Sermon Cloud

II) REGENERATE HEART

A few weeks ago we talked about the fact that in the first three chapters of Ephesians there are zero direct instructions – that Paul was basically providing a theological narrative.  But starting in chapter four, we see the application of the teaching that has been covered in chapters 1-3.  In verse 17 here (“now this I say and testify in the Lord”), this opening phrase calls our attention to the fact that we’re about to get some very direct instruction.  Paul is calling our attention to something – as if he’s saying, “you may have been dozing and daydreaming the past few minutes as I’ve talked, but listen up!  In light of all you’ve just heard, what I’m about to say is extremely important and you don’t want to miss it!”

The instruction is to “no longer walk as the Gentiles do”.  By Gentiles he’s referring to the world, to those who have yet to yield themselves to the Lordship of Jesus.  He’s using the word in a spiritual sense, not an ethnic sense.  And listen to the very pointed language he uses to describe the way the world walks – “darkened”, “alienated from God”, “ignorance”, “hardness”. 

These are not judgmental labels being placed on a particular group of people committing some particular group of sins – this is the spiritual reality of anyone who has not yet received the grace of God through faith in Jesus.  This is the natural state of humanity.

In verse 19, we see what is often the human response to that condition v.19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. (Another translation says, “with a continual lust for more…”)

This Greek word for “impurity” here means freedom with no boundaries, committing acts with disregard for personal or social sanctions, with no shame.  It makes me think of facebook.  There is a huge issue with facebook because people are having compromising pictures of themselves posted on this social networking site where their parents, employers, coworkers, etc have access.  But some people will post them themselves, right?  I’ve seen people who are looking for jobs, actively in the job search, who have put pictures of themselves on facebook where they’re doing a keg stand or in a drunken make out session with somebody.  It may be youthful indiscretion, but it’s more than that – it’s this idea of exercising freedom with no boundaries.  He’s saying that’s what the world often does. 

In this particular context into which Paul is writing, the most blatant abuse of freedom is sexual licentiousness.  But it doesn’t always look like that.  Sometimes “impurity” is actually cloaked in morality.  There are people – religious people – who do their apparent acts of righteousness in such a way that would similarly qualify as “worldly”.  Remember the Pharisees that Jesus often dealt with.  People who arrogantly live in a moral way, thinking that such morality will endear them to God are likewise walking in the way of the world.  Pleasing God is not about religion just like it’s not about becoming callous and being given over to unbridled sensuality. 

All of us, all of humanity, falls one way or the other.  Either defiling ourselves with profligate immorality or with self righteous false morality.  Either way, in our natural state, we are all dead in our sins.

We saw in Ephesians 1 that because we’ve been ruined and ravaged by sin, our only hope is for God to save us – to give us REGENERATE HEARTS (Regenerate – to regenerAte; heart was dead, made alive).  There is nothing we can do to save ourselves – not pray enough, give enough, not avoid doing enough bad things or actually doing enough good things.  As people who are dead in sin, we’re a corpse and all we can do is lie there.  What we need is for God to bring out the defibrillator and light us up. This is a unilateral and gracious work of God that we cannot participate in any more than the body on the operating table can participate with the surgeon in the heart transplant. 

Ezekial 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.

What we saw in ch 1-3 is God saying, I have saved you!  Out of my great love for you, and despite your great and innumerable offenses against me, I have come down in the person of Jesus and rescued you at infinite cost to myself.  I have chosen you, I have predestined you, I have saved you by my grace.  And in that I’ve given you a new capacity to love me, enjoy me and obey me – things you were completely unable to do before because you were dead.  Even more than that I have given you all the rights and privileges of sons and daughters and am making my whole kingdom available to you!  That was the message of chapters 1-3

So the instruction in our passage is, first, to no longer walk as the Gentiles do.  In order to do that we need a REGENERATE HEART. 

III)  RENEWED MIND

But we also need a RENEWED MIND

Look back at verse 20. 

²⁰But that is not the way you learned Christ!— ²¹assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, ²²to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, ²³and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, (see ROM 12)

To not walk as the world does is to put off our old self which is corrupt through our what kind of desires? deceitful desires.  To do that we need to be renewed in the spirit of our minds.  Our regenerate heart has given us a new capacity to love, enjoy and obey God, but the reason we fail to live within that capacity is because our minds are corrupt.  We’re saved by Jesus, but we’re not yet looking like Jesus. 

When I began following Jesus, there was a solid 1-2 year period where the only thing that changed about my life was that I became more judgmental.  My walk remained the same.  In large part because my mind had not yet been renewed.  I didn’t know that it was incongruent to follow Jesus and exploit women.  I thought that a promiscuous life, pursuing every sexual fantasy and desire, was fair game.  But as I began reading the Bible I was quickly confronted on that and saw that it wasn’t the case.  I was shocked.  What? I can’t use women to selfishly fulfill my sexual urges?  Who knew? 

As my mind was being renewed by reading the word of God, my behavior – my walk – began to change.  But my desires didn’t settle down.  Despite a growing desire to please God, I still had a very strong desire to indulge my natural inclinations and drives.  It’s interesting what Paul says of the desires of the old self – he says that they are deceitful and that they lead to corruption. 

Our desires always dictate our behavior.  Whatever we desire most at the time is what we do.  The issue then isn’t primarily with our behavior, it’s with our desires. [EX: eating choc. Cake when on diet – desired cake more than diet]  When God saves us he gives us a new heart with new desires, but they exist as competing desires against those of our sinful nature.  When we place our faith in Jesus, the Spirit of God begins to transform us, but it is a process. 

Our desires compete in our heart, certainly, but also in our mind.  And Paul says here that the desires of the old, sinful self are deceiving – which means that our natural orientation is in fact disorienting.  God gives us new desires for his glory and our good; sin, on the other hand, calls out with desires that we think are for our good, but actually lead to what Paul calls corruption. 

Last year Katy and I took a trip to Philadelphia with her father and grandfather.  Her grandfather was an officer on the USS New Jersey during WWII, which is now docked in the river that runs past Philly.  We were going to tour the ship together –the first time he had been on it since the war.  Our second day in the city as we were driving, Katy’s dad asked which way we needed to head to get to the ship.  Her grandfather, the naval officer who helped command a 900 foot long battleship through the submarine infested Pacific Ocean during a World War, said that we needed to head West – which to him was left.  And I felt so sad for him because I was positive that West was right.  “Man, he must have been a great navigator in his day.  But now he’s a bit older and it would be easy to get confused with all of this driving –he probably needs a nap”.  So I chimed in and said, well, you might be right sir, but I’m pretty certain it’s right.  He objected, but in turn I objected again.  And humbly he submitted to my young, sharp, alert mental faculties as we drove in my suggested direction, the wrong way for 10 minutes. 

What was I thinking?  This man commanded a battleship during wartime in the friggin’ Pacific Ocean.  And even though he’s 80 years old he could probably still whip me.  I don’t know where my sudden streak of confidence came from?

My problem wasn’t just arrogance, it was that when we came into the city on the bus, I was mistaken as to which way was north (I was like Joey on that episode of Friends where they go to London and he has to step into the pop up map to get oriented).  So for the remainder of our trip there – until that point when I was schooled by Katy’s grandpa – I had been making wrong assessments of our bearing. 

That’s what Paul says is happening when we allow our natural desires to command our decisions.  We are deceived by them and lead in the wrong direction. 

Here’s the truth of our natural moral orientation: we’re all as screwed up as I was in Philadelphia.  In the way we view every area of life we are morally askew because of sin.  All of us.  It’s true of our sexuality as much as it is our finances.  It’s true of our work lives as it is of our personal lives.   It’s as true of the way we handle relationships as it is of the way we handle entertainment. 

Here’s what this passage says – your natural moral compass is off.  You’re being deceived by your sinful nature as to what you truly desire.  So put it off.

In the area of sexuality, all of our orientations are off – whether you’re straight, gay, married, single, monogamous, promiscuous, virginal, bisexual or bicurious, whatever.  All of us have viewed and used sexuality in a way that is wrong, and all of us, equally, need to bring our sexuality under the Lordship of Jesus. 

Sex is an act of worship.  That’s what God has created it to be.  How we use it determines what we worship.  If used as God designed and intended, then we experience and enjoy the fullness of it as we worship God with it.  If we use it in any other way, we worship something other than God and are idolaters.  When we use it any other way we end up worshipping ourselves, or somebody else, or mere pleasure, or pursuit, or adventure, or something – but not God. 

But it’s not just sexuality that this applies to – it’s everything.  The way we use sex, the way we use money, the way we use time, the way we use entertainment, the way we use food, by the way we use our careers. 

So I want to ask us some questions that will be revealing for us: 

• How do you view sex?  As a gift of God for the worship of God, or as an entitlement to use as you see fit?
• How do you view money?  As a gift of God for the worship of God, or as an entitlement to use as you see fit?
• How do you view your time?  How do you view entertainment? 
• How do you view your life?  As a gift of God for the worship of God, or as an entitlement to use how you see fit?

Some of us have given ourselves over to the sensuality of entertainment, with a continual lust for more.  Some of us have given ourselves over to the sensuality of money, with a continual lust for more.  Some of us have given ourselves over to the sensuality of achievement, with a continual lust for more. 

But Paul says, put that off by being renewed in your minds.  You need to change the way you think before you’ll be able to change the way you act!

In other words, put off your old self – that old self that is being tricked by deceitful desires into corruption.  You know what that word corruption makes me think of?  It makes me think of that bag of lettuce in the bottom of the refrigerator that’s been there 3.5 weeks too long and is now a half-liquefied puddle of veggie goo.  Just corrupt.  And don’t you hate that.  You get home after work and say, “oh you know what sounds good – a salad!  So you go to the crisper drawer and pull that out.  No!  What is this? 

And your old self, your old man, wants to trick you into believing that you want that.  That you don’t in fact want God; you want sin & self.  That is the deceitfulness of your desires that lead to corruption. 

IV) RESTORED WALK

So we need to think differently – we need RENEWED MINDS.  And when God gives us REGENERATE HEARTS and RENEWED MINDS, we can have a RESTORED WALK. 

Look back at verse 24

²⁴and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

This says that not only can we put off our old selves by the renewing of our minds, but that we can put on new selves – a new humanity. 

Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.  2 Cor 5:17

And this new self – this new identity in Christ is how we define ourselves.  This new self, which is created after the likeness of God in true righteousness, is also the self we allow to direct our desires.  So we put on, like a new set of clothes, a new identity.  And these new desires act like appropriate accessories which complete the new outfit. 

We shed not only our old actions, or walk, but also our old selves, or identity. 

We need to be careful not to confuse our orientation with our identity.

• If you’re someone who is in the habit of hording money and spending on yourself at the expense of generosity but you’ve placed your faith in Jesus, greed is NOT your identity, it’s your orientation. 
• If you’re a woman who has a history of sleeping with a lot of different guys, licentious is NOT your identity; it’s your orientation;
• If you’re a guy who is addicted to pornography
• If you’re someone who doesn’t get much done because you spend all of your time playing video games and watching television (guys)
• If you’re someone who says mean, hateful, critical things about people behind their back
• If you’re someone who is prideful and self-righteous and holier than thou
• If you’re someone who cuts corners on your taxes and fudges expense reports
• If you’re someone who drinks too much alcohol
• If you’re someone who does not keep their word – if you’re any of those things but have committed to following Jesus, those things are not your identity, but they are your orientation. 

And the gospel says to you, you’re no longer identified by your former way of life, by the OLD HUMANITY, by your old orientation, because Christ has died to that for you.  So put off its practices and put on “the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” 

Stop allowing yourself to be defined by what you were.  Put it behind you.  And then with your new, REGENERATE HEART and your RENEWED MIND, go forward in your RESTORED WALK. 

What practices do you need to put off today, and what practices do you need to put on?

What identity do you need to dispose of today?  In what ways do you need to view yourself as a loved and redeemed child of God today? 

V) COOPERATIVELY & CORPORATELY

Here’s the really cool thing about this.  The phrases for “old self” and “new self”, as in put off your “old self” and put on your “new self”, they are actually plural noun phrases.  The greek phrase is kainon anthropon and it means “new humanity”.  So this instruction ins’t to a bunch of individuals only, it’s to a community of people.  Paul isn’t writing to just to church members, he is writing to a church.  So it’s not you and your God; it’s us and our God.   

That means that we’re not going to pursue renewed minds and restored walks as a bunch of individuals, we’re going to do it as a community of people – as a church body. 

God giving us a REGENERATE HEART is a unilateral working of God.  We don’t play a part in that.  But the RENEWING OF OUR MINDS and the RESTORATION OF OUR WALK – those both happen COOPERATIVELY and CORPORATELY. 

What do I mean by COOPERATIVELY and COORPORATELY?  I mean this: the renewing of our minds and the restoration of our walk is what we call sanctification.  And sanctification – or the process of followers of Jesus being made into a greater likeness of Jesus - happens in cooperation with God, and in the context of community.

Philippians 1:6 says: And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ

Philippians 2:12b-13: work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

The work of sanctification is something that God is doing in us.  So obeying him, turning away from our sinful orientation and towards our new identity, our new humanity, isn’t a burden God puts on us, it’s an act of grace he works in us! 

This frees us from both pride and legalism.  This frees us from the feelings of fear and shame when we fail to obey like we ought, it frees us from the weight of trying on our own to be like Jesus (which is impossible without the Spirit of God) and it frees us from pride when we do grow and mature spiritually, because it’s a COOPERATIVE work of God in us.  So we can’t be prideful.

But it doesn’t free us from responsibility, which is why it happens CORPORATELY.  The fact that it happens corporately frees us from the temptation to throw up the white flag of fatalism and say, “well, I won’t do anything and I’ll just live according to my old orientation because God is doing it in me and he can’t fail, and he’ll forgive me when I’m wrong.”  That’s not it at all.  It happens CORPORATELY to provide us with accountability and encouragement. 

Currently the default rate on individual consumer credit loans in America (i.e. car loans, home mortgages, credit cards, student loans) fluctuates somewhere in the neighborhood of 4%-10% at any given time.  This is how most loans in America happen. 

Internationally, in developing economies, there is a concept called micro lending where very small sums of money, between $25 and a few thousand dollars, are loaned to small businesses.  But when they give out these loans, they don’t just make individual loans like we do in America, they tether them to other micro loans in that community.  This way, if somebody is thinking about defaulting on their loan they don’t just have to face the lending institution, they have to face their peers who would also be sunk if they defaulted.  Everyone in that borrowing group has their fate tethered together.  As one goes, so the community goes.  This provides incredible accountability and encouragement.  Do you know what default rates are with those types of micro loans? 1.4% - that means that American consumer credit loans default as much as 3-7 times more often than these micro loans. 

This is the idea that Paul is expressing here.  It’s not about how we as a bunch of individuals think about and use sex, money, time, entertainment, etc. – it’s about how we, as a community do.  This is part of why community is so absolutely important and why we’ve been talking about it for the last month. 

If you’re not invested in a local church, you don’t have any actual community to be encouraged by and held accountable to.  If you come to church, but only attend services and don’t invest yourself beyond that, it’s going to be extremely difficult for you to be properly encouraged and held accountable as you seek to have your MIND RENEWED and your WALK RESTORED.  Furthermore, it’s not just about you anyway!  It’s not about the persons of God; it’s about the people of God.  It’s not you and your God, it’s us and our God. 

Heb 3:13 says: But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Hardened by the what of sin?  Deceitfulness.  There it is again – sin, the old desires, trying to deceive us.  That’s one reason it’s imperative and life giving to be in true, genuine, transparent, biblical community – so that we can, by encouraging one another, protect and defend one another against the deceitfulness of sin and steer each other away from corruption – steer each other away from planting ourselves in the metaphorical veggie goo in the bottom of the metaphorical fridge of our lives. 

 VI) CLOSING

What’s our response to this?  It’s going to be fairly simple.  I’m not an academic or super theological or even very pious, so I want to make this pretty simple – simple, not easy. 

If you’re a Christ follower and God has taken from you your heart of stone and put within you a heart of flesh; if he has made you a new creation, then here’s you’re take home: be renewed in your mind by reading the word of God, meditating on it, memorizing it, and process it in Christian community. (Ps 119:9)  Sanctification will not happen automatically and it will not happen alone.

As you read and study the Bible, as you ingest it, God will use it to change you.  If you’re not experiencing renewal of your mind, it’s probably because you’re not spending time hearing the voice of God through the scriptures.  If the devotional time you spend reading the Bible is shallow and perfunctory, the sanctification you experience is probably going to be limited.  In addition to giving yourself to the scriptures, be involved in community.  If you’re on the fringes of church, or visiting different churches all the time or attending sporadically – stop.  Make the decision to invest yourself in a church that believes the Gospel, loves one another and serves the city.  The important thing is that you are engaged, sincerely and deeply, with other Christ followers who can encourage you and hold you accountable.  If you’ll do those two things, then what will happen is you’ll start to shed your old identity, and more and more you’ll find yourself putting off your old ways of walking and putting on new ways and your life will begin to look more like Jesus’ as your affections for him increase and  your desires change. 

If you’re not a Christ follower today, if you’re pretty certain that the heart you have is the same one you’ve always had and you’ve never confessed to God your vast sin and trusted Jesus’ work on your behalf for the forgiveness of that sin, then here is your take home: hear the Gospel and embrace it!  Just hear the Gospel and embrace it! It’s not burdensome; it’s freeing.  Whatever your orientation is, God loves you.  And by extension, we, the people of God – the church - love you and want to see you flourish.  We don’t want you to sit under the weight of a bunch of moralistic rules.  We want to see you freed to live in the complete freedom and joy of obedience, worship and fellowship with God.  That’s what you were made for. 

Despite the fact that you have turned your back on God, mocked God and even hated God, he loves you an incredible amount.  An excruciating amount.  In fact he loves you so much that he gave his own son over to die for you.  Jesus lived the way that you were supposed to live, and died on a cross because you didn’t, so that the justice of God wouldn’t have to fall on you.  As the house of God’s righteous judgment was falling in on top of you, he threw himself over you to shield you from the blow.  His call to you tonight is to trust him, to throw yourself on his mercy – apart from your insufficient attempts at good works or your false sense of being a good person – and worship him as King.  He stands ready and eager to embrace you; don’t miss that tonight, and don’t miss out on that.