The Changed Life...Ephesians 4:20-24

Every Christ follower should be experiencing and living through the changed life! When it comes to the subject of living changed lives, we all feel the same as we feel about going to heaven. There's a story about a pastor who asked some young boys about them wanting to go to heaven. The pastor asked, "Do you want to go to heaven?" The boys said, "not really!" The pastor responded, "You mean to say that you don't want to go to heaven when you die?" The boys responded, "Oh, yeah, we want to go! We thought that you were gathering people to go right now!" In other words, we're all for it, but we'd rather not go through what you have to go through to get there! The notion of change sounds good, but when it gets right down to it, we think, "You mean I actually have to live differently?" As Christ followers, we must understand and embrace that the Christian life is fundamentally a changed life! If you claim to be a Christ follower but are living just as you did before you followed Christ, you really should examine whether you truly believe in Him! In Ephesians 4:17, 18, 19, apostle Paul paints a very grim portrait of how unbelievers live. While not all unbelievers are as bad as they possibly could be, they all live "in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart" (Eph. 4:17,18). That picture describes each of us before we met the Lord Jesus Christ. But now (Eph. 4:20-24) Paul draws a different picture, a sharp contrast: "But you did not learn Christ in this way," He goes on to present us with a brief sketch of the changed life that every Christ follower should be experiencing. In conclusion: While it is a lifelong process of growing in Christ, you should be able to see the distinct differences between the old person that you were and the new person that you are in Christ! You should be able to relate to the preacher who said, "I ain't what I want to be and I ain't what I'm gonna be, but praise God, I ain't what I used to be!" To grow in godliness, you must apply all diligence! We can't just "Let go and let God." You will not grow spiritually if you don't deliberately work at it! God has imparted new life to you in Christ and has given you all of His precious and magnificent promises to equip you for life and godliness! We're responsible to bring the diligence! Your move. Be encouraged!