The New Self

David Stewart, Director of Youth Ministries

My name is David Stewart, Director of Student Ministries here at Faith Church.  I’m really excited that everyone is here today; got a good crowd today.  It’s Confirmation Sunday, very, very exciting.  I’m going to be preaching from Ephesians 4.  I’d like to read that to you.

Ephesians 4: 21- 24 says this:

Surely you’ve heard about him and were taught in him as truth that is in Jesus.  You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts; and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds; to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God.

Alright, I’m going to do what Chris says.  I’m going to come out here so you guys can see me a little better because I’m not very tall.  But I’ve got to say, that having this flower right here, I know I’ve said this before, but I feel like I was a goat in a previous life; because I just want to “nehhhhh” and just like start chewing on it.  It’s like it smells good and I think it would taste good and I like making a goat sound. Sooo…  We’re all about having fun here at Faith Church.  So I apologize if I start gnawing on my flower but it’s like it’s so tempting.  Well O.K., I’m just trying to make a little fun here.  This totally had nothing to do about anything….soooo. 

I lead a bible study on Monday nights at Caribou Coffee in Glen Lake with the senior high students.  One Monday, in particular, just about a month ago, I was sitting there right by the window preparing for the bible study to begin with my friend, Chris Smith.  We were just sitting there, kind of having this discussion about what we were going to be talking about that night, and we saw these two look like high school students kind of meandering through the parking lot.  We didn’t think anything of it.  Then it looked like these kids were like reaching into their pockets and like throwing something at this car.  So me, being the youth pastor involved in the community, I’m, like, “Well I have to do something.  I am a youth pastor.  This is something that I have to address.”  So I’m kind of like watching these kids like vandalizing this car, and I’m like “O.K.” ready to spring to action here, thinking of all the clever things I’m going to say.  I’m going to make this kid feel really silly and then lead him to the Lord and then make him clean up the mess.  Just what can I do here?  Before I get up the courage to go and talk to these kids, they turn around and they begin walking towards
Caribou, towards where I’m sitting.  This one kid, through the window, makes eye contact with me.  I’m like, “Ok here we go;” and this kid looks at me and he just starts walking, you know how guys just try to be tough, like strutting around and stuff.  Well this is what this kid is doing.  He’s strutting at me and then, I can’t hear him because he’s on the other side of the glass; but I’m an O.K. lip reader and this is what he said.  He said, “I’m bleeping looking at you.”  And I’m like, “Whoa, dude.  O.K.  No need to, like, get in a tizzy.”  No.  No.  I’m sorry.  He says, “What are you bleeping looking at?”  I was kind of taken back.  I’m like this kid wants to start a fight with me.  Then very calmly I said “I’m looking at you.”  I kind of stayed calm and I think that took the kid by surprise because he’s kind of like “Oh.”  So then he kind of walks with his buddy into Caribou and I’m like, “Oh, they’re going to want to fight me, great”.  I had a short sleeve t-shirt on that day and I’m pretty sure we didn’t get in a fight because he saw the size of the guns.  He didn’t want to mess, so he went and sat down.  I’m like, “O.K.”  Bible study was about to start so I thought after bible study I’m going to approach this student; we’re going set this straight; we’re going to make sure he cleans off this mess he made on this car.  Bible study’s over.  As bible study was finishing he and his buddy actually go out and they wipe off this car and they are out on their hands and knees scrubbing this stuff off.  So I don’t even have to say something to them like “Man, these boys speak loud and clear.” 

O.K.  So you’re like what’s the point of that story other than me showing my biceps.  The next morning I’m the guest teacher at Hopkins High School in the world religions class to lecture about Christianity and all this pertaining to Christianity.  And guess who was sitting in the front row?  I walk in this class.  I have my guitar and my bible and I’m getting ready; and this kid kind of shuffles in a little late, and I’m like, “That’s the kid.  That’s the kid from Caribou yesterday.”  So I’m like, this is so juicy.  I’m going to totally use this to my advantage.  So I am doing my introduction, telling who I am and where I’m from; and then I stop, and I’m like, “Hey, I know you.  I recognize you.”  I’m playing a little coy.  I’m like, “Where was that?  Caribou Coffee, yesterday.  I saw you at Caribou yesterday, right?”  The kid just looked at me and goes “That wasn’t me.”  I was like, “Oh my mistake, my mistake.”  So I get to the part where I’m talking about grace and stuff like that.  I turn to this student and I’m like, “Son, can I use you, I like to call students son; it makes me feel old.  It’s like, I also didn’t shave today so you guys wouldn’t confuse me for a confirmation student.  So, it’s not that I’m lazy.  This is a well calculated two-and-a-half week shadow, right here.  O.K.  I turn to this kid and I’m like, “Can I use you as an example?”  And he says “Sure,” very reluctantly.   I’m like, “Let’s just say I see you at Caribou Coffee, hypothetically here.”  He’s like, “Go on.”  Then I’m like, “Then let’s say I see you take a foreign substance like a paint ball, like let’s say an ice cream cone.”  He’s like “O.K.”  I say, “Let’s say I see you throw it at my car, at my pretty paint job on my Durango.  Let’s say I see you smear ice cream all over it.  The fair thing for me to do would be to go out there and demand you get on your hands and knees and either lick it off or wipe it off or make it nice and pretty, pay for the ruined paint job.  Just clean it.  Just do what you have to do to remedy this situation.  Fix the mess you made.”  I’m like, “That would be fair for me to be a little upset about that, right?”  He’s like, “I guess so.”  You know, he’s deepening his voice to sound tough.  I’m like, “But here’s what grace is.  Let’s say I see you do the same thing; and, instead, I walk out there and say ‘Boy, dude, did you just dump your ice cream cone on my car?’  And if you say ‘Yes’, then I’d say, ‘You know what?  There’s a Dairy Queen right down the road.  Let’s go and get you another ice cream cone and we can have a talk about spirituality of God or something.’  That’s grace; me treating you kindly without you deserving it.”  The kid was like, “O.K.”  And he got it! 

It was kind of a funny story.  It was one of those once in a lifetime, just like perfect sermon illustrations, just teed up waiting for me to take advantage of.  Here’s the thing.  Though I did not know it at the time, now here’s the part of the sermon where I move behind the pulpit to give my words authority; though I did not know it, my credibility was at stake in that moment where that student approached me on the other side of the glass.  You see I could have responded in a not so godly way.  I could have gotten angry or excited and maybe said some less than choice words to him and told him like “Dude you can’t….”, you know.  That would have ruined my credibility to speak about things like grace and love, patience, kindness.  So miraculously God bestowed coolness and clarity of mind upon me that moment in Caribou.  So when I spoke to them, to that class on that Tuesday morning about Jesus’ love and grace, that kid had a reason to listen to me because he saw it lived out in my life.  Now that is by far the exception; usually I loose my cool and I get frustrated.  But in that moment, I did not.  You see if I would have lost my cool, if I wouldn’t respond that way, I would have been a hypocrite.  That kid would have had no reason to listen to me talk about love and grace and all that stuff.  No one wants to listen to a hypocrite.

So without getting too philosophical this morning, I want to get a little philosophical.  I want to suggest that all of us are faced with situations very similar to the one that I faced with that student at Caribou Coffee, maybe though they are not always as overt or bluntly obvious.  You see, I think we encounter these situations not only every week, day or month; but literally on a moment by moment basis.  You see every moment presents us with some sort of decision to make.  In fact, if you get down to it, the life that we live, the life that we know, is nothing more that a series of moments strung together.  The most important decision that we have to make is what we do in this moment, right here, right now, and now in this moment, and now in this moment, and now in this moment.  This is exactly what Paul was getting at in Ephesians 4.  Let me explain what I mean because he obviously doesn’t use that language.  When Paul told the Ephesians “to put away the old self and clothe yourself with the new self” notice that in both instances he was telling them to do something.  He was saying “Do this and then do this.”  You can’t forget that Paul, the guy who wrote this letter, was writing to men and women who were already Christians.  Ephesians is addressed to believers.  These people had already, at some point in their lives, made a commitment to submit their lives to Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Yet, interestingly enough, we still find him urging them to put off the old self and put on the new self and I submit to you that this putting away and putting on is not a one time decision.  It’s not something that happens once and then we’re done with it.  It is something that we must do on a moment by moment basis.  Now I like Greek, I minored in Greek at Bethel; and I like to, as the confirmation students know, do anything I can to make sure they know that I think I’m smarter than them.  But I’m really not.  They also brought to my attention that when I do this when I’m talking, when I touch my belly button, that means I’m either  unsure or I’m nervous.  So that’s why I’m standing behind the podium so you can’t see me doing stuff with my belly button.  I think we should translate the words “putting away” that Paul uses as “casting off” because it carries with it a sense of urgency, a sense of something you do in a moments time; and the second you cast off the old self, then in the next moment you clothe yourself with the new self.  You put it on like a garment, like a piece of clothing.  I think that this casting off is something that lasts a lifetime.  Once again it’s not something that happens once and then we’re done it.  Though I am convinced that like any other thing we do in this life, the more we do it, the more we practice it, it becomes habitual.  It becomes second nature and thus easier over time.  But ask anyone who has been a Christian for any length of time and they will tell you, I am sure, that the process and the decision to cast off the old self is something that you must choose all the time; and if anyone has been a Christian for more than five, ten, fifteen, twenty years, I would be willing to guess that this is still something that you consciously wrestle with on a moment by moment basis.  The choice to cast off the old self and put on the new self is a lifelong process. 

I can hear my students saying, “Dude you’re belaboring the whole moment by moment point.  When do we get out of here?”  O.K.  I’m only doing it because I think it’s important.  But not only that, it is something that maybe seems rather obvious to us as I said.  Yes, life is lived on a moment by moment basis, but I think a lot of us take this for granted and maybe even live as if it isn’t true.  Here’s what I mean and I’m going to give you a metaphor and the class knows how much I love metaphors.  Think about a husband and a wife on their wedding day.  Now for those of you guys that aren’t married you should still be able to understand this because you’ve probably have seen someone who’s married or been to a wedding or something.  So don’t worry.  I’m not claiming to be an expert on marriage, so, just a metaphor.  When a man and a woman turn to each other on their wedding day and they make their vows, follow me here, the pledge that they’re making is not itself the life that they are pledging to each other.  Let me unpack that sentence for you.  If the quality of a marriage was dictated by the quality of the vows or the pledge that the bride and the groom made to each other, then everyone would probably have perfect marriages because every wedding I’ve been to the vows have been lovely and poetic and absolutely wonderful and all that stuff.  But we know it’s not that simple.  The vows that the bride and the groom make to each other don’t magically give them a good marriage.  And anyone who is married should be saying “Amen,” because it’s tough.  Rather,... I heard a laugh.  Thank you for that.  That was supposed to be funny.  The actual life that the bride and the groom pledge to each other is the life that they will live every moment after the initial pledge is made.  For the only life that they really have to pledge to each other is the life that they live in this moment, and now in this moment, and now in this moment.  The only life they have to give is the life they live on a subsequent moment by moment basis.  So, too, the quality of our relationship of God is not decided by a one time commitment we make at TEC or a one time commitment we make on Confirmation Sunday; rather the quality of our relationship with God is decided by whether or not you are living out your pledge to Him right now.  And when you say the phrase “right now” it always implies “this moment”, and this moment and now this one and now this one.  And whether we are talking about marriage or a relationship with God, I think and, maybe let me be offensive for a minute, I think our pledge is without content and value except insofar as we are living it out right here and right now; as we are doing it in this moment.  Otherwise it’s just words, except insofar as we are saying “I am going to renew that pledge right now, by the way I live.  I’m going to be intentional about casting off the old self and clothing myself with the new self right now, and now right now, and now right now.”

You see I think a lot of people assume that when they give their life to Jesus, when they accept Jesus into their heart as their personal Lord and Savior, that this somehow magically transforms them or that uttering that phrase just makes them good to go, if not in this life, then surely in the next.  But the trouble is, this magical view of what we call spiritual formation, just doesn’t work.  It doesn’t happen like that.  When we give our lives to Jesus, when we get confirmed or whatever, we aren’t done.  It’s not the finish line.  It’s the beginning of a journey.  I think it’s the beginning of a long and beautiful and sometimes even difficult journey.  There’s nothing magic about confirmation.  Today you are not done, students, you are just beginning.  This beginning will only have meaning and relevance if the second you walk out there you begin to renew that pledge and that vow. 

Let me answer one possible objection that some might have to this moment by moment idea of casting off.  I can hear some people say, “You know we can’t earn God’s grace, that is to say, there is nothing we can do to cause God to give us grace.”  And I whole heartedly agree.  I’m not talking about earning our salvation.  We obviously can’t do that.  God lavishes grace on us freely.  That’s the definition of the word grace.  However, I think that our spiritual growth is something that takes considerable effort; that is to say, the process of submitting ones entire life to Jesus, and entering into the process of literally becoming transformed to be like him, is something that takes considerable effort.  Therefore I want to say that grace is opposed to earning and not effort.  So the important question that we have to ask now is “How do we do this?  What does our effort consist of in this moment by moment basis?  What do I do?  Bring it home for us, Stewart boy.”  The question will have to be answered in a different sermon, unfortunately, because it would take a long time to deal with this idea of spiritual formation; but let me say one thing and you’re going to hear me preach this every time I’m behind this pulpit because I think it is so important.  Put your finger in Ephesians 4 and turn with me to John 13 if you have your bibles with you.  If not, that’s al1 right, we’re just going to quote a little section here.  In John 13, we find Jesus in about verse 33, and a little before and a little after.  We find Jesus having a conversation with his buddies.  He’s just finished telling them that he’s going to be betrayed.  Shortly after he tells his disciples this, he says, “Little children, I’m with you only a little while longer.  You will look for me, and as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you:  Where I am going you cannot come; but I give you a new commandment that you love one another, just as I have loved you; and you should also love one another.  By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples.”  So I hear this love language and I start asking some questions.  Was Jesus a hippie?  Did he just walk around saying like “Peace” and “Love” and stuff?  Did he wear tie dye; and is it that kind of love, just this floating kind of random feeling?  I don’t think so.  Jesus is saying this.  “Watch what I am going to do for you.  I’m going to go to the cross and I am going to give my life for you, for our friends, for our enemies as a sacrifice.  I’m calling you to love the same way.”  I think Jesus was in essence telling his friends to do the same thing that he was about to do for them.  To give their lives for others and, this is the phrase I want to use:  To live self-sacrificially.  Hard words.  Difficult phrase.  But I think it’s important. 

Now if we go back to Ephesians 4, I chose that text for a reason.  Go back to Ephesians 4 in verses 25 to 32 Paul gives some very practical ways for how to cloth yourself with the new self after you’ve cast off the old self.  You guys can read that for yourself.  I’m not preaching on that.  But in 5:1, Paul sums up his argument in the entire passage by saying this.  This is my translation so it’s not going to be verbatim of what you have in your bibles.  “So then be imitators of God as beloved children and live and love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”  Sound familiar.  Notice the example that Paul uses, how Christ loved us, was to show that Jesus gave himself up for us as an offering and as a sacrifice.  Therefore, I want to be so bold to say that if we want to mimic God, if we really are serious about this thing, then we are called to live moment by moment as those who live self-sacrificially.  It’s not easy.  So let’s go back to the original question, “How do we cast off the old self and put on the new self?”  The answer I think is not meant to be some complex riddle that only those with seminary degrees can answer.  It’s really not.  It’s simply this.  We simply imitate Christ by loving one another and giving our lives as a sacrifice to those around us, for our friends and our enemies alike.  Here’s the key.  It’s not a one time deal.  It’s not a one and done type thing.  It’s something that can only be done on a moment by moment basis.  So the words to the confirmation students are this:  Confirmation is but one step along the journey, my friends, and don’t misunderstand this day as being the finish line.  Let me be just blunt and maybe even offensive, and I have license to that because I’m a stupid young kid.  I think today will be of very little value for you guys if after today you never come back to Faith Church.  If this is just a box that you check off of things to do during your life and like “O.K.  I’m confirmed.  I’m good now.  I’ve got my ticket to heaven punched.  I can go and do whatever I want.”  Then this has just been a colossal waste of time.  If you don’t come back and get involved in the community and the life of Faith Church then really this will have no value.  But I hope it’s not that for you guys.  I hope this is going to be so much more.  I hope this is the beginning of a very long and beautiful journey.  Just remember, there is nothing about confirmation that’s going to magically change your life or transform you to be like Jesus.  Confirmation is an invitation.  It’s an invitation to be part of a wonderful story, an invitation to experience a full life on a moment by moment basis. 

So my encouragement to all of us then is this:  To leave this room and become very intentional about casting off the old self and putting on the new self, and do that in every moment.  I think it’s really easy to do that in church.  It’s really easy to put on our Sunday best, pretend like we have no problems and then just act loving to one another in church.  The real test happens when you walk out that door and someone cuts you off in the parking lot.  The real test happens when you go home and you have to live with your less than fully sanctified children; or students when you have to go and live with your less than fully sanctified parents; or you have to go to school and be with a teacher that you don’t get along with; or you go to your job to a boss that you disagree with.  That’s when this happens on a moment by moment basis.  It’s easy in church.  It’s not easy in the world.  Our discipleship, “we will only be known as disciples if we love one another.”  We have to take that seriously; that happens when you walk out of here with every decision that you make.  Sounds like real preaching there for a second.  That was kind of fun.  See this casting off of the old self and clothing with the new self is a life long process but it is a process that happens in this moment, and now in this one and now in this one.  Because after all, all that we have is the moment that we are in.  Amen.