In Ephesians 4:17-31, the message centers on put off the old self and renew your mind. Discover Ephesians 4:17–31 on putting off the old self, renewing your mind, and living a transformed life marked by truth and grace. Rather than treating the passage as abstract theology, the sermon traces what these truths reveal about God, the gospel, and the way followers of Jesus are called to live.
The sermon follows the biblical text into practical discipleship, connecting doctrine with identity, character, and daily obedience. It challenges listeners to examine the assumptions shaping their lives and to allow the truth of Scripture to renew the way they think and respond. The emphasis is not merely on understanding the passage, but on becoming the kind of people whose lives are formed by it.
Along the way, the message engages themes including Ephesians 4:17-31, put off the old self and renew your mind, ephesians 4, renewing mind. These ideas help place the primary passage within the larger story of Scripture and show how its theology speaks to real spiritual formation. At its heart, the sermon helps answer questions such as: What does Ephesians 4:17-31 teach about put off the old self and renew your mind? It also considers how should put off the old self and renew your mind shape the way Christians live?
For someone studying this passage, exploring the Christian faith, or looking for practical biblical teaching, this sermon offers a clear path from the text to everyday discipleship. The invitation is to hear what Scripture says, receive it with humility, and take the next faithful step in following Jesus.
What does Ephesians 4:17-31 teach about put off the old self and renew your mind? | How should put off the old self and renew your mind shape the way Christians live? | How can believers apply Ephesians 4:17-31 in everyday life?
Ephesians 4:17-31, put off the old self and renew your mind, ephesians 4, renewing mind, put off the old self, renew your mind
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I I I had this really funny thought. We've been uh Britney and I have been watching like movies with the kids that we kind of grew up on, like Disney movies. You ever you ever watch like old movies you watch when you were a kid and go, "Oh my gosh, my mom let me watch this." Like like there's some there's I'm sorry, there's some like like we were watching The Mighty Ducks the other day and I was like, "Man, there's a lot of cuss words in this movie." Like like I didn't remember that growing up. Um it was a different time, different era, but we were watching um we were watching Princess Diaries with um our two oldest girls the other day and uh it's it's where this really quirky weird girl finds out one day that she's royalty, that she is like the next queen of what is Govia. Thank you. I almost said Girardella. But it's it's like this funny thing like to go your entire life without knowing that you're royalty, without knowing that like you are this person and now you have this new information and everything changes. And I kind of feel that way as we've gone through Ephesians. We're like now I have all of this information about who I am, about who I'm called to be and and and now I'm an heir with Christ and and and I have access to all these things. is like this changes everything. Like I can't go back to how I used to be now that I know all of this stuff. Anybody else feel that? Or like when you when you find out information about somebody, it's usually bad information. Like somebody says, "Hey, did you know this person did this?" And then you look at them completely different from then on, right? I I I feel that so much when I when I look at Ephesians because again, the first three chapters is here is everything that you need to know. Here is where your heart needs to be. you're you now have access to all of these things and now we're hitting this part in Ephesians 4 and it's like so now because you know this you can't live like that anymore like like you are royalty so stop trying to be that weird quirky kid we're we're we're a little quirky here like let's be real we're Pentecostal that's just how we that's how we roll sometimes that's okay but there's this there's this beauty in this in this passage here I'm going to read Follow along if you've got it or it's up on the screen behind me, but Ephesians 4 17- 24. Can you hit that hit that timer for me, Eric? >> Thank you. 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 their hardness of heart. They have 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 the 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 be put to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness in holiness. Wow. For those of you that have that have been in the faith for any amount of time, it is really hard to put off the old self and put on the new. >> Amen. >> It's it's hard. It's difficult because it's in our nature, in our flesh to continue to walk in those old things, those patterns, those desires that we have. And it's kind of funny because like I I hear so often, why would why would God give me these desires, these sinful desires if not to fulfill them? It's like, no, he didn't give you those desires. It was sin. It was the corruption of our flesh from from the beginning of time. When we came into this world, we came in to sin. And there's corruption within our flesh that keeps pulling us back. And so, again, it's a hard thing. But but you look at Matthew 16 and Mark 8 and Luke 9, it's said over and over and over again in the Gospels, if anyone wants to come after me. If anyone wants to come after Jesus, he must deny himself and pick up the cross. We must die to our flesh and die to our self. And there's a standard that Jesus calls us to. And we're going to we're going to read more about it this morning. But there there are things that we can no longer do when we when we put on the new. Amen. And I I I wrote this down. I thought it was really funny. So many of us, everybody loves God until it's time to live like Jesus, >> right? Like it's it's like God is awesome. like I believe like God help me win this game today like but don't ask me to live like you right like like please give me all the blessings and all this stuff but I don't want to try to act like you because there's this misconception or stereotype of of Christians in the world and I care more about what people think and how they see me than actually living to this standard. We need to realize that this is huge. The the enemy of who God created us to be is not necessarily some devil with horns and a pitchfork. One of the greatest enemies that we face is actually ourselves. It's our flesh. It's that the corruption within us that we we fight with constantly. But if I die to flesh and allow my spirit to lead my life, my flesh is dead. If the spirit leads, the flesh is no more. It doesn't affect me in that same way. And I wrote this down, and this is kind of like a Pirates of the Caribbean thing for me, but dead people feel no pain. Like dead men tell no tales, you know? But if you're dead, we don't feel it. When the enemy comes and tries to draw us and all the I don't feel it because I'm not in my flesh anymore. I'm in the spirit. I'm walking in who he's created me to be. A life worthy of the call looks like dying to self. Um I I this is kind of funny. I I've shared this story a few times with different people, so forgive me if you've heard this, but when my wife and I were missionaries in Thailand, um they got great medical care. Our son was born there. Um it's kind of dated in a lot of the their practices and stuff, but it's really great. The doctors are great, but their bedside manner is terrible. just just I I I sat down with the doctor there and I was dealing with some like sleep stuff. I was really struggling to sleep and you know all the things. And he looked at me. He had me stand up and he literally he had me stand up and like spin around and then sit back down. I'm like what are we doing? Musical chairs. And um he was very blunt and he it literally said this and this is this is an actual quote. He said you are very fat. He's like, "This is why you're sick. You are you are very fat for your height. Like, you're overweight." And I was like, "Thank you." Um, and he's like, "Your sleep is bad and you're getting sick because you are fat." And I was like, "Okay." Um, he said, "If you'll lose the weight, you'll fix your sickness." And I said, "I need a new doctor like right now. I like please somebody I need I need to hear something different here. But it was like horrible to hear that. But he was right. It's funny cuz I ended up losing 30 lbs and then I was fine. He was right. But but again in the moment I'm like can you just give me some medicine? >> Like or is there some kind of like procedure that I can go through like don't make me work for this. Right? We when we can get in this mode, and I'm not knocking medicine, I'm not knocking surgeries or any of these things, but it's kind of funny how so often when it comes to dying to self, we think that all we need is Jesus. And I grew up hearing this often, where all you need is Jesus, he fixes everything. Right? Track with me here. The problem is that we tend to add Jesus to our life like a medication. And we think if I just accept Jesus or if I just go to church or Bible study or all these things and I do the right things, then he's going to fix everything. Like I'm taking my vitamin every single day and somehow I'm getting healthier, right? But but when I look at scripture, that's that's really not what it's saying. There's a transformation that takes place by continuing to grow and disciplining, taking off the old, putting on the new, going back to the Ephesians 1 through3 and reminding myself who I am and who he is. And I continue to to engage with this and grow in this. And I learn who he is in his word. And there's discipline that takes place in this growth. Like like I and I and I I'm sorry if you grew up with this same theology cuz I I did often times I'd go to conferences, they're like, "You just need Jesus." And I'm like, "I need Jesus." And then I leave and Jesus isn't in my life anymore because it was like, "Yeah, give me the fix. Fix my life." And then God's saying, "Okay, let's do it together. It's going to be work. Now, it's time to take off the old. And again, we we can focus on the results and the success rather than the standard that we're called to live by, right? We want success, but not the standard. We want to be happy and we want to be well, but we don't want to lose what's weighing us down. Because I think sometimes we think the weight that we're carrying makes us who we are. The story, the past, the brokenness, the things that I've been facing. Like this is this is a part of who I am. I can't let go of this. I can't give God because this is who I am. I'm carrying this stuff and it's part of my story. But we've we've shared this before, you know, like your story is just a story. It's not it's not a a testimony unless God receives the victory. But but again, we want to carry it like it's our badge of honor, but really it's a burden that is making us sick. Again, we want the pill, Jesus, fix me. But living out the standard that is walked out here in Ephesians 4 is what makes us more like Jesus. It's not just this one time. And and here's the thing, and I've I've shared this before. You know, sometimes we need deliverance. You know, there's demonic things that are taking place, and you need to be delivered. There's a curse that needs to be broken, right? But a curse is not a cycle. Discipline breaks cycles. Deliverance breaks curses. But so often we want the deliverance, but we don't want the discipline. And but we're we're in this perpetual cycle and we're just like, "Oh god, I'm still dealing with this same thing over and over and over again. It's a cycle and it takes discipline to break out of it." I know it's going to be quiet in here today and that's okay because this is going to be hard to hear. But I was like, I'm reading through this and I'm like, "God, help me. Lord, help me." Because the more that I spend time with God, the more he exposes the sin in my heart. the more I get into his word and and even the deeper I go into Ephesians, the more I realize I'm living a whole lot more like the world and culture than I am the kingdom culture, whether I realize it or not. And I think so often we get into these cycles in our mind of of how things are supposed to be or we start thinking like like like all my friends or all these people or everything that I'm viewing and engaging with on social media or people it's shaping who I am a whole lot more than this is shaping me. And that shift takes discipline. It takes turning the phone off. It takes putting everything aside and just spending time in the word. It takes putting everything else aside and and spending time in and meditation and worship and focusing on him, allowing him to to speak to us. And again, I I think so often we're we're constantly looking for another answer because we didn't like what the doctor said. We're trying to find another way to fix the problem, but literally the doctor's like, "This is why you're sick. Let's fix it." Amen. If your doctor said you need to change these things in your life or you are going to die, what's your reaction? Change it. Yeah. But I think I I've heard different answers and so I wrote some of these down. It's kind of funny. Like some people will ask, "Well, how soon? How much longer do I have?" Like what's the timeline here? Like how urgent is this? You know, is this like 5 years or 10 years down the road or is this like coming soon? I know, right? Or it's like, let's go. Let's make the change. Like, let's let's fix this now. Like, this is serious. Like, I'm going to die, so I need to fix this. Or maybe like like I said earlier, we try to get a second opinion. Like, I don't like that. I'm going to die. Okay, let me go see another doctor really quick. Let me see another specialist for whatever this might be. Right? Or maybe we give up and we just accept our fate. I'm too far gone. It's going to be too hard to to make this change. Or this is my favorite one cuz cuz I do this. We complain. God, why why did this happen? Why have I not seen this in my life all this time? Why? Why me, God? You know, I I I feel like I've given so much of my life to you, but still you're saying there's more that I'm holding on to. Or I I feel like I'm doing all the right things, God. Like, why do I why am I still not hearing you? Why Why am I still not being transformed in this way? Why am I dealing with this conflict within my heart? And it's funny because I we I was thinking about this going back to our parable series in Luke 13 where Jesus is is asked about this these horrible things that have happened to people like the when the Romans came in and slaughtered a bunch of Jewish people right by right in the tabernacle near the altar and they're like why did this horrible thing happened? Jesus what what's going on? And then and they talk about you know the tower that fell just randomly and killed a bunch of people. like why did these bad things happen? Like why why me God? Why? Why us? Why? And and again we can we can look and question all of these things, but Jesus didn't answer the question. And I think too often we bring our wise, God, why do I have to fix this in my life? Why do I have to live this way? Why do I have to change? And Jesus's response is this. Fix your heart. because if you don't repent and change your heart, you are going to die as well. And I and I think sometimes we've tried to soften the gospel in order to fit my comfort because we don't like sitting down with the doctor, the great physician, and hearing you are going to die if you don't fix this. Like some of y'all's eyes right now are just like this. Like I'm going to die, you know? Like what? It's really funny though because again I ask why and I'm like God I want the plans. I I want to know all these things but I was I was praying this last week and uh God just hit me over the head with a hammer and was like son I love you but you could not handle the plan if I told it to you. You couldn't handle it because what what I am doing is so much greater. It's exceedingly abundantly greater than anything you've asked for or imagined. And if I told you the plan, you you'd be you'd be you wouldn't understand it. If I if I told you why this happened, it would shake the very core and foundation of who you are. If I if if I could show you what what would happen if you made this change, you wouldn't be able to handle it. Because so often too, like like God wants to make changes within our hearts to prepare us for the next season that we're about to go into. And when we refuse to do that, we're just sitting there going, "Why God? Why, God? Why God?" And we never move forward. We never get to step into the plan. We're like, "God, give me the plan. Tell me what I need to know." But God is saying, "You need to focus on your heart. You need to focus on your sin." Because again, that's not who you are. That's not who I've created you to be. You need to remove it. This is what Jesus died for. Again, it's I said this already, but it's like if Jesus were your doctor and he came in the room and said, "If if you don't change this, you are going to die." What would be our reaction? Because when I read scripture and I take the the comfort softness off of it, all I'm reading is this is how you need to live or you're going to die. This is how we're called to live or you're basically living in hypocrisy. And I and I think as as a church, we need to get back to this hard line because it's the softness and it's the gray areas that has turned the world off to the church. Like the the two greatest reasons that that that people want nothing to do with Christians or want nothing to do with the church is because of lack of unity and lack of purity. where we we talk a big game and we we share this is what the Bible says, but then we don't actually live by the standard that it's calling us to and the world is going, I don't want that. Or we see all of this division within within churches and it's this infighting and we're seeing all these horrible things on social media because again, the bad stuff is always what gets put to the top of the feed, right? And then people like, I want nothing to do with that. I don't I don't I don't want that. But if we would just begin to focus in on our hearts and where we're at, the kingdom will grow. People will begin to go, I want that. I want what you have. I want what's on your life because there's there's purity there. There's unity there. You're united not just with God, but with people. And we're moving in the right direction together. And again, when I when I keep coming back to Ephesians, this is what I'm seeing. And I hope that's what you're seeing, too. that if we're to come together in unity, we have to address our hearts. We can't just assume that I've got it all together or that I'm constantly in this right standing. He said the Gentiles, their walk was characterized by futility in their mind. That was in uh verse 17. that futility. It It doesn't mean that their minds the minds of the lost are empty or incapable of intellectual thoughts. It's just that their minds are filled with things that lead to nothing. And I wonder I wonder sometimes too if if my mind or my heart is on the things of God or am I just thinking about stuff that leads to nothing? there's this ignorance and lack of understanding, this blindness that that's it's really a heart problem. And it and it's interesting because when we start to address different sins within the church and within our lives, we realize that there's this covetousness in the nature of a lot of the sin that we engage with. Let let me explain. So, it's like there's this sensitivity of the heart that we have when we're before the Lord, but when we start to engage in other sinful activities or pathways, it's never enough because we do one thing and it might feel good in the moment, but then in order for us to feel that same sensation again, we have to do it bigger. it continues to have to grow and grow and grow and there's this callousness that begins to form in our hearts. And it's interesting because I've I've found even in myself there's moments where I feel calloused to the presence of God because I've allowed the things of this world to dull the sensitivity of my heart. Has anyone else ever felt that way before? It's like you come you come into the presence of God and you you you you hear a a worship song or you you start hearing hearing a word or a podcast you just like me nothing. This doesn't wow me. This doesn't this doesn't excite me. This doesn't move me. Could it be be could it be that it's not the thing you were engaging with but it's the sin that's calloused us? Like I think sometimes we think, "Oh, this isn't anointed or God's not in this thing." What if he is and it's just you? Because we become so calloused because we've allowed everything else to desensitize us again. We we were seeking after these things to fill our hearts over and over again, and it scratches the itch for a moment, but it never fully satisfies. It's like when I got poison ivy as a kid. It's like I I I used to get it like on my face. I don't know if if my mom might have pictures of this somewhere, but I used to get really really bad poison ivy and it would start small and I just my mom would put oven mitts on me. It never worked. But I'd start small. I'd start itching it and sooner or later it's just like I just keeps it keeps going and it would grow and grow and grow and at some point there was there was no amount of itching and no amount of medicine to put on my face that that gave me any kind of comfort and this is how our hearts get ready the gossip it's not hot and juicy enough so I need to know more and it continues to go and go and go so I can feel that rush my marriage My marriage isn't fulfilling me. So maybe I need somebody new. My fantasies perpetuated by movies, images, worldly ideas have escalated to a point of perversion. My happiness is lacking. I need more things or I need more people that make me happy. Maybe you're lonely and bored. And so we we fill our minds with more entertainment, with more food, with more distractions in order that we feel feel filled. My house isn't big enough. I need more space. My car is not nice enough. The boat, the motorcycle. If I have all these things, then maybe I'll feel better or I'll feel like my life is on track. The money's never enough. I need more stuff. my life would be so much better if I had more. Or the buzz isn't buzzing enough. And now I'm going from just drinking a beer to now I need something harder. I need something stronger because it's not hitting like it used to. The high doesn't hit hard enough. So I need to try a stronger dosage. It's never enough. The things of this world are never enough for us. And what the enemy has has done. It's just it it it it's so diabolical where we've distracted ourselves and filled ourselves up with all of these things to the point where we have almost no sensitivity to the spirit. Because for whatever reason, we think that our our flesh and our bodies are disconnected from our hearts. We pursue things to satisfy. We perpetually get more and more callous and then we lose that sensitivity to the spirit, the pride of life, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, all of these things. But in John 10:10, which is what our our church is named after here, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that you may have life and have it to the full. Having a full life doesn't mean being full of things that make you happy. It's about being right in the sight of Jesus and being in his presence. and his presence filling our lives where we repent, we confess our sins, and he accepts us, he cleanses us, and we begin to grow in the understanding of the fullness of him. And I'm I'm hitting this really hard and and and I'm not going to apologize, but we we look at all of these passages in Ephesians 1 through3 and we're like, man, this is great. like God, like all the things that you have for us in our hearts and and all the things that you've said about me, it's so amazing, right? But it's it's hard to believe that and hold on to that when we're still living in our old life. It's it's hard to say, "I have a new heart, but then I'm still living in all these old ways." We can't put new wine in an old wine skin. It's going to break. it's going to bust. It's not going to work out. And I and I think so often we think like I'm making all these decisions internally and it's just going to magically change my external life, right? Like all these things are happening and so I'm just going to like want to do what God has called me to do. I'm just I'm just going to want to live at this standard because my heart has changed. And don't get me wrong, I I I I've I've had moments in my life where I've been delivered and God has has completely shifted my heart and my actions to begin to align, okay? And that can happen. But I think we so often pursue that rather than discipline, rather than making the changes that we need to make. So again, it starts with discipline. when you're out of shape or you are a shape. I'm waiting. I'm waiting for the laughs there. That that Yeah, round is a shape, guys. Come on. Thank you. You have to be disciplined with what goes into your body and how you use your body, right? We have to be disciplined with what we're taking in to our to our eye gates and into our into our mouth hole. I'm sorry. I thought it was funny to say mouth hole. And then we have to be disciplined in what we do. And and and again, I I'm going to keep saying this because I it's such terrible theology, but like Jesus is not a pill that you swallow and he changes everything in your life. There there are changes and things that we have to do and it's on us. We can't blame and point fingers at somebody else or we can't look at the doctor and be like, I need a different doctor. There's one great physician and his name is Jesus. Again, when I when I fast, specifically when I fast coffee, it is probably the hardest thing that I have to endure in my life cuz I am a caffeine freak. I I I'm drinking way too much coffee and if I don't get a certain number of cups, like I feel it, okay, it's a problem. please pray for me uh as I as I start fasting here in the next week. The withdrawals from that are painful. And so I'm not I'm not knocking this like when you have to start disciplining your flesh because you've been living in this old pattern like it is difficult to make those changes. And here's the thing, we need Jesus in the process. like we when when I'm when I'm feeling like bored out of my mind reading through Ecclesiastes and I'm just like, "God, please help me." Right? Or when I'm when I'm reading through scripture, when I'm when I'm praying and I'm just like, "God, I feel like I'm banging my head against the wall." Like, those are the moments where we cling to the cross and say, "God, I need you." And it's in those those moments of engaging with him that he he begins to help us in the process. But but but so often we think, "I'm doing this all by myself. I'm striving on my own." We have to get into this place where we rely on the Lord to help us, not to do it all for us. And at first, it's painful. We need to take thoughts captive. We need to read the word of God, spend time in prayer. Maybe we need to distance ourselves from from bad relationships or these old patterns or watching certain shows or listening to certain music because it has an influence on us. Maybe we need to stop buying the food that's in the center aisles and buy all the stuff that's on the outside. Hey O. Everything in the middle aisles is junk. It's all processed. Gosh, wouldn't it be horrible if like all the supermarkets like flip that on us? They put all the healthy stuff in the middle, you know. Sorry. Again, it's going to feel like withdrawals. It's painful. It really is. It is painful to walk in discipline and and change the pathways of our lives. But it here's the thing. It starts with discipline, but after a while, it starts to become desire. And this is where it starts to get really fun. like like it's discipline. It's hard. I'm having to change these things about myself with the Lord. He's he's he's transforming me because I'm stepping out and and we're doing this together and it's it's a beautiful powerful thing. And then I again it stops becoming so hard and then it starts to become a little easier and it's something that I want to do. It's like when you when you start working out or you start running, like you get that runner's high and it's like, man, this feels great and it's something that I that I start wanting to to do more or that burn was so good. Like, this is something that feels great and I and I want to do it more. Like, could it be that that God has has revelation and things to to show us to get us coming back again and again? But it's going to take the discipline. It's going to take the the repetition and the patterns before we start to see it and it turns into desire. What if God has been speaking to you all this time, but all the noise and desires of the flesh, needing to be entertained, needing to feel loved, accepted, all these things. What if all those voices became so quiet that just a whisper from God is now heard? Like, how cool would that be? Like, I I I I think sometimes that the prophets and the people of the Bible are looking down on us and saying, "Man, it would have been horrible to be a follower of Jesus with cell phones in the Bible." Like, can you imagine like if they had Tik Tok and Instagram doom scrolling and all these distractions in that day and age? The Bible would read very differently. I feel like so I don't think that these people in the word had it easier, I'm sorry, had it harder than us. I think we have it pretty hard. I think I think the enemy knows exactly what he's doing and trying to distract us and keep us from living this out. I'm not trying to play the comparison game, but just just hear me today. Like, it's hard. It's hard for me. It's hard for for pastors and mentors and leaders in my life to live this out. It it it would almost make more sense to become a hermit and just like live off the grid and just me and Jesus. But but here's what's wild. Like God knew that all of this was going to happen. God knew that there would be distractions. God knew that the enemy was going to be out here strategically trying to go after your kids and go after your mind and go after you with all of these all of these things. He knew it was going to happen and he still said, "We got this. because we have the Holy Spirit. We have they have access to me. They're they're my sons and daughters. Like there is nothing no weapon formed against them will prosper because I'm with them. Like do do we do we see that? Do we do we feel that? Like and again still knowing and accepting that this is hard. It is hard to live this life out. But we get to live it with Jesus. The disciplining our flesh turns to desiring God's ways. And then here's what's so cool, and this is this is where I want us to live as a church, that we would start delighting in Jesus. In Psalm 37, this is a a great verse, group of verses that we've read before. Says, "Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him and he will act. We go from disciplining to desiring to delighting. How cool is it that we can enter into his presence and just mentioning his name can bring a smile to our face and begin to bring joy into those places where we've been mourning and hurting. That's what delighting in him looks like. But but I don't just want to delight in him in one area of my life. I don't want to compartmentalize my faith to I delight in the Lord just on Sundays. What would it look like if every single day we could enter into his presence and delight in him and delight in his ways? Again, we need to make some changes. We need to shift our hearts from being calloused. And I think it'd be so it'd be so easy to just pray a prayer and everything would be changed and fixed. But God is calling us to discipline our hearts that we would begin to grow in sensitivity more and more. Amen. A callous heart often seeks to make an enemy of the truth while seeking things that make them feel accepted for their life and decisions. While a soft, sensitive heart seeks to make the truth their guide to finding the one who is love and accepts us. Paul's telling the church, "You're not the way that you used to be. You were dead in your sins, so don't go back to that. That's not you anymore." He desires so much more for us. Look at this in verse 20. That is not the way you learn Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him or were taught in him as the truth is in Christ to put off that old self and to put on the new, the renewed in the spirit of your mind. It's like, remember that time when you were chasing after all the things that didn't fulfill you? Remember that time and it was never enough? Why don't you put that off? Why don't you just take it off and begin to walk in the new? And yeah, it's going to be hard at first because that old life is going to try to drag you back into how things used to be. But Ephesians is telling me that this life is available to us that we can live new. We have access. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come." So now I'm renewing my mind. The flesh is losing its hold on me because I'm disciplining and it's turning into desire. And then I'm starting to delight in his presence. My DNA even begins to change. And those old things begin to break off of me. And and I start to hate sin in my life. And I'm quick to be
