October 11, 2025 • 26 mins
Today on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe, Pastor Mark will show you how to live a changed life. God knows your potential and what your character could and should look like, He just needs your cooperation. Drawing from the book of Ephesians, Mark explores how God is in the business of changing people.
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:00):
Today on Bold Steps weekend, Mark Jobe shows you how
to live a changed life.
S2 (00:05):
Real transformation will only stick when you put on the
new at the same time that you take off the old.
You will not stay changed unless you learn that it's
not just about not doing things, it's about doing other things.
It's not just about taking off, it's about putting on.
S1 (00:36):
And welcome to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Mark
is president of Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor
of New Life Community Church in Chicago. Well, Mark, we're
going to continue our study from the book of Ephesians now.
And today's message is about change. I guarantee that people
listening right now are thinking of all the changes they'd
like to see in someone else, don't you think? Yeah.
S2 (00:57):
That's where our mind normally goes. And I have to
tell people in service sometimes. Please don't elbow your husband
or your wife. Uh, think about yourself first. Uh, but
you know, Wayne, in this passage, the apostle Paul reminds
us that there is a taking off and a putting on. Um,
you know, if you've been, uh, been at work and
(01:19):
you're working outside and you're all dirty, you don't say, hey,
I'm going to change and put on a new, uh,
clean set of clothes over the dirty set of clothes.
First of all, you have to take.
S1 (01:28):
Off.
S2 (01:29):
The dirty set before you put on the new. And
Christianity is that way. You're going to be eliminating things
from your life, but you're putting on the new self
as well.
S1 (01:39):
Putting on the new you. Here's Mark Jobe.
S2 (01:49):
Ephesians chapter four. I'm going to begin reading in verse 17.
So I tell you this. The apostle Paul is writing
to the to the Ephesian believers. So I tell you
this and insist on it in the Lord. Now you
know he's serious when he says, I insist on this.
(02:09):
Have you ever been in a discussion or argument with
a boss, a coworker, or your spouse? And they say,
I insist on this. You know that when they use
the word insist that they're saying, I'm drawing the line,
a line in the sand. This is non-negotiable. This is
super important. So Paul is saying, what I'm about to
(02:32):
tell you is super important. It's non-negotiable. What is it, Paul?
I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord.
That you must no longer live as the Gentiles do,
in the futility of their thinking. When he refers to
(02:53):
the Gentiles, he's not talking about an ethnicity. He is
talking about people that do not yet know No God.
And what Paul is saying, he's addressing believers, people that
claim to be Christians, people that have the Holy Spirit
inside of them. And he's saying to them, hey, I,
(03:14):
I have an issue with you. And here's my issue.
I know that you know, God, I know that His
Holy Spirit is inside of you. But I insist that
you stop living as though you did not know God.
I insist that you stop living like your old self.
(03:35):
I insist that you start living like you know God
and that you like your new self. I insist that
you change. Now here's what I have observed. I've observed
that some of us have lived so long in our
old self that when we become our new self, we
(03:58):
drag in a lot of the culture of our old
self into our new life. How many of you know
what I'm talking about? We've lived so long a certain
way that now that we can live a new way,
we're not sure we know how to live that new way.
So we drag some of our old self into our
new life. I'm told that to train an elephant. Now,
(04:20):
I've never trained personally trained an elephant. I have a
little Shih Tzu dog. Now I don't have it. It's
my wife's dog. That I got stuck with. I promised,
I promised my daughter when she was three years old.
She said, daddy, daddy, can I have a dog? And
(04:41):
I said, honey, no. But she had these big eyes
and this little sweet smile. Daddy, I really want a dog.
So I told her, honey, when you're 12 years old,
when you can take care of your own dog, take
it out and feed it. I will get you a dog.
I thought she would forget. It. I thought it would
(05:01):
blow over. I thought it was a phase. By the
time she was ten and 11, she had posters of dogs.
She had researched it on the internet. She knew what
kind of dog she knew exactly she had told the
kind that doesn't shed and the size and so forth.
So when she was 12, on her 12th birthday, I
had to get her a dog. I've never trained an elephant,
(05:27):
and I can barely train the dog that we have.
He's she's very unruly. But I'm told that when you
train an elephant that what circus trainers do is they
will take this mammoth beast, this beast that weighs tons
and tons, and they will take a powerful, powerful stake
(05:49):
and pull, and they will put it deep within the ground,
and they will tie the foot of that elephant to
that stake, a huge metal pole, the elephant in the beginning,
when it's chained to that pole, will try to escape,
it will pull and it will tug and it will roar,
and it will run, and it will try to pull
(06:10):
away from it, and it will go several days fighting
against being chained to this pole. And finally the elephant
will realize I cannot escape. This chain keeps me bound.
No matter how much I try, how much I struggle,
how much pain I inflict upon my leg to try
(06:32):
to get loose, I cannot escape. So after a while
the elephant stops trying to escape. It becomes used to
being bound. It accepts the fact that I'm bound. And
when I have the chain on my foot, on my foot,
I cannot escape. I'm told also that what a trainer
(06:55):
will do once the elephant has that mentality that it
cannot escape that. They can take a little tent peg,
a small tent peg, and they can put it in
the ground and put the chain onto the the hoof
of this big animal. And although the elephant could easily
(07:15):
pull that little tent peg out of the ground, the
elephant doesn't try because the elephant feels like I'm bound.
The chain makes me bound. It's so used to be
bound that even when it can escape, it does not
because it thinks I can't escape. It's the way things are.
(07:36):
So many of us have lived so long in our
old life, so many years in the old self, that
once we are set free, we're somewhat like that elephant.
We're so used to being bound, so used to being chained,
that even though now we have the power to be
set free, even though now we have the ability to
(07:57):
run and be released, We stay bound by something that
cannot bind us. We say entrapped by things that cannot
hold us down. We act as though we are slaves
when we're not. We live as though we're still bound
to the old lifestyle when we're actually set free. This afternoon,
(08:21):
I want to talk to you about what it means
to put on the new you, creating the image of
God so that you can walk in the freedom that
God has called you to. I tell you this and
insist on the Lord, that you must no longer live
as the Gentiles in the futility of their thinking. Paul
(08:44):
tells us that the Gentiles, the people without God, they
live the way they do because they think a certain way.
Thinking determines behavior. If you think a certain way, you
will behave a certain way. And he goes on to
describe what a mind without God thinks like. And so
(09:05):
in the next few verses and verses 18 through 19,
he describes what a person's mind is like when they
do not have God in their life. Notice what he says.
He says they are darkened in their understanding and separated
from the life of God, because the ignorance that is
(09:26):
in them due to the hardening of their hearts. He
says when someone doesn't have God in their life, their mind,
the way they think is darkened because they don't have
the light switch of God. There's something that happens when
you come to know God, and the Spirit of God
comes inside of you. It's almost like a light switch
(09:48):
goes on and you see right from wrong. You understand
things that you did not understand before. Why? It's the
light of God. You experience that the light switch goes
on and you realize this makes sense. Why was I
living that way? I can't believe it. And once the
light has gone on in your life, you look at
other people where the light hasn't gone on yet and say,
(10:12):
why don't they get it? I remember sitting down and
talking with a young man who had come to Christ
about two years earlier, and he was telling me, I
just don't understand my family and my friends. Why can't
they get it? I mean, it's so simple. It's so clear.
(10:33):
It makes so much sense. The way of God. Why
are they so blind? Why don't they understand? And I said,
hold on. How long did it take you? I mean,
up until two years ago, you were in the dark
as well. And when you're in the light, when you're
(10:54):
in the light, when you've solved the problem, the problem
looks easy. If you grew up knowing a different language,
if you grew up knowing Spanish and you speak Spanish fluently,
you look at people trying to learn Spanish and say,
why don't they get it? Because it's easy to you.
You got it already. But try learning Mandarin or Korean.
(11:22):
If you don't know it, you'll realize how difficult it is, right?
If you don't know it, then if you have it,
you think it's easy. If you don't have it, you
wonder why people don't get it. And so it is
with the light. And so what Paul is saying is
that people that do not have God, the light of
God on in their life, yet they are darkened in
(11:44):
their understanding, which means that there are certain things that
they don't see because only God can show them. And
so they're darkened in their in the way they see
the world without the light of God. They're separated from
the life of God. They don't have this intimate walk
with God. They may know about God, but God is
(12:06):
not a part of their existence and their fellowship and
their life. And it says, and because of the ignorance
that is in them, due to the hardening of their hearts,
they're ignorant about certain things, not because they cannot understand,
but because their heart is hard. And a heart that
is hard does not sense and understand the things of God.
(12:30):
Yet only a soft and broken heart can understand that
which God is trying to speak to them.
S1 (12:40):
You're listening to Mark Jobe on Bold Steps weekend, and
there's more ahead in today's message, so stay with us.
But right now, just a quick reminder that if you
miss a message or want to tune in to our
daily program, Bold Steps, you can do that at any time.
There are several easy ways you can go back and listen,
the first option being our website Bold Steps. Or you
can listen directly through your phone or mobile device and
(13:01):
take these messages with you while you're out and about.
By subscribing to our Bold Steps Weekend podcast, you can
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Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. And if you would like
even more bold resources, remember to subscribe to The Bold
Stepper Weekly, which is Mark's weekly devotional. It's free and
automatically delivered to your inbox each Monday morning. To learn
(13:22):
more or to sign up, visit Bold Steps. All right,
back to today's message titled putting on the New You.
Here on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe.
S2 (13:37):
They don't have this intimate walk with God. They may
know about God, but God is not a part of
their existence and their fellowship and their life. And it says,
and because of the ignorance that is in them, due
to the hardening of their hearts, they're ignorant about certain things,
not because they cannot understand, but because their heart is
(13:59):
hard and a heart that is hard does not sense
and understand the things of God. Yet only a softened,
broken heart can understand that which God is trying to
speak to them. So they're darkened, they're separated, there's ignorance there.
And verse 19 says, having lost all sensitivity, they have
(14:22):
given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in
every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more.
When someone's mind is darkened and they don't have the
light of God, yet they are awakened. Since they are
spiritually dead, they are awakened to their to their senses,
(14:46):
and the way they experience the world is through their senses,
and sometimes that makes them give themselves over to sensuality.
In other words, uh, people that don't have the Spiritual
light on, they give themselves over to sensuality. And that
(15:06):
results in all kinds of indulgences and and promiscuity and
sleeping around and getting drunk and high and whatever other
senses they can awaken inside of them. And it tells
us that they give themselves over to sensuality, to indulge
(15:28):
in every kind of impurity. But here's the thing with
a continual lust for more. Even though they throw themselves
into these things, these things don't satisfy them, so they
feel like they need more and more and more. It's
like an empty barrel. They keep trying to fill it,
but it stays empty. So they try to fill it
more and more and more and more and it stays empty.
(15:52):
I know a lot of people like that. I know
a lot of people that throw themselves in the hard
party life. is to be filled and go from one
party and drunkenness and girl to another, and just it
never ends. But when I sat down and talked to them,
here's what I know. There's a real hollowness and emptiness there.
(16:18):
There's an emptiness that drives him to want more and
more to fill their life more and more. Why? Because
they have a God shaped vacuum in their life. What
they're looking for is really God, and they don't even
know it. So Paul says people that don't know God
have this, this kind of thinking in their mind. And
(16:40):
he says, here's the problem. Some of you know God,
you have the Spirit of God inside of you, but
you're still living as if you never met God. You
have come to God. You have the spirit inside of you.
You can change your lifestyle, but you're like the elephant
that stays bound even though you can be free. You're
(17:01):
not walking in the freedom that God has called you to.
You're still living according to your old life. Your old
life still dictates how you live. Even though now you're
a Christian, you're a Christian living your old life. And
so now he goes on to explain what needs to
happen in our life if we are going to experience
(17:23):
absolutely true transformation. Notice what he tells us in verse 20. You, however,
did not come to know Christ that way. There may
be people that were taught that way and they weren't
taught to change. But listen, you were not taught that way.
And I think I could say that clearly to this congregation,
(17:45):
as your pastor, I can say, hey, listen, you weren't
taught that way. You weren't taught that you could stay
the same. You were taught that when you come to Christ,
there is change. You were taught that when you come
to Christ, there is repentance and Instance and transformation. Hey,
you were taught that way. And Paul says surely you
(18:08):
heard of him and were taught in him talking about
Christ in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus Christ. Hey,
you were taught that when you come to Christ, you change.
You were taught that when you come to Christ, you
leave the old behind. You were taught that God has
the power to change you into a new, vibrant living.
(18:30):
Full of faith, creativity and vision. Individual. That is the
new you. You were taught that you don't have to
live that old life. You were taught that you have
the power to become a new person in Jesus Christ. Now, now,
why is it that people get stuck even though they
have the power? Why is it that you have the power?
(18:53):
You have the Spirit of God inside of you? Why
is it that some people get stuck in the old lifestyle,
even though they have that power inside of them to change. Well,
Paul goes on to describe why that happens in verse 2322.
He says, you were taught with regard to your former
(19:16):
way of life, to put off the old self, which
is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. To be made
new in the attitude of your mind, and to put
on the new self, created to be like God in
true righteousness and holiness. Listen to me, people of God, listen.
This is what you were taught. You were taught that
(19:38):
that's who you were before. But when you come to Christ,
you put off the old self. You begin to change
your mind, the attitude of your mind, and you put
on the new self. So you take off, you change
and you put on. I've discovered that some people, all
(20:01):
they do is put off. They try to put off
without putting on. Listen to me. Well, unless you put
on when you've taken off, then your change will not stick. Well,
let me say that again. Real transformation will only stick
(20:21):
when you put on the new at the same time
that you take off the old. You will not stay
changed unless you learn that it's not just about not
doing things, it's about doing other things. It's not just
about taking off, it's about putting on. Some people come
(20:45):
to Christ and what they hear is no, no no,
don't don't, don't. Bad bad bad. Thou shalt not, thou
shalt not. And all they know is what they shouldn't do.
But they know nothing about what they should do. All
they know is that's bad and that's wrong, and I
shouldn't do it. But they have no idea what they
(21:07):
should be doing. So you're a Christian? Yeah. Yeah. So
what does that mean? Well, shouldn't lie, shouldn't drink, shouldn't
sleep with other people's wife outside of marriage and lust
and commit adultery. Oh, whoa whoa whoa. Hold on. What
should you do, though? Uh, go to church. Hey, hold
(21:28):
on a second. There's something more than that. It's not
just about taking off. It's about putting on. If you
only take off the old and don't put on the new,
then you end up in a state of spiritual nakedness.
You haven't dressed yourself with the new person in Christ.
(21:50):
And when you have taken off the old but haven't
put on the new, then you're at a state of
vulnerability until you put the new on. Paul says, you
were taught with regard to your former way of life
to put off the old self which is being corrupted
by its deceitful desires. Hey, there's a lot of stuff
(22:10):
in your old life that you need to start taking off.
And you could probably name it off the top of
your head. The stuff that you used to do, the
stuff that maybe sometimes you do now, but the stuff
that was a part of your old life that shouldn't
be a part of your new life, right? We all
know that stuff. That stuff will corrupt you. That stuff
is no longer a part of you. That is who
(22:32):
you were, not who you are. You say, well, I
still do it. It doesn't matter now if you do it,
you do it. But it's not really you now. It
doesn't belong to you now. It doesn't match you now.
It doesn't go with who you are. Because who you
are now is different.
S1 (22:58):
You're listening to the Bible teaching of Mark job. Today's
message was the first of a three part message titled
putting on the New You. Next time, Mark will address
how to stop walking in our old ways and start
facing the issues holding you back. So please join us
again next time here on Bold Steps Weekend. Mark, I
know there are many listeners who are going through a
hard time right now, and for some of them, life
feels a little out of control. And maybe they're asking
(23:20):
the question, Is God still in control?
S2 (23:23):
Yeah. And so if you're going through a hard time
right now and I, I just want to say, first
of all, we empathize. Just this past week, I've prayed
for people who've lost loved ones who are going through
a messy divorce, who are struggling with cancer. There's no
easy answers. However, there is a place, and I just
(23:44):
want to remind you this there is something that God
is doing right now that you're not anonymous. God has
not abandoned you. God has not forgotten you. There is
something that God is doing in the midst.
S3 (24:00):
Of the difficult trauma and the mess.
S1 (24:03):
And if that is the takeaway from today's message from Mark,
we'd love getting listener letters. So if you'd like to
connect with us and share your story or just say hello,
we would love to hear from you. Write to us
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if you prefer, call and leave your message on our
dedicated recording line 312329 2011. (312)Â 329-2011. And of course, you're
(24:31):
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(24:53):
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(25:13):
or simply request the book through our website boldsystems.org. If
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I'm Wayne Shepherd on behalf of Mark Jobe and the
entire Bold Steps weekend team. Have a wonderful weekend and
(25:35):
be sure to join us next weekend when Mark continues
this message. Putting on the new you. Learn how to
let go of the past as you take a bold
step forward. That's all for today on Bold Steps Weekend
with Mark Jones. Bold Steps Weekend is a production of
Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
Today on Bold Steps weekend, Mark Jobe shows you how
to live a changed life.
S2 (00:05):
Real transformation will only stick when you put on the
new at the same time that you take off the old.
You will not stay changed unless you learn that it's
not just about not doing things, it's about doing other things.
It's not just about taking off, it's about putting on.
S1 (00:36):
And welcome to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Mark
is president of Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor
of New Life Community Church in Chicago. Well, Mark, we're
going to continue our study from the book of Ephesians now.
And today's message is about change. I guarantee that people
listening right now are thinking of all the changes they'd
like to see in someone else, don't you think? Yeah.
S2 (00:57):
That's where our mind normally goes. And I have to
tell people in service sometimes. Please don't elbow your husband
or your wife. Uh, think about yourself first. Uh, but
you know, Wayne, in this passage, the apostle Paul reminds
us that there is a taking off and a putting on. Um,
you know, if you've been, uh, been at work and
(01:19):
you're working outside and you're all dirty, you don't say, hey,
I'm going to change and put on a new, uh,
clean set of clothes over the dirty set of clothes.
First of all, you have to take.
S1 (01:28):
Off.
S2 (01:29):
The dirty set before you put on the new. And
Christianity is that way. You're going to be eliminating things
from your life, but you're putting on the new self
as well.
S1 (01:39):
Putting on the new you. Here's Mark Jobe.
S2 (01:49):
Ephesians chapter four. I'm going to begin reading in verse 17.
So I tell you this. The apostle Paul is writing
to the to the Ephesian believers. So I tell you
this and insist on it in the Lord. Now you
know he's serious when he says, I insist on this.
(02:09):
Have you ever been in a discussion or argument with
a boss, a coworker, or your spouse? And they say,
I insist on this. You know that when they use
the word insist that they're saying, I'm drawing the line,
a line in the sand. This is non-negotiable. This is
super important. So Paul is saying, what I'm about to
(02:32):
tell you is super important. It's non-negotiable. What is it, Paul?
I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord.
That you must no longer live as the Gentiles do,
in the futility of their thinking. When he refers to
(02:53):
the Gentiles, he's not talking about an ethnicity. He is
talking about people that do not yet know No God.
And what Paul is saying, he's addressing believers, people that
claim to be Christians, people that have the Holy Spirit
inside of them. And he's saying to them, hey, I,
(03:14):
I have an issue with you. And here's my issue.
I know that you know, God, I know that His
Holy Spirit is inside of you. But I insist that
you stop living as though you did not know God.
I insist that you stop living like your old self.
(03:35):
I insist that you start living like you know God
and that you like your new self. I insist that
you change. Now here's what I have observed. I've observed
that some of us have lived so long in our
old self that when we become our new self, we
(03:58):
drag in a lot of the culture of our old
self into our new life. How many of you know
what I'm talking about? We've lived so long a certain
way that now that we can live a new way,
we're not sure we know how to live that new way.
So we drag some of our old self into our
new life. I'm told that to train an elephant. Now,
(04:20):
I've never trained personally trained an elephant. I have a
little Shih Tzu dog. Now I don't have it. It's
my wife's dog. That I got stuck with. I promised,
I promised my daughter when she was three years old.
She said, daddy, daddy, can I have a dog? And
(04:41):
I said, honey, no. But she had these big eyes
and this little sweet smile. Daddy, I really want a dog.
So I told her, honey, when you're 12 years old,
when you can take care of your own dog, take
it out and feed it. I will get you a dog.
I thought she would forget. It. I thought it would
(05:01):
blow over. I thought it was a phase. By the
time she was ten and 11, she had posters of dogs.
She had researched it on the internet. She knew what
kind of dog she knew exactly she had told the
kind that doesn't shed and the size and so forth.
So when she was 12, on her 12th birthday, I
had to get her a dog. I've never trained an elephant,
(05:27):
and I can barely train the dog that we have.
He's she's very unruly. But I'm told that when you
train an elephant that what circus trainers do is they
will take this mammoth beast, this beast that weighs tons
and tons, and they will take a powerful, powerful stake
(05:49):
and pull, and they will put it deep within the ground,
and they will tie the foot of that elephant to
that stake, a huge metal pole, the elephant in the beginning,
when it's chained to that pole, will try to escape,
it will pull and it will tug and it will roar,
and it will run, and it will try to pull
(06:10):
away from it, and it will go several days fighting
against being chained to this pole. And finally the elephant
will realize I cannot escape. This chain keeps me bound.
No matter how much I try, how much I struggle,
how much pain I inflict upon my leg to try
(06:32):
to get loose, I cannot escape. So after a while
the elephant stops trying to escape. It becomes used to
being bound. It accepts the fact that I'm bound. And
when I have the chain on my foot, on my foot,
I cannot escape. I'm told also that what a trainer
(06:55):
will do once the elephant has that mentality that it
cannot escape that. They can take a little tent peg,
a small tent peg, and they can put it in
the ground and put the chain onto the the hoof
of this big animal. And although the elephant could easily
(07:15):
pull that little tent peg out of the ground, the
elephant doesn't try because the elephant feels like I'm bound.
The chain makes me bound. It's so used to be
bound that even when it can escape, it does not
because it thinks I can't escape. It's the way things are.
(07:36):
So many of us have lived so long in our
old life, so many years in the old self, that
once we are set free, we're somewhat like that elephant.
We're so used to being bound, so used to being chained,
that even though now we have the power to be
set free, even though now we have the ability to
(07:57):
run and be released, We stay bound by something that
cannot bind us. We say entrapped by things that cannot
hold us down. We act as though we are slaves
when we're not. We live as though we're still bound
to the old lifestyle when we're actually set free. This afternoon,
(08:21):
I want to talk to you about what it means
to put on the new you, creating the image of
God so that you can walk in the freedom that
God has called you to. I tell you this and
insist on the Lord, that you must no longer live
as the Gentiles in the futility of their thinking. Paul
(08:44):
tells us that the Gentiles, the people without God, they
live the way they do because they think a certain way.
Thinking determines behavior. If you think a certain way, you
will behave a certain way. And he goes on to
describe what a mind without God thinks like. And so
(09:05):
in the next few verses and verses 18 through 19,
he describes what a person's mind is like when they
do not have God in their life. Notice what he says.
He says they are darkened in their understanding and separated
from the life of God, because the ignorance that is
(09:26):
in them due to the hardening of their hearts. He
says when someone doesn't have God in their life, their mind,
the way they think is darkened because they don't have
the light switch of God. There's something that happens when
you come to know God, and the Spirit of God
comes inside of you. It's almost like a light switch
(09:48):
goes on and you see right from wrong. You understand
things that you did not understand before. Why? It's the
light of God. You experience that the light switch goes
on and you realize this makes sense. Why was I
living that way? I can't believe it. And once the
light has gone on in your life, you look at
other people where the light hasn't gone on yet and say,
(10:12):
why don't they get it? I remember sitting down and
talking with a young man who had come to Christ
about two years earlier, and he was telling me, I
just don't understand my family and my friends. Why can't
they get it? I mean, it's so simple. It's so clear.
(10:33):
It makes so much sense. The way of God. Why
are they so blind? Why don't they understand? And I said,
hold on. How long did it take you? I mean,
up until two years ago, you were in the dark
as well. And when you're in the light, when you're
(10:54):
in the light, when you've solved the problem, the problem
looks easy. If you grew up knowing a different language,
if you grew up knowing Spanish and you speak Spanish fluently,
you look at people trying to learn Spanish and say,
why don't they get it? Because it's easy to you.
You got it already. But try learning Mandarin or Korean.
(11:22):
If you don't know it, you'll realize how difficult it is, right?
If you don't know it, then if you have it,
you think it's easy. If you don't have it, you
wonder why people don't get it. And so it is
with the light. And so what Paul is saying is
that people that do not have God, the light of
God on in their life, yet they are darkened in
(11:44):
their understanding, which means that there are certain things that
they don't see because only God can show them. And
so they're darkened in their in the way they see
the world without the light of God. They're separated from
the life of God. They don't have this intimate walk
with God. They may know about God, but God is
(12:06):
not a part of their existence and their fellowship and
their life. And it says, and because of the ignorance
that is in them, due to the hardening of their hearts,
they're ignorant about certain things, not because they cannot understand,
but because their heart is hard. And a heart that
is hard does not sense and understand the things of God.
(12:30):
Yet only a soft and broken heart can understand that
which God is trying to speak to them.
S1 (12:40):
You're listening to Mark Jobe on Bold Steps weekend, and
there's more ahead in today's message, so stay with us.
But right now, just a quick reminder that if you
miss a message or want to tune in to our
daily program, Bold Steps, you can do that at any time.
There are several easy ways you can go back and listen,
the first option being our website Bold Steps. Or you
can listen directly through your phone or mobile device and
(13:01):
take these messages with you while you're out and about.
By subscribing to our Bold Steps Weekend podcast, you can
find us by searching in your podcast app for Bold
Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. And if you would like
even more bold resources, remember to subscribe to The Bold
Stepper Weekly, which is Mark's weekly devotional. It's free and
automatically delivered to your inbox each Monday morning. To learn
(13:22):
more or to sign up, visit Bold Steps. All right,
back to today's message titled putting on the New You.
Here on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe.
S2 (13:37):
They don't have this intimate walk with God. They may
know about God, but God is not a part of
their existence and their fellowship and their life. And it says,
and because of the ignorance that is in them, due
to the hardening of their hearts, they're ignorant about certain things,
not because they cannot understand, but because their heart is
(13:59):
hard and a heart that is hard does not sense
and understand the things of God. Yet only a softened,
broken heart can understand that which God is trying to
speak to them. So they're darkened, they're separated, there's ignorance there.
And verse 19 says, having lost all sensitivity, they have
(14:22):
given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in
every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more.
When someone's mind is darkened and they don't have the
light of God, yet they are awakened. Since they are
spiritually dead, they are awakened to their to their senses,
(14:46):
and the way they experience the world is through their senses,
and sometimes that makes them give themselves over to sensuality.
In other words, uh, people that don't have the Spiritual
light on, they give themselves over to sensuality. And that
(15:06):
results in all kinds of indulgences and and promiscuity and
sleeping around and getting drunk and high and whatever other
senses they can awaken inside of them. And it tells
us that they give themselves over to sensuality, to indulge
(15:28):
in every kind of impurity. But here's the thing with
a continual lust for more. Even though they throw themselves
into these things, these things don't satisfy them, so they
feel like they need more and more and more. It's
like an empty barrel. They keep trying to fill it,
but it stays empty. So they try to fill it
more and more and more and more and it stays empty.
(15:52):
I know a lot of people like that. I know
a lot of people that throw themselves in the hard
party life. is to be filled and go from one
party and drunkenness and girl to another, and just it
never ends. But when I sat down and talked to them,
here's what I know. There's a real hollowness and emptiness there.
(16:18):
There's an emptiness that drives him to want more and
more to fill their life more and more. Why? Because
they have a God shaped vacuum in their life. What
they're looking for is really God, and they don't even
know it. So Paul says people that don't know God
have this, this kind of thinking in their mind. And
(16:40):
he says, here's the problem. Some of you know God,
you have the Spirit of God inside of you, but
you're still living as if you never met God. You
have come to God. You have the spirit inside of you.
You can change your lifestyle, but you're like the elephant
that stays bound even though you can be free. You're
(17:01):
not walking in the freedom that God has called you to.
You're still living according to your old life. Your old
life still dictates how you live. Even though now you're
a Christian, you're a Christian living your old life. And
so now he goes on to explain what needs to
happen in our life if we are going to experience
(17:23):
absolutely true transformation. Notice what he tells us in verse 20. You, however,
did not come to know Christ that way. There may
be people that were taught that way and they weren't
taught to change. But listen, you were not taught that way.
And I think I could say that clearly to this congregation,
(17:45):
as your pastor, I can say, hey, listen, you weren't
taught that way. You weren't taught that you could stay
the same. You were taught that when you come to Christ,
there is change. You were taught that when you come
to Christ, there is repentance and Instance and transformation. Hey,
you were taught that way. And Paul says surely you
(18:08):
heard of him and were taught in him talking about
Christ in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus Christ. Hey,
you were taught that when you come to Christ, you change.
You were taught that when you come to Christ, you
leave the old behind. You were taught that God has
the power to change you into a new, vibrant living.
(18:30):
Full of faith, creativity and vision. Individual. That is the
new you. You were taught that you don't have to
live that old life. You were taught that you have
the power to become a new person in Jesus Christ. Now, now,
why is it that people get stuck even though they
have the power? Why is it that you have the power?
(18:53):
You have the Spirit of God inside of you? Why
is it that some people get stuck in the old lifestyle,
even though they have that power inside of them to change. Well,
Paul goes on to describe why that happens in verse 2322.
He says, you were taught with regard to your former
(19:16):
way of life, to put off the old self, which
is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. To be made
new in the attitude of your mind, and to put
on the new self, created to be like God in
true righteousness and holiness. Listen to me, people of God, listen.
This is what you were taught. You were taught that
(19:38):
that's who you were before. But when you come to Christ,
you put off the old self. You begin to change
your mind, the attitude of your mind, and you put
on the new self. So you take off, you change
and you put on. I've discovered that some people, all
(20:01):
they do is put off. They try to put off
without putting on. Listen to me. Well, unless you put
on when you've taken off, then your change will not stick. Well,
let me say that again. Real transformation will only stick
(20:21):
when you put on the new at the same time
that you take off the old. You will not stay
changed unless you learn that it's not just about not
doing things, it's about doing other things. It's not just
about taking off, it's about putting on. Some people come
(20:45):
to Christ and what they hear is no, no no,
don't don't, don't. Bad bad bad. Thou shalt not, thou
shalt not. And all they know is what they shouldn't do.
But they know nothing about what they should do. All
they know is that's bad and that's wrong, and I
shouldn't do it. But they have no idea what they
(21:07):
should be doing. So you're a Christian? Yeah. Yeah. So
what does that mean? Well, shouldn't lie, shouldn't drink, shouldn't
sleep with other people's wife outside of marriage and lust
and commit adultery. Oh, whoa whoa whoa. Hold on. What
should you do, though? Uh, go to church. Hey, hold
(21:28):
on a second. There's something more than that. It's not
just about taking off. It's about putting on. If you
only take off the old and don't put on the new,
then you end up in a state of spiritual nakedness.
You haven't dressed yourself with the new person in Christ.
(21:50):
And when you have taken off the old but haven't
put on the new, then you're at a state of
vulnerability until you put the new on. Paul says, you
were taught with regard to your former way of life
to put off the old self which is being corrupted
by its deceitful desires. Hey, there's a lot of stuff
(22:10):
in your old life that you need to start taking off.
And you could probably name it off the top of
your head. The stuff that you used to do, the
stuff that maybe sometimes you do now, but the stuff
that was a part of your old life that shouldn't
be a part of your new life, right? We all
know that stuff. That stuff will corrupt you. That stuff
is no longer a part of you. That is who
(22:32):
you were, not who you are. You say, well, I
still do it. It doesn't matter now if you do it,
you do it. But it's not really you now. It
doesn't belong to you now. It doesn't match you now.
It doesn't go with who you are. Because who you
are now is different.
S1 (22:58):
You're listening to the Bible teaching of Mark job. Today's
message was the first of a three part message titled
putting on the New You. Next time, Mark will address
how to stop walking in our old ways and start
facing the issues holding you back. So please join us
again next time here on Bold Steps Weekend. Mark, I
know there are many listeners who are going through a
hard time right now, and for some of them, life
feels a little out of control. And maybe they're asking
(23:20):
the question, Is God still in control?
S2 (23:23):
Yeah. And so if you're going through a hard time
right now and I, I just want to say, first
of all, we empathize. Just this past week, I've prayed
for people who've lost loved ones who are going through
a messy divorce, who are struggling with cancer. There's no
easy answers. However, there is a place, and I just
(23:44):
want to remind you this there is something that God
is doing right now that you're not anonymous. God has
not abandoned you. God has not forgotten you. There is
something that God is doing in the midst.
S3 (24:00):
Of the difficult trauma and the mess.
S1 (24:03):
And if that is the takeaway from today's message from Mark,
we'd love getting listener letters. So if you'd like to
connect with us and share your story or just say hello,
we would love to hear from you. Write to us
at Bold Steps. 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. Or,
if you prefer, call and leave your message on our
dedicated recording line 312329 2011. (312)Â 329-2011. And of course, you're
(24:31):
always welcome to drop us an email. Bold steps. We
want to remind you that this program is not possible
without your support. When you give a gift of any
amount to support Bold Steps Weekend, we'll send you a
copy of this month's Transformative Bold Step gift. Everyone seems
to have an opinion about the future these days, but
what does God actually say about it? Doctor Charlie Dyer's
(24:53):
what does the Bible say about the future? Takes you
straight to Scripture for reliable answers about prophecy and the
end times. Don't get caught up in speculation when you
can know what the Bible really teaches. Request your copy.
When you give over the phone, dial 800. That's (800)Â 356-6639
(25:13):
or simply request the book through our website boldsystems.org. If
it's easier, you can send your donation and request for
the book. What does the Bible say about the future
to Bold Steps? 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten.
I'm Wayne Shepherd on behalf of Mark Jobe and the
entire Bold Steps weekend team. Have a wonderful weekend and
(25:35):
be sure to join us next weekend when Mark continues
this message. Putting on the new you. Learn how to
let go of the past as you take a bold
step forward. That's all for today on Bold Steps Weekend
with Mark Jones. Bold Steps Weekend is a production of
Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
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