Sermon Tone Analysis

The Call for Change

32 (ESV)

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.

25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.

28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.

28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Change is difficult for a lot of us.

We are creatures of habit.

I teach a weekly Bible Study and everybody sits in the same seats all the time, it never changes.

In another church one of the members sat in the same pew and the same spot, every Sunday for years.

It was a standing joke that when Jesus came again she would tell Him that she couldn't leave without her pew spot.

The unthinkable happen one Sunday, a visitor sat in her spot.

There you saw Priscilla standing in the isle next to him until he became so uncomfortable he moved.

I don't think she said a word.

After all it was her spot.

The difficulty with change is because we have a gift of habituation.

While it is a blessing it also because of the sinful, it works against us at time.

It is a blessing because if we didn’t have it we would have relearn things continuously.

It would take us hours just to get functioning each day.

That brings me to our text.

Our God who is the one unchangeable constant in the universe desires change in every believer.

So let’s look at the steps we are to take for change.

The first step is...

I. Stop following the world.

Vs. 17-19 sets the stage for our understanding as Paul describes what the world looks like .

"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."

The first aspect of this is the...

A. Subtle enticement.

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.

Highlight the words "no longer."

The assumption here is that they have been too much like the unbelievers and they need to change.

I am afraid this can be said about too many church members.

Paul warned us in (ESV) Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

The Phillips translation says, "Don't let the world squeeze you into it's mold."

Have you notice the tremendous draw to conform to the world standards.

Think about the pressure to be in style.

Not many want to be out of step with society.

We want to be accepted.

There is a book that each of you ought to read.

When People are Big and God is Small by Ed Welch.

Even if our country says something is legal doesn't make it right.

Killing babies in the womb is legal but it doesn't make it right.

In Nazi Germany killing Jews was legal, but it wasn't right.

We are too much like the world.

Next we need to...

B. See the world God's way.

that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.

They are to stop living like the world.

Paul lists the way God see the world.

It could be said another way, "Don't be influenced by the world and see things the way God see them.

We are called to be different.

Look at the...

1. Spiritual picture of the world.

To often we approach the understanding of this from a superficial angle.

Most of us know our world is in trouble, but for the reason, we need to go deeper.

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."The

Paul tells us the human problem is a heart problem.

, (ESV) And he (Jesus) called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

Then he explained it to them in verse 18.

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.

19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

20 These are what defile a person.

But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

Multiplies this a billion times to get a picture of our world.

Paul’s descriptive way gives us the world's contamination.

In another letter Paul described the heart of the problem.

In , Paul tells us that there is none who are righteous.

In (ESV) He tells us the reason.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Total depravity is the basic problem.

Paul then describes the world's inner issues.

a. Futility of mind.

Vs.17b the futility of their minds.

For the unbeliever life is meaningless.

You hear that in Solomon's words in (ESV) Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities!

All is vanity.

3  What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? 4  A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

Without Christ there is no eternal purpose.

We are all drifting generalities.

I have spoken to unbelievers who struggle to find any meaning for life.

b.Darkened in understanding.

They cannot understand the things of God.