How To Live Like Jesus

Intro/welcome:

The battle for your soul is fought in your mind. That’s because “Our lives are always moving in the direction of our strongest thoughts.” Both God’s Word and modern Cognitive Behavioral Therapy agree on this. Ultimately, “The life we have is a reflection of what we think.”

[PRAY]

Attention - Biles Out story

This past week, we have been celebrating our athletes competing in the Olympic games in Tokyo. From swimming, volleyball, water polo, to gymnastics, it’s been so much fun seeing our players strive for Gold medals. It’s been amazing to see some athletes simply dominate in their chosen athletic field. This week, I’ve just been amazed by at how fast and strong and talented these Olympic athletes are.

One such player, who is so talented and dominant in her sport that she has 4 gymnastic moved named after here is Simone Biles. She has dominated in her sport and has racked up record breaking performances and feats for years now. She even has a combined total of 30 medals that she has won in both the Olympics and in World competitions.

But she has created a lot of controversy this past week by choosing to prioritize her mental health over her pursuit of perfection. Which, good for her! She already has 30 medals!

But, what is so interesting and inspiring by Simone’s stance on her mental health is that she is showing us what is actually important, even though this is costing her Gold medals and personal records.

The reason why Simone is not competing is because if she is not mentally prepared to perform at her best, she could literally break something, including her neck, trying to complete some of the gravity defying moves she is known for landing.

Simone Biles “twisties” - CNN Article

“She said in a morning practice that she had a little bit of the twisties. The twisties are a mysterious phenomenon - suddenly a gymnast is no longer able to do a twisting skill she’s done thousands of times before. Your body just won’t cooperate, your brain loses track of where you are in the air. You find out where the ground is when you slam into it.”

For some reason, Simone’s mind will not allow her to do what her body wants to do, is able to do, and has done thousands of times before.

Need - Simone is showing us that their is a battle in our minds that will dictate what we will or won’t do.

It’s interesting, because that is exactly what Paul is telling us here in Ephesians 4:17-24.

Read: Ephesians 4:17-24 ESV

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.

Textual Statement: Paul is imploring the Ephesian believers to live lives that look like God has changed them.

Sermon Statement: If you are a follower of Jesus, then God wants your life to look like he has changed you.

Transition: If you are a follower of Jesus, then what should your life look like?

Point #1: Your life should look different because of Jesus (v. 17-19)

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.

Explanation:

It's sad that we have to say this isn't it?

Far too often the lives of Jesus' followers don't really look any different than the lives of people who have nothing to do with Jesus.

During this time, the Ephesians were under constant pressure to go back to how they used to live their lives. They lived in a culture that merged spirituality, sexuality, and social acceptance into one. They would have believed that there was one animating force in the universe and that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. They would have had little idols in their homes that they would have prayed too and worshipped. They world have had books of magic in their homes because they believed in evil spirits and demonic powers that they needed to defend themselves from.

Before becoming followers of Jesus, these people would have needed help and training in cultivating a lifestyle consistent with their salvation in Christ — a lifestyle that was free from drunkenness, sexual immorality, lying, stealing, bitterness, and the list and can go on and on.

You are under the same pressure today. Maybe you don’t have little statues in our homes that you pray too, but you have been trained by our culture to prioritize certain things that are not of God. We have been trained to live a certain way and that doesn’t just vanish when we accept God’s free gift of grace.

We live in a culture that prioritized instant gratification, pleasure, prosperity, and individuality over everything else. Those values that we have all grown up with don’t just vanish when we enter into a relationship with Jesus. Just because we are followers of Jesus, doesn't mean that we automatically change how we live our lives or reflect what God has done in our lives.

If we aren't careful; old habits, thoughts, patterns, and desires will simply evolve or intensify in order to keep us enslaved to the spiritual death that Jesus rescued us from.

That is way, “Paul urges believers to abandon former ways of living that have nothing to do with Christ.

Just as believers are to live/walk in a manner worthy of Christ (v. 1), they are not to live/walk in the ways of their former life. The believer’s new life in Christ involves a change in direction and conduct.

The reason why we should stop living the way we used to live is because that old life only leads to death, destruction, and eternal distancing from God, the author and archetype of true life. We should stop living the way we used to live, because it is not life giving, rather it is destructive behavior that will enslave you, deaden you to the beauty of this life, and distance you eternally from the only One who can give you real life.

The reason why our old lives lead to death and destruction is because, according to Paul, we had futile minds that been darkened in our understanding, separating us from God (the giver of life), making us ignorant, calloused, and greedy for more.

Before learning about Jesus, we all believed the lie that sin would fulfill us and bring us satisfaction. But sin cannot sustain you, it satisfies our desires in the moment, but once those feelings wear off, we find ourselves in an even worse state. It’s almost like a junky needing another hit and another hit because we’ve gotten used to the previous feelings. Sin can only make us slaves to itself. It cannot free us, it cannot sustain us, and it cannot fully satisfy you.

That’s why Paul calls this way of living ‘futile.’ This word only occures three times in the New Testament (Eph. 4:17; Rom. 8:20; and 2 Peter 2:18) and it refers to the inability to actual achieve your goals.

We all are looking for satisfaction, love, and acceptance. So, we take what our culture offers us; but we never actually reach our goal fully. So, we need more and more of it, but it keeps failing us and further distancing us from the one who can actually give us everything that we longing for.

But, if you are a follower of Jesus, who has a relationship with Him, then people should be able to see a difference in the way you live your life.

Your life should not look like:

futile

darkened

separated from the life God alone give

stubborn, hard hearted and calloused toward the things of God

Continually pursuing pleasure like a junky does drugs

Living the Christian life is a process.

Although we have a new nature, we don’t automatically think all good thoughts and express all right attitudes. But if we keep listening to God, we will be changing all the time. We must trust God to change us on the inside—our character, values, attitudes, perspective, and motives.

Application: Addiction to Porn

Porn promises satisfaction, fulfillment, and excitement.

Porn leaves you unsatisfied, unfilled, and thirsty for more. It’s like empty carbs that leave you feeling full, but won’t actually fuel you.

Transition: If you are a follower of Jesus, then your life should look different because of Jesus that’s because it should look like His life.

Point #2: Your life should look like Jesus’ life (vv. 20-21)

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,

Explanation:

In verse 20, Paul is still focusing on the battlefield of our mind, when he talks about how believers have “learned Christ.”

That’s a really interesting phrase isn’t it?

Paul doesn’t say, when you learned about Christ. He isn’t talking about intellectual knowledge here. Instead, he is talking about experiential knowledge.

One biblical scholar “suggests that the idea of learning Christ ‘means welcoming him as a living person and being shaped by his teaching,’ with the result of ‘submitting to his rule of righteousness and responding to his summons to standards and values completely different from what they have known.”

(Benjamin L. Merkle, “Ephesians,” in Ephesians–Philemon, ed. Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar, vol. XI, ESV Expository Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 79.)

Paul is saying that when you have a personal relationship with Jesus, you aren’t just learning facts about him. You aren’t just learning about his life, death, and resurrection. You aren’t just learning Sunday school answers when you learn Christ. Instead, when you learn Christ, you should be shaped by that knowledge so that it becomes evident in how you live your life.

Simone Biles Bio

Think of it this way, I can learn about Simone Biles.

This past week, I’ve learned that she grew in Columbus, Ohio - just under 2 hours away from where I grew up in Cincinnati. I learned that she grew up poor and sometimes had to eat cereal with water, instead of milk. I learned that her grandparents adopted her and her sister because her biological mother‘s substance abuse issues, which took them to Texas where she went to a gym and a coach noticed her natural talent of always landing on her feet, no matter what she did while she was up in the air.

I’ve learned that she has dedicated her entire life to performing gymnastics perfectly. So, while you and I spend 40 hours a week sitting behind a desk working a job, she spends at least 40 hours a week training her body, her muscles, and her mind to do the amazing acrobatics that none of us could do.

Now, just because I’ve learned those facts about Simone, doesn’t mean that I have learned her meaning, she and I don’t know each other, we don’t have a personal relationship with each other, her and I are strangers to one another.

That’s not what Paul is saying to these believers or us today. If you have a personal relationship with Jesus, then you should be learning Jesus by getting to know him more and more each day through the relationship you have with him.

Because we know him, have learned him, and are still learning from him, our lives should look like his. Because we know him and have an intimate relationship with him, our lives should be continually shaped by him.

Illustration: So, what did Jesus’ life look like?

He was loving, joyful, peaceful, kind, good, faithful, humble, gentle, self-controlled, firmly rooted in the truth, while being filled with grace. He was obedient to the Father, servant oriented, and other’s focused.

Do some of those characteristics sound familiar? They should, because the very same fruits that the Spirit can produce in your life were also evident in Jesus’ life.

Application: How do we actually live like Jesus?

We can’t. You and I cannot live like Jesus solely based on our abilities. Instead, the secret sauce of how to live like Jesus is by trusting in Him and allowing Him to change you.

You and I can’t produce the fruits of the Spirit, found in Galatians 5:22-23, because it’s the Holy Spirit producing that fruit in our lives.

But, there is one thing that you and I do have to do in order to live like Jesus: be crucified with Christ!

Galatians 2:19–20 (NLT)

19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Transition: So, if you are a follower of Jesus, then your life should look different because of Jesus. Your life should look like Jesus’ life. But, lastly, your life should look like the life God created you to live.

Point #3: Your life should look like the life God created you to live (vv. 22-24)

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.

Explanation:

Put off old self - Put on new self

Illustration: Change Clothes

Paul is insisting that we take off our old habits, our old motivations, our old ways of thinking and put on the new self, which was created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

So, just as I have new clothes on - I should have a new mindset and lifestyle because of the new creation that God has transformed me into.

But, it doesn’t just stop in that moment, instead I need to allow the Holy Spirit to continually teach me and renew my mind so that I can continue to live the life that God created me to live.

READ Romans 12:1-2

Romans 12:1–2 (NLT)

1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

If your life looks more like it did before you entered into a relationship with Jesus, then you aren’t living the life you were created and designed to live. Instead, your living a life that will never satisfy you, never fulfill you, and cannot sustain you.

Instead, start living the life God created you to live!

Application: What does that look?

It looks like winning the battle in your mind by doing what Paul encourages us to do in Philippians 4:8-9.

Philippians 4:8–9 (NLT)

8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

Transition: So, if you are a follower of Jesus, then your life should look different because of Jesus. Your life should look like Jesus’ life. But, lastly, your life should look like the life God created you to live.

Conclusion/Call to Action: Search Your Heart

Does your life reflect this contrast, the marks of the new life of the believer? Are there evidences of it in your thinking, desires, will, and behavior?

Do what David does, here in Psalm 139:23-24.

Psalm 139:23–24 (NLT)

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 Point out anything in me that offends you,

and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

What old habits are you still living out today?

What old thought patterns are keeping you from fully living out the life Jesus died for you to live?

What is standing in your way from fully living out the life God created you to live?

Invite the Holy Spirit to reveal that to you right now.

Repent of what he reveals to you.

Take that habit, that thought, that way of living off and instead start living the life that you were created to live today!

[PRAY]