Why is it so hard to change? If you know something’s bad for you, why can’t you just stop? It turns out that sin is pleasurable, at first. But it has a terrible destructive bite in the long run. We are addicted to pleasure. And that’s what makes change so very hard. Our goal today is to explain to you how you can stop the habits of your old life and get your life back so that you can be a brand new you with a brand new life!
Our vices bring instant gratification, (but they bring long term sorrow).
The key to getting your life back on track is to put on the new man.
The old ME died with Christ. Romans 6:6 “
Now we have a new nature. 2 Corinthians 5:17,
Your new nature is the key to overcoming sin.
GOAL; Become Like Christ 10
“Be imitators of God.” Ephesians 5:1-2
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:5
“Everyone, when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” Luke 6:40
“You be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 11:1
If you really want life change, you must adopt the right goal. .
METHOD; The Word of God 10
Renewed means new growth, new strength, and new life.
This happens through knowledge.
As we behold the mirror of God’s Word we are transformed. 2 Cor 3:17-18
We are transformed by the renewing of our mind. Rom 12:2
We are blessed when we continue in the perfect law of liberty. Jas 1:22-25
The world of God’s grace is able to build you up. Act 20:32
The way to put on the new man is time spent in God’s Word.
Get into the Word, and let the Word get into you.
IMPACT of your actions 11-12
You are now on a mission to impact other people with your life
You must become the role model God wants you to be.
Your ethnicity doesn’t make you better or worse than anyone else.
Your past does not make you a better or worse Christian than anyone else.
The New Man treats everyone in the body of Christ as valuable.
REPLACE; With Godly Life Change 12-14
Describe what your new life should look like.
Colossians 3:8-9 lists six ugly worldly responses.
Colossians 3:12-14 lists eight gracious godly responses.
Which of the two lists do you want to follow?
People respond poorly because they feel justified in their behavior.
Everybody gets to choose their responses.
You can’t just stop one behavior without replacing it with another one!
This is called “the positive replacement principle.”
Practicing these virtues will strengthen your resolve to overcome sin.
One way to kick bad habits is to actively replace unhealthy routines with new, healthy ones. These alternative behaviors counteract the urges to repeat a bad behavior. And if you decide to put on the new man, to replace your bad way of treating people with a godly way of treating people, it will powerfully, positively and triumphantly change your life!
Why is it So Hard to Change?
If you know something’s bad for you, why can’t you just stop? Addiction is something that one out of every 12 American adults struggles with.[i] About 70% of smokers say they would like to quit. Drug and alcohol abusers want to give up addictions that hurt their bodies and tear apart families and friendships. And many of us have unhealthy excess weight that we would love to lose if only we would eat right and exercise more. So why don’t we do it?
It turns out that sin is pleasurable, at first. But it has a terrible destructive bite in the long run. But it is our pleasure sensors and our brain’s reward centers that keep us coming back for more. We are addicted to pleasure. That’s why we return again and again to such harmful routines such as overeating, smoking, drug or alcohol abuse, gambling, porn and even compulsive use of social media.
Enjoyable behaviors prompt your brain to release a chemical called dopamine. If you receive a jolt of pleasurable response, you want to do it again, and that strengthens our bad habits. When you’re not doing those things, dopamine creates the craving so that you want to do it again,” [ii]
In a sense, then, parts of our brains are working against us when we try to overcome bad habits. “These routines can become hardwired in our brains, And the brain’s reward centers keep us craving the things we’re trying so hard to resist. [iii]
And that’s what makes change so very hard. The problem is that our vices bring instant gratification, (even though they bring long term sorrow). What makes it even more difficult is that our virtues rarely bring the same kind of immediate gratification or dopamine high, (even though they bring long term satisfaction and joy).
So the truth is you get more of a high out of alcohol, than you do out of sober, happy family living. And you get a bigger jolt out of gambling, than you do when you pay off your mortgage!
With this terrible imbalance, brought on by the ravages of sin, how can we tip the scales in our favor? You have to be willing to exchange the short term gratification for long term results. We need to know how to break those routines and embrace new ones.
In our last few studies, we told you that in order to win against sin, you must set your mind on heavenly things. And we noted that you must abandon yourself to an all out faith in the God who has promised that he will deliver us. You’ve got to believe.
Today, we get to unpack yet another key to getting your life back on track. This one is called, put on the new man.
The idea is this: if indeed, the old me died with Christ, as Paul said in Romans 6:6 “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that sin in the body might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”
And if indeed we have a new nature, as Paul explained in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Then our message today is that you should “put off the old man” and ”put on the new man.” And here is the secret to overcoming the dopamine rush. You can put an end to your old life and live a life pleasing to God, is because, as a believer, you have a new nature.
The nature inside me has changed, but the body around me has not. It still has the same needs and the same passions and same dopamine rush – but the incredible news is that we now have a NEW NATURE that can overpower the old things!
So our goal today is to explain to you how you can stop the habits of your old life and get your life back so that you can be a brand new you with a brand new life!
And I’m going to give you FIVE simple steps on how you can PUT ON the new man. #1. You must adopt a new GOAL. The first thing you must do is to decide that the most important thing in your life is that you want to become like Jesus. #2 You must use a new METHOD. The old dopamine rush is not going to help you change. Here is what will: the incredible mind transforming Word of God. #3 You must begin to think differently about the IMPACT of your actions. You are now on a mission to impact other people, and to do that you must become the role model God wants you to be. #4 You need to rethink your RESPONSES to people around you and REPLACE the bad ones with good ones. Since you are a new creature in Christ, Your behavior must change to reflect that.
This is how you PUT ON the new man. Adopt a new goal.
GOAL; Become Like Christ
put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
According to the image. Who’s image? Christ’s image. You must decide that the most important thing in your life is that you want to become like Jesus.
Ephesians 5:1-2 commands us to “be imitators of God.”
Philippians 2:5 tells us “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
Jesus told his disciples, “Everyone, when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” Luke 6:40
1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul said, “You be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.”
So, let me be clear, if you really want life change, you must adopt the right goal. The only goal that will get you where you need to go is this one: that I might be like Jesus. Pray, “Oh, Lord, that is my goal to become like Christ.”
This is how you PUT ON the new man. Adopt a new goal. Use a new method.
METHOD; The Word of God
10 put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
What does it mean that the new man is “renewed in knowledge?” Renewed ἀνακαινόω anakainoo means new growth, new strength, new life as opposed to the old life. This is the way that Christians become transformed. We become renewed, re-invigorated, strengthened in a way we have never experienced before.
And how does that happened through knowledge. What is this storehouse of knowledge that is so powerful that it can overcome our addictions and make us live a new life? Let’s see if we can figure that out. Here are some clues.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Now where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord..
The Holy Spirit uses something called a mirror to transform us. We look into it and it changes us. That is the storehouse of knowledge from the book of Colossians.
Another clue. Romans 12:2 “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may demonstrate what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
This storehouse of knowledge renews and transforms the mind. Once that happens we are able to live out the good life.
A third clue James 1:22-25, “22 be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed.
This storehouse of knowledge is called “the perfect law of liberty,” or “the Word.” If we look into the law of liberty and continue in it, it transforms us.
I’m sure you must know that this amazing storehouse of knowledge is “the world of God’s grace, which is able to build you up” and transform you! (Act 20:32)
The method that you must use to put on the new man is time spent in God’s Word. Don’t just spend moments, although that’s better than nothing; Don’t be casual about the Word, that won’t be profitable; Spend a serious chunk of time, reading, studying, memorizing and meditating on God’s Word.
When you get into the Word, and the Word gets into you; that’s when transformation takes place.
IMPACT of your actions
You are now on a mission to impact other people with your life, and to do that you must become the role model God wants you to be.
11 In the body of Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
Now why did God drop this interesting verse about our equality in Christ right in the middle of our discussion on the new man? Perhaps because God wants us to gain a new outlook on other believers. In Christ, your ethnicity doesn’t make you better or worse than anyone else (Jew or Greek, circumcised or uncircumcised). In Christ, neither your past, nor your position, nor your wealth or lack of it make you a better or worse Christian than anyone else.
So here’s the idea. The New Man treats every other man and woman in the body of Christ as a valuable, precious member of the Body of Christ. Neither Race, ethnicity, background, education, wealth or lack of it is an excuse for mistreating a brother or a sister.
We are on a mission to impact rich and poor, slave and free, black and white, Jew and Gentile.
And we have received a special calling in order to accomplish that, according to verse 12: We are the elect of God! God has chosen us! We are His! We need to live like we are his. We are holy! God set us apart for himself so we can be pure! We are beloved! Maybe you don’t feel like you’re doing a good job representing God nor living a holy life, regardless you are still loved! God doesn’t love us because of or goodness, he loves us in spite of it, and he doesn’t want to leave us in that life! That’s why he has called us!
This is how you PUT ON the new man. Adopt a new goal. Use a new method. consider the impact of your actions. And you need to spend time rethink they way you RESPOND to people around you.
REPLACE; with Godly Life Change
You must describe what your new life should look like. Everybody gets to chose how they will respond. If you feel justified in being angry, you will be angry.
Colossians 3:8-9 lists six ugly worldly responses. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language and lying. These are what you will typically see in people around town. Why do people respond this way? Because they feel justified in their behavior.
But Colossians 3:12-14 lists eight godly responses.
It says, instead, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
Everybody gets to choose their responses. Choose your responses. Here’s a better way. Be tender and merciful. Be kind. Be humble, meek even. Be longsuffering, put up with other people even when they are unbearable. Forgive them and most of all love them!
Great choices. Choose your behavior. Which of the two lists do you want to follow?
Here is one of the secrets for changing your behavior. You can’t just stop one behavior without replacing it with another one! It just doesn’t work. People want to stop smoking, drinking, overeating and gambling… but just stopping leaves a void in their lives. You need to replace those behaviors with something better. Let me see if I can explain it:
You just can’t stop lying, you must replace that behavior with truth telling. You can’t just stop being angry, you must replace that behavior with tender mercy and kindness. You can’t just stop swearing at people, you must replace that behavior with forgiveness and love. Do you get the idea?
This is called “the positive replacement principle.” And I guarantee that you will never stop your bad behavior until you decide that you shouldn’t treat yourself and other people a different way. There is a better way, a right way, a godly way to treat people.
Regularly practicing these virtues will strengthen your resolve to overcome other sins. In fact over time they will help you improve your self-control by practicing them[iv]
One way to kick bad habits is to actively replace unhealthy routines with new, healthy ones. These alternative behaviors can counteract the urges to repeat a bad behavior.[v] Abandon activities that lead to mental associations that induce bad habits. Stay Away From Temptations That Help Feed Your Addiction Or Bad Habits
And if you decide to put on the new man, to replace your bad way of treating people with a godly way of treating people, it will powerfully, positively and triumphantly change your life!
Get your life back. Make the changes that you need to make to live the way you’ve always wanted to live. Put Jesus first. Immerse yourself in the Word of God. Reject your prejudices against one another. Embrace who you are as a child of God, and start treating people as Jesus would have you treat them.
Drop your defensiveness and pick up some compassion. Stop justifying your bad behavior and start treating people with kindness and humility. And the bottom line is that you must love the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, soul mind and strength, and He will change your life!
[i] https://americanaddictioncenters.org/sobriety-guide/coping-mechanism
[ii] https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2012/01/breaking-bad-habits#:~:text=In%20a%20sense%2C%20then%2C%20parts,trying%20so%20hard%20to%20resist.
[iii] https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2012/01/breaking-bad-habits#:~:text=In%20a%20sense%2C%20then%2C%20parts,trying%20so%20hard%20to%20resist.
[iv] https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2012/01/breaking-bad-habits#:~:text=In%20a%20sense%2C%20then%2C%20parts,trying%20so%20hard%20to%20resist.
[v] https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2012/01/breaking-bad-habits#:~:text=In%20a%20sense%2C%20then%2C%20parts,trying%20so%20hard%20to%20resist.
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