The New You / Ephesians 4:17-24

Tangled movie - Rapunzel, The audience knows that she is the daughter of the king, because of a deceitful and manipulative kidnapper she is trapped in a tower without knowledge of her true identity, when she is rescued and her identity is revealed - she begins to face her controlling foe with a newfound confidence.

No one was born a Christian. We were born under our first representative, Adam. We followed his path of rebellion and selfishness. But when you are spiritually born again, you are made new. Jesus is now your representative - your leader.

Tonight’s message will encourage us to embrace our new identity. The new you.

17 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. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

The title “Gentiles” here is a reference to non-jewish unbelievers. Their lifestyle leads to destruction. In ancient Ephesus, there was a temple for the false pagan god, Diana. Here are some of the practices described of those who worshiped at the temple, “prostitution, graft, crime, immorality, idolatry, and every conceivable form of sin abounded.” (HNTC). Sounds like social media…

What caused these people to slip into such destructive practices? Their thinking. Their thoughts were poisonous. Their understanding of truth was dark and foggy. And their ignorance caused them to be separated from God. We don’t like being separated from friends and people we love. Imagine being separated from God.

By ignorance, it doesn’t mean that unbelievers aren’t intelligent. Nor does it mean that unbelievers can’t grasp the gospel, like you can understand a school subject. Instead, they are not experience grace because they want sin more than God. Their hearts are hard. And this is the result.

19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

You can give yourself to sin or you can give yourself to God. But you can’t do both at the same time.

What do you practice?

Guitar callous example - To soften your callous hands, you need to stop practicing that task. To soften your callous heart, you need to stop practicing your habitual sins. And this is possible through the power of Christ.

20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,

When we act like the world, we revert to our old identity. We’re Rapunzel going back to the tower. The church doesn’t attract the world, by talking, thinking, and living just like the world! Our knowledge of Jesus should make us different! And this knowledge isn’t just head knowledge. I can learn facts about Winston Churchill, but I can’t listen and speak to him because he is dead. In contrast, Jesus is alive. My knowledge of him is like knowing a friend, not like knowing a textbook.

And knowing the truth about Jesus helps us to do the teaching outlined in our final verses.

22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

You have a choice to make. Will you put on the old you or put on the new you? As one pastor beautifully wrote, are you willing to exchange “your grave clothes for your grace clothes?”

Lazarus - 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Some of us may be alive spiritually, but we stink! You’re still hopping around with your grave clothes on. You look just like the spiritually dead. Exchange your former lifestyle for true goodness. Be like God! Here’s how you can do this….

be renewed in the spirit of your minds

Physically, you are what you eat. Spiritually, you are what you think.

(Coffee - bad breath, but you can’t smell your own. Sin - bad practices, but you can’t see your own. That is why we speak the truth in love.)

Imagine that your thoughts from this past week were all listed on these screens. How would you feel? Is that a person you want others to know? Your thoughts are the person you are becoming. Your thoughts influence your practices. And if you constantly think untrue thoughts, you will become callous. But if you dwell on what is true, you embrace the new you!

What practices do you need to remove?

What practices do you need to begin?

Christianity is not just a big NO. It is also a big YES!

Imagine yourself 10 years from now. One version is calloused and has given up. The other version, crafted in the likeness of God, is becoming unique and beautiful. How you think today will determine your tomorrow.