Trash Your Old Life 1 A few years ago our family used to watch shows like Trading Spaces on TLC. One of the spin-offs that we enjoyed from Trading Spaces was Clean Sweep. If you never watched the series, the premise was very simple. Take a cluttered house or room and clean it up. The show s hosts brought in organization experts to help a family or individual to make a clean sweep. One of the first steps that the homeowner had to complete was sorting through the mess. The hosts forced the disorganized to put everything into three piles- keep, trash and sell. As we begin this New Year, how many of you resolved to make a clean sweep of a room in your house, or at your office? You know for me the hardest part of making the clean sweep is deciding what is and what isn t trash. (Remember, one man s junk is another man s treasure!) When we moved here I kept an old metal pie pan. I had to rescue it from the trash- that was where Rita thought it belonged! Don t ask me why I wanted to keep it; I just thought it was neat- and the last I checked it was worth a few bucks on E-bay! This morning I want to challenge you to make a clean sweep in your life? I m not talking about a room in your house- although some of us may need it! I m talking about the kind of radical, revolutionary change that we discussed last week. In particular, I m asking you to consider one area that I mentioned last week- your mind! You see, until we make a revolutionary change to our thinking, we will never be able to change our feelings and ultimately our actions. I ll come back to that thought in a moment, but for now let me read to you Paul s admonition found in Ephesians 4:17-24 from the Message. 17-19And so I insist and God backs me up on this that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They've refused for so long to deal with God that they've lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can't think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion. 20-24 But that's no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as
Trash Your Old Life 2 we have it in Jesus. 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 from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. Last Sunday, I talked about the need to Renew Your Thoughts as part of the Fresh START that we need so as to experience a revolution in 2008. I quoted Romans 12:2 where Paul says let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Your thoughts are critical in influencing your actions. Paul understood that and that is why he emphasized it repeatedly. Your thoughts are part of a cycle that can transform your actions. The cycle is simple- your thoughts affect your feelings and your feelings affect your actions which brings this full-circle back to your thoughts. So if you want to see the character of Jesus Christ in your life and specifically in your actions you need to start by affecting your thoughts with the words and thoughts of God. There was a great example of this in last Wednesday s East section of the Patriot News. The cover story told about a man who was watching a life-skills class that was out at a local restaurant learning the basics of ordering. The mystery man who witnessed this event had a thought about the students and their teachers which in turn affected his heart. That feeling lead him to walk up to the teacher and hand her $100 to pay for the meal! Talk about how thoughts affect feelings and in turn actions! That class not only enjoyed their meal that day but another meal out and a pizza party to boot! And it all started with a thought. Paul understood the power of our mind to affect our actions. And for Paul, having your mind controlled by the Spirit of God is essential if you are going to live in a way that honors God. That is why when he writes to the Ephesians about unity in the church and maturity in a believer s life as twin goals for the church he follows it up with an admonition to change their thinking pattern.
Trash Your Old Life 3 Paul insists that the Ephesian believers have to stop allowing their thoughts to be controlled by the empty-headed, mindless crowd. Who is that in your life? In the NIV the word futile describes this kind of thinking. The dictionary describes futile as useless or pointless. And Paul says that this kind of futile, empty-headed, mindless thinking draws us into a life that is unpleasing to God and unproductive to us. If you want a picture of futile thinking just imagine a dog chasing his tail. That s you and I when we follow the empty-headed, mindless crowd. So what do we need to do to begin renewing our mind so that we can experience the revolution that God wants us to have in 2008? Paul unearths the clue when he tells us the reason for this futile thinking in verses 18 & 19. Our futile thinking stems from a lack of sensitivity to God. In verse 18, Paul says that futile thinkers have hard hearts when it comes to God. As the Message translation says, they ve lost touch with God because they haven t had any dealings with God. First thing we must do to trash our old way of thinking is to become familiar with or sensitive to God. In other words, we need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that is more than an hour on Sunday morning! Your first thought might be I m a believer; of course I m sensitive and familiar with God. But the reality is that we tend to push God off center and relegate God to the edges of our reality- if not completely ignoring God. So one step we need to take is to practice keeping God at the center of our lives on a daily basis. Pastor Dave Fleming describes the process this way: I believe we develop consciousness of God at the center of our lives through a two-step dance: cultivation and remembrance. Cultivation represents anything we do to place God at the center. This can include reading Scripture, solitude, silence, times of community, study, retreat, and the like. Cultivation is when we put a boundary
Trash Your Old Life 4 around a certain amount of time in order to focus on God and his way. Some call this spiritual practice or spiritual disciplines. Remembrance represents anything we do to keep God at the center of life while we're at work or school or out and about in the world. To keep God at the center of requires remembering what we've cultivated. We can have a wonderful time of cultivation where we say we are challenged through the reading of Scripture and prayer to be compassionate. But, if we don't remember that truth when we are out and about, what good is it. Would you take a moment and ask yourself how you can take one step this week to cultivate and remember that God is at the center of your life? It may be setting aside the time to read the word and then copying a verse onto a 3x5 card that you ll carry with you through the day. Then every time you see that card it will help you to remember what you ve cultivated. Maybe you ll memorize a short prayer that you can repeat throughout the day. Remember that dot you placed somewhere as a reminder to draw your focus back to God. Just jot down an idea on your outline. So how is your thinking? Is it futile? Are you just following the empty-headed, mindless crowd; or are you daily becoming sensitive to the word of God and the move of God s Spirit in your life so that you are living it out in your daily life? Paul says later on in Ephesians 5:1, Be imitators of God Literally, be so familiar with God and what God would say and do and think that you are like God in every way. That in turn will lead us toward the behavioral change that marks the new life or path of life we find described in Ephesians and elsewhere in scripture.
Trash Your Old Life 5 And that is the second thing that Paul teaches us about trashing our old life- we need to change our behaviors. This revolution we are looking for begins with our thoughts, but it must end in our actions. And when those thoughts affect our feelings it will radically change our behavior. Paul tells us that once we change our thinking we need to take on a new way of life a life whose conduct is a mirror of God s character in your own life. Everything connected with that old way of life has to go. It s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! Paul says in verse 22. So what behavior(s) do you need to trash from your old way of living? Paul uses the next several verses of chapter 4 and on into chapter 5 to outline the change that needs to take place in our lives. I ll just highlight a few to help you see if there are any areas of your thinking that need to be swept clean by the power of God. In verse 25, falsehood must be replaced with truthfulness. Paul makes the unity of the church the prime reason for doing away with lies. Lies can be the most destructive force in a church- breaking down the unity that God desires for the church to fulfill its mission! In verse 26, anger and unforgiveness must give way to forgiveness and reconciliation. Paul reminds us that anger and unforgiveness are tools which the Devil uses to get a foothold in your life. Husbands and wives would do well to heed Paul s admonition to avoid going to bed angry. It would be good advice for any of regardless. In verse 29, unwholesome talk must be swapped for words that are uplifting and encouraging. That is a powerful challenge for us in 2008. If we made an effort to watch our words, to really stop and think before opening our mouth, what a revolution we would experience!
Trash Your Old Life 6 Finally in verse 31 Paul reminds us that we need to get rid of bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, and malice. Instead we are to be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. So Paul tells us that we need to trash our old way of thinking and living so that we can take on more and more of God s character and demonstrate through our behavior that we have placed God at the center of our lives. Following a rags-to-riches season in 1995 that led them to the Rose Bowl--their first in decades--northwestern University's football team met with coach Gary Barnett for the opening of spring practice. As players found their seats, Barnett announced that he was going to hand out the awards that many Wildcats had earned in 1995. Some players exchanged glances. Barnett does not normally dwell on the past. But as the coach continued to call players forward and handed them placards proclaiming their achievements, they were cheered on by their teammates. One of the other coaches then gave Barnett a placard representing his seventeen national coach-of-the-year awards. Then, as the applause subsided, Barnett walked to a trash can marked "1995." He took an admiring glance at his placard, then dumped it in the can. In the silence that followed, one by one, the team's stars dumped their placards on top of Barnett's. Barnett had shouted a message without uttering a word: "What you did in 1995 was terrific, lads. But look at the calendar: It's 1996." This is 2008. It s time to trash your old futile way of thinking. As you leave today, there are going to be trash cans at the back of the church. I d encourage you take a moment this morning to examine your thinking. What is one thing that you believe God wants you to trash in 2008?
Trash Your Old Life 7 Take a piece of paper and write on there what that is. Then as you leave today, throw it in the trash. Take that simple step to acknowledge what God wants to revolutionize in your mind in 2008. And whatever you wrote down earlier I d like to encourage you to share with someone before you leave. Ask them to pray for you this week as you take that step. And likewise you do the same for them. So I ll give you a few moments to reflect or share with someone before I close in prayer. New Year. New You. Trash Your Old Life Pastor George Reynolds Clean Sweep What is one area in your life that needs a clean sweep? What is one thing you should go home and throw away? Ephesians 4:17-24 The Message 17-19And so I insist and God backs me up on this that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They've refused for so long to deal with God that they've lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can't think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion. 20-24But that's no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. 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 from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.
Trash Your Old Life 8 Actions Thoughts Feelings Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Romans 12:2 Who Controls Your Thoughts? E_mpty-headed_, m_indless_ Futile thinking is useless and pointless The Problem Lack of S_ensitivity_ to God God is no longer the center of our life. The Solution Become familiar with or sensitive to God C_ultivation_ anything to place God at the center R_emembrance_ anything to keep God at the center My Step Be imitators of God Ephesians 5:1
Trash Your Old Life 9 A New Way of Life F_alsehood_ replaced with T_ruthfulness_ v. 25 Anger & U_nforgivness_ give way to F_orgivmess_ and Reconciliation v. 26 Un_wholesome_ talk swapped for Up_lifting_ and E_ncouraging_ v. 29 Get rid of bitterness, rage, brawling, slander and replace it with K_indness_ and C_ompassion_ v. 31 What futile thinking & behavior will I trash this week? Next Week: A New View on Problems Part 1