A Word from THE WORD
Good Morning Happy Church,
Today is Wednesday, May 18th, 2016. Today is the 139th Day of 2016.
There are only 227 days left in this year; and, there are only 32 days left until Father’s Day; and, there are only 221 days left until CHRISTMAS…
“A New Walk in the Same Old World”
Ephesians 4:17-30
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.
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
27 and give no opportunity to the devil.
28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
As the LORD allows, I will do an exposition of this passage this coming LORD’s Day – May 22nd. For the rest of this week, I want to share some thoughts from it that I will not have time to fully cover in one sermon…
In verse 17, Paul tells the Ephesian Christians that they must not live as the “Gentiles” or unsaved people of Ephesus do.
In the New Testament, “walk” is an often used metaphor for the way we live out our life.
Paul explains how they (and we) were made to be new creations in Christ in 2:1-9. Since we are new creations in Christ; and since the old things are passing away while being replaced by the things that accompany our new life, (2nd Corinthians 5:21) we must not live the way unsaved people do.
In verses 17-19, Paul tells them specifically what this looks like in daily life…
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.”
– They are led through life by their darkened minds. In other words, if it seems good to them, or appeals to their five senses, they do it.
– They want to have nothing to do with God or the things of God.
– They have become hard-hearted and set in their ways.
– They live completely to satisfy the flesh, ie., the five senses.
– And, they cannot get enough of sinning. They are “greedy” to commit sin.
As believers in Jesus, the Ephesians (as well as we) must not live this way.
Allowing the HOLY SPIRIT to work in our life through the process of being changed into the “image” of Christ is what Paul describes as…
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.”
Off with the old and on with the new.
That is a what it means to have “A New Walk in the Same Old World.”
Do not miss the opportunity for Mid-Week Prayer and Bible Study Wednesdays from 6:30 – 8:00pm. We are studying the Second Coming of Jesus and the events that follow into the Eternal State.
Each evening features a stand-alone lesson, so if you can’t make them all; be sure you catch as many of these lessons as you can.
This evening, as the LORD allows, I will teach about the most widely held views on the end times – and point how we can know “Which View is True?”
Carpe Diem!
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