The Way We Walk (III)
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Intro:
Intro:
so to sum it up to this point. How do Christians walk?
The Apostle Paul has showed us we walk as if we are saved by grace, because you are! Second that we We walk in unity, and finally today we will see we walk like a new Man or Woman.
Old Man
Old Man
17 Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their thoughts. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. 19 They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more.
The Old man, is the old way of doing things. Before Christ came into your life, their were things in your life you may have done that now you recognize as wrong. When we come to know Jesus as our Lord and savior, our past walk needs to be just that, in the past.
Paul elaborates here that those without Christ are walking in darkness, it’s a spiritual blindness that they create by living in sin, and being unwilling to recognize the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
But listen, we must be careful to not assume we can be just like what Paul describes here, listen to what sin does:
Sin hardens sinners hearts, they become callous, basically numb to the objectionable behavior that sin is, and desire more and more.
That is what sin does, when you get into a pattern of sin, after awhile you stop feeling bad about it, you start doing it more, and years later you don’t even realize that your heart is hardened to God, and your numb to the effects sin has on your life!
William Barclay
The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians The Things Which Must Be Abandoned (Ephesians 4:17–24)
The terror of sin is its petrifying effect. The process of sin is quite discernible. No one becomes a great sinner all at once. At first, people regard sin with horror. When they sin, remorse and regret enter into their hearts. But, if people continue to sin, there comes a time when they lose all sensation and can do the most shameful things without any feeling at all. Their consciences have become petrified.
Changing Attire
20 But that is not how you learned about the Messiah, 21 assuming you heard about Him and were taught by Him, because the truth is in Jesus. 22 You took off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires; 23 you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds; 24 you put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.
Listen, but that is what the Old man is about, that is not what a redeemed in Jesus Christ person looks like. That’s not our walk, and we must not let it be our walk.
The Apostle Paul literally describes us putting off the old man as if we are taking off a dirty muddy wardrobe. You see, we’ve all trudged through the mud, you don’t trudge through mud without getting dirty, you hear me???? So he says, stop taking the path that leads through the mud, and change your Clothes!
10 I greatly rejoice in the Lord, I exult in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a groom wears a turban and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
So let me summarize these passages in a practical way for us:
Step 1: Accept Jesus as your Lord and savior
The only way our hearts will be softened and our eyes able to see sin for what it is, is if we seek God’s Salvation through Jesus Christ.
Step 2: Stop walking those old paths
Sin doesn’t just go away when we are saved by faith in Jesus. No what happens is we become aware of something we weren't aware of before. We become aware of the fact that we were dead in our transgressions, but through the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ we are SAVED!
Through recognition of that, our walk needs to look much different then it did when we were the Old Man. But for some, they are still wondering down those same paths of sin, same patterns, same destructive lifestyle.
New Man
New Man
25 Since you put away lying, Speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another. 26 Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and don’t give the Devil an opportunity. 28 The thief must no longer steal. Instead, he must do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need. 29 No foul language is to come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. 30 And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by Him for the day of redemption. 31 All bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. 32 And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.
Illustration: Squinting at the sun. To many are squinting at the light of God, instead of opening their eyes to the fullness of His plan for them and allowing God to Illuminate it to them. As believers, if we aren’t careful, we can also be squinting at God’s light as well, instead of allowing it to shine through and illuminate in us the areas of our life that darkness has taken hold.
So now we look at the New Man:
The Apostle Paul gives some very practical responses to the old man ways we came from, to how we walk as the new man, so we are gonna look at this.
Tammy started something in our home that was brilliant, and I find it to be a great way to respond to discontentment. At dinner every night, before the kids can leave the table, they need to share something they are thankful for, and when everyone has done so, we then excuse everyone together. Those who struggle with discontentment can remedy it with thankfulness. Are you discontent with a job you have? Then Thank God for giving you a way to provide for your family! Discontent with your house? Thank you God for the shelter that we have, when many others have no shelter! You get my point. Well Paul gives us some remedies in this passage for the Old man walk we used to have.
Lying
Remedy: Tell the truth. This seems kinda obvious right, to remedy lying, start telling the truth. The problem is sometimes compulsive liars have grown to believe their own lies. When they get to that point, its hard to wade through what is true and not true. Nevertheless, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Liars need to stop believing the lies by reading God’s Truth, and then living out that truth. If you have a tendency to lie, it’s time to tell the truth.
2. Anger
Remedy- don’t sin. Now verses 26-27 cover anger. Specifically, its possible to be angry at something without sinning, but often our anger isn’t righteous anger, right.... it’s not usually over something flat out wrong against God and His Word, which would be righteous anger. Here is the thing, when we get mad about something, whether it’s a disagreement with a spouse, friend, co-worker, teenagers..... fill in the blank. There is a remedy to it, don’t sin, don’t let the sun go down on your anger.
Here’s the thing, disagreements will happen, and sometimes we will get heated, we will make mistakes, we will say or do things we shouldn’t, but if you allow the sun to go down on your anger, then you allow Satan a foothold to grow his discord in your life. He will use that to divide you from those your angry with even more. One day you will wake up hating someone and might not even know why anymore. If your angry about something, or disagree with someone on something to the point of anger, it’s ok step back to cool your jets, but don’t go to sleep angry. Agree to disagree, or agree to revisit it when you can remain calm! And don’t fight when your tired!
3.Stealing
Remedy- Share with those in need. So stealing is of course a sin, it’s wrong, and it’s wrong on any level, whether it be a big item or small one. Some people just steal for the rush of it, that whole ordeal with looting and rioting we saw this past year, masqueraded as social justice, Um no, it was pure and simple stealing. For the cleptos out their, your remedy to stealing is to work for all that you have, and then share it with others. You tend to appreciate the things you work for, and tend to respect other peoples possessions when you share what you have with others.
4. Potty mouths
Remedy- Speak encouraging words to others. You know, their is a saying, that their is no worse a foul mouth then a trucker, unless you meet a Marine! I’m a Marine, I served in the Marine Corps for 7 years, also I don’t swear. Obscene talk is something that in our walk, we are called to avoid. If you find yourself using obscene language, here’s your remedy, replace obscene talk with edifying language to others, so that you can change your pattern of language to something pleasant for others to hear.
Then finally, to conclude it all, in our walk, all bitterness, anger, wrath, slander, and anything we do with malice must be removed from our walk with Christ. Instead friends, replace it with kindness and compassion for each other, with a forgiving spirit, just as God forgave you.
Our walk is not an easy one friends, but it must be done in a manner worthy of the calling. Walk in your salvation, walk in unity, and walk as the New man or Woman God has redeemed you to be.