A New Address, A New Self - Ephesians 4:17-24

Well, in the last, in the 7 years that I spent in college and grad school, I did the math this week and found out that I lived in 10 places, one zero, in 7 years. And so I was trying to remember all the places that I had lived and 10 is a lot to remember off the top of your head. So I had to write it down, and let me see if I can get them all in order. So a dorm room, a 2 story house, a one story house, then study abroad in Germany, where I lived with a host family, and then not kidding, in a storage room for about 2 months, lived there, not very comfortable, not very hospitable, then back stateside, lived in a 5 bedroom home with a bunch of guys. Uh, that was, I think that's six. And then a one bedroom apartment by myself, went from a house, 5 bedroom house with a bunch of guys to a one bedroom house all by myself. So I got real lonely there. And then a season after that, where home was on the floor of a friend's apartment that I slept on a blowup mattress for about 4 months, I think. I was 21 at the time. Then to a 2 bedroom duplex with one roommate. And then a 3 bedroom duplex with 2 roommates. So 10 addresses, 7 years. I got really good about asking friends with trucks if they could help me on a Saturday, right? Because I was just always moving, always looking for new places. Sometimes there was a lease agreement involved, sometimes there wasn't. Sometimes I would get mail there, sometimes I wouldn't. Now, here's the thing. A lot of those places, they're in the same town, right? Some of them were in different towns, Germany is a different place, obviously, but most of those were in the same place. So more than once, I drove to an address that I had already moved on from. Like, we've probably all done that before, where you've moved, and then it's just kind of muscle memory. It would be a Friday night. It's late. I'm tired. I'm thinking about a paper that I need to write or a girl that I want to date or nothing at all. You think, ladies, that's possible. Guys, just sometimes think nothing at all. And I would just like drive and then look up and I'm in the driveway of a house that I used to live in. And I'm just like, how did I get here? Like, I just wasn't thinking through it. It was just muscle memory, right? My hands took me there without even thinking about it. It was like my hands knew that route better than my minded. And so the previous year, that's where I drove home to every single night. That route had become muscle memory and moving out didn't erase the muscle memory. It just made the muscle memory wrong. But here's what I want us to notice. With all of those places, I could still drive to the previous place. I just couldn't live there. I had moved on. My name wasn't on the lease anymore. My mail didn't go to that address anymore. And no matter how often I drove there, I would never be the resident of that house again. I was just a former tenant, an old resident. Now, why do I tell you that? Because this morning, Paul is going to tell us that we have moved. that every believer, every Christian, everyone that's put their faith in Jesus has changed their position. They've moved. But then he's not the least bit surprised that our hands still drive the old route home from time to time. And so Paul's going to explain to us, he's telling us that the place that we used to live is no longer home. It's no longer where we're meant to live, no longer where we're meant to drive through. So let's pray, and then we'll jump into Ephesians chapter 4, 7 through 16 together. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you've gathered us here to this time and this place to worship you, to sing about you, about your mercies, that are new every morning, about the grace that's been given to us, forgiveness that's been lavished on us through Christ. And Lord, I just admit this morning that this passage has been heavy on my heart this week. It's been a difficult word for me. And that's a good thing, Lord. Sometimes your word is hard on us. Oftentimes it's hard on us because we fail to live up to it. But it's also encouraging to us, Lord, because you lived up to it. You sent your one and only son to do what we could not do to live the life that we couldn't live and to die the death that we deserved. And we thank you for that, Lord, that we are here today if we believe in Christ, that we have been made new. And if you would, take a moment like Shannon asked earlier and pray over this passage. We've already prayed for ourselves, for others, for me, pray over this passage that it would speak to you this morning, and it would be helpful. Take a moment just to do that. Father, we love you, and we trust you. We ask that you would use this time for your glory and for our good, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we've been in the book of Ephesians for about 3 months, almost 4 months now, and last week we were in Ephesians 4, towards the beginning of the passage, it was verses 7 through 16, and we had three words last week. If you were with us at this location, the giver, the gift and the goal. And so we learned that the giver is Christ, that he is the ascended king, who has descended to us. He lived just a life of suffering. He entered into our world, into the manger, into the lower regions of the earth. That's the regions that are just taken over by sin, and that he gave the church gifts. He gave all of us gifts, these spiritual gifts, but he also gave godly and gifted leaders. And so that was last week. And it was for a goal to grow us up into Christ-likeness, maturity. That's the goal. A grown up church that's not tossed to and fro by the winds and the waves of the world. That was last week. So now Paul gets a little more specific this week about what growing up actually looks like. And then next week, when Dalton preaches, he'll get even more specific. So Paul is going from general and going more and more specific each week. And so I'll tell you up front, verses 17 through 19, they're dark. They're difficult, but stay with me because Paul doesn't take us into the dark to just leave us there. He takes us into the dark to show us how far Jesus has brought us into the light. So track with us this morning. Here's where we're headed. Three phrases that we'll have on the screen for us. It's who we were, who we met. and who we are. And that's the breakdown of how we're going to go through this passage this morning in Ephesians 4. So let's take these one point at a time, who we were, who we met, and who we are. Let's take the 1st one, who we are. Look at verse 17. It says, 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. Now let's stop there. We have to clear something out because Paul just used a word that may have confused you, especially if you've been going through Ephesians with us, and the word is Gentiles, right? Because back in chapter two, if you remember, Paul used that word. What did we learn about the Gentiles? Paul said that the Gentiles, that's us? Any person that's not a Jew, that we were outsiders. We were separated from God. We had no hope. We were strangers, we're without God in the world. And then Jesus, he says, tore down the dividing wall. He tore down the wall of hostility that separated us from God. And then chapter 3 said it plainly. Now that that dividing wall is down, now that Jesus has done the work to tear down the wall, we're fellow heirs and members of the same body. So what's Paul saying here? Is he, is like Paul contradicting himself? You'll hear that a lot? Paul is just a confused guy. He's just contradicting himself. Is he saying, you know what, never mind. Um, turns out you're actually the wrong ethnicity. Sorry, guys. No, he doesn't do that. Paul uses the word Gentile here. The way that we would use the word pagan. He's using it, not as a bloodline. He's not talking about a bloodline. He's talking about a way of living. The Gentile way of living, that in that time is associated living far from God. So, he's saying, you're no longer Gentiles by the way of your life. So quit thinking like Gentiles think. That's what Paul's saying. In other words, your address has changed. So stop driving to the old address. You don't live there anymore. Don't go to the old house. And then Paul does something fascinating across verses 17 through 19. He gives us the anatomy of the old life, an anatomy of the old address. things that used to go on in the old self. And the anatomy goes like this. Head, then heart, then hands. That's the anatomy. And you see how it moves, it starts in one place, and it ends up somewhere else. It starts with the head with what we think. It moves to the heart, heart with what we feel, and with what we love, and it moves to the hands, with what we do, our behavior. Because what we think shapes what we love. And what we love shapes what we do. And so that's the pattern that Paul is moving us through. Look at where it starts. Verse 17. It starts in the mind. It says, the futility of their minds. Look at verse 18. They are darkened in there, what? Understanding. That word futility, it means empty. It means purposelessness. It's running hard, and going nowhere. And then it moves down into the heart. Look at the rest of verse 18. He says, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. See how we're moving from the mind to the heart. And then notice Paul's progression here in verse 18, alienated, because of ignorance due to the hardness of heart. So the problem was never mainly information, it was affection. It's not that we couldn't find God. It's that we didn't want him. That's what Paul says was the problem. And then Paul gets into the hands, what we actually do with our lives, our behaviors. And verse 19, he says, they've become callous. That's a hand word. That's a medical term that we're going to get into. And they've given themselves up to sensuality. That's an action. That's a behavior. Greedy to practice, every kind of impurity. See how Paul's moving, head, to heart, to hands. What we think, what we love, and what we do. That's his progression that he's moving through. Because what we think shapes what we love and what we love shapes what we do. So Paul's addressing it. Now, that word callous, like I said, it's a medical word, it's a medical term, in the ancient world, and it's what happens to skin when it's worked over and over and over until it becomes callous. Many of us are familiar with that process, especially if you've worked, if you've played guitar, right? Or maybe you've worked in construction, maybe you do a lot of DIY projects on the weekend. Maybe you lift weights, all those things are going to add calluses to your hands. And it always starts the same. At first, it hurts. Like, why are my hands so soft, right? Why is this process hurting me? But then over time, you work with that barbell over and over? You work in construction over and over. You do these things, you play guitar and you build up the calluses, and eventually, it stops hurting. And it's not because the pressure went away. It's not because the friction went away. It's because you built up thicker skin, you built up these calluses, and the feeling went away. You see that? That's Paul's diagnosis of a life lived apart from God. Just numb. And he says, they gave themselves up to it. You see that phrase? They gave themselves up to it. There's a tragedy in that phrase. Because it's the same language as Romans one. If you're familiar with Romans one, Paul uses it when he says, God gave them up to these things, these terrible things. He gave them over to it. And let me tell you, one of the most terrifying things God can do to a person is finally let them have exactly what they want. One of the most terrifying things God can do to a person is finally give us exactly what we want. Now, I've got young kids. I got 3 of them, seven, 5, and two, and let me tell you, one of the most terrifying things is to give them exactly what they want. Because 95% of the time, they want terrible things for themselves, right? Like they want candy for breakfast 1st thing in the morning. They want cake and ice cream with like every meal, 1st thing, not at the end. They want to watch TV shows like 20 hours a day. Like, you can't even physically watch that that long. You need a nap, you need to go to bed. Most of the things that they want in their life. I know is really bad for them. And as their dad, I know none of that's good for them. I know the right timing of those things. I know the right amount of those things. And I know when to just say, hey, buddy, no. Maybe on another day in another set of circumstances, it can be a yes, but right now, I know the context. I know what you're gonna go into next. I know what you just came from, and the answer is, no. One of the worst things I could ever do to my kids is, hey, you know what, guys? Just have at it. Just, like, go for it. Anything you want, go for it. Go into the pantry, anytime, order whatever you want from the menu, turn on Netflix and Disney, whatever you want, knock yourselves out. And if we're honest, I think, if we're honest with ourselves, I think a lot of us just wish God would do that with us. that he would just say, hey, knock yourself out. Go for it. You want it? Take it. It's yours. Have at it. Enjoy that thing. Enjoy that screen. Go from one show to the next. Netflix will do it for you. You don't even have to press a button. It'll roll to the next thing. That girlfriend or boyfriend, do whatever you want whenever you want it. with them. Just have at it. But our dad knows that's a bad idea. Because he knows how much damage. it will do to us. So when God says, hey, no? Not yet. Not that amount? That's not him withholding. That's not him being evil. That's him being a good dad. That's him being a good parent, that he knows the context. He knows what comes. Before, he knows what you're going into next. He knows your feelings. He knows your motivations, your drives, your desires. And so he knows what's best. Oftentimes he's gonna say no, not yet. And then look at the last phrase of verse 19. It's as greedy to practice every kind of impurity. That word greedy. It means just wanting more. So Paul's describing a person who's numb, but they still want more. That's the definition of like an appetite that just cannot be fed. It's an appetite that cannot be met, that we feel less and less and less, but we need more and more and more, and that road often just runs in the same direction. Feeling less wanting more. So it's going for 4 drinks to accomplish in you what 2 drinks used to do. It's going for more nicotine when less used to do the trick. It's going for the screen that used to just shock you, and now it just doesn't even register. It's going to see movies that used to scare you, but now you're desensitized to it. It's the doom scroll that you don't even enjoy anymore, but you just can't put your phone down. But here's what actually haunts me about verses 17 through 19. Paul said they gave themselves up to it. They gave themselves up to. It's like, Paul said they've resigned themselves to this kind of life. Like they're just, they're not fighting it. They're just perfectly content with it. Nobody's fighting it. Nobody's grieving it. Nobody's trying to get out of that destructive cycle. They're just going. And feeling less and less and smaller, but they're wanting more and more and more. Paul's describing who we once were. Paul's describing, sometimes how we still feel. And it's all past tense. So Paul says, this is an address we moved out of. He said, that's an old place. That's an old self. That's a place you used to live, but let's be honest for a second. Christians, we can still drive to that house. We can still take that turn on autopilot on a Friday or Saturday night. We can still go to that old address. And so let me just say, man, if you are sitting here and you've returned to some destructive patterns this past week, let me just say, that doesn't mean you never moved in the 1st place. That doesn't mean that you're not saved. If you returned to some destructive patterns last week, that doesn't mean that you were never saved and it doesn't mean that you're hopeless. It doesn't mean that you have to give yourself up to it. doesn't mean that you're resigned to that kind of life. It just means that your hands still know the route to the old address. And so sometimes when you're not thinking about it, you're just gonna drive back. You're gonna return to some things that aren't good for you. They're destructive. See, God moved us out of sin in a moment when we trusted in him, but it takes a whole lifetime to get the sin out of us. God moved us out of sin in a moment when we trusted in him, he gave us his spirit. He brought us into the family. That was Ephesians one, but it takes a whole lifetime to get the sin out of us. And remember, don't miss where Paul says this, whole thing started, not with our hands, not with our behavior, with the mind. Which means what we put into our minds isn't a small thing. Like, it starts, it's the start of a progression from head to heart to hands. Nobody wakes up in the morning and decides to be callous. Like, that's a progression. Uh, we get there one small input at a time as it works itself through our lives. So let me ask this. We've got some questions on the screen. What have you been feeding your mind this week? What have you been putting on the input? What did you watch? What did you read? What songs did you listen to? This was convicting for me this week as I thought through, like, I haven't watched great things. And I haven't always read good things. I haven't always listened to the best songs. There's an input that's constantly running in Tyler's life, and it's not always good. And so I repented this week and said, God, I need help with this. I need help working through this. What did you let run through your mind? At nine, 10, 11 o'clock at night. Like, what did you stew over? Was there some conflict? Was there some lie that you just let the enemy speak to you? Was there something that you just mold over? Because Paul says it this way, head from heart to hands, what you think shapes what you love, and what you love shapes what you do. And so fix the input, and oftentimes, it will fix the output. So if we want a different way of living, we don't start with our hands. We don't start with our behavior. We start with what we're feeding our minds and our hearts. Second point this morning, who we met. Who we met. Let's look at verse 20. He says, but that is not the way you learned Christ. Read that again. That is not the way you learned Christ. Now stop and hear how strange that sentence sounds, because Paul doesn't say, hey, that's not what you were taught. He doesn't say, hey, that's not the doctrine that you learned. Remember when you took that class, when you listen to that sermon, when you went through that program, he doesn't say that. He says, that's not the way you learned. Christ. I love this because Christ is the direct object. Christ is the object of our learning. And that's just such a strange way to say it. Like we learn algebra. We learn Spanish, we learn how to change attire, but you don't learn gym. Right? Like, I learned Nancy today, like, that's not what you say. You come to know them over years. Over hard conversations, over difficult sermons, over difficult times and painful moments. You come to know them. And that's exactly Paul's point. He's saying, Christianity, the life of a Christian is not a subject you master, it's a person you come to know. It's a person you come to know and love and obey. That he works himself through your head, your heart, and your hands. A person we come to know. And look at how Paul stacks it up in verse 21. He says, assuming that you've heard about him. That's Jesus, and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus. I love this phrase, this whole sentence, heard about him, taught in him, the truth is in Jesus, 3 times in one verse, Jesus is the center of the sentence. He's the object of our learning. And that last phrase, the truth is in Jesus. Not the truth is about Jesus. He says the truth is in him. So the truth isn't a what? The truth is a who. Now, here's why this all matters so much for verses 17 through 19, because if the old life is a head problem, the old life is a mind problem, well then what we might assume to fix that is just more information. Now that's helpful, more data, more facts, more Bible, but Paul says the mind isn't fixed by data. Alone. It's fixed by a person. Because the problem was never that we lacked facts. That was verse 18. Again, it was hardness of heart. And let me tell you, more information tends not to soften hardened hearts. More information, more Bible, more facts, more data, tends not to soften a human hardened heart. Think about the difference between knowing about somebody and knowing them. Like, I can tell you all kinds of facts about Arnold Schwarzenegger, right? Like, he was one of my, as a kid. I was like 4 or 5 years old. I just loved Arnold Schwarzenegger. And so I learned all these facts. I watched all these movies about him. He's like my childhood hero, and I could tell you all these facts. But I've never met him. I can't tell you what makes him happy, what makes him sad, the nuances of his facial expression. I can't tell you the desires of his heart. But I can tell you all those things about my wife. I can tell you what makes her happy. I can tell you the goals that she has in life, the deep desires of her heart. The things that she struggles with. Oftentimes a glance at her face, I know what she's thinking. Right? Do you know someone that well? Many of you do. I can tell you what irritates her. I can tell you what makes her day, I know her heart. That's not more information. That's a different kind of information altogether. So here's the question sitting in verse 20 for us this morning. Have you been learning about Jesus? Or have you been learning Jesus? Have you been learning about him? Or have you been learning him? Because it's entirely possible to sit in a room like this, your whole life? Take notes, learn the books of the Bible, go to seminary, win the trivia night at small group, and never once have actually met with him. And when we meet him, everything we thought, we knew, rearranges in our lives. It all changes. That's what happened to Paul. Like in his time, he probably knew more about God and more about the scriptures than anyone in his generation. Anyone in his culture. He's like a top 3 guy in his field. He knew so much, and then he met Jesus, and his whole life just upended. Total transformation, renovation of his heart. Totally new guy. He received a new identity. He received a new activity, and ultimately a new destiny. He knew where I'm going forever. That changed that day when I met Jesus. And when we meet him, the same thing happens to us. When we encounter Jesus. When we actually meet with him, not just fill our minds with facts about him, but we meet with him. Man, he does the same thing in our lives. He rearranges, reformats, and he creates something new. That's what he does. Our 3rd point. Who we are. Look at verses 22 through 24. It says 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 our minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God, and true righteousness and holiness. So Paul is going from a dark place, all those difficult things that he went through, and he's turning a corner. Now Paul reaches for a metaphor, and it's clothing. Look at the phrase, put off your old self. It's right at the start of verse 22. And then look at the phrase, put on the new self, right at the start of verse 24. It's the language of removing one garment, taking that off, and putting on a new one. Now, here's what we have to understand. That putting off already happened, for the life of the believer, for the life of the Christian, for the person that's put their faith in Christ. The old self came off, the day that we trusted in him, and God gave us, the spirit gave us a new life, new clothing, new address, new identity. The old self came off that day. I was thinking about it this week, like, how would we illustrate this? Think about a prisoner who gets pardoned and then walks out of that jail cell that he's been in for 10, 15, 20, 30 years. For years, all he's owned is that jumpsuit. Every day is put on that same jumpsuit. And it's what he put on every morning. And then one day, he walks out a free man in ordinary clothes. Now, what if a week later, we went to go visit that guy, and we found him mowing the lawn in his old jumpsuit. What are you doing? Like, that's not you anymore. Why? You're a free man. Why did you put the old jumpsuit back on, you can put on ordinary clothes. You're free. We'd say, what are you doing? That's not you anymore. You don't have to wear that. Your chains are broken. You're a new man. You got new opportunities, new activities. You got a new identity. That's the logic of this passage. That's what Paul is saying. We don't put away sin in order to free ourselves in order to have the chains broken in order to be a free man or woman. He says, you put away sin because you're already free. Don't go back to that old jumpsuit. Don't go back to that old address. The jumpsuits off. The chains are broken. So why do we keep returning to them? Look at verse 22. He says, your former manner of life. Former. That's a old address word. That's a used to live their word. The old self is everything we just read in verses 17 through 19. The old, the former manner of life. That's the futile mind, the darkened understanding, the hardened heart, the numb hands. And Paul says, those clothings, those clothes, they got changed for new ones. That address, that's no longer where you live. That is a former manner of life. So you've lived in a place called created after the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness. That's the new clothing. That's the new address. That's the new manner of life. So let me tell you, this is man, this has been a hard text this week for my own life, just thinking about the implications, what this means for me, that I've got some work to do. And this is a sermon telling us that because of Jesus, we are somebody new. So let's stop dressing like a dead person. So why do we keep reaching back for the old clothes? Why do we keep driving back to where we used to live? Look at verse 22. It tells us that the old self is corrupt. Through deceitful desires, Because sin lies to us. That's why we keep going back. It deceives. It's trickery. It's wily. We've talked about this before. It's not coming straight for you. It's gonna flank the sides. If sin were so simple that it came straight for you, We'd probably get it. It's deceiving, it's deceptive. So none of us have ever sinned. because we thought that it would make us miserable. We sin because in that moment, we believed a lie about what it would do for us, that it would make us happy, that it would give some level of pleasure, that it would give some level of excitement. Which brings us to verse 23, and he says, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. Look at the shape of those 3 verses, verses 22, 23 and 24. He says, put off the old self, right? That's something that we do, take off the old garments, put on, that's something we do, but right there in the middle, he says, be renewed. Now, that's something done to you. That's not something you do. That's passive. And that's not an accident. Paul doesn't say, hey, renew yourselves. Like, get your act together. Like just white knuckle it, figure it out. You're smart enough. It doesn't do that. Just do it. He says, be renewed. The way that that reads in Greek is allow yourself to be renewed. Which means somebody else is doing the renewing. It's passive. Allow yourself to be renewed. Because if the Bible was just like a self-help book, then verse 23 would be exactly where the punchline goes. Verse 23 would be exactly it says, I'll tell you what to do. X, Y, and Z, get it done, man. Seven habits for highly successful people. Atomic habits. You can just do it. Think it, grab it. You can do all things you set your mind to. Paul doesn't go there. That's not what he says. If it was just a self-help book, that's where it would go, but remember where the problem started. Verse 17. He said, in the futility of their minds. And then look at verse 23. He says, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. You see how those work together? There was the futility of your mind, and now he's saying, be renewed, passive in the spirit of your mind. Look at where God goes to work, the mind. He walks straight to where the trouble started. He goes to the beginning of the river. There's all these problems downstream. He's going to the head of the river. And he does the very thing that we could not do ourselves. It says he renews our minds. It's something we allow for him to do. It's what Paul says in Romans 12, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It's passive. It's not something we do. It's the same idea. B transformed. Let it allow the Lord to do it. B renewed. And how does he do that? How does God actually renew our mind? Well, look at verse 24? It says, put on the new self. Created after the likeness of God. And true righteousness and holiness. Don't skip that word created. That's not a self-help word. Let's not pull yourself up by your bootstraps. That's a word for God making something out of nothing. That's what true creation is. It's the word from the very 1st page of the Bible, when God made the world. It's the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew, from Genesis one. And look at what he made it like in verse 24 after the likeness of God. In true righteousness, and holiness. See, on that 1st page of our Bible, God made people to be like him. Not in our faces, but in our nature. To be righteous, holy, and good, as he is righteous, holy, and good. And then we walked away from that. We wrecked it. We said, I don't want it. And God isn't repairing what he wrecked. It says he's creating something new. He's not piecing together the old self. He's creating a new one. And true righteousness and holiness in the likeness of God. See, God made us to know him and to walk with him, but we walked away from him. Every one of us. And then verses 17 through 19 are the honest description of that walk, futile, darkened, alienated, hardhearted, numb, and always wanting more. And we could not move ourselves. We could not take the old self off. We couldn't renew our own minds. And we could never create a new self. We lack the ability to create. But God being rich in mercy. Did not leave us in the dark. So he sent his son, Jesus, to live in true righteousness and holiness. When we could not, and to die the death that we deserve to die. And on that cross, Jesus took the full weight of everything in verses 17 through 19. The one who never had a hard heart, took the punishment for our hard heart. And then 3 days later, it said, God raised him from the dead. And that offer now goes out to every person in this world. We turn away from our sin and we turn towards Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, our ascended king, who's given out gifts, who's blessed his church. And the moment that we do that, it says, the old self comes off, and the new self goes on. There's a new address. There's new clothing. There's a new identity, from that new identity, flows, new activity, that what shapes what I know shapes what I love, shapes what I do. That's the pattern Paul's brought us through. I told you that I lived in 10 places in 7 years. And let me tell you, every one of those moves I accomplished. I did the research, I talked to the friends, I signed the lease agreement, I paid the deposit. I paid for the rent. It may have been a day or 2 late, but I paid for it. I accomplished it. But this move is nothing like that. We didn't find a new house. You didn't stumble upon it. We could never afford to pay for it. Our Heavenly Father bought the house. And he didn't buy it with money. Says he bought it with the blood of his son. And then he did something no landlord has ever done. He didn't just hand us a key and say, hey, good luck, buddy. Don't trash the place. He says, no, this place is for you and for me. together. He gave us a new self, a new name, a new identity. And he said, you take my likeness. You take my nature. You take my goodness, my righteousness, my holiness. And he opened the doors to his house, and he welcomed us in. He said, you're not a guest. You're not a tenant. You're a co-owner with me. You're a co heir in my family, in my kingdom. You're a son and daughter of the king. But our hands Man, we still know the old route home. We still know the old address. So don't be surprised. There will be nights when you look up and you wonder how you got here. But we can be encouraged. That's not our house anymore. That is not our address. Address has changed. The price is paid. And there is a father standing in the doorway, to a house that he bought for us. He says, welcome him. Come home. This is where you're meant to live. This is your new identity. This is your new home. So live with me. And that's what he calls us to. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you. that you've spoken to each and every one of us this morning. Through your word, that was pinned, that was 2000 years ago. And thank you, Lord, that it's an eternal book. It's not just an old and dusty book. It speaks to our lives today. It convicts us. It challenges us, it encourages us, and it points us to Jesus. And Lord, I pray that we would follow you, that we would come to know you, love you, and obey you. That's the pattern of the Bible. That's the pattern of scripture. That's the pattern that Paul has taken us through this morning. That what we fill our minds with, shapes what we love. And what we love, shapes what we do. And so, Lord, help us to get that pattern after your likeness. And I pray that when we fail, we would know that that's not our identity. That's not our address. That's not our manner of life. Our manner of life isn't made, it's created in the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness. And there's several of us today this morning that are wrestling with that. They're wrestling with this. They've got some work to do with you. They've got some questions to ask. They've got some disagreements to voice. They've got some trouble that needs to come to the surface. Some issues in our hearts, in our minds, that needs to be addressed. Lord, I pray that we would do that with you 1st and foremost this week. You're not afraid of our questions. You're not afraid of our doubts. You're not afraid of our disagreements. And so, Lord, meet us in those moments this week. I pray that this time would not fall on deaf ears and cold hearts, but minds that are receptive ears that hear hearts that are warm to the gospel, and that we wouldn't run from this moment. We would embrace it. Help us to work with you this week, help us to work with pastors and leaders, with family members, with spouses, with people that love us, and are wise and discerning to help us. Lord, we pray that you are honored in our time together. and that you would be honored this week by our lives that are lived for you. We pray all these things in Christ's name. Amen.