The New Self | Ephesians 4:17-32

old joke, the two fish swimming and an older fish swims by and says, the water is nice today, boys. And and then he swims off and the two fish turn to each other and say, what is water? Right? Like fish don't know that they're in water. In the same way these Gentiles in their former life, they didn't know what they didn't know because it's the only water they'd ever known. The lost often don't know that they are lost. [00:05:18] (23 seconds)

Now as maybe he made it clear at the beginning of chapter three that he's writing to Gentiles and yet he's telling them, you Gentiles stop living as Gentiles. So what's going on? Well, the point is that conversion conversion to Christ is a radical break with your old self. When you admit that you are a sinner and you believe in the Lord Jesus for your salvation and you commit to following him, when you repent and be and believe and begin to follow Jesus at your conversion, there's this genuine break from the way that you previously lived. [00:04:27] (33 seconds)

That life apart from God is is not ultimately gonna deliver for you what you want it what you actually need from it. Life apart from God can't bear the weight that you put on it. There's actually a structural futility to living life independent from God. And then verse 18, Paul says that the futility, this actually comes from being alienated from the life of God. [00:06:03] (24 seconds)

I was thinking about this. I was wondering, what would Paul say to us if this letter was dressed to Americans and he said, you must no longer walk as Americans do. Now Americans, America is the most prosperous, entertained, connected people in the history of the world. We have supercomputers in our pockets. We have AI to do our bidding. We have entertainment at the little little tip of our fingers, and yet at the same time, [00:08:11] (29 seconds)

But now that they are in Christ, that they've been found in Christ, that they have a new the new birth in Christ, they can see their former life. They can see their lostness for what it was. In verse 17 through 19 spells this out. Now verse 17, particularly, Paul says that their former life was a life that was marked by futility. And this this word futility is a diagnostic word. [00:05:41] (21 seconds)

deaths of despair at record levels. Loneliness is have been declared a public health epidemic. Student mental health is at historic lows. Richard Beck writes that while America is the most affluent nation in the history of the world, our rates of anxiety, depression, suicide, and addiction are all skyrocketing. We are a deeply unwell society. What's what's wrong with us? [00:08:40] (30 seconds)