talk with Him. I want you to understand what I am about to say. Some will not like to hear what I am about to say next but it is the truth. Our jobs, our families, hobbies or anything else that we might put first before God is not important in the eternal picture. In fact anything you put before God for any reason you have created for yourself an idol to worship. If you must work instead of coming to worship God you have a god of mammon. If you overlook sin because it might cause conflict in your family or with your friends you have just made that relationship an idol because it has become more important to you than God’s word and teaching has. He does not teach us to overlook sin no instead He tells us not to condone it. Only with Christ at our head will this be possible as we grow to spiritual maturity.
Only with Christ as our head will we be able to love every one. Paul teaches us that all Christians no matter if we are white, black, red, or yellow are unified in Christ. He holds us together. And it is only through Spiritual maturity that we can come together as one family. The world provides distinctions but Paul teaches us that we are not to walk like the Gentiles (sinners) in the vanity of their minds. They think that they are wise and they have the answers, that they don’t need God to show them the truth. In fact they often say I know better than God. There are Christians who hate their brother because he/she are homeless. Yes they will say if they did not want to live that way they wouldn’t. There are Christians who hate their brother because of his/her ethnic background. Yes there is they will say they are not like us. They are dirty, evil, you can’t trust them, I am better then they are. I am reminded here when the son’s of Zeebedee ask to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus and Jesus said the greatest shall be the least and the least shall be the greatest. That there are no distinctions in the kingdom of heaven. Any distinction that we have today is man’s distinction and that is led by our old sin nature. Those who hold these viewpoints in any form or fashion, now listen carefully, if you hold these views then you are saying Jesus you don’t know what you are talking about and I know better than you. Brother and sisters, I am telling you I don’t want to be the one to tell my creator, my savior, my king, and my God that I know better than he does. Paul tells no he warns us that we are not to walk in the vanity of our minds. To keep from doing this we are to fill our minds with the word of God and keep Him continually on our minds. As we do this we develop the mind of Christ and we start making decisions like Christ.
No longer are we blind to God’s word. We now know God’s word and when we refuse to do that which God tells us to do we are sinning and we are walking like the Gentile. Their understanding has been darkened but ours has been illuminated by the Holy Spirit. No longer are we ignorant of what God wants. Now we have the understanding, so when we refuse to do that which God teaches us to do in His word we are sinning and are alienated from our relationship with God.
Paul says we did not learn this from Jesus. We only learn the truth from Jesus. When we don’t follow that truth we are following our sin nature. But we can put off that old sin nature, full of deceitful lusts, when we fill our minds with God’s word and keep our thoughts on God we renew our minds and we can then put on the new man. We no longer act as our former selves. We give up our old hatreds, temptations,lusts, and wants and we now desire to be Christ like so that we grieve not the Holy Spirit. No longer are we to be bitter, angry, or speak with malice. Instead we are to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving of one another even as God for Christ’s sake forgives us.
