The Call to Change

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

Go ahead and find Ephesians 4 in your copy of God’s word

so glad to be here; love my brother Charles; excited to open God’s word with you tonight

theme of calling; preaching through the book of Mark, loved the passage when he called the disciples to him and they dropped everything and followed; if you are a believer, it is only because Christ has called you to him.

salvation is not the finish line but the starting line; sanctification happens from the moment of justification to the moment of glorification

within sanctification is this little word that no one enjoys talking about, change; this is why tonight we are going to look into God’s word and see that each of us have a call to change

Ephesians 4:17–24 ESV

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

Can others see that you are changed because of Jesus?

In many things in life, we can look at things and notice distinct changes that occur. Recently, I had let my yard get a little out of control. My grass was tall, my trees had shed a lot of limbs, my bushes were overgrown, and I had a few too many of those pesky crepe myrtles around my house that never seem to stop growing. Over time, the change may not have been very noticeable. One day, I decided it was time to take care of it and I put in blood, sweat, and maybe a few tears into cleaning it up. The slow change of the growth was not as noticeable as the quick turnaround of cleaning it up.

But change had to happen. This is a not so fun truth about life. Change happens. I have heard it said before the that only thing that will never change is that everything changes. I would guarantee that you can look back over the last 5 years and see how many things have changed. Kids have grown up, parents have gotten older, jobs have changed, houses have been moved, cars have been replaced, and I could go on and on.

But there are things that must change. When it comes to the Christian life, we must be constantly changing. This is what sanctification is. Changing more and more to reflect who Jesus is.

Paul is teaching this to the church at Ephesus. And God’s word is still teaching that to us today.

Main Point: When you come to faith in Jesus Christ, who you are must change

Notice I said must. This is imperative. If you come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ, you cannot continue to live the same way that you did before. Well why do I say that? After salvation, we are supposed to live our lives for Jesus Christ. Before salvation, there is no way that you did that. A non-christian lives their life for themselves. Everything that they think and do is all about self. But Christians are called to die to themselves and to live for Jesus Christ.

I mentioned this word salvation. I do not want to lightly pass over this without you fully understanding what it means to be saved.

Gospel presentation (creation, fall, Jesus, response)

God calls people to himself for salvation. But that is just the beginning because then we are called to change. In our passage, there are different elements to this change that I want us to look at this evening.

You are Called to be Different

People do not like being different. As a child, I wanted to fit in. I wanted my parents to buy me all of the coolest clothes so that I could wear the same stuff as the majority at school. I can even remember when the eye doctor prescribed me glasses and I didn’t want to wear them because I would be different. Now, I deal with this as a parent. I am trying to teach my daughter that God has called us to be different than everyone else as Christians. Paul, in his instructions to the Ephesians, speaks like a parent does to their child.

Ephesians 4:17 ESV

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.

He not only says it but he testifies it. He uses this reiteration so that they know how serious this is. He testifies in the Lord because that is where he gets his authority from.

They they must no longer walk as the Gentiles do. Scripture often uses this metaphor of walking to describe someones life. So Paul here is saying that you should not be living like the Gentiles. The Gentiles would be describing those who are outside of the faith. He is not using this term ethnically but morally. As someone living like a Gentile. Well how does a Gentile live?

He begins by describing them as people who live in the futility of their minds. Their thinking was not focused on glorifying God. In these verses here, Paul explains that how someone thinks is derivative of them being a Christian or not. Christians should think certain ways.

Romans 12:2 ESV

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Our minds must be renewed. We renew it through the work of the Holy Spirit using the word of God to change who we are. And we will talk about that more as we go throughout our passage. We must set our minds on the things of God. For a seasoned Christian, they know this to be true. When your mind is set to the things of God, things that used to wreck your world only seem to be minor inconveniences. But it isn’t only about our minds. The mind and the heart both work simultaneously in the life of the believer.

Ephesians 4:18 ESV

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.

Their minds are futile because their hearts are hardened. This is causing all kinds of problems for them. Not just immediate personal problems but they will find out one day the eternal problem that they have. But, at this point, they do not understand that because of their ignorance.

Has anyone ever shared the gospel with someone just to have them verbally spit in your face and berate you because they do not need God. Or, it could be something more gentle than that, yet they still will say that they just don’t think that the Jesus thing is for them. See, it doesn’t matter if you have someone who is ultra outspoken against the things of God or if someone is just internally turned off by the things of God. They are all ignorant to the things of God.

Ephesians 4:19 ESV

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

They are now callous. The language that is used here is one of persistence. They have become. Not because of someone handing out a tract at a restaurant in place of a tip. But because someone, a group of people, a church of people, have dedicated themselves to the sharing of the gospel. The one who has heard it is now turned off.

And because of that, they have given themselves up to sensuality. Someone who is given to sensuality is someone who has lost any form of self-control with the vices that they have. This could be drinking or drugs. But often is manifests itself sexually. These things often intertwine. When you give yourself to being loose sexually, you become loose with all vices. Getting drunk seems to not be a big deal. Drugs are welcome. Foul language, well that is just expected.

And then that ties into greed. Not being able to get enough. That could be money, but it could also be a lot of different things as well. We can be greedy for people, for attention, for being noticed. But greed feeds into this impurity. Leaning into the things of the gentiles, the things of this world. Morally wrong things that not only rob God of his glory, but they also pull God’s children further and further from him.

We see this picture who someone who is not a Christian. Paul will not leave us hanging though because he will tell us how to avoid this. But being different is not the only thing that we are called to as people who are to be changed.

You are Called to Know the Truth

Did anyone here really not like going to school growing up? I was not the biggest fan of school. But, there is no doubt that my knowledge increased because of it. But there is a difference in knowing true information than knowing the truth.

Ephesians 4:20 ESV

20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—

What way? The way of living as Non-Christians. You do not learn Christ by living like you were before Christ.

Ephesians 4:21 ESV

21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,

The modern translations have added this word in here “about”. But, the intention of the original text indicates that it is more than hearing about Jesus. But that you have heard Jesus. The words of Jesus are life giving to us as Christians. The instruction and exhortation that he has given. Not only to the disciples in his midst, but to us as modern believers today. But also him rebuking sin. The words of Christ are life giving.

Not only to have his words, but to be taught in him. I don’t know about you, but I learn best through experience. Something I often ask my daughter when she starts making bad decisions is if she wants to learn the easy way or the hard way. What I mean by that is that the easy way is for me to tell her something. But the hard way is for me to let her experience something.

There are two types of learning experience that Paul hints at here. One is the informational education. For us, this comes from hearing the word of God taught. Maybe through preaching, Sunday school, or a more formal setting where you are advancing your education through school. There is a level of this that is necessary for all believers.

But you also have transformational education. This doesn’t just happen through knowing God’s word, but it happens in the application of God’s word. I mentioned that this may happen through experience. I firmly believe that by living out God’s word will grow you. But it also may happen within the informational education with the Holy Spirit working in us.

I saw this term earlier today that stuck with me called “lifequakes”. This is like an earthquake happening in our personal life. Some major event that feels like is changing everything about us. It is estimated that this happens in everyones life every 1 to 2 years. We all experience this.

As Christians, if we have not had transformation in our lives, how will these events affect us? This is why Paul tells the Ephesians that the truth is in Jesus. When we are not grounded in the truth of Jesus, and these major issues arise, it could really shake who we are. We will either begin to question the truth of Jesus or we completely bypass Jesus altogether.

This is why our calling is important. This is why we are called to change who we are. But it isn’t just being different. We are to be different because we know the truth. And truth has a name and that name is Jesus Christ.

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

We cannot live a Christian life outside of the truth of Jesus Christ. You will stumble and you will fall. We are called to be different and we are called to know the truth. But also, one could claim to be different and to know the truth, but that isn’t everything. It should produce something in us. And that is that you…

You are Called to Righteousness

When you look up the word righteousness in the dictionary, it gives you a very poor biblical definition. It will say something like “behavior that is morally justifiable or right”. But being righteous is more than being right or being moral. But righteous is to be like God. The biblical definition of righteousness is to measure our whole selves against the perfection of God.

Paul is trying to teach the church at Ephesus, and ultimately us as well, what righteousness looks like. So what is the first piece of what it looks like.

Ephesians 4:22 ESV

22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,

Remember that this is a continuing thought of what Paul was telling them. He is saying that the Christian is taught in Christ to put off the old self. This is an undressing of the old self. A removing of the old self. Why? Why would Paul tell believers that they need to make sure the old self if gone?

He says it is because that is the former life. The life you used to live is gone. It was corrupt through deceitful desires. I like to describe the Christian life as living out the fact that we love the things that God loves and we hate the things that God hates. We no longer are corrupt through deceitful desires because of the blood of Jesus and we must live as such. In his letter to the Galatian church, Paul gives them this confession to hold onto when thinking about a new life in Christ.

Galatians 2:20 ESV

20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

If we are to live our life as Christ living in us, this means that our old self and our new self cannot coexist. It is like the idea that darkness and light cannot coexist. If I have a room that I can completely black out and I am in it and light a match, darkness is now gone because of the light. Or, here is an example all of the parents can identify with, if I tell my daughter to go and clean her room and I walk in the room and there is stuff all over her floor, the room cannot be clean. Clean and clutter cannot exist.

So what happens when we take off the old self?

Ephesians 4:22–23 ESV

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,

We must be renewed. Just as Paul wrote in Romans 12:2 “2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” We need renewal.

And this renewal is not an event. It is a process. This is part of what we call sanctification, what happens between salvation and when we die. Renewal. Being changed, being made into the likeness of God. And as followers of Jesus, we never arrive at this until we are in the presence of God.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

A new creation. A different, a changed person. This is why Paul gives this imagery of taking off and putting on. Changing the person that you are. Not by any personal power that you have but by the renewal that happens through the Holy Spirit working in you.

Ephesians 4:24 ESV

24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

The new person you are is created in the likeness of God. What does this mean? This means that when someone truly looks at you, they see less of you and more of God.

As a child, I hated when someone would see me and they would immediately know that my dad was Jimmy Blalock. I didn’t want people to see my father in me. Now, as I have matured, I want people to look at me and see my heavenly father in me. I want to be easily identified as a child of God. For people to see in me righteousness and holiness.

Conclusion

Can others see that you are changed by Jesus?

Can they look at you and see that you are progressing in righteousness and holiness? I am not saying that we should use the world as a litmus test of our faith. But if people cannot look at you and see the righteousness and holiness of Jesus, can we in confidence stand before God himself and expect him to see the righteousness and holiness of Jesus in us?

So what do we do? How do we make sure that this is evident? And not only visible on the outside but that it is true of us in our hearts and minds.

First, we must look at our salvation. Without salvation, we cannot be righteous and holy. God has spoken truth to us through his word tonight. If you have never surrendered yourself to Jesus, now is the time to do that. Believe that Jesus died for you so that you can live for him.

But salvation is just the beginning. Not the finish line but the starting line. Then comes obedience. So we must evaluate if we are being obedient to God’s word. But then, thirdly, if we are to be obedient to God’s word, we must know God’s word. So obedience and knowledge of the truth must go hand in hand.

And what better way to do that than through the local church. Don’t just attend a church service, but be part of a church. Be an active participant through relationships and service.

I do not know where everyone here is personally. Maybe you are floundering in your faith and maybe you feel like you are in the best place you have ever been. But what I do know is that no one is where they ought to be. This is why we need renewal. My challenge to you is that tonight, you make the commitment to be intentional in your renewal to Christ. He has not only called you to him in salvation but he has called you to change. Be changed into the image of Christ today.

Prayer.