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Ephesians 4:17-24 - You’re A New Person In Christ · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his word and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. It's been a little bit at the
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  time of this recording, I think it's been probably week, week
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  and a half since I've recorded an episode of Tabernacle Talk.
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  So it's good to be back in quote UN quote the studio, by which I
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  just mean my regular office and excited to look at Ephesians
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  chapter 4 today. We're going to be in Ephesians 4
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  verses 17 through 24, Ephesians 4 verses 17 through 24.
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  And here Paul is, he's writing about the outworking of the
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  gospel. He is going to be talking a
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  little bit to the Ephesian church about what that means as
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  far as their their lives. They're the old word would be
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  conversation. It's their lifestyle.
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  The way in which they carry themselves ought to be different
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  now than before they accepted Jesus.
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  And so we're going to read through these 7 verses,
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  Ephesians 417 through 24, and we'll see what the Lord has for
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  us today. And I'm looking forward to it.
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  Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord, you should
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  no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their
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  thoughts. They, they have useless, empty,
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  futile thoughts. They are darkened in their
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  understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the
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  ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their
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  hearts. Kind of that pairing, their
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  ignorance that is in them and the hardness of their hearts
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  that they don't know about Jesus, they don't know about
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  God. Whatever they do know about him,
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  they're refusing. So Paul saying, don't act like
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  those that are not Christians, verse #19 they became callous,
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  calloused to, if you will, the prodding of the Spirit on their
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  conscience, and they overtime refused to hear, refused to
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  hear. And so as a result, they became
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  callous. I play guitar.
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  I don't play guitar nearly enough.
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  I need to do that a little more. But when you play guitar
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  regularly, you get calluses on your finger, on your fingers,
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  and that makes it to where as you're pressing the different
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  strings, you can play it for a really long time and it doesn't
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  hurt you. And here that is what has
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  happened to these people that are without God.
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  They through rejecting him over and over and over again, they've
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  become calloused where they no longer feel the prodding of God
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  on their soul, on their conscience.
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  It says they became callous and gave themselves over to
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  promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a
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  desire for more and more to hear promiscuity.
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  There's sexual immorality that was rampant in the 1st century
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  AD and frankly today in America, and I'm certain in some other
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  locations as well, this is not a new problem.
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  This is a very old problem. We all want to do what our flesh
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  wants to do. And here for sexual immorality,
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  this is something that for so many people is an idol.
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  Back in, you know, the ancient world, it was literally an idol,
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  like when you went to worship and especially if you wanted
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  good crops and if you wanted your wife to have a child, you
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  would go to these temples of these false goddesses of
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  fertility and you know, rain and stuff like that.
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  And immorality and prostitution was just a regular way that you
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  quote UN quote worshipped. And so being promiscuous,
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  especially as a as a man, if you were, if you were a woman, you
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  were strongly discouraged from being promiscuous.
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  You could, in some instances you could be killed for promiscuity.
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  If you were a slave, which would be a little over half of the
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  population of the Roman world, you would definitely not be
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  encouraged to be promiscuous. But as a a male, it was
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  something that you were seen as important.
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  Anyone that was under you, women, slaves, children,
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  whoever, you had a right to use them however you wanted.
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  And Paul's telling the Ephesian church, even though there's all
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  of this wickedness around you, that's not supposed to be who
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  you guys are. You are, you are the people of
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  God. You are called to fidelity.
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  You're called to have that one man, one woman connection for
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  one life. You're not called to just do
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  whatever you want with whoever you want, whenever you want.
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  And here it says they gave themselves over to promiscuity
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  for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for
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  more and more. It never stops.
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  There's no point that you will hit and be like, OK, cool, I'm
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  done with sin now. I'm I'm happy I've had my fill
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  of it. No sin will always want more and
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  more and more from you. So don't go down that road.
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  Don't live like the Gentiles. They don't know God.
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  They have not listened to his word, not listen to the gospel,
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  and they have behaved in such a way that they just live for
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  their own pleasure. Don't live like that.
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  Verse 20. But that is not how you came to
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  know Christ, assuming you heard about Him.
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  And we're taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus to take off
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  your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by
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  deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and
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  to put on the new self, the one created according to God's
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  likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.
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  All right, this is one of Paul's like run on sentences.
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  So there's kind of three, it looks about like 3 different
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  sections here. So verses 20 and 21.
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  First, he says that is not how you came to know Christ.
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  You didn't come to know Jesus through living immorally.
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  He says, assuming if you know Christ, here's what it means to
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  know Christ. You heard about him and we're
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  taught by him as the truth is in Jesus to take off the former way
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  of life, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put
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  on the new self. So that's that sentence all
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  together. All right, hearing about Jesus.
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  If you don't hear about Jesus, you cannot become a Christian.
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  You can't become a Jesus follower if you've not heard
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  about Jesus. OK, well, who tells people about
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  Jesus? You and I do.
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  We are the ones that are called in the Great Commission to make
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  disciples of all nations, of our family members, of our
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  coworkers, of our neighbors, of the people that God brings us
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  into relationship and contact with.
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  We are to extend the gospel of Jesus Christ to them.
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  That's what it means to be a Christian is to make more
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  Christians and to make disciples.
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  That is what we are called to do.
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  So we have heard about Jesus and I want you to think back in your
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  life. Who told you about the Lord?
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  Maybe it was your parents, maybe it was a pastor, maybe you grew
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  up in church, maybe it was a a Co worker or a friend who told
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  you about Jesus. Now, who in your life can you
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  pass that on to? And it might take a long time.
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  It's the Bible talks about it like planting seeds and watering
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  them and doing some wedding. And God's the one that gives the
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  increase. God is the one that knows who
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  will be saved and when they will accept him.
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  Our job is just to be faithful, to share and to love and to, if
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  you will, kind of water whatever conversations we can have along
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  the way to either help counter lies from the culture or from
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  false religions and to tell them the truth of God's Word.
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  But we are expectant on the Lord to do this.
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  But you and I are here not just to live our lives, not just to
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  make money and to have kids and to go on vacations.
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  That's not why we're here now. In God's good Providence, He
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  gives us those opportunities to be able to partake in those
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  things. What a joy.
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  But He is all but He has placed us here for the purpose of
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  making disciples. So let's do that.
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  Let's tell other people about Jesus so that they can hear
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  about Him just as we have. So he says, assuming you heard
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  about Him. And we're taught by Him as the
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  truth is in Jesus. I love that, that we were taught
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  by Christ to know Him. How does Jesus teach us to know
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  him? Well, number one, first and
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  foremost, through the gospel that declares who God is, what
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  our sin is, the relationship that God wants to have with us
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  and what our future is. So the gospel teaches us to know
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  Christ and that comes not through well, it comes through
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  Jesus's self revelation. He says, here's who I am.
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  And he showed us for that, you know, 3033 years of his life.
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  He showed us who he is. And then there's also an aspect
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  where because of the Holy Spirit, who's called the Spirit
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  of Jesus, that God resides within us.
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  And So what the Holy Spirit teaches us, as we hear from the
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  Word of God, as we hear from fellow Christians, as we pray,
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  as we meditate in all of those things, the Holy Spirit will
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  bring to mind truth about Jesus. He will teach us who he is, how
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  he views us. He will teach us the the fruit
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  of the Spirit, the Lovejoy, peace, patience, long-suffering,
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  gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.
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  That's what he teaches us and we are taught by Christ.
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  I want to encourage you, this might sound self aggrandizing.
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  I don't mean it to be when you turn on Tabernacle talk, when
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  you turn on, you know, whatever other thing that teaches you the
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  word of God, don't go, OK, I'm learning from Brian.
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  I'm learning from Ron. I'm learning from Andy.
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  No, my friend, we are learning from the Lord Jesus Christ.
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  We are listening to His voice through His Spirit, taking His
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  Word to our hearts. May we come to the Word
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  expecting not to hear from man, but to hear from God.
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  Let's listen for His voice, even past the human voice.
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  So we've heard about Jesus. We've been taught by Him as the
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  truth is in Jesus. We were taught by Christ these
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  three really important things. Number one, to take off your
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  former way of life. This is to repent.
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  I used to be the drunk addict who was cheating and just had a
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  foul mouth. I, I blasphemed, I cursed out
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  people that used to be who I was.
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  Selfish gambling, you know, just to think any and all vices.
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  That's who I used to be, but I'm taking off here this word, put
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  off it. It's like to take off articles
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  of clothing that right now I've got like this over shirt and I
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  can take it off and it is no longer on me.
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  We are called to repent of our sin.
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  That I don't want to live the way that I was living.
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  I want to live in God's way, in the new way.
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  So and then he describes this former way of life is the old
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  self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, the old self
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  that's corrupted by deceitful desires that you and I have
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  desires to get back at people, to be bitter to, you know, be
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  gluttonous to drink to, you know, all of these different
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  things that maybe in moderation, not all of our desires are evil.
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  Our desires come from God. Your desire to eat food is not
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  an evil desire. Your desire for intimacy or
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  companionship isn't an evil desire, but it became a
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  deceitful desire as sin took that and said run with it.
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  Make that determine how you make your choices instead of letting
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  God determine how you make your choices.
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  And so we are to put off the old self, the one that doesn't know
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  how to say no to you. We put off that that former way
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  of life and the sin and evil and it says to be renewed in the
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  spirit of your minds. So we take off the old clothing.
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  We have a total change in the mind.
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  It's what the Old Testament prophets from Moses all the way
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  to like Jeremiah and Isaiah would call the circumcision of
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  the heart that you needed to be set apart to God.
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  Not just on the outside, not just what in you do, but in who
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  you are, your core, your inner thoughts, and your heart,
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  attitude and the way in which you worship and relate to God is
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  called to be set apart to him. How does that happen?
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  Through the Holy Spirit's work, we learn from Jesus to be
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  renewed in the spirit of our minds that the way we used to
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  think about things, we don't think about it that way anymore.
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  The way we used to think about our relationships, we now think
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  it a different way because of who we are in Jesus, because of
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  the gospel, because of the forgiveness and the love that we
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  have been shown, we are challenged to live in a
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  different way. And so our minds are remade.
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  They are renewed by learning from Jesus, learning from the
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  Word, learning from the Holy Spirit.
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  So we take off our former way of life.
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  We are renewed in the spirit of our minds.
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  And then we're 24 and we put on the new self, the one created
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  according to God's likeness and righteousness and purity of the
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  truth. There is a real new you if you
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  have accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
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  When you got saved, you became not just who you used to be, you
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  became someone brand new and you were not just a a new human, you
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  were a new kind of humanity, one that is created according to
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  God's likeness. You are like God in who you
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  truly are. Now you're different.
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  You are one that is clothed in righteousness and you have a
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  purity of the truth that you are.
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  You have a sincerity in the belief of God's truth as
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  expressed in the gospel and the Word of God.
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  And because you believe that, and because you are a St. that
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  is headed for heaven, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus
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  Christ, everything is new. And so put off the old clothes.
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  Put off the old way of doing things.
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  Change the way you think according to the Word of God and
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  the Holy Spirit at work in you, and then start putting on the
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  new man. Put on the new clothes and you
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  might be like, all right, well, what are the new clothes?
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  What, what does it look like to begin walking in this new Jesus
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  way? We're going to look at that next
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  episode. And I'm super excited for that
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  because it gets really practical of put off this action, put on
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  this action and it's just really, really practical for us.
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  I, I want to say one thing as we bring this episode to a close.
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  The real you is not the Sinner. The real you is not the one that
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  cannot forgive. The real you is not the one that
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  has to do whatever your flesh tells you.
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  The real you is the one that is like Jesus.
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  The real you is the one that has a home in heaven.
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  The real you is the one from Ephesians chapter, one that is
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  beloved by God, chosen by Him before the foundation of the
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  world. The real you is the one that is
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  sealed with the Holy Spirit, that is the particular special
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  possession of God Almighty. The real you is the one that
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  doesn't have any sin on your account.
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  There is an old you and there's an old me that we fight every
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  single day, but they will not win.
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  They might win a couple skirmishes here and there with
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  us, but the old self, the one that we don't want to be here,
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  the one that is, is a slave to sin, is dead and dying.
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  And the real us, the righteous us, that's the one that we will
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  have for all of eternity. And in that moment that either
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  Jesus returns or we die, the old self, the sinful, you and me,
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  it's gone forever. And we will always walk in
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  goodness with a completely remade human nature because of
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  what Jesus did for us, that he passed through death willingly,
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  sacrificially, and because he took on human form, died a
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  perfect sinless death. When He rose again and rose in
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  power and rose in a glorified body, He promised that same
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  transformation and change to every person that will turn in
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  faith to him. Repent of their sin and believe
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  in Jesus for salvation. Our future is as bright as the
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  promises of God. While you and I struggle with
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  sin today, that struggle is not forever.
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  And one day that sinful you and me.
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  He's going in the grave and He's never rising again, and we will
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  live forever in perfect unity and and joy and happiness with
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  God and with all of his people and all of creation, because
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  that is who our God is. He is the restorer, He's the
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  wonder worker, and He is a worthy God to praise.
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  Thanks for tuning in today. I hope that this was an
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  encouragement to you. Looking forward to tomorrow.
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  Just a really, really practical episode on put off this
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  behavior. Put on this behavior.
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  Thanks for tuning in.