Your True Self

Be who you are

Jew / Gentile

Ephesians 2:11-12 “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

Expectations

John 8:43-44 “Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

1 Corinthians 2:14 “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

John 3:3 “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.””

Privilege and Duty

Ephesians 4:17 “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.”

Ephesians 2:8-10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Ephesians 4:1 “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,”

It Takes Work

v1 - Walk worthy

v17 - Walk not like the Gentiles (unbelievers)

v24 - Put on the new self

Recognize Sin (futility)

Darkened Understanding

Sin doesn’t add up

Ignorance

2 Peter 3:5 “For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,”

Romans 1:25 - They exchanged the truth for a lie

Hard Heartedness / Callousness

Ezekiel 36:26 “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

Giving Up

Ephesians 4:19 “They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”

Romans 1:24-25 “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

Galatians 5:19-21 “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Learn Righteousness

Truth

Objective, Eternal Truth (not yours or mine)

Instead of a steady diet of worldly messages and propaganda, seek to restore in your mind right thinking about God and creation

Scripture

Prayer

Worship

Renewal

Spiritually in the rebirth

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Mentally in sanctification

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Identity (Put on the new self)

First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament Chapter 4

Take off that worn-out and stained outfit of your past life with its selfish desires and worthless ways of thinking. It no longer represents who you are. 23You are now true human beings, with a new way of seeing and thinking. 24Put on the regalia of your new life. For you have been made new, created again to look like the one who made you, standing in a good way and walking a true and sacred path.

In typical fashion, we are constantly told to be our true selves, but then dictated who that is according to the popular whims of a fallen world. Our unchanging God, however, calls out to His Children to discover and truly be who we are, empowering the search and the transformation, for eternal benefit, to the praise of His Glory.