Prayer for All Members Based on Pastor Jared’s Message, May 15, 2022 Ephesians 4:17-24
Living the New Life

Introduction: In relation to the world, Christians must live differently. Paul gives us two commands:

1. Don’t live like unbelievers. (4:17-19)

   Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

   How do non-Christians live?

   • In the futility of their minds. It is futility to live without regard to God and eternity.

   • In the darkness of their understanding. Because they do not start with the basic truth that God has

     revealed Himself, their minds are darkened and they cannot understand.

   • Alienated from the life of God. At root they have a hardness of heart: they ignore God and do not

     know Him, so they are excluded from His presence.

   • They have become callous. They have given themselves up to sin.

     Lord, for Your sake help us to live our lives differently from those of the lost world around us.

2. Live as new creations. (4:20-24)

   But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

   We have been saved and transformed to live a new life.

   • Instead of being without God, we are Christ-centered: Christ is the subject of our teaching, Christ is the teacher, and Christ is the truth. His life, death, and resurrection have given us a new life.

     Lord Jesus, thank You that You enabled us to hear Your voice and believe in You. Please help us keep on listening to You, to know You more and more.

   • By God’s grace we died with Christ, so we leave the old self in the grave.
     Lord, please help us to remember that You have set us free from the old life of sin!

   • By God’s grace we have been renewed in the spirit of our minds, so we understand and are changed by His Word.

     Lord, help us to immerse ourselves in Your Word, and through it please continue to do Your transforming work in us!

   • By God’s grace we have been re-created so we can live Christ-like lives.

     Lord, please help us to live out our new identities in You, reflecting Your righteousness and holiness, Your truth and love.