How You Walk Matters
Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted
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· 4 viewsYour walk matters. After salvation or being born again, you now have two natures fighting for dominance, striving for leadership over you - your flesh and your spirit.
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17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But ye have not so learned Christ;
21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
27 Neither give place to the devil.
Your walk matters.
After salvation or being born again, you now have two natures fighting for dominance, striving for leadership over you - your flesh and your spirit.
If you walk in the flesh you can do any sin that a lost person can do.
Sow to the spirit or sow to the flesh = Whatever you sow you will reap
You don’t want to sow to the flesh
There are those that can come to a point of not caring
God will chasten who He loves
He wont chasten someone He doesn't love
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
If you are a child of God, God loves you so much to chasten and correct you.
Bastards = not a curse, God is teaching there are people who claim to be saved but are illegitimate
We should never get angry at God’s correction - Praise the Lord the Lord loves us enough to correct us - that’s a blessing
“We gave them reverence” - shouldn't we honor God
17 Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; Yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.
Correction is for our profit - to help us become holy
To bring us to a place of fruitfulness - a place of productivity
Children should be disciplined - there is nothing wrong with correctly and lovingly rebuking a child
15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: But a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.
24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: But he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
18 Chasten thy son while there is hope, And let not thy soul spare for his crying.
15 Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; But the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
13 Withhold not correction from the child: For if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, And shalt deliver his soul from hell.
17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
Do not walk as those who do not know Jesus
Do not walk as the unsaved
Physical walk changes as someone decides not to follow the Lord
Our walk should be different from the world
1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
Fornication should not be named among Christians
Do not walk in the flesh
This is something that the unsaved would thing is strange
“in the vanity of their mind,”
Vanity = Moral depravity, empty of virtue, useless lifestyle
“of your mind” = the thought life is of great importance.
In our mind a battle rages
We are called to have moral pureness in our mind
There are places we shouldnt go in our mind
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
“understanding darkened” = your understanding can be overshadowed
Understanding = deep thoughts that are wicked
The battle of the mind is worse than it’s ever been before
21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Your heart and soul can be darkened
Vain - empty in the images of the mind
Incredibly, one study estimated that around 50% of all internet traffic is pornography-related.
In a small study, MRI scans found that men who watched the most pornography had less grey matter – complex brain tissue – compared to men who watched the least.
In conclusion, this study does not provide any convincing evidence that viewing porn shrinks the brain, but tentatively highlights a possibility that it might.
The authors put forward a clear and intriguing rationale for their research and findings “pornography exposure might lead to wearing and down regulation of the underlying brain structure, as well as function, and a higher need for external stimulation of the reward system and a tendency to search for novel and more extreme sexual material”.
The heart is your mind.
The world is dark and the saved should not have part in that darkness
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Alienated = foreigners, separated, isolated, ignorant, foolish
You think you have control over sin but it will grow to control you.
“because of the blindness of their heart”
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
The lost cannot see the truth
As the saved we should conduct ourselves like children of light
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
You have God’s Spirit in you
God has given you the ability to know Him
To know His will
To know holiness and purity
Unfortunately, there are christians who use their free will to dabble with and play with what the world is involved in and what God has warned against
Keep a holy mind - if their are devices that you cant control - get rid of them
Satan is coming for the mind of God’s people
8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The world can’t help themselves out of the problems of Human nature
19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Lasciviousness = an improper store of God given physical desires
You can, as a child of God, give yourselves over to the passions of the flesh
It is a God given
It is wrong to stir up these affections in an ungodly way outside of God’s protection and blessing.
3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
6 That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.
God’s will is to abstain
Posses = knowing how to manage and control
Defraud = stirring up improper desires
dress, speech, body language
God will avenge
introducing someone to wrong images or ideas
If you despise these directions and instructions, it’s not the pastor
The Spirit’s name is holy
20 For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:
21 And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.
uncleanness is permeating the church across the Nation
Repentance and forsaking needs to take place
God calls us to repent of these trespasses against Him
19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Given themselves over = by their own will, their own volition
The Spirit pleads with us to not be involved in these sins - there is no one that we can blame if we allow ourselves to go this direction
25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
oppose themselves = you can become your own worst enemy
In order for someone to repent they have to acknowledge the truth
A believer can get themselves into such a dark place
God wants to give deliverance from the snare of the enemy
20 But ye have not so learned Christ;
21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
There is no excuse for immorality and fornication - God is greater than your loneliness, He wants to teach you victory over
You have heard the truth
you know what is right
you know that christians aren't supposed to live and act like the world
Sin is so simple to be involved in and trapped by today.
It’s on your phone
your computer
you can download an app
and Satan’s ploy is to tell you no one will ever know
or it wont hurt
The enemy has set up a system
Every time we are involved in something immoral - we get darker
How can we share the light of the Gospel if we are darkened
3 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
4 Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:
We have a call to leave the world’s dark way of life and enter into the light and walk in the light
The church at Corinth was a sensual church
9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
A boat in water is serving it’s purpose
Water entering the boat is disastrous
A Christian in the world is a wonderful opportunity to fulfill his purpose
The world in the Christian is disastrous.
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
We are not of the world
Our conduct
Thoughts
Speech
Where we go should all be different from the lost
We are not lost
Be ye holy for I am holy
When we give ourselves to sin, we become weaker and weaker in the Spirit
Let the Spirit direct you and lead you
Quench not the Spirit
Ask God to allow you to die to the impulses of the natural man
I die daily
Let’s make a meaningful decision to repent = a confession of sin and a decision to not lay up provision for the flesh