Amen. All right, we're continuing on
in Ephesians chapter 4 this morning, Ephesians chapter 4,
we're going to be in verses 17 through 24.
I'll read that for US ever so quickly and then we will dive in
to our passage. Ephesians chapter 4 picking up
in verse 17, it says 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. 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.
They have become callous and have given themselves up to
sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
But that is not the way you learned Christ, assuming that
you have heard Him and were taught in Him, as the truth is
in Jesus. To put off your old self which
belongs to your former manner of life, and is corrupt through
deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your
minds, and to put on the new self created after the likeness
of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Sermon title this morning is New clothes for a new Year and we
could not have timed it any better.
So here we go new clothes for a new year.
As we dive into our our passage this morning we we need to
remember the flow of Ephesians remember Ephesians chapter 4 and
on to the end of the of the book is really imperatives for you
and for me. It's a list of things that that
he that Paul is telling the church to do.
He begins in chapter 4 verse 1. He says I therefore a prisoner
for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling
to which you have been called. And then he he goes on and he
talks about the body and how how you and I are part of that body.
And then he ends or our passage really takes off from verse 16.
He says from whom the whole body joined and held together by
every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is
working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up
in love. That that's the church, that
that is you and I as believers of Jesus Christ.
We are the church, we encompass the church, and we are to work
together for love, for the love of Christ, right?
We have love in us because He first loved us US and so we are
are able to love because again he he loves us and we unify with
that love and then he he breaks it down even further and he he
begins this passage again with the the old self as we look in
to verses 1718 and 19. This is the old self where some
of us are still at today. We're still battling with this
old self. Either we have not given our
lives to Christ and we literally are living the old self.
There is no new self in Christ. Or we have this idea that that
we can take on Christ and still hold on to our past as well.
And this has been an ongoing problem all throughout the
church, all throughout the, the generations, right?
The Judaizers, they wanted to, to say, yes, Christ is who he
says he is, but I, I still need to obey the laws.
I still need to abide by the Old Testament, right?
We, we've had this, this issue all throughout the church.
We have this issue today in our churches that we say, yes,
Christ is enough. Christ is sufficient, but I
still love my old life or I still need to do XY and Z and,
and if you want to tune me out, hear this.
Do not add to the grace of God. His grace is sufficient for you.
That's right. We look in verse 17, he says
this, he says now this I say, and I testify in the Lord.
So so he brings this, this, this idea and he says this is of the
Lord that this I am bringing to you as truth and Lord, the Lord
is my witness. OK, and so he he says that you
must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.
Here's here's the word that we need to focus on is that we
must. This is for you and for me that
that we are no longer to walk as the Gentiles walk.
This word walk encompasses our daily conduct.
What what you and I do day-to-day, right.
We look at our lives over the last month and and we look at
those and we say, what has our daily conduct been like over the
last month? And that is encompasses our walk
with the Lord or our walk with the world but one way or the
other. And he says, but we must no
longer walk as the Gentiles do. Remember Psalm 11?
He says this blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of
the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the
seat of scoffers. That that's a word for you and
for me, that in our day-to-day lives, we are to be looking for
the things of God, not the things of the world.
So when we see this word Gentiles, as we walk through
this, we're talking about the lost world, the Pagan side, the
people that are not followers of, of Jesus Christ.
And he says we cannot walk as the Gentiles do.
We must be different. And then he's going to give us
this list, this nasty list that you and I have to have to dig
through because it's the word of the Lord and we cannot gloss
over it. So bear with me as we dive into
some nasty things that the world brings and yet you and I live it
every single day, he says. First and foremost, he says this
about Gentiles, about the lost world.
They are futile in their minds. Their minds are literally empty.
This, this word futile is pointless or useless.
Pointless or useless. Their minds are empty and void
of substance. The life of an unbeliever
consumes himself in the pursuit of goals that are purely
selfish, in the pursuit of what is temporary, and they look for
satisfaction in things that are deceptive and disappointing.
You see, that's the way of the world.
That is the old self. That is the, the, that is what
we call the fleshy self, right? The old way, the old clothes,
the old man is what the King James Version says.
He says that that our minds are not like their minds.
Our minds are not futile. They are not empty.
They are full of the word of God.
They are full of the grace of God.
They are full of the attributes of God because again, we are
bought with a price. We are bought with a price.
And he says, do not be futile in your minds.
Do not use our minds for the things of this world.
Do not use our minds to pursue the things of this world, but
use our minds in pursuit of those things that are godly,
that are lovely. He goes on.
And he says this in verse 18. Again, continuing on in the list
of what the Gentiles do, he says this.
He says 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. Yeah, I'll go back to verse 16
very quickly. Just the first part, he says
From whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint
with with it with which it is equipped.
And he says this in verse 18, that their hardness of heart.
And this idea of hardness is that that that calcium build up
that they get in between their joints that that are very hard,
that they are painful, they are nagging, they keep you from
actually moving your body. It is hard as a rock.
And that's what he's saying, that they have a hardness of
heart. Their hards, their hearts are as
hard as a rock. And we can look upon the lost
world. We can look upon our neighbors,
we can look upon those in power of the world and we can see the
hardness of their hearts. We can see the things that they
have done are doing that are against God.
And they continue this, this idea or this, this thought
process of being hardened of hearts to the point that
literally they are ignorant, ignorant to the things of God.
Of Romans chapter 1, verses 21 and 22, it says this.
It says for although they knew God, they did not honor him as
God or give thanks to him. But they became futile in their
thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming
to be wise. They became fools and we see
that day in and day out in the world of which we live in the
cause of the darkness. The ignorance and separation
from God is truly the hardness of heart.
Their their willful determination to remain in sin.
Their willful determination to remain in sin.
They like the sin. They like the way it makes them
feel. Remember, they live for
themselves. That's what the word of God
tells us, that they live for themselves.
John Phillips says this. He says the nonsense some men
believe shows how darkened their understanding is.
He says Christian Scientists, for instance, believe that death
is not real and that pain is an error of the mortal mind.
He says Mormons believe that they can become gods.
Hindus believe that depending on how we behave in this life, we
might come back as a cow, a chicken or a cockroach.
The scientific community embraces the theory of
evolution. The humanist thinks that man is
essentially good and quite able to cope with moral problems.
And you and I would say absolutely not.
Man is not inherently good. We are not inherently good,
that's right, apart from Christ, praise God, but in Christ we are
a new creation. We are a new creation.
So he says this, He says they are darkened in their
understanding. They do not understand the
things of God. They don't understand the things
of God because they have hardened their hearts.
They have hardened their hearts through continual sin that says
I want my sin more than I want anything else.
I I desire myself above all things.
That is the world of which we live.
That is the selfish world that you and I are in.
And he says this, he says, Paul says to to the church in
Ephesus, he says you cannot be that way.
You must be different. You must be different, He says,
listen in 19, he says they have become callous.
This idea of of being callous is when people continue to sin and
turn away from the life of God. It's this continual rub.
Most most of us have calluses on our hands from one thing or
another. It's this continuous rub that
that that creates this callus upon your hands.
And this continual rub is what he's talking about, is the rub
of sin, the rub of the world, the things of the world, the
constant rub, the constant going back to their vomit, as the word
of God says. You see, we're called to
something greater. We're called to something much
more powerful than going back to our own vomit.
He says they reject all standards of righteousness.
They do not care about the consequences of their
unrighteous thoughts and actions.
Titus chapter one verse 15 says this.
To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and
unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and their
consciences are defiled. May it not be for followers of
Christ, May it not be for those that proclaim Christ, He says.
They have become callous in verse 19.
They have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice
every kind of impurity. So we, we, we, we know a little
bit about Ephesus. We know a little bit about the
temple of, of Diane. That's there, right?
But we, we know that it's one of the seven wonders of the ancient
world. There was lots and lots of
debauchery going on in that temple.
Lots and lots of of lust, lots and lots of prostitution and all
the things that go along with that was right there in the
middle of emphasis going on in their world.
And so as he writes this, as Paul writes this to the church
at emphasis, their minds automatically go to that place
as he begins to say that they they have given themselves up to
sensuality and greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
And every kind of impurity was was there at that temple.
And every kind of impurity unfortunately, is at our
fingertips now on the web, on the Internet.
And we invite that. And not only do we invite that
into our homes, we actually pay to invite that into our homes.
You see, we have this idea that that we are are we are safe from
the things of the world because we are followers of Christ, that
that the world cannot taint us because we are now a part of the
Kingdom of God. And I wish that were true, but
that's not what the word of God tells us.
That's right. That's not what the Word of God
tells us. The Word of God tells us that we
are to be separated from the world.
We're to be in the world, not of the world.
We're to be renewed in the Spirit of God.
So we're going to talk about here in just a minute that that
that our lives look different than the world.
That that we would not invite those things into our homes,
into our families, that again, that we would be different then
the gentiles, then the pagans, then the lost world, because
they have become callous and given themselves up again to
sensuality. And this idea of sensuality is
primarily talking about sexuality.
And all of the things of that goes along with that that we
won't get into for our young years.
But you guys understand what we're talking about.
You understand the debauchery of what we live in in our day and
age, the debauchery of what you and I see in the depravity of
man. He says the he says that again,
that that they have given themselves up to sensuality.
The world of sensuality and impurity is truly the world of
greediness. The person given over to
godlessness and immorality greedily takes whatever they can
from those around him. They evaluate life only in
material terms and use other people to their own advantage.
They also turn their backs on God in order to fulfill their
own evil desires. The whole point is this, that
they evaluate their life only in material terms.
You see, you and I are called to something far greater than that,
far greater than this exchange of materials, this exchange that
says I want what I want and I want it now, right?
That's why we have a microwave. Amen.
We, we, we do not want to wait very long for our Pop Tarts to
be ready. So we're going to throw it in
the microwave, right? We do not want to wait long for
our Hot Pocket, so we want to throw it in the microwave.
We want what we want and we want it now.
And that is the world of which we live in.
If we want sensuality, if we want to to do that, we can just
go on the World Wide Web. We can go on the Internet and do
whatever it is that we want to do in the privacy of our own
home. And we think nobody is the
wiser. And that is from the devil.
Second Peter chapter 2, verse 3 says their greed.
They will exploit you with false words.
Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their
destruction is not asleep. You see that the Bible talks
about our enemy, our enemy, that we have a real enemy who goes
around, prowls around, looking for people to devour.
He goes around like a lion waiting to attack US, us
followers of God, that is our enemy, that is Satan, who is
alive and well ready to get us at that moment that we are the
weakest. That's right.
That's when we turn to Christ and say I am a new creation.
I am a new creation. I am no longer bound by the
chains of this world. He says this in verse 20.
All the bad stuff pretty much gone away.
Let's look at the good stuff. We'll park here for a while, but
that is not the way you learned Christ.
Let's just stop here for a moment and let's just look at
the the one word, the one word, verse 20.
But how many times do we see in Scripture where, where there is
this list of things that the world is, is out to get you in
all the bad things of the world. And then it says, but God.
But God, you see, there is power in the blood of Jesus Christ.
He says you have learned about Christ.
You know about Christ, you know what he did for you upon the
cross. You know, the sacrifice of which
he made for you. You see, it's a free gift, but
it is not a cheap gift. That's right, it was costly.
It was very costly. And we take that gift, we accept
that gift and we look different than the world because no longer
does the world have it's chains in us.
We are now bound. We are now bound to Christ.
We are in the Lamb's book of life.
We are heaven bound, not hell bound.
We are glory bound, not Satan bound and that is the power of
the blood of Jesus Christ. But God, without God, all of
those things that we have already talked about are sealed.
There's nothing that you can do about it.
There's no, there's no hope for you, there's no love for you.
There's no way out. It's all about you and this life
that we live in, but with God, but with God we can say this
world does not have a hold on us.
This world does not have a hold on you and me.
We can and we should look different than the world.
We can and should look different than verses 1718 and 19.
He says this, he says, but that is not the way you learned
Christ. Again, I, I, I'm thankful that
one of our, our core values here at, at heritage is, is that that
we, we love knowledge. We love theological knowledge
and we put that in high esteem because we want to teach who
Christ is and what Christ has done.
And the more knowledge we get, the deeper in love we get with
who he is. And the deeper in love we get
with who he is, the more we look like Christ and less like the
world. And the more we look like
Christ, the more people come to us.
And they say, how is it that that you have this peace in the
midst of this chaos, in the midst of this world?
Who is out to devour you? How is it that you are able to
have peace? And you say, I have peace
because I know the God of peace. I know the Prince of Peace.
Let me introduce you to Jesus Christ who can change you from
the inside out. You see, we are called to
something far, far greater than verses 1718 and 19.
We are called to Christ. I love this passage because it
doesn't say that that that these are the 10 steps to a better
life. It doesn't say that if you abide
by these 10 rules, life will be amazing for you.
Even though there are lots of books out there that you can
read about 10 steps to A to A to a healthy life. 10 steps to be
better at work, 10 steps to learn to drive better, right?
Some, some of it, you all need to read that 10 steps to
whatever, right? He doesn't say that.
He says let me introduce you to Jesus Christ.
It is a relationship with a real live person who is alive and
well and who is wants to be in our lives.
He says it's not, it's not a ten step thing.
It's not a three-step thing. It's this is a relationship with
a real person. That's the answer.
That's the answer that that that is how you and I change from the
inside out. Again, it's not this this idea
or precepts or principles. It is a person that we go to and
we tell him that I need a new way of life.
I am tired of the rat race of the world and what it provides
because it provides death and destruction in this endless rat
race. Like, like a gerbil on the wheel
who never gets anywhere. That is the world.
That is what the world offers us.
And we say we're tired. We're tired of being that gerbil
on the wheel. We want to actually do something
that changes this rat race. And there's only one thing that
changes that. That is Jesus Christ, a
relationship with Jesus Christ, he says.
But but that is not the way you learned Christ.
The essence of the gospel. The essence is is literally
right here in this verse very easy to memorize.
That is not the way you learned Christ in complete contrast to
the world and what the world offers.
We read in Matthew Chapter 11 verse 29.
He says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am
gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your
souls. That is what Jesus Christ offers
us. He offers us an exit off the on
ramp of this wheel, this gerbil wheel that gets us nowhere.
And He says come to me, learn from me, you see, come to Him
and then learned from him. Allow Him to work in you this
process of sanctification. He says I am gentle and lowly in
heart. I don't know about you, but that
is 180° off of what the world has for you and for me.
The world is anything but gentle and lowly.
That's right. Anything but gentle and lowly.
And he says you will find rest for your souls.
Some of us need to find rest in this new year.
Some of us need to to find rest as we turn the clock to a new
2026. How many of you guys do New
Year's resolutions or whatever it is you call it, so that it
doesn't sound so bad like a resolution, like you're resolute
in that Anybody got anything like, yeah, there's a cup.
There's like 3 of you. That's great.
I'm going to talk to the other three for a minute.
The rest of y'all can listen as we turn the clock to 2026.
As we look back at 2025, we look back at verses 1718 and 19 and
we be real and honest with one another.
And we say far too often was I defined by the old man by verses
1718 and 19. Far too often was I defined in
that way in 2025. And as the the clock rolls to
2026, I want to do better. And how do we achieve that?
Well, the word of the Lord tells us.
He goes on in verse 21. He says this.
He says assuming that you have heard about him and were taught
in him as the truth is in Jesus. Alright, so I love this because
remember Paul was at Ephesus for about how many years?
But I remember 3. So he was there for about 3
years, the longest he was anywhere, right?
He was in Ephesus for about 3 years.
Scholars say it's somewhere between four and six years he's
been gone from Ephesus when he when he writes this book back to
the the Ephesians there remember this is a a prison epistle,
meaning he is in prison when he writes this to the Ephesians.
Again, four to six years or so he's been gone from Ephesus.
He was there for three years and he says this in in verse 21.
Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught him
taught in him as the truth is in Jesus.
And we know that they were taught in that, but at least
while Paul was there. But we also see it in Acts
chapter 20. And, and, and you know, for,
for, I apologize to you guys. I wasn't going to go into Acts
chapter 20, but but Aaron said I have plenty of time because we
didn't have a ministry minute and we didn't have a choir.
So I had like an extra 20 minutes.
So we're going into Acts chapter 20.
So turn with me to Acts chapter 20.
You can blame Aaron after all, right?
So Acts chapter 20, this is this is him.
This is this is Paul leaving Ephesus.
OK. And again, I, I wasn't quite
prepared to go here, so I got to find the verses here.
I know it's towards the end and we'll just pick up in verse 26.
Let's just say that. Let's just say 26, everybody in
in Acts chapter 20, verse 26, everybody there.
I love the sound of Bible's turning.
It's my favorite sound in all the world.
Here we go. Acts 20 verse 26.
Therefore I testify again, this is this is Paul talking.
He's leaving Ephesus. OK, been there three years
approximately. Therefore I testify to you this
day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not
shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
Pay careful attention to yourselves, to all the flock in
which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the
Church of God, which He obtained with His own blood.
He says, I know that after my departure, here we go.
After my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you,
not sparing the flock. Here's very important verse 30.
And even from among your own selves, even from among your own
selves. Again, he's only talking to the
elders at an Ephesus at this time.
Even from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted
things to draw away the disciples after them.
Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not
cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.
And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which
is able to build you up and do give you the inheritance among
all those who are sanctified. He says, I coveted no one's
silver or gold or apparel. He goes on, Let's just bypass a
little bit. And then he says in verse 36.
And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed
with them all. And there was much weeping on
the part of it. They embraced Paul and they
kissed him. You see, Paul was there again,
pouring out his blood, pouring out his tears for the church at
Ephesus. So he he knows in verse 21,
assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him
as the truth is in Jesus. This four to six year hiatus
from being there. He says, I hope that the word of
God is still being taught how it should be taught.
That tells you and me that we must always be on guard to who
we listen to, to who we give our ear to, to, to who we allow to
speak truth into our lives. He says that assuming that you
have heard about him and were taught in Him, there's a big
difference about about knowing Jesus and knowing about Jesus
and things about Jesus and having a relationship with Jesus
Christ. We cannot get those confused.
We see in verse 21. These verbs here are are past
tense. It leads us to believe that that
a time where they have given their life to Christ.
He says, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught
in him as the truth is in Jesus. John 14-6 Jesus said to him, I
am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
You see, the idea again is that the truth is Christ, that that
is truth. Philippians 2, five through 11.
Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality
with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking
the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of
men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by
becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
And therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him
the name that is above every name, so that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under
the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Paulus 3 truths. We're going to see 3 truths here
that when you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and
Savior, these three things are done for you.
Let me let me say that again. When you accept Jesus Christ as
your Lord and Savior, these three things that that Paul
mentions here in just a moment are done for you.
You, you don't do them. God does them for you.
You guys, you guys with me. OK, here we go, three things.
I'm going to read them for you and then we'll dissect them
together, right. So the first in verse 22 is you
put off the old self. Verse 23, you're renewed in the
spirit of your minds. Verse 24, you put on the new
self. Again, these things are done for
you. This is not the the three-step
process to a better life. OK, Don't don't take that that
these things are done for you the moment that you accept Jesus
Christ as your Lord and Savior. OK, here we go verse 22 he says
to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of
life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.
These are the literally the old clothes.
This is the idea of putting off stripping off old clothes and
and putting on new clothes, right?
Think of a time where you were the dirtiest you've ever been.
You had the nastiest clothes on that you have ever had and you
could not wait to RIP them off. Take a shower and put on new
clothes. Everybody got that moment in
your mind? Yes.
Thank you. We have one person has it.
I was giving everybody a moment. Isaac, come on now.
Not everybody's as quick as you, brother.
So the moment I can think of here, here we go very quickly.
We're in Liberia, West Africa. We are driving 3 hours on a dirt
road, 15 miles an hour so that we can avoid potholes that will
swallow the car. We drive 3 hours.
We we go, we meet a ton of people.
It's dusty. It's hot, it's nasty.
We put on a revival. We, we share Jesus Christ with
an unreached area and, and we, we enjoy all of that.
And then we drive back about midnight, 3 hours, 15 miles an
hour on these dirt roads because again, it's going to swallow our
car if we hit a pothole. And so we're driving very
slowly. And when we get back, I am by
far the dirtiest I've ever been in my life.
I took three showers, three showers, and I normally take
like one a week. So that was really like 3-3
showers was a lot for me. And I took three showers and I
kid you not, I kid you not, the next day I was still digging out
dirt in my ears, in my nose, in my eyes.
It was disgusting. I could not wait to get back to
the hotel to RIP off those clothes.
You see, that is the idea that we have here that we cannot when
we, when we meet Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we cannot
wait to get the old self, the old man, the old clothes off and
put on the new clothes, the new self, right?
Second Corinthians 517 tells us if we are a new creation in
Christ, the old has gone away. Behold, the new has come.
You see, I want to, I want to, I want to tell you one more thing
very specifically, that there are three things again that
happen. The old self goes away, renewing
of our mind. The new self comes on.
You see that this isn't a marriage, all right?
This isn't a marriage where you bring in your stuff and I bring
in my stuff and we form this marriage that somehow works
sometimes and doesn't work sometimes.
That is not what this is. This is a death to the old self.
The, the never the twain shall meet is what the key King James
Version says, right? Never the twain shall meet.
The old self goes away. It is a death of the old self
and it is a life to new self. Stop trying to bring the world
with you. Stop trying to bring in all of
your baggage with you. And I often say that that, that
in our day and age, I think that the the best analogy is when
when Jesus says that there is a narrow gate, the narrow way,
it's because we cannot bring in all of our baggage through that
narrow gate. We can only take Christ, our new
self. We can't take the things of the
world with us, and we shouldn't want to.
And we shouldn't be going back to them like a dog returns to
his vomit. We are a new creation in Christ.
The old has gone away. Behold the the new has come, he
says in verse again. 22 put off the old self, which belongs to
your former manner of life. Verses 1718 and 19 that no
longer is you. Those are not you any longer.
If you are followers of Jesus Christ, that no longer defines
you. Colossians chapter 3.
You could turn there if you want.
It's just to the right. I mean, just a couple of pages.
Colossians chapter 3. You don't have to if you don't
want to. Colossians chapter 3, verses 5
through 9. I think it, I think it lays this
out for you and for me very plainly.
It says put to death. Therefore, what is earthly in
you? Sexual immorality, impurity,
passion. Think about these things as I
read them. Write down the one that you
struggle with. Write it down.
Here we go. Put to death the earthly things
that are in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion,
evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry.
There's going to be another list here in a minute.
If I didn't get you, I will hear on account of these.
The wrath of God is coming in these you 2 once walked.
When you were living in them, that's the old self.
That's verses 1718 and 19. That's before verse 20 that says
you have a relationship with Christ.
He says those are the old things that you once walked in them,
but now you must put them all away.
Anger, wrath, malice. Some of you guys need to start
writing on the back, right? Anger, wrath, because I know I
do. Anger, wrath, malice, slander
and obscene talk from your mouth.
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you put off the old
self with its practices. You see, we still struggle,
don't we? If we're going to be honest with
one another, we still struggle with the old self.
But I think it's a, it's a mind shift.
It's a mind shift that says that that is death, that that is no
longer defining me. Stop thinking of it as a
marriage where the two should blend.
Never the twain shall meet. That's TWAIN, by the way.
Never the twain shall meet. It's a mind shift, verse 23, and
to be renewed in the spirit of your minds.
The Bible tells us that we're to take our thoughts captive.
When we find ourselves going to those places of the old self, of
the fleshy self, we take those captive, but we say no, I cannot
go there anymore. That does not define me.
That is the old self. I, I do not live under those
laws anymore. I am now living for Jesus
Christ. We take our thoughts captive
sometimes, sometimes in the darkest days.
I know for me, I can speak for me in my my darkest days were
with when Noah was on dialysis for two years, bar none, no
doubt by far lowest I've ever been in my life.
I pray I never ever, ever go there again.
There were days where I literally just said I couldn't
even sing it. But I would say the joy of the
Lord is my strength and I began to refocus my mind.
The joy of the Lord is my strength.
I had no other strength. The Bible talks about even being
weary to the point where you cannot pray for yourself and the
Spirit intercedes for us. Those were the moments, guys.
Those are the moments. So you think about that for your
life. Some of you may be in that now,
in those darkest days of your life, if you are a follower of
Christ, depend on fellow believers to pray with you and
encourage you and remind you that the joy of the Lord is your
strength and it is a mind shift. It is a mind shift.
Hold your thoughts captive. Satan always attacks the mind.
The other thing, this is not a
counselling session. Hopefully you're not taking it
that way, but there are usual triggers in our life that moves
us back to the old self. What are those?
What are those triggers in our life that says that that tend to
remove our thoughts back to the old self and the old way of
living? Maybe you're bored, maybe you're
depressed, maybe you're in a fight.
Whatever it is, what what are your your triggers that bring
you back to the old self and try to avoid those bring people
around you that would encourage you that you can call when those
begin to creep up. But again, ever since our first
parents ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the
human mind has been vulnerable because it has a natural bend
toward evil thoughts. I'm just being real with you,
right? This is the world that you and I
live in. We are attracted to sin.
It is blind to spiritual truth unless it has the Holy Spirit's
illumination. Colossians, chapter 3, verse 10.
So back in Colossians, if you still have your finger there.
If not, it's OK. I'm only going to read verse 10
and have put on the new self which is being renewed in the
knowledge after the image of its creator again, we're to be
renewing our minds in the word of God.
We're to be renewing our minds with fellow believers that
encourage us that that change our thought process.
We're to be renewing our minds by holding our thoughts captive,
saying no, I, I, I won't go there.
We're renewing our mind to know that this is going to cause me a
problem. If I go to this place or if I do
this or if I allow myself to go here or think that that will
lead me down a dark path. I will not allow myself to do
that to discipline. It's a discipline.
Verse 24 again now this is the new self and to put on the new
self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and
holiness. This is the the new man.
This is the new clothes. This is the new clothes for the
new year that you and I would look different than we did in
2025 and 2025 may have been a fantastic year.
It may have been the best year that you've ever had, but 2026
can be even better. Because remember, we are being
renewed in the Word of God. We're being renewed by the
passions of God. We're being renewed by our
relationship with God and we are growing deeper and deeper in
love with Him and becoming more like Christ every single day.
And so 2026 can look way better than 2025 ever did because we
die to self even more. I'll tell you, we have six
children. Six children.
And I love most of them every day.
And I remember every time we got a child I thought I couldn't.
I'm no longer selfish. There's no way they've already
taken out all my selfishness. I'm ready for another kid.
It's not going to be anything. And every single time they
taught me how selfish I still was.
And if I had 12 more kids I'm not.
But if I did, I feel like every single time I would have more
self to die. Because we love self, don't we?
I mean, if we're going to be honest, we love self, right?
But let's love Jesus more. Let's love Jesus more.
The renewed spirit of the believers mind is a result to
putting on the new self again. This is the new creation made in
the likeness of God. We are made in the image of God.
That is you and I. We're not made in the image of
the world. We're not made in the image of
Satan. We're made in the image of God
our Creator, our sustainer. Amen.
Hallelujah. Praise the Lord that we are made
in His image. He has changed us from the
inside out. He has given us righteousness
and holiness, the things that we never had before.
But because we cannot have those apart from Christ, we must be a
new creation in Christ. We must take the word, this word
as truth. We must know that there is an
old self and there is a new self, and never the twain shall
meet. And we must live under the new
relationship of Jesus Christ again.
The old has gone away become the the new has come, and we must
obey and hold our thoughts captive.
In Colossians chapter 3 and verse 12, Paul calls believers
the chosen of God, holy and beloved.
In Galatians chapter 2 verse 20, he says I have been crucified
with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but
Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh.
I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me, practically speaking, and I'm and I'm and
I'm done. The primary means of ongoing
transformation in our lives is the word and the Spirit.
Let us let us no longer let us no longer hold on to the old
self. Let us no longer focus on verses
1718 and 19 because verse 20 says, but God, we have a
relationship with Jesus Christ who transforms us from the
inside out. I ask you, do you know him
today? Do you know this Christ of whom
we speak of today? Let me pray for us.
And we're, we've got a few things left, but we're almost
done. Father, we are grateful for your
word. We're grateful for the truths
that say that that God we are no longer bound to this world that
we are a new creation in Christ and Father as we turn the clock
to a new year. God, I ask that you would renew
our minds show us father on this list, this list of in Colossians
chapter 3. Where is it that we are still
holding on to old self, to the old, close to the old way of
life that we ask for your wisdom?
We ask that you would save and call people to yourself today.
Change them from the inside out, for we are nothing without you.
In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
Thanks for listening. To learn more about Heritage
Church or if you'd like to respond to this sermon, visit
our website at www.heritageshawnee.org.