A New Walk
Ephesians 4:17-32
I. A NEW WALK (4:17-24)
1. THEIR EMPTY IN THEIR MIND (17)
- The word ‘futility’ literally means empty, vain, worthless.
- The world is one big façade… promising a lot… delivering little.
Q: Have you ever noticed how this world is designed to keep our minds empty of the truth.
- Satan uses this whole world system in a calculated way to lure you into emptiness of
mind.
2. THEY HAVE DARKENED UNDERSTANDING & BLIND HEARTS (18)
- The unbeliever is alienated from God, ignorant of spiritual life and things.
- Their empty minds lead to blinded or literal hard hearts.
- In this word is also the idea of anesthesia… unable to feel.
3. THEY ARE PAST SENSITIVITY TO SIN (19)
- Leads to all sorts of bizarre & sinful behaviors
- They’ve given themselves over to lewdness – And Why not?
- If there is NO God, then there’s NO accountability!
- And so uncleanness & greediness are the norm…
Gen. Omar N. Bradley in a 1948 Armistice Day address said: “We have too many men of science, too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. ... Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.
4. You have not so learned Christ! (20-22)
- We’re saved! Praise the Lord.
- My past is ugly, it’s shameful, it’s sinful and depraved!
- BUT In Him it’s gone, forgiven, washed away…
Isa. 1.18 "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.
The world is into all sorts of sinful and immoral things…
- But Jesus, He’s taught us differently….
- That you put off the old man… That’s right… But How?
5. Be renewed and put on the new man! (23-24)
- So put off the old stuff and then change your mind!
- Be renewed… Renovate that mind of yours. Change it!
NOTE: That’s what happens when you hang out with Jesus…
- When you surrender to Him, become intimate with Him…
- You’ll find yourself changing your mind about all sorts of things…
1 Cor. 2.16, For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
Then with that new mind, that new way of thinking, through the lessons taught to us by
Jesus… We Put on the new man.
- The man or woman of righteousness and holiness.
- Now look at the things we as Christians must guard against…
II. A NEW WAY (4:25-32)
1. Communicate the Truth (25)
a. First we’re supposed to put away lying. Stop it.
b. You aren’t, I’m not to be known as one who loves to tell tall tales… shares untruths…
lead people down liar’s lane.
c. Instead our reputation must be such that when someone needs to hear the truth… Hey…
go to the Christian!
d. But it happens way too much in the church… flat out lies.
e. Small lies, big lies, white lies, purple lies, exaggerations, limitations, THEY’RE ALL
INCLUDED.
2. Control Your Anger (26-27)
a. Be angry, but don’t sin.
b. It’s not possible to lie and not sin, but there is an anger that is not sinful. You and I can
have a ‘righteous anger’.
c. Jesus did… Remember the moneychangers and rip off artists at the Temple?
d. They turned the house of God into a Wal-Mart.
So be angry… but don’t sin. Don’t let it lead you in giving Satan a foothold, a stronghold, a
stranglehold in your life.
- Pray about it, seek out your own heart, and abide in Jesus.
- You can start telling the truth today… speak the truth and trust.
- You can be angry… but don’t succumb to an outburst of wrath.
3. Cease Stealing (28)
a. But theft comes in many shapes and sizes.
b. Not only can objects & money be taken but so can time, so can energy, so can glory…
c. Oh, it’s only a few pens. Only left a few minutes early.
d. I only claimed 10 extra dependents… Don’t steal!
e. Don’t steal someone’s reputation from them through gossip.
f. Don’t steal someone’s salvation from them by hypocrisy…
g. Don’t steal someone’s innocence from them w/ dirty words.
h. Paul says to STOP STEALING…
4. Contain Your Mouth (29)
a. Stop speaking perverse and foul things.
b. Dirty jokes, bad words, murmuring, complaining…
c. Instead speak those things that edify… imparting grace.
5. Let all bitterness be put away (31)
a. Put away bitterness, wrath, clamor and evil speaking…
b. It only hurts you, creates ulcers, increases stress, controls your every waking moment.
c. Are you mad at someone? Humble yourself and go to them.
d. Ask for forgiveness… and let it go!
6. Be kind to one another, (32)
a. Be kind… that delights the Lord. Forgiving one another, not holding grudges, moving
on and not looking back! WHY?
7. Don’t Grieve the Spirit (30)
a. Grieving here means to impart pain… these hurt the Spirit.
b. They distress our Comforter, They lay a heaviness in the air.
Henry Ironside: It’s a poor thing to talk of living in heaven if we are walking and talking in the world!
Friends and fellow believers - Consider these things… a church full of LYING, STEALING, ANGER, BITTER, FOUL MOUTHED, people.
- Try putting that on your invitations to church!
- But see that’s the point Paul is making here…
-The Christian has a New Heart, New Mind, New Life.
• NO MORE. STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT NOW. And walk in Jesus.
• With your new heart… have a new mind and a new life…
