Speaker 1: Hey, I'm coming to you now from the base, and
Speaker 1: this is a special bonus teaching that I recorded just
Speaker 1: for you to break it down a little more, to
Speaker 1: take it a little deeper.
Speaker 2: I hope you enjoy this overflow message. Let me know.
Speaker 3: Let's go. Ephesians four twenty two. You were taught, with
Speaker 3: regard to your former way of life, to put off
Speaker 3: your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires,
Speaker 3: to be made new in the attitude of your minds,
Speaker 3: and to put on the new self, created to be
Speaker 3: like God in true righteousness and holiness. And what caught
Speaker 3: my attention just then reading it was you were taught
Speaker 3: to put off your old self. You were taught to
Speaker 3: be made new, You were taught to put on the
Speaker 3: new self.
Speaker 2: You were taught.
Speaker 3: Paul is assuming that the audience he's speaking to in
Speaker 3: the Book of Ephesians has received instruction on all of
Speaker 3: those things, to put off the old self, to be
Speaker 3: made new in the attitude of your mind, and to
Speaker 3: put on the new self. And I think there is
Speaker 3: a difference between being told to do something and taught
Speaker 3: to do it, because if you tell me what to do,
Speaker 3: but don't teach me how I'll be trapped. I will
Speaker 3: know that I'm not doing it right, but I won't
Speaker 3: know how to do it any different. I was trying
Speaker 3: to learn a few moves the other day with the
Speaker 3: guy who was doing jiu jitsu, and I noticed that,
Speaker 3: like when he would tell me to do something, I
Speaker 3: would have a really hard time. You know, switch this
Speaker 3: elbow and put this you know arm now where the other.
Speaker 3: I mean, it was like, I'm not I am not
Speaker 3: a athletic guy. Maybe I shouldn't say that. Maybe maybe
Speaker 3: that's me not doing the new me. But what I
Speaker 3: mean is like I don't naturally just pick up a
Speaker 3: lot of physical movements and stuff, and I don't know,
Speaker 3: like the angles and the geometry of jiu jitsu or
Speaker 3: grappling or whatever, they come naturally to me. But when
Speaker 3: he would get down and show me and go like
Speaker 3: and show me, I could do a lot better. And
Speaker 3: I think a lot of times, as I have preached
Speaker 3: through the years, it's been easier for me to tell
Speaker 3: people what to do than to teach them.
Speaker 2: How to do it. It's easier for me to tell
Speaker 2: you to I don't know.
Speaker 3: I want to think of one that's pretty applicable spend
Speaker 3: time with God pray. But the disciples came to Jesus
Speaker 3: and said, teach us to pray. It's a big difference
Speaker 3: between telling you to pray and teaching you to pray,
Speaker 3: because one is you should. And sometimes when somebody's just
Speaker 3: giving us a list of things we should do, it
Speaker 3: not only gets overwhelming, but we become frustrated when we
Speaker 3: give it our best effort. And like with prayer, for instance,
Speaker 3: I don't think there's anybody that calls themselves a believer
Speaker 3: in Christ who doesn't feel like, oh man, well, I.
Speaker 2: Think there probably are some people. There aren't many people.
Speaker 2: There aren't many of us who are followers of Christ
Speaker 2: who don't feel like I.
Speaker 3: Should I should pray more? All right, so pray more?
Speaker 3: How do I do it? Our father who I didn't have? Okay, okay,
Speaker 3: But after I pray that prayer, what do I pray?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: You know, teaching someone something as simple as this can
Speaker 3: be helpful that when you pray a lot of times,
Speaker 3: it's a good idea for you to be more very
Speaker 3: specific about where you are in your walk with God
Speaker 3: than being generic about where you should be, So you know,
Speaker 3: instead of praying like, Ah, God, I thank THEE that
Speaker 3: Thou art most holy, and I desire to do Thy
Speaker 3: will today.
Speaker 2: I think that's awesome, and I don't think that's bad.
Speaker 3: And I think we should magnify God and begin with
Speaker 3: thanksgiving and praise and adoration. I'm not making fun of that,
Speaker 3: but I'm saying, sometimes you have to start from the
Speaker 3: place where you are and go God, I need your
Speaker 3: help right now. I can't do this without you. But
Speaker 3: you are the great I am. You are the mighty God.
Speaker 3: You could do anything.
Speaker 2: God.
Speaker 3: I know that you live in me. I know that
Speaker 3: you love me. I know that you want to help me.
Speaker 3: You said in your word that I could do all
Speaker 3: things to Christ, who strengthens me. Right now, I just
Speaker 3: ask you to flood my body with the energy that
Speaker 3: I need for this task and help me to have
Speaker 3: the words that I need to say in this situation,
Speaker 3: because I feel like my own human wisdom has fallen
Speaker 3: short and running out of See what I'm saying, and
Speaker 3: by starting with God, I need your help, it enabled
Speaker 3: me to tap into my need for God's strength and
Speaker 3: then I praised him. That's a very simple example of it.
Speaker 3: But we could we could go on and on read
Speaker 3: your Bible more? How how read my Bible? So if
Speaker 3: you weren't taught to do something, but you were told
Speaker 3: to do it, you might find yourself a lot of
Speaker 3: times feeling ashamed.
Speaker 2: Because you feel stupid because you don't know how.
Speaker 3: And when it comes to this thought of putting off
Speaker 3: the old self, a lot of people don't know how
Speaker 3: to do that, and what we end up doing is
Speaker 3: just hating ourself.
Speaker 2: Oh man, I'm so selfish, and I'm so.
Speaker 3: I'm such an idiot and God, I'm such a like
Speaker 3: I'm so out of control and what's wrong with me?
Speaker 2: And I'm a screw up and I'm a failure.
Speaker 3: And you know all these things that I mentioned in
Speaker 3: Week one of my sermon that become identity, things like
Speaker 3: I'm not disciplined. No, I'm just not being disciplined, But
Speaker 3: I am I have the potential for discipline because of
Speaker 3: Christ in me. So even the idea of putting off
Speaker 3: the old self and Paul saying you were taught to
Speaker 3: put off the old self, a lot of people weren't
Speaker 3: his audience. He had taught them to do it. But
Speaker 3: a lot of times we haven't been taught and a
Speaker 3: lot of times. As I mentioned several weeks ago on
Speaker 3: the Daily Devot, we were taught wrong. Therefore, when God
Speaker 3: is bringing something into our life to model something for us,
Speaker 3: you know, you meet somebody and you see, oh wow,
Speaker 3: I see an example of what it means to be kind.
Speaker 3: I see an example of what it means to be selfless.
Speaker 3: I see an example of what it means to think bigger.
Speaker 3: I see an example of what it means to walk
Speaker 3: in faith. That example that you see that God will
Speaker 3: put in your path a lot of times is to
Speaker 3: show you a preview of what He wants to do
Speaker 3: in your future. That he wants to give you some
Speaker 3: of those same experiences. He wants to use you in
Speaker 3: some of those same ways. When we don't put off
Speaker 3: the old self, and when we don't actively cause ourselves
Speaker 3: to think, like, am I nurturing now the things that
Speaker 3: are in me that I will need for what God
Speaker 3: is calling me to be later when we're like short
Speaker 3: term focus. Remember my weird scripture. I haven't got to
Speaker 3: preach it yet, but from Deuteronomy twenty nineteen. You know,
Speaker 3: when you lay siege to a city for a long
Speaker 3: time and they won't fight you, and you have to
Speaker 3: lay siege on the city to try to to try
Speaker 3: to keep them in the city. Don't go putting the
Speaker 3: axe to trees that can bear fruit. You can eat
Speaker 3: from them. God wants to feed you from those trees.
Speaker 3: Don't chop them down. And I think of that as
Speaker 3: being a metaphor for the things that I cut down
Speaker 3: in my life, because, oh man, right now, I need
Speaker 3: this tree to be a battering ram. You know, I
Speaker 3: need this relief, So run to this. I need this
Speaker 3: need mad in my life. So let me get it
Speaker 3: this quick way, right. All the quick hit things that
Speaker 3: we do to meet needs that keep us and limit
Speaker 3: us from experiencing something richer in our future. So when
Speaker 3: I say don't fight your future, I'm getting to the
Speaker 3: fact that a lot of us weren't taught how to
Speaker 3: deal with the things that come in our life that
Speaker 3: God wants to use to develop us into the person
Speaker 3: he made us to be. So when correction comes in
Speaker 3: our life, we reject it because we're insecure. We chop
Speaker 3: down the tree that has our future food on it.
Speaker 3: When relationships come in our life that are new, we're
Speaker 3: too insecure, so we don't really step into them, or
Speaker 3: we don't really develop them or pursue them because we
Speaker 3: don't feel like we're worthy of that. We don't believe that,
Speaker 3: we don't believe that God is giving it to us
Speaker 3: as a gift, and we're not ready to receive it.
Speaker 3: So we chop down the tree of who we could
Speaker 3: be in the future, and instead of experiencing what God
Speaker 3: wants to give to us, we go for the short term.
Speaker 3: And I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did,
Speaker 3: make sure to share it and subscribe so we can
Speaker 3: get you all of these new messages as soon as
Speaker 3: they're available. I also want to take a moment and
Speaker 3: thank all of you who are a part of Elevation.
Speaker 3: Whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening, make sure to leave a review,
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Speaker 2: God bless you.