You're New [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

Most Christians read the Bible in the wrong way. We tend to pull out verses or even sections, and instead of seeing where does this fit in the great redemptive story, we try to analyze what that verse means unto itself. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series called Ephesians as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. You hear about the minister who went to visit a parishioner, older lady. She'd been asking the pastor to please come by and visit with her sometime. So finally he did. He came by and saw lights on in the house. He knocked on the door. Nobody came to the door.

He was pretty sure that he had heard activity in the house. He thought someone was there. He knocked again.

Nobody ever came. And so playfully, he left a note at the front door. He said, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. And whoever would allow me in, I would come and fellowship with him. He was amused that week when he came to the pulpit and there was a note on there from the lady and it said, I was in the garden but I was naked and afraid.

So I did not come to the door. Are you ready for some good news today? God has no intention of leaving you naked in your shame. He has from the very beginning intended to give you exactly the right covering. We are in Ephesians chapter four. We're now moving into what some would call ethical exhortations that accompany this incredible proclamation of the gospel that we've been studying in Ephesians one, two, and three. And today we come to chapter four and what we're going to see is absolutely vitally important to understand as Christians. And that is how it is that the gospel empowers real change in our lives. His grace does change everything.

And what we want to focus on is just how it is that you are being renewed. And we're going to pick up reading in Ephesians chapter four verse 17. Ephesians four verse 17. Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their heart.

They've become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus to put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. When you read the epistle to the Ephesians this letter that Coleridge has called the divinest composition of man would have some have called the most sublime of all of Pauling literature. This utterance of the Holy Spirit through the pen of the apostle Paul is just absolutely so majestic. And you read chapters one, two, and three and there's not one single word in chapters one, two, and three about how then the Christian should live. It's not till you get to chapter four. In fact if you just look at the beginning of chapter four you'll see how Paul begins chapter four with this big hinge right here. He says, I therefore urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. So the only way to understand chapter four is to have been immersed in chapters one, two, and three.

So this is absolutely important. And I've just become increasingly convinced that most Christians read the Bible in the wrong way. We tend to pull out verses or even sections and instead of seeing where does this fit in the great redemptive story we try to analyze what that verse means unto itself. So if you were to take chapter four and you were just to read verses 17 and 18 or read the words put off your old self and if that's what you knew of the gospel then you'd think that the gospel message was primarily about you changing your behaviors.

But what we know instead is there's something much deeper and much richer that is going on. And what we're going to see today is that absolutely our behaviors and our thoughts matter completely to God and they matter so much for who we are in this world. But what I want you to see is the order in which change really happens in our lives because change really comes by a deep and dynamic process of the gospel that's at work within us. And so we're going to focus in on this idea of putting off the old, putting on the new, and at the heart of this beautiful phrase of Paul's, a phrase that he really coins and uses here alone to be renewed in the spirit of your mind and what that really means.

Okay first let's talk about the old self. He speaks in these opening verses about putting away the old and he refers to the Gentiles which is interesting because Paul is writing to the Ephesian Christians and they were Gentiles. But this just shows how much Paul believes what he said earlier in the epistle is that Jew and Gentile have become one new man because we've both been reconciled in Christ.

So so thoroughly is he convinced that we're no longer Jew or Gentile but we're now the people who are in Christ that when he references this and he says you're not like the Gentiles even though he's really speaking and writing to Gentiles, to non-Jewish people. And he talks about putting off the old. I read a blog this week happened upon a father was telling about a funny day in which his son went to kindergarten and his the little boy discovered once he got there that he had two pairs of underwear on.

Evidently in his haste to get ready that morning the little boy had remembered to put on some fresh underwear he had just forgotten to take off the old underwear. And so part of what Paul is saying part of what Paul is saying here is if you want to enjoy the new and the fresh you have to take off the old right because otherwise the new and the fresh doesn't feel so new and fresh. And he's talking about the nature of what it is like to be apart from Christ. And the words that jump out here is speaking of those that are darkened in their understanding.

In other words the image of light is that you shine the light on something and you see what it is but if it's dark you can't see what it is. And you understand that the reason that we know Christ is because God has revealed himself in Christ. We didn't climb up and find him, God has revealed him. And so what he's referring to are people who have not seen the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.

That's who he's referring to darkened in their understanding. And the two words that really carry the freight here are the words futility and ignorance. Futility and ignorance is a picture of life that is apart from from Christ. Futile means pointless, vain or empty, meaningless.

This word is describing even the life that is very busy, maybe even very accomplished, maybe even very affluent, maybe even very much what others might think would constitute real life. But apart from being linked to a cosmic ultimate eternal purpose, in other words not really knowing why you're even here and what it's all about, that this is what Paul is saying is futile. This is a futility of thinking. And so it is that in many ways our culture not real different from Roman culture with a lot of emphasis on both pleasures and performances. And even if someone who is appearing to have accomplished so much doesn't have an understanding of what it's all about, then we would call that futile thinking. Right?

What's the point of all of this? I was coming across an interview back in about 2005 with Super Bowl, three-time Super Bowl winner and superstar quarterback Tom Brady. Tom Brady has won three Super Bowls and in 2010 he signed a contract for four years, $72 million contract with the New England Patriots, highest paid player in the NFL. But if he runs out of money, he's okay because he's married to the highest paid super model in the world and they have quite a big place in California, quite a big place in New York. And I don't know much about Tom Brady, but he seems like a really nice guy and is well-loved, well-respected.

But in this interview back in 2005, it was very interesting. One of the things he said, Brady said, he said, I put incredible amounts of pressure on myself. When you feel like you're ultimately responsible for everyone and everything, even though you have no control over it, you still blame yourself if things don't go right.

I mean, there's a lot of pressures. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. How you see yourself determines how you live. In an 11 message series, Pastor Alan Wright takes you on a thrilling journey through the letter to the Ephesians. It'll flood your soul with good news and empower you to discover who you are in Christ. When you make your donation to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll not only send you the digital downloads of the entire transformational Ephesians series, but we'll also send you a printable copy of Pastor Alan's booklet, highlighting the most important scriptures about your identity in Christ. Make your gift today and discover a whole new way of seeing your life.

Isn't it time to finally find out who you really are? When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, hey man, this is what it is.

I reached my goal, my dream, my life. But me, I think, God, it's got to be more than this. I mean, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be. I mean, I've done it. I'm 27.

And what else is there for me? And the 60 Minutes interviewer, Steve Cross, said, what's the answer? And Brady said, I wish I knew.

I wish I knew. That's what I'm just saying. I think Paul's referring to futility of thinking, you know.

So in other words, what Brady was saying here was 10 Super Bowl rings wouldn't make him feel like there was a big point to his life. The second word that holds a lot of the freight here is this word ignorance. And ignorance means not knowing, right?

It's not about a low IQ. Years ago when our church was in this awful lawsuit and I was deposed for three days. It was too long. And I was asked tedious question after tedious question for three days. And your brain starts feeling like mush and you're trying not to say the wrong thing. And so most of my answers were, I don't know and I don't remember. And after a while when you're, after a while when you're, which is true, I don't know and I don't remember most things. But after about three days of this, part of the trick, I think, in a deposition is that you start feeling so dumb that you just want to say something, you know.

And that's where you probably would stumble. But I came out of one of the depositions and God bless him, our executive director, Mickey, was so faithful to be there for all my depositions. I came out one time, I said, Mickey, I said, I just feel so dumb. And he looked at me very seriously said, you are not dumb, just ignorant, not dumb. I said, thank you, Mickey, thank you.

That gift of encouragement that it has. But Mickey is one who understands what words mean. Ignorant is not necessarily pejorative, really. It just means you don't know. And I really was, I was ignorant of most of the things they were asking me. I just didn't know the answer. And now if he'd asked me, you know, questions about what Paul had written to the Ephesians, I could answer some things like that. But asking me a lot of questions about the finances of the church and everything else, I just didn't really know. And so I was ignorant. And what Paul is saying is here is that there's a kind of ignorance of just not even being aware, not knowing, this is what life is apart from Christ, just not knowing what it's all about.

So therefore your thinking is futile, it seems pointless, but also you're just ignorant of the real deal. I read a story years ago back in a former era when the circuses would come to little towns and process down the street. And it came to one small town and there's a boy there that always wanted to go to the circus. And this one year someone had given him a ticket and his mother said he could go.

And so it was just one of the, back in the days where the streets were safe and children could roam around. And he went down to go see the circus and he got down to main street and here he saw clowns were juggling and making kids laugh, walking down the street. And then big elephants came with their trunks and tails clasped and they walked down and he was amazed at the elephants and then acrobats came tumbling down the street and all this fanfare and he was so delighted by it all that at the end he handed his ticket to a man that looked like he was in charge and he ran home to tell his mother all about it.

Imagine how sad his mother was to report to him that he had not seen the circus, he'd only seen the parade. But see he was just ignorant of the fact that there was something much bigger than this. I think this is what Paul's talking about. He says this is what life is apart from Christ and what he says is there's a process that takes place when you're thinking is when your understanding is darkened and you don't have revelation about what life is all about then what happens he says is that the heart becomes calloused because you begin to just try to pursue things that would be either pleasurable or or you were trying to find meaning from it even though it still feels futile to you. And so what he says the gentiles and their darkened understandings they their hearts become calloused and what a callous really is it's just a place on your skin that gets tough right so that um it doesn't feel pain anymore. I used to play tons of tennis as a kid so I always had thick calluses a couple places on my right hand and it meant I would never get a blister there. I had some blisters that first started but you never get a blister um where you have the calluses or if you play the guitar the tips of your fingers become callous and it doesn't hurt to depress the steel strings of a guitar anymore so calluses have a function. They they cause you to lose sensitivity and this is what's being described of the heart that's apart from Christ is that over time um that you just begin to have like calluses on your heart so things that you once were sensitive to things that might have pricked your heart at one time things that might have seemed wrong to you at one time just don't even feel you don't feel it anymore it's it's like the spiritual nerve endings are covered up and so you don't really feel it and so what happens the calloused heart is that the gentiles darken an understanding given themselves up to all kinds of wrong behaviors and Paul describes all of this and then he he stops at this point and he says he's essentially saying but this isn't you he says and uses a very interesting phrase he said but you did not learn Christ that way and what's very interesting is that this is the only place that we can find in any ancient Greek literature of any time where somebody would use a phrase like this because you could learn a virtue you could learn a book you could learn a system of education but what he's saying is is you learned a person this is not the way you learned Christ and in other words what Paul is saying and this is consistent with the whole way that the new testament challenges us towards ethical living is that wherever there is sin wherever there is futility wherever there is calloused heart wherever there's essentially what the bible has to say to the Christian is if you're acting that way it's it's just to stop it why because that's not who you are see and by the way this is a important point for all parents this is the way we should talk to our kids right so if your kid is is acting up and acting foolishly their flesh wants to say you're a fool the flesh wants to say you're a bad kid but in reality what the wise parent says is you're not a fool you're you're a child of God you're my child and I love you and so stop acting that way that's not who you are you see in other words you tell somebody you're more than that and you were made for more than that and that's the way Paul's talking right so that's very different than a curse isn't it it's actually a blessing it's a way to speak to somebody to correct them in your blessing so Paul is actually speaking to the Ephesians and he's saying that's not how you learned Christ you're not like that and so he then begins to speak about taking off the old putting on the new and he references here what he calls being renewed in the spirit of your mind it's an absolutely fascinating phrase because these are two greek words that normally you would never see together spirit and mind that Paul joins together he really coins a phrase here and I don't really know of another place where you would see these words together like this because he's not really referencing the holy spirit who indwells every believer he's not really saying the holy spirit affecting your mind he's saying something different than that and I don't think he's just speaking about the human spirit the human born-again spirit I think he's saying something a little different than I think he's saying that there is a motivation an attitude a force of some type that is shaping all of your thoughts that he's talking about something deeper than behaviors and deeper than just mere thoughts he's not talking about individual thoughts although they're important what I think he's referencing here is the the very force or motivational factor that is shaping everything that you think in other words to say the spirit of the mind is to point to the guiding principles that form your thoughts in other words not just what you think but why you think that way I think that's what he's talking about here so for example I was thinking of one of Shakespeare's great tragedies Othello in which maybe you know the the famous story Othello uh the love of his his his life uh is Desdemona and um he just loves her so much and but there is an an evil character Iago that um through his wiles and deceptive techniques he plants the thought with Othello that Desdemona is being unfaithful to her husband Othello and so the tragic flaw in Othello is his jealousy because whatever that is it just turns something in his heart and he begins to be suspicious and jealous so when by a clever ruse Iago manages to take Desdemona's prize handkerchief that Othello had given her and he gets it to another man who then in turn gives it to a mistress and then Othello realizes that this other man's mistress has the handkerchief he immediately tends to think that what has happened here is that the other man had had an affair with Desdemona and then he got the handkerchief from her and then he gave it to another woman so his thinking it becomes very clouded because of his jealousy in other words because you could say the spirit of his mind was a jealous spirit that he was predisposed to have thoughts that would match the spirit of his mind Alan Wright and today's teaching you're new it's from the series Ephesians and Alan is in the studio and back here in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and a final word how you see yourself determines how you live in an 11 message series pastor Alan Wright takes you on a thrilling journey through the letter to the Ephesians it'll flood your soul with good news and empower you to discover who you are in Christ when you make your donation to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll not only send you the digital downloads of the entire transformational Ephesian series but we'll also send you a printable copy of pastor Alan's booklet highlighting the most important scriptures about your identity in Christ make your gift today and discover a whole new way of seeing your life isn't it time to finally find out who you really are the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support when you give today we will send you today's special offer we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor alan.org Alan in this series and in his teaching today somebody listening right now and they feel like they've messed up and they've blown it and and now they're hearing this that says you're new and they're thinking I could use a fresh start yeah yeah well we are both made new in the sense that that which was dead to God is made alive as a miracle so there's something like the resurrection that happens for anyone who accepts Christ but there's another thing that happens and Paul teaches about this and we're going to learn more about it tomorrow but you're being renewed in the spirit of your mind it's a unique phrase in the scripture it's not just what you think but it's about the way that you think not just how you think but why you think that way and I think this is so much of what Paul is getting across here is that when you're new you begin to think about your life about others and about the world in a whole new way and it's as we'll see it's like the image of putting on clothing it's an inward change but then it gets reflected as if you put on clothing that matches it God is committed to having invested so much in you to take you into not only this new position in Christ but let it become part of every fabric of your being that's what it means to be made new today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries