Renewing your mind
15th Oct Laurence Singlehurst
Ephesians 4 v 17-25
Paul wrote this in the midst of the Roman Empire. He understood the culture of his time, he was brought up a strict Jew but had a tremendous perception about sociology, theology, society and faith.
We are in a frightening but unique experience, which is that the times we live in are very similar to the society Paul lived in. Until now some parts of Paul's writings have been a mystery to us but now it more relevant and therefore more challenging.
V 17 do not live as the gentiles do. We are beginning to live in a gentile culture, understanding is darkened, Christianity is not the framework, until now the plumbline of Christian values was in most people's lives. Rebels in the 60s rebelled because there was a moral framework to rebel against. Today's culture is about leisure and pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Leisure and pleasure are both creations of God but in today's society they've been put in the wrong place.
Our Christian moral framework is being swept away by society and by legislation, our times will become darker. We must not remain silent but we must know what we believe and why, and must have the confidence and humility and love to speak clearly.
As we ie mankind reject God's framework, we make up the rules as we go along, putting our own decisions about what's right and wrong in the centre, instead of looking to God, like Adam & Eve with the tree of the knowledge of good & evil. And we'll get it wrong some of the time. Christians have to encourage the good and speak clearly about the bad.
V 18 darkened in their understanding. Trouble begins the the head. It's what you understand which works out in your actions. These verses reflect the process - they are darkened, they are alienated, their actions reflect what's in their heads.
Most of us have mixed values, taken in as we grew up, the younger you are the more your values are influenced by a worldly base. Think how much this has affected you personally. We have to help people understand.
V 20 it's not enough to believe in Jesus, we may as well believe in fried eggs. We must 'learn' Christ, believe what he believes and understand why. This is a deeper thing. How does it affect my life and how I operate.
V21 'taught'. The early church was strong on how to turn your beliefs into affecting your real life. We need to not only experience Jesus but look at our beliefs and value systems.
Your old nature = previous mind, values, actions
The problem of discipleship is that we try to change peoples nature but what we have to do is break it into the three elements above. Starts with the head (mind).
Mind/Head
The new nature is created after the likeness of God. The magic is that it's not just about the power of positive thinking, not just some manual, but it's connecting with the very heartbeat of God and there is a spiritual release of power. Anyone who steps into the wind of God gets a puff of holy wind to help them.
Values
The hard bit is changing your internal gearing, changing your value system. Like the mechanism of a windmill which has a small bit of mechanism which determines how the mill turns, so our internal beliefs and values need to be changed.
It's all about Jesus, do we have a passion for Jesus, do we value God. The devil spends a lot of time trying to get us to believe that God is responsible for our problems, if we believe him we start to alienate ourselves from God. Stand against the lie and tell Satan to get lost. Our problems are not because God doesn't love us and want to walk with us through life. Keep your picture of Jesus clean and alive, do not allow it to be shaped by your bad experience or pain.
We must have a high view of other people. Christ died for all. All are valuable, worth the same. In this area of our value for people we take on a lot of cultural baggage. Make a change in the workplace by smiling at someone and ask after their family. People are made in the image of God, every human being is somebody special. The milkman, the dustman, the shop assistant. We get in the wind of God but it's easy for our old value system to creep back in, we have to keep alert.
Have a high value of yourself, the pressure of God inside us cannot be released until we realise we are the treasure. We have the possibility, are we developing and working on our gifts (Laurence's previous talk).
Walk in a way of love, sacrificial love. Hospitality, opening your heart. Doing what's right when we want to do what's wrong.
Actions
As we put on these values our actions will fall in line. We all have areas we struggle with, even after years of following Jesus. Keep walking on. As we learn Christ and put on the new nature, we know what we believe and why we believe it, we can make a difference. In our town, in our home, in or workplace.
Let us put on Christ. | 
