9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [Jamie Vaughan]...the way life used to be, before they accepted rights. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then he goes on to tell them that there is a better way, and this morning, that's what we want to look at today, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the message would be entitled, a better way to the Bible, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and here in Ephesians, Chapter 4, we're going to read the beginning of verse 17, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and we're just going to unpack this for you this morning, and hopefully you'll be able to take something with you. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The Bible says in number 17: "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But ye have not so learned Christ;" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Father, again, we thank you for the day, we thank you for the blessings you've given us, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we thank you for what our hearts have felt already, we thank you for the choir and those that have sung, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and those that have just served in this service. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 God, we thank you for each visitor that's here this morning. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 God, we just pray that you would give us something that we can take into this world today. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We pray that you will give us something that we can hold on to, a promise that we can grasp on to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and be able to combat Satan throughout the world, with what you give us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Again, we thank you and we praise you for all that you do and we pray that you bless the reading of your word. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 An this, in Jesus' name, we do pray, amen. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This morning, we can live life in default. "What does that mean, preacher?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well, if you've got a computer - most of you have got computers 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and you know that the default settings are the original settings - correct? - back to the way that they work. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well, the default life of humanity is what we are talking about in verses 17 to 20. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I remember, as a young man, I was in the 8th grade and the - let me get this right - 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Desert Shield - anybody remembers Desert Shield? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Desert Shield was just finishing up and we were going into Desert Storm. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And in the 8th grade, my history teacher thought it would be a good idea to get these trading cards 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - they were Desert Shield and Desert Storm trading cards, just like baseball cards or anything else - 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well, that's what got me into baseball cards, I tell a lot of people 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I would have not any money as a teenager if I wouldn't have sold baseball cards, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but I got into these Desert Shield cards, and I remember going home one day, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I was counting them, and I was trying to put them in order, so I could make a complete set. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's what I wanted: I wanted a complete set of these Desert Shield cards. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I wanted a set for Desert Shield and a set for Desert Storm. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And they had all kinds off things, I mean, you know, the ......... copy (3:18) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 if you had doubles of him, you were somebody. I mean you could sell them pretty easy, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the Colin Powell. I remember that stuff like if it was yesterday. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But I was trying to count them and put them in order, and I had them all over the kitchen table. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And my grandfather was real big on - you know, he was, even to the day he died, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 he was real big into Fox News and knew everything that was going on, and he said: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Look, you've got them all over the table. Let me show you a better way - 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 let me show you a better way to organize your cards. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now it's going to take some time, but once you get them organized, you're going to know exactly what you've got." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I believe that Christian life is just about like that. It is going to take time. Our life with Christ is going to take time. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But once we get it right, we can walk with him, and it's going to be the best thing possible. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we look here and we see that there is a better way, that the default life of humanity, the Bible says, is close-minded. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We can look in society today and see there's close-mindedness. There's close-mindedness all over. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Why? Because we look out for numer one and our idea, our thought are the best thoughts. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we go around close-minded. You know, I'm sure that as I'm speaking this morning, you can think of at least one person, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 maybe five, that live a life that is close-minded. We don't - there's no room for air. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now in the Christian life, I believe that we don't need to live 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - any other doctrine or any other religion or any othe kind of cult coming to our mind - 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but I do believe this: I do believe we need to love, and I do believe that we need to show compassion, however not letting it change us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But they were close-minded here in the Church of Ephesus: before knowing Christ, they were close-minded. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Before we knew Christ, I'm sure that you can testify as I can that we were clo... - I was close-minded. (5:33) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Then it goes on: "through the ignorance" - the Bible says in verse 18 - 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "through the ignorance", we were close-minded, we were alienating ourselves from God. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Then it goes on to talk about our heart. Our heart was hardened before we knew Christ. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Our heart was of stone. The Bible talks about the heart being wicked. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Who could know it? WHo could know our motives? Our hearts were hard. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We know people, in our society, that have hard hearts, but we also know that Christ can break through. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We also know that Christ has a way of penetrating the heart. Again, those things - 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 those that have accepted Christ can testify to it, because we know how our heart was before we accepted Christ. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, there are some of us in here that got saved and accepted Christ as our savior when they were young. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And for us they were young - you know, I was saved at the age of 8, so it was not real- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I don't remember my heart just being hard, but I remember, when I was 5 and 6 years old, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 my grandfather that wouldn't darken the doorstep of a church, and I remember how hard that his heart was. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I remember how we shared with him for years and years and years, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and it wasn't until he was 50 years old that he accepted Christ. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I remember that, but I remember the day that God penetrated his heart. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I remember the day that God softened his heart. But up until that time, his heart was hardened. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Just like the Prodigal Son, when he left the Father, and he took his inheritance and he went to spend it, he went to live a life of pleasure. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We always hear the saying that life - that grass is greener on the other side, untill we get over there, and then it's crab (?) grass. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You've heard that? That's right. It looks so much better on the other side, and that's precisexactlyely what the Prodigal Son was talking about: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "O, it's going to be great over there, I've got the money, I've got everything that I need, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it does not matter where I'm going. I'm going to go". And that green grass turned into a pigsty. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Sp, living for pleasure is what we did. That's who we were. Why? Because we were ignorant. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The Bible says: "We've given in" in verse 19, before we accepted Christ, everything was whatever we wanted: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. All of those things. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's the false humanity. That's who we are. That's just our flesh, because sin entered into the world, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and death by sin: so death has passed upon our men. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, with that being said God created, and he created perfection, but because of the Fall of Man, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because o the eating o the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, look what we have: we have sinful nature. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And because of that sinful nature, our humanity, our default humanity, is sinful. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's not uncommon to have a hard heart. It's not uncommon to have a closed mind. It's not uncommon to live for pleasure. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But look at verse 21: "If so be that ye have heard him," - Paul's talking about Jesus here - "and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that ye put off concerning the former conversation of the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Look: we have been, we had been living a default life; maybe this morning, you're still in that stage. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Maybe you are still living in that default stage: there is not anything wrong with that. (10:02) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 However, God has given us an extraodinary life. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Paul talks in 2 Corinthians Chapter 5: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's what he's saying again here in Ephesians 4. He's also talking about a renewed mind and a renewed heart, he's talking about that in Romans Chapter 4 as well.