March 2, 2008 Sermon Notes

Pastor Matt Anderson -- March 2, 2008
“Changed”
Six Words for a New Life series, part four

“Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed [changed] from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces His character in you.” –Ephesians 4.22-24

What has changed?

-         I have been changed, I have been made new.

-         I am not who I once was. I am in Christ.

-         I have become a new person.

-         I am holy and blameless.

We’re not trying to change who we are, we are learning to live in what is already true.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” –Galatians 2.20

References:

Ephesians 4.22-24           Luke 11.52                 Isaiah 1.11-14
Isaiah 29.13                   Luke 11.39                 Ezekiel 36.25-26
Colossians 3.3                 Jeremiah 31.33            2 Corinthians 5.17
Colossians 1.20-22           Galatians 2.20             Romans 12.2

A morning thought...

All living organisms have within them the ability to reproduce or to replace those cells that are dying so as to continue to live to their average lifespan. Birds molt their feathers, cicada nymphs live underground for seventeen years before exiting above the earth as mature adult insects, moths and butterflies emerge from larvae, and acorns fall to the ground from the tree before the green sprout emerges to begin as another little tree. Humans continually produce new skin and tissue that replaces the dead and dying cells.

Metamorphosis is a part of life. Our own lives, according to the apostle Paul, must have this same renewal for living in God’s spiritual kingdom. “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). No matter what our situation or station in life, we must come expecting change in order to be changed.

—George R. Skramstad, 2008