This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions, Day 4 of our look at Ephesians Chapter 4. We're going to be looking at verses 17 to 24 today. These are verses about change. I don't know why, I've always liked that old line, "Change is inevitable except from a vending machine. " It's probably not funny to you, but it's always been funny to me. And the truth is, change is inevitable. But there's a frustration with change also. While the world around us is changing faster than we could imagine, and we just can't seem to stop it, we face a different type of frustration within us. Change sometimes doesn't come fast enough. We don't see ourselves growing like we'd like. We see ourselves struggling with the same old sins, facing and sometimes being controlled by the same old fears. We see ourselves making the same mistakes time after time, and wishing for the hundredth time for growth and change in the same areas. How can you begin to cooperate with God in such a way that you can drastically increase the rate of the change that he wants to work in your life? You see, and many of you realize this, just being a Christian doesn't guarantee this change. You can be a Christian for many, many years and not much change. And if you're one of those who are thinking, "If I would just try a little harder, I know I could do this. " And yet you're tired out by the prospect of having to try a little harder, I've got some great news for you. You don't need to try harder. That is not the secret. Oh, you may need to do more, but you trying harder is not the secret. In fact, sometimes me trying harder is what keeps me from change. It's about trusting, not trying. I've studied change and Christian growth for years. It's been one of my lifelong studies. And in these verses we're going to look at today, Ephesians 4, beginning in verse 17, going to 24, you find what I would call the irreducible minimum of what God is doing in our lives to work change. The one thing that you need to know from God's Word, if you're going to see him working the changes in your life, that he is working to work. For some of you, as you hear what we're going to talk about, even in these few minutes, your Christian life will never be the same after hearing these verses in a fresh new way. Now, before we get to what we must do to change, how we must trust to change in verses 20-22, look at the call that Paul gives towards this change in verses 17-19. Let me read those verses. "So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they've given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more. " Paul says, and this is obvious to all of us, that believers should be different from unbelievers. In fact, he not only says it, he insists on it. Now, how are we different as a believer? Well, he walks us through it here. He says you're different in your mind, in your spirit, in your heart, and in your soul. You're different in your mind. You think differently. He says here, the Gentiles, and here he's not talking about a race of people, he's talking about those who have not yet come to know Christ, those Gentiles. He's saying they live in the futility of their thinking. You see, you think differently when you come to know Christ. You can either live in the futility of thinking or in purposeful thinking and darkened understanding, or you can have the mind of Christ. That's how a believer is different. He says a believer is different in your spirit. You relate differently. He says these who don't yet know Christ, they're separated from God. You're either separated from God or you're a child of God. You live in ignorance, he says here, or you live with wisdom. There's a difference in your spirit. There's a difference in your heart. You see, you have a different perspective on life. Here he talks about the hardening of heart. Your heart's either hardened or opened. Now, by the way, how does a heart get hardened? By closing it to God's work and will in your life, by saying no. He talks here about the loss of sensitivity. Your heart has either lost sensitivity or you have a Christian conscience where when you realize something is wrong, it hits your heart. He says you're different in your soul. We commit differently. He says those who don't yet know Christ, they've given themselves over to sensuality. They have a continual lust for more. Either you've given yourself over to sensuality or you're giving yourself daily to Christ. Either you have a continual lust for more of what this world offers or you begin to develop a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. Paul insists that we live the different life. And the question that some of you have is, "Okay, so how do I get there? " Because I have to be honest, I see myself on the wrong side of that ledger way too often. I see other Christians on the wrong side of what we just talked about way too often. How do we begin to live out who God has made us to be? Paul gives us the answer. He tells us what God is doing, God's process for growth in Ephesians 4, 20 to 24. "You, however," he says, "did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught of him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 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. " How do I stop acting like an unbeliever once I am a believer? You live out this three-step process of growth. Put off the old, be renewed in your mind, put on the new. You do it every day of your life and you're going to do it every day of your life. Put off the old, be renewed in your mind, put on the new. Put off the old. The old self, Paul says here, "corrupted by its deceitful desires," selfishness is what he's talking about here. What it meant for me to not know Christ, living just for myself, put that off. Don't let that be your way of life anymore. And then he says, "be renewed in your mind. " Where are we made new? Where does it start? It starts in the attitude of our minds. Physically, you are what you eat, but spiritually, you are what you think. You're renewed in the spirit and the attitude of our minds. We're going to focus on this a little bit the next couple of days. And then he says, "you put on the new. " This new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Here he's saying, "you put off the old, you take off the grave clothes, and you put on the new, you put on the grace clothes. " What God has done in our lives. Now let's walk through this a little bit more carefully. Put off the old, be renewed in your mind, put on the new. When you put off the old, you got to remember this. Remember to try to put on the new before you put off the old. You're never going to grow that way. Jesus said it this way, "neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. " That's a huge mistake. The picture that Jesus is giving us here is graphic. When the new wine would ferment, it would stretch a wineskin. And an old dried out wineskin that had been in the sun, it had lost its stretch. And it would burst when the new wine began to ferment. Now lest you think I'm comparing you to an old wineskin, which I would never do. The spiritual truth here is not about how you look on the outside. It's about what's happening on the inside. And if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're not an old dried out wineskin. You're a new creation. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you put off the old, you have this new creation. But you don't try to act like a believer before you are a believer. You don't try to defeat a sin before you've asked Christ for forgiveness for that sin. That's where you start. You start by putting off the old. And if you've never asked Jesus for forgiveness, if you're trying to live the Christian life on your own power, of course you're frustrated. Of course it's driving you crazy. You're not meant to live it that way. Where do you start? You start by saying to Jesus Christ right now, "Jesus, I need your forgiveness. I need your new life. This isn't me trying to live a good life for you. This is you living your life through me. Give me your life, Jesus. " When you put off the old, you remember first you've got to put on the new. When you're putting on the new, here's something to remember. Remember that the Spirit is the one who makes us new. You're not creating the new, you're just putting on the new, putting on God's creation. Second Corinthians 5. 17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. " So it's a matter of trusting, as I said a moment ago, not trying. You don't have to make yourself new. You just have to put on the new life that the Spirit has already given you. Now, we're often funny about this. We think somehow we have to do something about it ourselves. It's like God has given you this new $1,000, $2,000, say it's a $5,000 suit or dress, and it's hanging in your closet. And you're over here trying to patch something together out of some old scraps out of the rag drawer. And when you get it all sewn together in your pride, you say, "God, look at what I made for you. I'm going to wear it for you because I made it for you. " And you can almost sense God shaking his head, smiling at you, saying, "Just put on the suit I gave you. Just put on the dress I gave you. I have given you what is new. " You see, you're never going to build out of the scraps of your pride, but only God can do. Out of the glory of the cross, the new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. So when you put on the new, remember you're putting on what he's done in your life. And then to be renewed, remember, and we're going to focus on this a little more tomorrow, that it's being renewed in the attitude of your mind. That means you've got to start thinking in an entirely new way. I've got to stop being conformed to the world around me, Romans 12. 2, don't conform any longer to the pattern of this world. And I've got to set my mind on the things above me, Colossians 3. 2, set your mind on things above, on earthly things. I've got to stop being conformed to the world around me, and I've got to set my mind on the things above me. Now, as I said, we're going to talk tomorrow a little bit more about the practical side of what it means to be renewed in your thinking, but as we end the day, I want to take some time to pray about the frustration side of this. As you go to Jesus Christ, would you just share with him in the honesty of your heart, There are times when I'm frustrated, when the growth does not come fast enough, when it feels like it's two steps forward and one step back, and three steps forward and two steps back, and the progress isn't coming as fast as I would like. But Lord, in my frustration, I pray that I would resist the temptation to trust in myself, because that's never going to work. That I would take that frustration and I would bring it to you, and I'd put faith in you. And I'd realize I trust in what you have done, that God, you have made me a new creation in Christ, and you want to do new things in my life every day. You want to grow me in Jesus. So Lord, today I pray that you would grow me. Today I pray that you would help me to put off the old, to be renewed in my mind, to put on the new, based on the faith that you've given me, and based on what you've done in my life through Jesus Christ. I pray this, Jesus, in your name, Amen.