Change Your Attire

Creature of Habit

Creature of Habit

Week 1

Text: Topic(s): Former Life, New Self, Renewal

Application Point: “Dress” like the new person you are in Christ Jesus.

Sermon Talking Points:

Big Idea from Holy Spirit: We are creatures of habit—good habits and bad habits. We will examine what the Bible says about putting off old behaviors and putting on new ones in our desire to be like Jesus. “Creature of Habit” begins with the need for good habits, look at two challenging habits to deal with—the tongue and anger—and concludes with Paul’s exhortation to live as lights in this darkened world.

But today we are going to focus on Changing our attire spiritually.

Changing our nature, too many times we pray the prayer,

gaining the title of christian and then do nothing else we are commanded or offered.

There are so many promises laid out in the word of God for us as his children,

yet sadly We tend to refuse to do the work we need to do in order to pick up the

promises that God has laid before us.

As we’ve discussed recently we expect him to do everything.

We expect some lightning bolt from heaven to hit us that magically changes

who we are erasing the negative and putting in only positive.

I hate to burst your bubble this morning but that is not spirituality or Christianity that is mysticism, magic, And sorcery… Which God will have no part of. 

Can he do it? yes 

Will He? NO. 

Even in the case of Paul.

Even in the case of Paul. Though he showed up on Damascus Road and showed himself to Paul, Paul still had to make the decisions to change. He had to go through the work of changing his attitudes and his behaviors to become more Christlike. 

Though he showed up on Damascus Road and showed himself to Paul,

Paul still had to make the decisions to change.

He had to go through the work of changing his attitudes and his behaviors to become more Christlike. 

The only difference between us and Paul is that he was more zealous and passionate about it than we tend to be.

And it is not because of his Damascus Rd. experience. 

He experienced Christ face-to-face because he had to,  

this whole Christianity thing was still in its infancy, there was no New Testament written for people to read, 

Theres a reason Paul talks so much about examining ourselves and changing our thought, attitudes etc.

there were no churches planted to teach people in. 

So to remedy that Christ showed up on Damascus Road and therefore Paul has his Damascus Road experience. 

Many of us pray for a Damascus road experience when God is saying

“ I’ve already planted it for you it’s at your church, it’s in the word, it’s the Bible it’s in your desk, 

“ I’ve already planted it for you it’s at your church, it’s in the word, it’s the Bible it’s in your desk, 

It’s the spiritually strong parent or teacher or coach or family member or friend,... there’s your experience”

There is work to be done in all of us always. This is a lifelong journey and the point of salvation is just the start of the journey.

And I realize that salvation is a rebirth or regeneration into the spiritual realm.

But we are to be heavenly minded creatures that live on an earthly plane.

So the flesh struggles with the spirit it’s up to you which one you give strength to

Theres a reason Paul talks so much about examining ourselves and changing our thought, attitudes etc.

(NLT)

17With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused.

18Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him.

19They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.

20But that isn’t what you learned about Christ.

21Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him,

22throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.

23Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

24Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

(NIV)

17So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

19Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

20That, however, is not the way of life you learned

21when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.

22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;

23to be made new in the attitude of your minds;

24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Changing Room

When people see you one of the first things they noticed about you is the attire you are wearing.

Paul uses this in a spiritual sense

Paul spoke of three main teaching points in this portion of his letter

and used the illustration of “getting dressed” in making his plea.

He admonished the Ephesians to

“put off” their old self (4:22)

and “put on” their new self in Christ (v. 24)—

to do so by pulling garments from the closet of a mind made new in attitude (v. 23).

So basically your spirit man is dressed in the attitudes and the thoughts of your mind as well as the desires of your heart.

Application Point: “Dress” like the new person you are in Christ Jesus.

Application Point: “Dress” like the new person you are in Christ Jesus.

2. Dirty Clothes Stink

Three words are prevalent to the old self:

A. futility (v.17), With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused.

B. ignorance (v.18), They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

ignorance(v.18),

C. greed (v. 19), They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.

and greed (v. 19).

“In the heathen world, Paul saw three terrible things.

He saw men's hearts so petrified that they were not even aware that they were sinning;

Sounds like complacency, spiritual or biblical illiteracy

he saw men so dominated by sin that shame was lost and decency forgotten;

This is when you start to become a slave to sin so much that you no longer hear or feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit. This is when God has given you up to a reprobate mind

he saw men so much at the mercy of their desires that they did not care whose life they injured and whose innocence they destroyed so long as these desires were satisfied”

Sounds like addiction to me.....any addiction

3. Dress Yourself

📷 📷

Paul contrasts those terrible things of the old self with the goodness of the new.

Here, “Paul identified our responsibility in this verse [v. 24].

and to put on the new self (or new nature), created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.(Truly righteous and Holy)

So We are to put on the new self as a garment.

new self as a garment. The new self (or man) is the person the Christian is after he or she experiences regeneration. We put on the new man as we pursue the things of Christ rather than the desires of the flesh. God has created the new self (the Christian) in regeneration after the image of our spiritual parent, God Himself. Righteousness and holiness mark our new life rather than sensuality, impurity, and greed (). Moreover it is a life based on the truth rather than on ignorance ()” (Thomas L. Constable, Notes on Ephesians [Sonic Light, 2017], 72).

The new self (or man) is the person the Christian is after he or she experiences regeneration.

We put on the new man as we pursue the things of Christ rather than the desires of the flesh.

God has created the new self (the Christian) in regeneration after the image of our spiritual parent, God Himself.

Righteousness and holiness mark our new life rather than sensuality, impurity, and greed ().

Moreover it is a life based on the truth rather than on ignorance ()”

Big Idea: Salvation puts us in a right relationship with God through no effort of our own, for it is his gift; however, once in that relationship we must make conscious efforts to break old habits and choose new ones that are found in Christ

4. Trust the Tailor

There can be a continued tension between what the Holy Spirit does for us in our “change of attire” and what we do ourselves as we change the old habits for the new.

Sometimes we can actually fight against what the Holy Spirit is trying to do or refuse to listen altogether

“I know that keeping both these truths (our dependence and our responsibility) equally in mind is difficult.

Our tendency is to emphasize one to the neglect of the other.

There is a christian writer named Jerry Bridges who writes about this in his book “Sins we accept”

Bridges says when it comes to changing our nature

‘Work as if it all depends on you, and yet trust as if you did not work at all’”

(Jerry Bridges, Sins We Accept [Colorado Springs: CO, NavPress, 2014], chap. 5).

MUSIC MAESTRO.........WES OR JALEN THATS YOU.

Closing

The starting and stopping of habits have a connection.

“It turns out the two— habit forming and breaking—can be quite closely linked.

Psychology tell us that they're two sides of the same coin:

‘Breaking a habit really means establishing a new habit, a new pre- potent response.

The old habit or pattern of responding is still there (a pattern of neuron responses in the brain),

but it is less dominant (less potent)’” When we build new Habits or patterns of responding.

Thats why its sometimes so easy to fall back in old habits....the neurons are still there.

Closing:

When Paul speaks of a hardened heart, he is speaking of a callousness to spiritual influence.

You know what I mean, you’re going through something or fighting something and

God is speaking to you through someone else but you shut yourself off to it

for whatever reason.

Spiritual Hardening of the Heart

There is a natural hardening of heart as well that could be used to compare to spiritual hardening. “

📷 📷

The natural effects of old age can render heart simply too weak to do its job, manifesting in tiredness, shortness of breath or even death.

into bone. ‘The cardiovascular system is one soft tissue that gets calcified very easily,’ said Arjun Deb, a heart researcher at the University of California at Los Angeles, referring to the accumulation of calcium salts in the tissues of the heart”

But the heart can also harden, its soft muscle changing into bone.

The Leading MD in heart research in L.A. spoke on this, referring to the accumulation of calcium salts in the tissues of the heart”

The natural effects of old age can render

‘The cardiovascular system is one soft tissue that gets calcified very easily,’

breath or even death. But the heart can also harden, its soft muscle changing