Faith Bible Church - Sermons
How Do I Start To Change? (Ephesians 4:20-24)
- Well, good morning, Faith Bible Church. Hope you've been enjoying this series of deep root and vibrant faith that always been an encouragement to you. We're in our sixth week here tonight. Hopefully you're able to come to the summer saying. James and I have been planning it together and really want it to become more of just a tradition, something we do in the summer sometimes. So bring the potluck, bring something to eat at six, something to share with somebody else, and then at seven it'll be a simple time of just singing and reading scripture as a church, but the part of the one anothering that we get to do in the body of Christ. So today in our series on deep roots and vibrant faith, we are in the second area of it. The first one was explore non-Christians, investigating the claims of Christ in the church, and then this second area of discover new believers learning how to walk with God. So last week, Pastor Rick walked through Romans 5 that since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So he pointed out for a believer, our position in Christ is secure. We have peace with God, we are secure in His grace, even in the midst of trials, in the midst of suffering, and our hope of the future is certain and secure as well. So something that we need to be reminded about. And I think this is maybe just a blessing about this series, something that it pushes us back to the fundamentals or the foundations of what we believe, that whether you've been a believer for a week or for four decades, I mean, these are things that we need to know, things that we need to practice in our lives. Along those lines with the deep roots and vibrant faith series, we're trying to point you to resources and as a congregation of things that you can use to encourage others, things that you can do to grow in your own faith. So this first one was from several weeks ago, which is basically, it's the Gospel of Luke and a little booklet form called The Essential Jesus, but it has a little introduction to get people up to speed and then a conclusion that gives the why or what should I do now that I've read about the story of Jesus and encountered Jesus. But this is something you can use with your neighbors, coworkers, family members that don't know the Lord, just to say, have you ever read the Bible, read one of the Gospels, do you know who Jesus is? Every, I believe every person needs to have an informed opinion about who Jesus is. And this would be a good way to go through it or just grab a couple of Bibles and read through one of the Gospels together. Today, for Discover, we were looking around for some material for new believers. So there's two little Bible studies, there's seven Bible studies each, just for starters and then Christian living for starters. And so, if you have someone that's in your life that is just become a believer or sort of a baby believer, not even sure, am I really a believer or not? Taking through the just for starters starts off with two lessons that are basically, this is what conversion is and has this happen in your life. And so, those are on the Gospel Resource Racks out in the lobby. Those are free, we have those out there all the time for you to use, but just adding a couple resources for our church family to have. So, today, we are focusing in on Discover, new believers learning how to walk with God. And again, this is another thing that is part of the fundamentals of the Christian life, but not something that we should take for granted is the question, how do I start to change? As a believer, how do I start to grow in Christ's likeness? How do I, if I'm a new believer, how do I then take the steps towards becoming more like Jesus? As I was investigating this question and thinking about it this week, it brought to mind a comedy sketch that sort of highlights the opposite, I guess, or the way not to do it. If you've ever heard of Bob Newhart, some of you, it's a couple generations back. So, Bob Newhart, I won't give a raise of hands and see if the generations, but he plays a therapist and this lady comes in to have a session with this therapist and Bob Newhart, he says, well, she's confessing her fears and he says, okay, well, I have something that I think will help you, it's too simple words and if you'll just put those into practice in your life, I think you'll be able to really tackle those things and she gets out her notebook to write them down. It's like, I think you'll be able to remember and most people do, and he leans across the desk and he's like, stop it. Yeah, and she's taken it back and he's like, well, what do you mean? And she keeps confessing several other things that she's struggling with and working through and he's like, just stop it. And he keeps yelling that, stop it at her. And it's a funny skit, but I think it's funny because we know that that's a lot of times how we try to deal with our, we know the things, the destructive patterns of our life are wrong and we want to stop them, but are we really equipped to do anything more than just yell, stop it at each other or at ourselves? And I think the Bible has a much better answer than for us to just stop it. I'm sure we've had people in our lives that maybe have said that to us. Parents in the room, myself included. I know this comes across my lips sometimes. My kids are acting up a little, and it's like, okay, stop it. And that's fine at some point. But do we take the time to lovingly walk through correction, talking about parenting, walk through correction and give them something to do besides just stop it? Or we've probably had people in our lives who were trying to help us do the right thing, but they didn't have much of an answer beyond that phrase to just, well, stop doing what's wrong. The Bible offers us a better solution, a better pattern for true lasting change. So we're gonna be in Ephesians 4 today. Ephesians chapter 4, 17 through 24 will be the main part of what we cover today. So everybody turn there and let me read Ephesians 4, 17 to 24. Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They're darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Let's pray. God, I pray that as we study your word today that you would help us to submit to you first and foremost, that we would agree with scripture that our hearts would see where we are new creations and yet you are calling us to act and to pursue Christ's likeness in what we do. I wanna pray that you would help us to have sensitive consciences, help us to see areas of life where we haven't submitted those to you, to your lordship, to your ruling. Would help us to be aware, keenly aware of ways that we still can grow and give us humility to admit those things to others and ask for encouragement and help. So Lord, I pray that you would bless your word as it goes forth and as we study it together, this morning in Christ's name, amen. Well, since we're in Ephesians 4, and really we're jumping in halfway through the book, I do wanna give just a little bit of overview of Ephesians. I think it's helpful for as we go into this section of scripture. The first half of Ephesians, like many of Paul's letters, like many of the New Testament, has the emphasis is on truth. And then the second half of Ephesians is on what we should do about that truth. So chapters one to three are who we are in Christ. The second half is what we should then do or how we should act and how we should embrace our identity in Christ. So the head and the heart, our understanding of those things, come before the hands, what we do in our action. The major theme of the book is the believers newly established relationship with Jesus. The phrase in Christ or by Christ, for Christ, happens 49 times in this little sixth chapter book. And so that is the heart of the message that we are in Christ, our relationship with Him is new. So the first three chapters, well, briefly, here's an overview. The first one, first chapter chronicles the blessings that we have in Christ. So we're chosen in Him. Before the foundation of the world, He's adopted us into His family. We've been redeemed and forgiven because of the blood of Christ. We obtain an inheritance with Christ. We're together with Him in that inheritance that He gets from the Father. And then because we've believed in Christ, we're also sealed with the Holy Spirit. All these are blessings. All these are things that God gives us, not things that we earn. Ephesians two gives us two biographies, a biography of the gospel at work in us as individuals that we were dead in our trespasses and sins, but God made us alive and it's by His grace, not by our doing. The second half talks about how the gospel works in our cultural identity. There was Jewish believers, there were Gentile believers. And how Paul says, no, no, no, we're one in Christ. God makes us new creation. The Gentiles are no longer strangers, but they are fellow citizens. We're built into one temple together in Christ. And then Ephesians three, He defends His right to preach the gospel to the nations. And then He prays for His believers, or His readers that they would know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge. So He shares a paradox with us. This is too big and too deep for you to understand, but I'm praying that you will. And then He asks that we would be filled with a fullness of God. We get to chapter four. And Wayne preached on chapter four, four or five weeks ago of what we're supposed to do as a church, how we're supposed to hold on to the truth, how we're supposed to lean into relationships with one another, and how we are supposed to serve and do the work of the ministry, that the church is the ones that do the work of the ministry to build up the body of Christ. So that gets us to where we're at today. Ephesians four, 17 to 24. But this, I just wanted you to see the pattern. Truth comes before commands. Orthodoxy comes before orthopraxia. Right doctrine comes before right living. Now that God has changed us from the inside out, we get to live in light of that change. So let's look at 17 to 20, first of all. Paul says that we shouldn't, or the believers there, they shouldn't walk as the nations do, that's the surrounding culture. These believers in Ephesus, they were in the heart of idolatry and the worship of sex and power and money. And so Paul was saying, hey, you need to walk differently than the culture around you. You are going to look differently. People are going to look at you and say, that's strange, that's odd. Christians are to live and think and act differently than the surrounding culture. And Paul points out the problems with their former lives, that people by nature are darkened in their understanding because there's a hardness of heart. There's a, we stiff arm God by nature. We are alienated from him because we would rather rule ourselves. We don't want to submit to God's rule and reign over our lives. And so we give ourselves over to our feelings and our passions. That's the default setting of any human person. They're going to live for themselves that will reject God's ways and God's rules. So spiritual darkness is the starting point of every person, you and I included, but we sang a beautiful truth this morning. The first song that we sang, Am Can It Be, that's a poem from 280 years ago that says, "Long my imprisoned spirit lay, "fast bound and sin in nature's night, "but thine I just diffused a quickening ray "or God gives us that new life and I woke "and the dungeon flamed with light. "My chains fell off, my heart was free. "I rose, went forth and followed thee." That's a biography of what has happened in our hearts if we're in Christ, that we were in prison. We were in the darkness of sin until God saves us. So Paul's admonition to those believers then, and to us as well, is don't walk the same way anymore. You're not the same person, so don't walk the same way. Verses 20 and 21, he says, that's not how you've learned Christ. This is not the way you've learned Christ, assuming that you've heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. Well, the word learned there in verse 20 is the same word that we get the word disciple from. The disciple is simply someone who learns, a learner. This disciple of Christ, we're to think and believe and act differently because we're learning from Christ. We're listening to the word, we're listening to preaching and other people telling us, this is how to live now. Paul is saying, you've been discipled a different way. Don't live like the culture around you. Christians live differently. Let me get to the heart of our passage, 22 to 24. He lays out how Christians are to change and grow. And I want to put this up front. I don't think this is like a simplistic formula. Like, all right, well, here's, I didn't title my sermon or here's three easy ways to grow and change. It's a biblical pattern of change. It's a practical living out of repentance and faith. That's really what it is. Whereas we repent of sin and trust in him, we're continuing to do that through the rest of our Christian lives. There's a biblical pattern to put off the old self to be renewed in the spirit of our minds and to put on the new self. Now, I know we have some mature, theologically astute people in here. So I do want to, I think there's a question that's probably gonna be in your mind. And the question is this, isn't this something that God already does in salvation? You know, the old is gone, the new has come. God has made us new, right? The second Corinthians 5, 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, the new has come. What James read earlier in the service, Colossians 3. It says this passage, but it says it a little bit differently. In Colossians 3, it says, you have put off the old self and you have put on the new self. It says it as a completed thing. But here, we have the action of you, you are to do this, you are to put off your old self, to be renewed and to put on the new self. Now, some people will preach this passage or others like it and say that we have two natures, that we have a sinful nature and we have a saintly nature. And you've got to lean towards the one and go against the other. When I was in college, I heard a sermon, this whole sermon was about our sin nature and our Christ nature and it was like a black dog and a white dog. I don't know if anybody have heard this preach before, the black dog white dog theology. I think he was in this passage. And he said that, well, you've got two natures inside you, you've got two dogs and he was southern. So it's sort of, you know, two dogs. And you say like that, it's hard to pay attention with that. But his point was, you feed the white dog by doing right things, by feeding your Christian self and it'll get stronger and you starve the other dog, don't sin, don't do bad things, it'll get weaker. That's wrong theology. That's not what's happening here. Christians don't have two natures. We don't have an equal fight between sin and goodness, between dark and light. It's not like some spiritual version of Star Wars where there's the dark side and the light side and we'll see who wins. Like one preacher put it this way, that Paul isn't describing a dualistic or schizophrenic Christian. The old man, the unregenerate person who was in Adam is dead. We are to lay aside that crucified dead and corrupt self and put on the new self. It's the true of every genuine believer that our old self is dead. So has Jesus saved us from sin? Is our old nature dead? If you're in Christ, yes. God has saved you from sin. We're saved from the penalty of sin. We're saved from the power of sin. And you might say, well, that's nice, Mark, but I still struggle with sin. That's still a daily experience where I fight against my flesh, where I'm angry or I'm jealous, I have lust, all those sins that are in me. Christians still have to deal with the presence of sin in our life. And we're not freed from that, from our human flesh, until God brings us home. And so God has given us everything we need to fight against and we'll talk about more of that next week, next Sunday in Romans chapter six. But today I wanna focus on the biblical pattern of change that it's not that we have two different natures that are fighting against each other, but what Paul says is that we live out what has happened to us in Christ. So in verse 22, we put off our old self. Literally, the Greek text says we put off the old man. There's two reasons Paul gives. One is because it belongs to your former manor of life. It's part of who you were, not who you are. In Christ, things have changed, you're forgiven, you're redeemed, you're resurrected. Why would you go back to that old life? That belongs to the past. And two, the second reason is because it's corrupt. Your old man is decaying, it's rusting out because of deceitful desires. And we should, as believers, be able to see through the lies that our sin tells us. 'Cause sin always over promises and under delivers. Always, always. You look at any ad or influencer, you see people selling happiness and cheap thrills, but really if you closely inspect what the world is selling, it's just old ideas repackaged. It's a trick, and people get suckered into the same tricks over and over again. Those things cannot satisfy us. Sin appeals to our desires, our lusts, and our lusts will always deceive us. And our sin will also say, well, it'll try to convince us that everything's under control, that it's really not that bad, that I can change whenever I want to, that no one else needs to know, but sin always takes you further than you wanna go. And it costs more than you wanna pay. So sin is, it will deceive us, it'll trick us, and we'll try to make excuses or rationalize it away, but we shouldn't do that. Paul says, put it off. And to put off is basically the verb means this, to take off a piece of clothing. It says, put off your old man. So here we go. Here's my suit, put it over there for now. It's the same word in Hebrews, 12, that it talks about laying aside every weight, the sin that clings so closely. James and Peter also use this word of put off to describe what Christians should do with sin, to lay it aside, to put it away. There's a story from the summer camp that I worked at back in college. It's more of a legend really than a story, I don't even know if it's true or not, but sounds true, so we're gonna go for it. The counselor received a note from one of his campers' mothers, and the mother was thanking this counselor for sending her child home with all of his luggage, all of his clothing washed and folded neatly and nicely in his suitcase. And the counselor's like, he didn't change all week. Like, it's not that, I mean, thank you, you're welcome, I guess. I don't know how mom didn't realize that, but this kid did not change all week and went home with the same suitcase that he never opened. So, that's gross, that's not right, right? Paul is saying the same thing, like, you need to change your old self, the dead man to sin, we're to take it off, we're to throw it away, we're to change our clothing. And it might sound like a simple or easy action, but I don't be fooled by that, to put off the old self, what Jesus describes this as, Jesus says it's like cutting off your arm or plucking your eye out. Paul describes this in Colossians as putting sin to death. So, putting off is not a nice or a simple action, it is, it's warfare. But the action of putting off the old self is different than the opening illustration of the therapist yelling, stop it. Because it doesn't stop here. We're not just told to, we'll stop doing those things, those gentiles are doing it and you shouldn't. It says we're to put it off the throat away, but then he keeps going. There's more for us. It's to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. And I want you to notice, this is something that happens to you. There's a crucial part of the pattern for biblical change that you have to realize that this is not something you're doing, you can't renew yourself. A question for the kids that are in the room. If you have a phone or an iPad and the battery is all the way down, kids, what should you do? Do you take the phone and you like rub it or sort of blow on it and the battery increases? What are you supposed to do? Plug it in, you're supposed to charge it. We're not able to, as humans, able to charge it ourselves, not holding in our hand, electricity's coming through it. We bring it to the source of power. That's what makes the battery go up. You plug it into the power source. Then a similar action here. We are dependent creatures. We cannot renew ourselves, but we know where renewal takes place. So go to the source to abide in Christ and his power for us in us. What Ryan prayed earlier as he was planning to pray, and I was planning to use this scripture, but we didn't talk or communicate about it, but John 15, Jesus says abide in me and I in you as the branch can't bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. Abiding in Christ isn't work done on our part. It's an act of dependence where we acknowledge our need. I need you, God. I need your power in me. I need your strength at work in this situation. And like I said, this is part of the fundamentals of following Christ. We need these fundamentals. If we don't have these, we're gonna be stagnant in our Christian lives. We have to place ourselves where renewal takes place. We spend time in God's word. We let it work on us. We let God's thoughts to guide and shape us. We spend time in prayer. We talk to God. We're asking God to change our desires. We're asking him to fill us with his love, to give us the energy to follow him. We're spending time with fellow believers in community with others. We need others in our lives to encourage us, to motivate us, to kick us when we need to get going, to warn us when they see sin in our lives. That's how we're renewed. We're renewed by going to God's word, by praying, by working or being with fellow believers, the basics of the Christian life. And yet the basics are what we need. The fundamentals are what we need to be renewed. We're renewed when we are reminded of truth. When we see the truth about the seriousness of sin, and we see the beauty and the blessing of what God has done in his son, Jesus, through the gospel. So being renewed is a dependent act. You can't do this on your own, but you can place yourself where renewal happens. And finally, we are to put on the new self. So again, not a shocker, the same word, or the word means to put on a new garment, to put on a brand new piece of clothing. And so Paul is telling us what this new clothing is. He says that the new clothing is created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. What does that sound like? It's something new, something created by God, something that looks like God, and something that's truly righteous and truly holy. Earlier in Ephesians, look back at Ephesians two, verse 10. We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. That's the new creation, that's Christ in us. He's making us new. By His grace, for His glory, He's creating us. We're His masterpiece, His workmanship. And we're created anew. And so we have to ask ourselves the question is, do we believe that? Do we believe that God has actually made us new? In Christ, He has. He's giving us an opportunity to live for Him, to serve Him in a truly right and holy way, to look like His Son, Jesus. That's His work in our hearts. And then later in Ephesians, Paul uses the same word put on again for showing us what we're to put on. We're putting on something for battle. It says put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand against the evil day and having done all to stand firm. So we are to put on Christ and be ready for war, to fight against sin, to fight against Satan, or putting on Christ's likeness to be ready for action. I wanna read the rest of this passage, chapter four, verses 25 to five, verse two, and not to really expos it all of it, 'cause we don't have time for that, but to show Paul is gonna show us the practical. He's gonna give some examples of, well, this is what it looks like to put off and to put on and how we are to renew our minds. So let's read that passage together. Ephesians four, 25. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each of you speak truth to his neighbor, for we are members, one of another. Be angry, but do not sin. Don't let the sun go down on your anger. Give no opportunity for the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands so that he might have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such is as good for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you are sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice or hatred, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. So I hope you saw, it's very clear here, the put-offs and put-ons. Put off falsehood, speak truth. Put off anger, instead of that, don't let the sun go down on your anger. Don't give a foothold to the devil. Don't sin in your anger. Don't steal, but instead do honest work. Give to others instead of corrupting talk. Put that off and use words that build up and minister grace to people. Instead of bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and malice, all those things, be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. But how do we keep this from being just a stop, stop it theology, just stop these things and just start doing these other things? I think it's the gospel realities here. So I noticed several in the passage. And verse 25, and it harkens back to verse 15 to 17, he says, we're members of each other in Christ's body. We are family with each other, we're connected. So that's why we shouldn't lie to one another or steal or do our relational sins. We shouldn't do those because this is who we are now. That's our identity, we're members one of another. We're also forgiven because we're in Christ. Look, it says, be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Well, that's nice, but how do I do that? 'Cause when someone does wrong against me, how hard is that to forgive? It's so easy to hold on to bitterness, to go, well, but they need to pay for what they've done. And he connects it to the gospel. So it's be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ Jesus forgave, forgave you. It's connected to that reality that we are to give forgiveness because of the great forgiveness we've received. Verse one of chapter five says we are to imitate God. Well, how do we do that? It's because we're in God's family now. We're adopted into God's family as his beloved children now. We can imitate because of that. And it says to walk in love, well, why or how can we do that? It's because we're loved by Christ. He gave himself up for us. So these actions, those put offs and put ons, are connected to our identity, who we are in Christ. Truth leads to action. Now, as we close, I have just a couple things to say on change or the process of change. But I think it's important for us as we, this is what we're talking about. This is the question, how can I change? Well, first thing is, change is the work of God, but we are actively involved. Changes, what God does, it's by his grace, is by his power, but he expects us to act. Like we sang in the song "Flee from sin and run to Jesus." God expects all of his children to obey. So there's a quote in the front of your bulletin in the meditation there. I want to read a little bit from it. It's from a pastor who wrote a commentary on Ephesians. And he's talking about the new self that we have in Christ, what we're putting on. And he says this in the second paragraph, "All this is God's grace. "Works have no place in obtaining salvation "or in gaining merit in the Christian life. "The Christian life is sola gratia, grace alone." Nevertheless, the Apostle Paul said, "Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling "for it's God who works in you to will and to act "according to his good purpose." God is at work in his people, but as children of grace, we must work at our Christian lives. The divinely ordained synergism or working together is required of all Christians. This same Apostle, though he fought the legalists and the Judaizers all over Asia and despised workspace religion, he said, "Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness." So we have our part to do in dressing ourselves in the divine wardrobe. For here, clothes do make the man and the woman. We must daily set aside the rotting garments of the old man. We must formally reject sensuality, send selfish pride, materialism, and bitterness. We must read the word and ask God to renew our minds through the spirit. And we must work out our salvation by doing the things that will develop a biblical mind. And we're gonna put on our new, shining garments of light. We must put on what we are. So God is giving us everything we need, but he's expecting us to be actively involved. Second of all, change is a process. It's not just a one-time event. We are creatures of habit. So it's not the case that I just put my sinful anger off once and then am automatically a patient person. Yeah, I wish it worked that way. It doesn't, all right? Life is a lifelong process of change. We should focus on habits changing. Do we have habits of putting off sin and putting on Christ? And if there's been a lifelong pattern of sin, a habitual sinning in your life, expect there to be a long, drawn-out battle, lifelong battle even. Expect it to be hard, expect it to be war, but change is a process, not a one-time event. And then finally, change happens in community. So take a step towards accountability with another believer. We need each other as we deal with sin. We confess sin to each other, a lying, anger, bitterness, lust. We talk with someone else to say, how can I change? How can I put off that sin, be renewed and put on Christ instead? Use the, we're starting to give out the sermon discussion questions each week. We're gonna put, we're putting those on the website and the weekly email. So use them with an accountability partner or in a small group or with your family to think through, or we're spending time feasting on the word on Sundays. Let's continue that on throughout the week. The change is something that God does in us and we should know the biblical pattern of it, of growth and change in our lives. And may we see growth in ourselves and keep pursuing growth, but also as a church family come alongside each other to bring each other on to maturity and change and growth together. So let's pray. (congregation sighs) - Gracious Father, we know that change is your work. It's what you do in us. As Philippians 2 says, you are at work in us, both to will and to do of your good pleasure, but we are to participate in that. We are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Not as a way to earn your favor, but as a way to live out the truth of who we are in your son Jesus. And God, that is such a crucial difference, our pray that we would realize that as a church. Help us to have the humility, Lord, to realize how much change still needs to take place before we go to glory. That's a lifelong thing. Help us not to get content with our sin or to feel like, well, if our sin is managed, we're okay. Or help us to be broken over our sin. Help us to confess and forsake and to really have your spirit's power to renew us and to equip us, to live truly righteous and truly holy lives. And God, we thank you for your son who intercedes for us, who goes before you on our behalf and pleads our case, and then gives us everything we need to live for him. In Christ's name, amen.