13-Ephesians: “But You: No Longer Walking Like the World” | Ephesians 4:17-24

Chapter 1: From the Growth of the Body to the Walk of the Believer

Last week, Paul showed us that the one body is made up of many measured parts and that the church grows up and grows strong when every part does its share. We saw that oneness is never sameness. That each of us has been gifted on purpose for the building up of the body in love. But that then raises a question. If the body is to grow up, how is each part supposed to walk?

A body only moves the way its members move. So this morning, Paul's going to turn from the growth of the body to the walk of the believer. And the thing we need to understand is Paul does not ease up. You may have noticed this at this point. The Apostle Paul does not relate with American culture.

The Apostle Paul doesn't care if he hurts your feel bads. He doesn't care if he hurts my feel bads. The Apostle Paul is going to tell it like it needs to be told. And he's going to testify in the Lord that we should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. Now when you hear Gentiles in this case, understand that these are non-Jews.

But also understand that Paul is talking about unbelievers. Largely when he is talking about Gentiles in this particular passage. When you hear Gentiles, think non-believers because Paul's audiences remember are Gentiles who have become believers in Christ. But they live in Ephesus and most of the people around them are Gentiles who do not believe in the Lord Jesus. We need to understand and we're going to see that there's an old way of walking but there is also a new way of walking.

Chapter 2: Ephesians Walk No Longer as the Gentiles Walk

So if you would please open your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17. There is where we will begin as we read this. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind. Now the first thing this testify to the Lord when you hear that word testify what do you think of? I mean, for me, I'm Gen X and there are older Gen X's.

And I started thinking that some of my older millennial friends probably remember this group Avalon from the late 90s. And they made popular song called Testify to Love, right? Testify to love. And this helps us understand this picture. So this picture of testify is telling of love, communicating of the glory of love.

When we think of testimony, sometimes we think about telling about our faith journey. But Paul is not merely telling a story in the Lord. No, Paul here is not is not just telling, he's insisting. This is the Apostle Paul insisting to his audience. Now, you might remember back in Ephesians 4:1, we read that word beseech, a good old churchy word, and we learned that that word meant urging.

This testify literally is a synonym for that same thing. Paul is insisting, he is urging his audience. But he's also ramping up beyond urging. He's not just urging his audience in his own strength, his own power. He is urging them.

He's urging them in the Lord. That is what Paul is doing here. But what is Paul urging? He is urging them to no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. And again, we remember that these Ephesians were Gentiles, non-Jews, who believed in largely in the goddess Artemis or Diana, they were not believers in Christ.

Here's the thing, though, that we need to understand. Every single one of us, including the Ephesians, and we're going to include the Jews, too, we are all born walking in sin. Every single one of us. There's only been one person who has not done this. That is the Lord Jesus himself.

There's not a person in this room who was born not walking in sin. Anyone who's ever had little children, you know, little children are little sinners. Yes, we talk about how cute they are, and yes, how cuddly they are, how soft they are, but how quickly do we learn that we are born and we walk in sin from a very young age. And for many of us, because we're born into this and we engage in this at a young age, it seems normal. Like for people who do not have Christ in their life, walking in sin is normal.

You see these people on the daily, do you not walking around doing these things? You're like, "How can you do that?" Well, why not? People cheating other people, people stealing from other people, people gossiping about other people, doing these things. so easy as though it's like they're breathing. It's just that easy. Now, for some, after you come to Christ, walking with Christ, for some people, it might seem easier than for others.

For some of you, you struggle mightily walking with Christ. When I was young, this is something you may not know. Some of you, now you're going to watch. Trust me, I thought this through. It's okay.

You guys know I'm transparent with you. When I was a kid, I walked duckfooted like very much like this. Now, some of you are like, "But you still do that." And you're not entirely wrong. I will just tell you it was much worse. This was something I was born with.

I was just born, my feet went out like this. In fact, even to this day, I have to consciously focus on making sure I keep my feet straight. Now, how did I get to the point where I even thought it was a problem? My mom, she began saying like, "Turn your feet in." We've all had this, right? Your mom probably did something with you, whatever that was.

Turn your feet in. And at first, I just ignored her. No, this is natural for me, man. This is how I was built. This is how I was created.

But over time, I began to become a little bit self-conscious about it. And I began to force myself. And even now, when Holly and I go and we walk tank, our little Yorkie, I will catch myself sometimes with the feet starting to come out. and then I have to work on bringing them back in. Are you beginning to see what I'm talking about? This is what it's like.

Before we were in Christ, we knew what it was like to walk in sin. And there are still times where we find ourselves falling into old habits. And we have to catch those things. And this is one of the things that Paul is calling the Ephesians and us to right now is to no longer walk that way. Continue to walk that straight path.

In fact, he says, "Do not do this because it is the futility of their

Chapter 3: The Futility of the Mind, Full Power and No Propellers

mind." Now, this word does not mean that their minds are empty. It does not mean that they're stupid. It does not mean that they're unintelligent. In fact, these folks, these Greco Romans, a lot of them, we know about a lot of Greek philosophers and such. There were smart engineers, smart philosophers.

These were smart people. What this is doing though, it is talking about there is incredible power that is available, but it's being unused. not properly being used. And I tried to think through how can I express what's going on here? Because this relates with us today. Most of you know people who are incredibly talented and yet they squander it and they waste it.

It's going completely unused. Now, I am a World War II fanatic. I love World War II. One of my favorite planes is the B7. Now, if you didn't know, the B7 has had 4,800 horsepower.

It could carry 6,000 lbs of bombs. You're like, you're you're starting to lose me. Yeah, I understand that. But think about the that cap capability. You're like, that's grand.

It's powerful. It's amazing. But what if you had a B7 and it had no propellers? Everything else is futility. It doesn't matter that those engines can put out 4,800 horsepower.

It doesn't matter that the frame is capable of holding 6,000 lbs of bombs. If you don't have those blades there, and in this case, you don't have Christ in your life, all of the power and the ability, all of the potential is useless. It is absolutely futile. And Paul is talking about this futility of their minds. Now the first thing you need to know about the mind here is that it's more than just our brain and our intellect.

It can be more literally understood as the seat of moral perception of understanding of reflective consciousness being able to reflect on the situation and so forth. Now one source said that that this mind was the control center. Now, this immediately tipped me off to something that seems strange because earlier in this series, we talked about the cardia, which is the heart. We talked about the cardia being the control center. So, I'm like, okay, wait.

We've got two things that appear to be contradicting each other, but we know the Bible doesn't contradict. So, there has to be an understanding. And guess what? There is, right? So, this piques my interest.

In the biblical anthropology, the cardia is the innermost control center. It's the seat of the will, the affections, the desires, the core commitments. The core, the heart determines what you love and what you want. The mind, on the other hand, is the intellectual instrument that processes reality that creates strategies that executes the choices that the heart is making. So, think of it like this.

You have a captain of a ship and then you have their navigator. The one who sets the heading and the one who actually accomplishes the heading, the execution of it. But the non-believer in this instance, this gentile non-believer, the thing you need to understand that does not have Christ in their life, they may have this navigator, but their compass has been demagnetized.

Chapter 4: A Demagnetized Compass, Why Good People Still Miss the Mark

What does that mean? That means they can't find north. And if you cannot find north, you cannot find your way. This is why you see people without Christ in their life that have all of these good behaviors, all of these good things. They seem to constantly be making terrible moral choices.

They find themselves constantly off in left field to one degree or another. Now, we've talked about this before and we showed an illustration of this. If you can p those of you that were here, you might be able to picture this. If you're leaving New York's JFK and you're trying to get to Paris and you're off by one degree, what happens? You miss Paris altogether by hundreds of miles.

So again, when people tell you it's like, well, I'm a really pretty a good person. It's like, no, you're still off in left field. You're missing the mark. Even if you're a pretty good person. So whether you're hundreds of miles or a thousand miles, you're still not hitting your destination.

And so this is what Paul is talking like, beware. do not be like these individuals in the futility of their mind. The implication is that they have no means by which they can effectively execute the order of the captain because the compass doesn't point north. Paul

Chapter 5: Ephesians

4:18 Understanding Darkened, a Processing Problem continues in verse 18, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. Paul is talking about these individuals have had their understanding darkened. Paul is using here this word understanding is another word for mind. So whereas what we just saw previously was a control center. This literally is the mind active the mind in motion.

It refers to thinking. It refers to reasoning. It refers to critical evaluation. But but by itself that's not really that important. It's when we see that it has been darkened that the problem comes out.

What Paul is saying is that these individuals they live in a consistent state of moral blackout. You've probably seen these people. They are just repbates. You're like how in the world can you live in this world and treat people in this manner? How is it that you can live in this world, see everything that is around you and only think about yourself and consuming for yourself?

The thing we need to understand, this is not an information problem. This is a processing problem. And this is what I mean. You've been in situations where you've had information shared with you and you've been next to somebody else who had that same information shared with them and you both came to completely different conclusions. I I've experienced this and think about this from a Christian perspective.

I I believe in a literal six day creation. The Bible tells me this. I'm like, I believe it. And there's there's actually hermeneutical reasons. There's actual biblical reasons why that is the case.

But there are plenty of people that are out there that are not believers in Christ that can look at the same creation that I see and come to a completely different conclusion. I look at the world and I see a grand engineer, right? I look at a human cell and see it as more complicated than most than the most complex computer that we have in existence. And I can look at that and go there's no engineered process that comes about without an engineer. And yet there's a total other group of people that will say no this was done by random chance processes over billions of years. same information, same incomp totally different conclusion.

Right? So I can see that for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by things that are made even as the eternal power and godhead. So that they are without excuse. That's non-believers are without excuse. And yet plenty of people would look at that and go, "Nope." Look at the marvel of random chance.

See, it's not an information problem. We have the same set of information but we come to two very different conclusions. So whereas those who have had their hearts darkened to see undirected processes over billions of years the same observational information available there's two different conclusions and then this darkness leads them to be alienated from the life of God. Now alienated for us we could also use estranged. Some of you have been estranged or alienated from family.

I I know this. I've seen this happen on a number of occasions. So, neither of these words though quite gets us to what Paul is talking about. What Paul is talking about here is the non-believing Gentile is not just ignoring God, is not just alienated from God, is not just estranged from God. They are a total foreigner.

A complete absolute total foreigner to God. They do not possess the equipment. They do not possess the ability to participate or even understand the life of God in and of themselves. And so were we at one point. We didn't have the ability to understand without our God.

But why? Paul continues and says it's because of the blindness

Chapter 6: The Callous Heart, and How God Pierces It

of our [snorts] hearts. Now the interesting thing is this word blindness is where we get our word callous. Now, many of you, like me, have different calluses in your life. Some of you have calluses on your feet. Some of you who play instruments, you have calluses on your fingers.

And that's those are the ones that I think of. They're kind of going away now because I don't play as much. But over time, I build up calluses on my fingers and allows me to play the guitar without being in pain. So, calluses can be good. But what Paul is talking about here is these individuals, their hearts have become hard and crusty.

What do we say? Their heart is hard. And that's what he's saying about these people. What Paul is saying is that these Gentiles, they are alienated from God because of the the callousness of their hearts and also because of the ignorance of themselves. They're ignorant to the truth of God, the gospel, because of the callousness of their hearts.

His truth being unable to penetrate. They're unwilling to allow it to penetrate. Now, I want to make sure that I say something clear. Paul is talking about a situation with a lot of people in this situation and circumstance. God can pierce a callous heart.

In fact, Paul is the perfect example of this. Paul's heart was incredibly hard, incredibly callous, until the Damascus road. at what point God just shot right through it and radically changed Paul's life. So this situation and scenario is not without hope. God can reach the callous heart. But what Paul is saying is you as a believer in Christ do not beat this because this is something that we can do and I watch believers do this.

We can become callous to things in our lives. We can become callous to people around us. Now, we may be soft towards something else, but perfect example is the homeless. Many of us have become callous to the homeless. And I know this is something that I have to catch myself on because I've been burned by people.

But guess what? It's not just the homeless that have burned me. Being a pastor, I'm just little little insight. Being a pastor, I have to fight callousness all the time because people are people everywhere we go. I'm little little insight.

Y'all aren't perfect. You're just not. And this is one of the things. This is important especially for those of you that are visiting that are new that may be new in the Lord. I I've never met a a a perfect church.

We're full of people who injure each other on a regular basis. I I know I've injured people. I have been injured. And and the thing that is difficult to do is to not allow those injuries to produce callousness in our life so that we can continue to remain open to what it is that God would have us do in the ministry. And so this is another reason why Paul is like, don't be like this.

This is why they're doing what they're doing and don't be like that. Now, that's hard because keeping yourself open and soft can be incredibly painful. But that's what we're called to do. And if you need examples of this, just look at the Savior. Look at the Savior.

Now, Paul continues declaring that this callousness, this blindness has brought him to the point of being past feel these people back to the point of being past feeling. The the image here again is of nerves that have become dead just completely unfeilling. And again, we have all met these individuals. There's like how can you be so cold? How can you be so lost?

How can you be so callous? How can this be the case? And the thing is is we understand this to a point. And I mean, it's like again, I I don't feel a lot when I'm playing guitar when I have the calluses, but when I have to build them back up, and I know there's some in the room that have had me try and teach them guitar, one of the things that stop most people that have ever tried to teach the guitar is the pain that is there. The pain in that case needs to be worked through.

But there's a lot of times when we need to feel that pain so that we can make a proper and right choice, a proper and right decision. And so we have to be mindful of that.

Chapter 7: Past Feeling, When Nothing Restrains Sin

So because they cannot feel the damage of their sin is causing, there's nothing to restrain them from continuing to sin. And this is the thing that we have to again watch out for in our lives because I've watched people. One of the things that I've noticed with believers, and this is again I'm calling out just a group of people, no one particular person is we have addicts in the church. There are people that struggle with various kinds of addictions, not not just with drugs and alcohol. There's any number of addictions.

And this is something that we have to so desperately watch for because we can become so callous to these things that we have no feeling that we just dive into those things. And we allow those things to become our masters and think this is my own little private thing over here. I've got God in every everywhere else in my life, but I've got my own little spot over here. That is not our God's desire. The Apostle Paul to the Corinthians says, "All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable.

All things are lawful, but I will not be mastered by anything." And this is something that we as believers have to watch for because it's so easy for us to make exceptions for our sin. We're easy and quick to call out other people's sin, other people's struggles. But are we being honest with ourselves and finding those areas in our lives where maybe we have become callous in that way and in a way looking like something we shouldn't like these unbelieving Gentiles. Now

Chapter 8: Lewdness, Uncleanness, and Greediness Defined

Paul continues on that the result what results is that having given themselves over to lwdness to work all uncleanness with greediness. Now first I was like yeah we don't use lwdness very often in our society but this is what lwdness is. This is sin that has lost its sense of embarrassment. It It's an utter lack of restraint and a complete disregard for public decency or others judgment. Again, we've seen this as well.

People that are just completely brazen with what it is they're doing, not caring word boo of what anybody else thinks at all, regardless of how reprehensible and how disgusting it is what they're doing. This is a person with sin that um a person struggling with sin if they don't have ludness they might actually be caught by shame. This is why we don't want this callousness. We want to be able to not have this lwdness so that we can actually see when we're being reprehensible when we're see that we're giving ourselves into sin so that we can actually confess that sin and move on pastness past this. A person given over to lwdness they parade it.

They do not care what God or society thinks. That's a person with lwdness. And this was really relevant to the Ephesian context because as I mentioned earlier, they had the temple of Aremis. Now, we think, oh yeah, we drive around, we see different religions and such. The thing about this particular cult was they had very public I'm I'm trying to think how to say this with with young ears. adult recreational activities between a male and a female openly.

This was a thing that was very open in their society and it was something that was normal. I mean, it's what you do when you go to church, if you will. And Paul's like, "No, this is LWD. This is not normal. This is a thing that we break this habit." And he says this is this is this works uncleanness and greediness.

Now this word means impurity. It means filth. It means refugees. In the gospels this is the root word used to describe unclean spirits. Now while lwdness describes the shameful attitude.

Uncleaness describes the actual moral filth of the actions. It encompasses all of sexual immorality of which all of this this LGBTQIP, UPS, USPS, FBI, CIA, the whole thing, all of that is under this umbrella of sexual immorality. That is what they were talking about in this particular moment or those things. But it goes broader than that to into any moral decay that corrupts the human nature. So it's not just isolated to this one thing.

This is again what we like to do in our society is say like well I don't do this therefore I'm okay. And Paul's like Paul's like no this is casting an incredibly wide net. The exact it's the exact opposite of holiness and purity that God demands of his temple. This reminder that we who are believers in Christ are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We saw this back in Ephesians 2. in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

And then Paul says this, this is that works all uncleanness with greediness. Now when we think of greediness, we usually think about just like relating to money. Seems to be a fair point, right? Paul, for Paul, this is not just money. It's an insatiable desire for whatever people just want more. more of whatever it is that fills that thing that they think that they need.

Notice that Paul then links uncleanness with greediness to work all uncleanness with greediness. In this context, it's not just about hoarding wealth. It's an unquenchable consuming appetite for moral and sexual impurity. That is the picture that Paul is painting that again these gentile non-believers who have given themselves over to lwdness are then unclean and have this passion this greediness now for these individuals that Paul is describing people are not priceless creations again this is the picture that we have when Christ gave his life for us he said of of humanity you were worth my life for these individuals you were nothing but something to fulfill my desire. Do you see the difference?

Someone who's only for the purpose of fulfilling and satisfying my desire is not someone you're willing to die for, which is what our savior had done for us. And in this world, this is the world without Christ. And and the Ephesian believers and believers throughout this time, we are not to be this. And this is where this is where the good part comes.

Chapter 9: Ephesians

4:20 But You Have Not So Learned Christ This is where Paul is going to tell us where we are supposed to be. But you have not so learned Christ. He says, Paul has just finished speaking about non-believers surrounding the Ephesian Christians. And now he's going to focus on the Ephesian Christians themselves. And really by by virtue of that, all of humanity because the words have been brought down to us.

And when you look at these two words, this just seems like kind of like some throwaway words, just something to bridge the gap from where we had just come. But as we keep learning in Ephesians, Paul doesn't waste words, right? I want you to think about this this but you. Paul is saying, but you you're different. Paul is saying but you you're not what you once were.

He's saying, "But you, you you've done more than just add Christ to your list of deities." He says, "You have learned." Not only have you learned, you've learned Christ. The thing we need to understand is Jesus was not just a moral teacher. He himself obviously was God. He's the perfect example. But in this case, he's saying Jesus is our curriculum.

You want to know what it is to live like Christ? Look at Christ. Watch and see how it is that he lived. That is how we are to live. But one of the things that we struggle with and what the Ephesians were struggling with and what Paul is trying to help them understand is you need to replace your world view.

You need to replace your worldview and your way of living from what it was to what now is Christ. And we struggle with this even today. Well, some of you are going to relate with this. Some of you may be convicted by this. But we often in the church today have what I call alikart Christianity.

This means is yeah, we have Christ. Yes, it's a heavy doors of Christ. Like maybe it's the main dish. You're walking through, you know, a buffet and you grab a steak or you grab a big slab of ham or turkey or whatever it is. That's like your main thing.

And then you start filling in all of the other stuff. Well, we do that in the church today. I I found one report from Pew Research that said 60% Okay, listen to that again. 60% of American Christians integrate in new age beliefs into their faith in reincarnation, astrology, psychics, spiritual energy, crystals, 60% of people who claim to be Christians in America integrate those things in. But but not just that, if it's not that, then it might be secular humanism that they're they're mixing in. It might be moral relativism that they're mixing in.

Family, Jesus didn't believe in reincarnation. Jesus did not follow astrology or psychics or have crystals. Nor did he believe in moral relativism. Jesus did not do those things. And so what Paul is saying is you can't hold on to the things and don't hold on to the things that you had in the past.

None of those things are relevant when it comes to who Jesus is. Amen. They just don't. So we don't hold on to those things. We learn Christ and he is the one who sets our course and sets our path.

Now what Paul is saying he continues to say is that you've learned Christ and Christ is all you ever need. He says if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. Now, when I first heard this, if when I first read, if you indeed have heard him, I thought to myself, yeah, you know, if you really believed in Jesus to begin with, but again, this is where our translation doesn't quite get us to where we need to go. That's not what Paul is saying. Paul is this language here that Paul is using.

He's assured that they believe as much as a person can be assured in this life. He's assured that they are indeed believers who have heard him. And what happens is though is he's like, "Look, I believe you have heard of Christ, but you need to do something." He continues to encourage them, to

Chapter 10: Ephesians

4:22-23 Put Off the Old Man, Be Renewed in Mind exhort them that you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust. This put off is like take off. Think of it like a piece of clothing. He's like, "Take off that which was old." So some of you probably had old tattered clothes, shirts, pants, coats, ocks, all of those things. We've taken those off and we've removed them.

So this is the picture that Paul is take talking about. This old person, this old sinful person who lived in this way, in this immortal, immoral, greedy, unclean way. Take that off. Take off that former conduct. Take off that former man, that old man.

He he reaffirms this to the Romans in Romans 6. Our old man was crucified with him. That's Jesus. That the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves of sin. Right?

This is one of the keys for us no longer being slaves of sin as we take this off. This is not something that we want anymore. We're leaving it behind. Take off that which is rotting. Paul is saying, "Keep it off because you, me, we have something far better to replace it.

Rather than keeping the old, let's be renewed in the spirit of your mind," Paul continues. Now, the thing about this renewed, a lot of us, like if you renew a car, you renew a piece of furniture, that's like a one-time thing. This is a continuous renewing. That's what Paul is communicating to them. We, as long we are in this life, we are continuously being renewed.

Some of you beat yourselves up on the regular because you're like, I don't understand. It felt like I took several steps forward and then I took a step back and you get after yourself about that. This process, what we call sanctification, this big big big word, this this making us into the image of the sun is a process, a process of renewal that the Holy Spirit works in us on the daily. It is continuous. It is constant.

Also keep in mind this is not a suggestion. This is a command. And this is something that I want us to understand. A lot of us have been taught, well the commands, that's Old Testament stuff. Uh the New Testament is full of commands.

Full of commands. But the thing we need to understand about these commands is because we have the Holy Spirit, we've been given the power and the ability to fulfill those commands, to live those commands, to be true to those commands. And that's the thing that we need to recognize and understand. If you find yourself walking out of alignment with Christ, guess whose fault it is? It's your fault.

It's my fault. It's not his fault because he's given us everything that we need. If someone came along and gave you a billion dollars and you constantly were getting evicted from someplace because you weren't paying your rent, whose fault is that? That's the Christian life. When we're walking in sin, in uncleanness, we've been given everything we need, as my old boss from my high school days, for power and speed by the Holy Spirit of God, everything that we need.

And so, we learn by being renewed by our minds how to live that way.

Chapter 11: Ephesians

4:24 Put On the New Man, This Week's Assignments That you put on the new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. So this new man again is in contrast to the old man. This new man was created according to God meaning in the perfect specifications of God. God is the one who has made that specific specifications and those specifications have been given righteousness which is just being right with God. It's one of these big words that seems all scary but it's just being right with God and holiness being set apart from God.

But the thing that you may have noticed I skipped over is it's true. Real. Plenty of us have been in churches with people who are not truly righteous and truly holy. They present themselves as such. They present themselves as self-righteous, higher and snoody.

There's no love to be found in them. We know what that's talking about. And maybe that's been you at some point. But God is looking for this individual who is true. again that's exampled after Christ. Well, Paul has shown us two things, shown us two walks this morning.

First was the gentile walk. A mind with full engines and no propellers. Understanding that was stuck in moral blackout. a heart that was calloused in past feeling appetites that consume everything and everyone that's around them. And then we saw those two words that but you you have learned Christ not facts about him. You have learned him.

And because you have the old man comes off and the mind begins to get renewed and the new man goes on created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. And so I've got a couple assignments for us this week. Bet you didn't think you were coming to church to get some assignments, but here you go. Take off one old habit of thought or conduct by name. And the thing is, if you're sitting here thinking, I don't have that problem, I suggest you go and spend some time with God because you'll likely find that there's something, no matter how small it might be.

And for some of you, it might be pretty sizable that you need to put off. and stop calling that thing normal because again we find ourselves with this this little thing out here that is against our God and we call it normal. Call it what Paul calls it. Call it old and then take that off and don't put it back on again. Invite the Holy Spirit to renew your mind daily. This is the second thing.

It's so easy for us to just caught up, get caught up in the in the day-to-day things and forget the fact that we have access to God literally living inside of us, literally powering us inside. Literally, we go into the week and we're worried about this, that, and the other thing. We're worried about our behaviors and other people's behaviors and all of these things. And we forget the fact that we literally have the power that created the universe residing within us. And that is a powerful truth.

We need to remember that renewal, it's not an event, it's a partnership. And so the question is, are you doing your part? Give him the first few minutes of your day. Spend time in the word. Spend time in prayer.

And then honestly, do as Paul said, and pray without ceasing. You know, yeah, people are going to think you're weird. I remember one of my my early jobs for just before Holly and I got married, I was driving the forklift. I'd be praying to God out out in the out in the yard. It was like a masonry yard moving stuff around and people were like, "Why do you talk to yourself so much?" Opened up a witnessing opportunity.

But take the time to continue to pray in the morning and throughout the day. Put on the new man deliberately. Choose one act of genuine righteousness. like genuinely looking at the things that Jesus did and ask again, partner with the Holy Spirit and say like, "Lord, how can I love my neighbor today? How can I love my neighbor this week?" And it doesn't have to be something super grand, but I'm going to tell you right now, one of the things I just continue to watch in our society is we're closing in. We're closing in to little pockets and little individuals, and we're not making connections with the people around us. and family.

That's not what we are to be as a family of God. You think about Jesus. Where was Jesus? Jesus was always out and amongst the people and even those people. He was involved consistently and constantly in this world.

And may we do the same. Let's pray. Father God, we are thankful again for this word that you spoke through the Apostle Paul. And Lord, it's this stuff can be challenging, especially if we actually recognize even now that this is hitting us hard, that's hitting us and and it's we're finding that maybe there's something that we we've been holding off, holding to ourselves, keeping to ourselves that is unclean. Maybe we've been involved in a greediness.

Maybe we've allowed our hearts to be calloused when they should not. And I pray that this week would be a week when we would see movement and change. Lord, that if there's any callousness that those calluses would begin to fall off. And Lord, that you would help us to to to literally live out guarding our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus so that we're we're not just beaten on beating up over things we ought not be beaten up on. But Lord God, that you would grant us the wisdom and you would continue to mold us and shape us to be more and more and more like you each and every day.

And it's in your name we pray. Amen.