Stay focused on the Love of God Ephesians 4-27

Ephesians 4:27 (CWSB)
27 Neither give place to the devil.

Power To Change Ministry 

          Rev. Alvin Lewis

Powertochangeministry@gmail.Com

Powertochangeministry.org

973-583-7482

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:49

Grace and peace from God our Father and Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you for tuning in to the Power to Change Ministry. And my name is Reverend Alvin Lewis, and I will be your host. This is our podcast. I pray that you are experiencing God in a way that you have never experienced him before. And you are questioning yourself of why you haven't surrendered 100% sooner.

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But nevertheless, you are 100% surrendered to God to allow him to do only what he can do. Now today we want to present. Stay focused on the love of God. And the scripture of observation and application is Ephesians 4, verse 27. That's Ephesians chapter 4, verse 27. Stay focused on the love of God.

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Let's start with a word of prayer and let's hear what God has to say. Father God, in the name of the Lord Jesus, we thank you for this day that you have made.

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So that if we choose to, we can get forgiven. We cannot be an enemy to you, and we can get back in the presence of you. Thank you, Lord, for giving us a way to get our sins forgiven and restored back into the right relationship, a righteous relationship with you. I thank you in advance for all that will hear this podcast and it will change their life so that they know that they have a desire to worship you, to praise you, but most of all to be thankful to you for all that you have done, is doing, and everything that is to come in their life. I pray this prayer.

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In the name of Jesus, and I say thank you for all that you will do. Amen.

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Stay focused on the love of God.

SPEAKER_05 4:08

Very important. Very, very, very important. Let me read the scripture of observation and application. It says, neither give place to the devil. Very, very, very, very important that we stay focused on the love of God. Because if we don't, it's very easy to offer an opportunity to the adversary to give us his understanding, and we will accept it because of the situation or circumstance or the season that you may be in in your life. We have to be careful. Let me give you some scripture information before we go into this verse. The epistle to the Ephesians, the author is contributed to Apostle Paul. The date written between 60 to 64 AD. And the purpose is to show believers their position in Christ and encourage them to walk accordingly. And to whom written the church in Ephesus. Now, chapter 4, a little summary of where the verse is housed. The text emphasized the importance of living a life worthy of one's calling as a follower of Christ, categorized by humanity, humility, love, and unity. It highlights the significance of maintaining peace and the oneness of the body of Christ, acknowledging that each individual has been given grace according to Christ's gifts. The passage discusses the roles of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers in building up the church and achieving unity in faith and knowledge of God. It warns against living like Gentiles who are alienated from God due to ignorance and moral corruption. Believers are encouraged to discard their old ways, embrace a renewal, renewed mindset, and embody righteousness and holiness. The text also advises against lying, anger, and corrupt speech, urging kindness, forgiveness, and the importance of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Ultimately, it calls for mutual support and love among members of the community.

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Stay focused on the love of God.

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Very, very, I can't say it enough. As you live your life and you experience things, stuff is gonna happen. And you need to be anchored in the Lord. And you know, an anchor on a ship, when they drop the anchor, this is where it's gonna be. It's gonna stay right here for a while until they pull the anchor up and move and move. But the anchor is dropped. We're gonna stay right here. So we have to be anchored in the love of God and understanding that there is no other love that is going to give you an understanding so that you know what love is, and now you can start loving according to what you have received from our eternal Father through the completed work of Jesus the Christ. That means that I got to remember that I'm a sinner. And what God has given us through Jesus the Christ, everybody, the whole world, is that it gives us a way, well, a first an opportunity and a way to get forgiven of our sins so that we will no longer be an enemy to God. And now we can get into the presence of God. And in the presence of God is where we want to be. Everything that we need, and things that we don't even think we need is in his presence. So it is a very it is an asset to our lives, and it leads us to be an asset to building of the pris the kingdom of God, of promoting his will in our lives. So we want to produce fruit in our lives so that we can show. Look at what the love of God has done. So that means being obedient to the will of God as he instructs us in his word. So the word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. So we need to pay attention to what God is saying in his word. We need to take a close observation, a study, a slow walk. Sometimes we move too fast through the word of God and we don't pay attention to the to the small details that God has placed in his word, and we miss the impactful message that God is giving us through his word. And it is a blessing to have a desire for his word. See, the love of God, they, you know, through Jesus the Christ. Jesus the Christ is love and God's love in action. So when we understand what it is and what God has given us and where we were when he came to deliver us from a life of doom. Because we fell in love with the temporal. But now we are getting an understanding of the permanent, which is our eternal Father. So as we pay, as we be obedient to the will of God as He has laid out in His Word, it leads us to where we can be holy as He is holy. And we can live a purpose-driven life which is pleasing in the presence of the Lord. Isaiah 55, 11 says, So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I send it. So when you are considering being obedient to the word of God, I want you to understand it is not something that is weak. It is not something that has the possibility of failure, it is not something that you will not get the victory, it is not something that you will not prosper in. And I'm not talking about money, I'm talking about your spiritual growth and development. Now, you may get some money, but the permanent, the wisdom of God to give you the understanding that you need on how to navigate through time as you make your way back to your eternal father, our eternal father. Because everything in this world is temporal, it is not forever. And it has a way of presenting itself that if you are going through some type of season, some type of agitation in your life, some type of pressure, you might choose it. Because it's very tempting. And when you choose it, it is going to lead you away from God. And it wants you not to remember the love of God, but it wants you, and as well as it doesn't want you to be dependent on God, it wants you to be independent and it wants you to do things according to how you feel and what you think. And now you're going to start redefining things. And love is going to be one of them. You're going to have a love for self, you're going to have a love for money. You're going to have a love for popularity. You're going to have a love for whatever it is that you have a craving for, a worldly craving for, a fleshly craving for. And you're going to forget about God. And now you're going to live your life and even be in, oh, I'm blessed because you will be calculating in according to the things that you can see. That the world has said, oh, if you got this, you somebody. So stay focused on the love of God. Now, the scripture of observation and application, it is a few words, and it says, give place, neither give place to the devil.

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That's a command. That's a command.

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Now, again, a command is a warning. And when you consider where the command came from, and we know that all scripture is inspired by God, so God inspired Paul to write this to the church in Ephesus, and he has given a command. It is letting us know that there's a warning over there. There's something dangerous about what God has commanded. If you do this, there's some consequences that you don't want to deal with. There's some consequences that you don't want in your life. And matter of fact, the consequence is greater than what you are dealing with that's causing you the pressure. So if you if you go against the command of God, you think the pressure is a problem, the consequence is going to be greater. If I stay in a state of independence, now when I pass away, stop breathing, I die. I'm going to stay in that condition, and now I will have to suffer eternal damnation. So now I have to answer for my own sins. I don't want to do that. Neither do you. Because we have Jesus that has already taken care of it. All we need to do is believe and accept it and conform to the will of God. Or I should say, allow the transformation to take place, which puts you according to the will of God in Christ as He desires you to be. Let me give you a little more information. Paul calls believers to abandon their former way of life. I'm so grateful that God has given me the understanding of what I was doing in an unsaved condition.

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And I believed him. And I said, Lord, now what?

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And as you grow in the knowledge of God and you and you receive the word of God, very important. You notice I didn't say go to church. Yes, going to church is important if they are teaching and preaching the word of God. If they are not, if all you are doing is getting excited and you're just starting to meet new people and you having a good time, then no. Because reality is still moving. I am still getting older and I am still deteriorating every inhale and exhale that God gives me. And at some point, it will cease. And now what I thought was reality, I found, I will find out it is fake. I have been deceived. I have chosen the wrong thing. I need the word of God. I cannot do anything that is pleasing to God if I don't know one who God is. I don't understand myself. I don't have clarity of my adversary. I don't understand the world that I'm living in, and I definitely don't have the action plan of God. That's what the Bible is going to teach you. Ain't going to teach me how to be rich. You don't need God to get no money. If that's the case, why atheists got a whole lot of money? Why they got big houses and cars and they can go places that we can't go. So I'm not going to seeking God to get money. Now, you may get money. I'm not saying that God won't make a way for you, because He will. But what I'm saying is if that's all you want, you don't need God for that. You can get that yourself. You can steal money, you can find money. Somebody can leave you some money in a will. You know, I mean, it's so many different ways to get money. But there's only one way to get forgiven and get in the right relationship with our eternal Father. And it is based on his love and action, which is his only begotten Son, none like him, Jesus the Christ, the word that became flesh and dwelt among us. So we got to stay focused on that. So as Paul is encouraging the church in Ephesus and us now, and anybody that reads this, Paul calls believers to abandon their former way of life. He said, believers. So if I say I believe in God and I'm I should say I trust in God and I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord, that's right. That means He's in charge and Savior. He has rescued me, snatched me from a place of where I was going to, I was on a road to doom and gloom. Where I would not hear, if I was to die at that moment, I would not hear God say, Well done, good and faithful servant. I would hear him say, Depart from me, you worker of iniquity. And I don't want to hear that. And Paul goes on and said, renew their minds. He told them to renew their minds and put on righteousness and holiness. So Paul is telling him, look, God has a new way for you to be. Now, before Adam sinned, all this was in place. But when Adam broke the command, and remember I told you about those consequences, if you go against the commands of God, the consequences is greater than what you think you are escaping from, and you think you need a little break from it because it seemed like God isn't working. That your faith is not powerful enough for the moment in the situation that you're in. It is just too heavy for the power of God and the will of God. God can't handle this, so I'm gonna help him out. So you're gonna give place to the devil. Because he has a word that is against the leadership, the love of our eternal Father. And Paul, he starts to go and he says, he says, beginning with truthfulness. Managing anger properly and refusing to give the devil opportunity. So anything that has to do with me promoting the position and the mission of the adversary, I can't use it. I can't tell a lie because I want to get a discount on something. You know, I call that a blessing. Yeah, well, you know, I just had to tell him this, and God, you know, he blessed me. God don't need to use no lie to bless you. Mm-mm. And you don't need to accept that because now you ain't gonna stop lying there. You're gonna, you're gonna, there's gonna be other opportunities for you to lie. And you gonna, and you're gonna take it. Because you think in your own mind that it's all right for me to lie. I can lie. It's okay. No, it's not okay. So you don't want to use that. And managing anger, you don't know where anger is gonna go. See, when you're dealing with situations and it includes people who, you know, something might have happened, there's a misunderstanding. Always remember you're dealing with the creation of God. Now, they may not be functioning that way at that time, but they still the fun, they still are the um creation of God. So technically, anything that you're doing against that individual, you're doing it against property of the Lord. And you want to stay focused. And see, that's why when you as part of staying focused on the love of God, because remember, we had nothing to do with God's decision, or first his thought of let us make man in our image and likeness, and then actually choosing the material and then doing it, and then breathing the breath of life in his his sculpture, and we became a living soul. We had nothing to do with that. That is a gift of God, gave us life and gave us his image and likeness. So we we have we have identity, and he gave us power over the things that he created, dominion. He's entrusted us. We are agents of God, and which is the image of God, and the um likeness is we're going to function according to his character. That's how we're gonna live our lives. But when that was lost, because Adam broke the command of God, he went across the boundary that God had given him to keep him from a consequence that we are now living. Now, doesn't mean that God didn't have another way, but he said, you don't need to go through that. He said, But all right, if you want to go through it, I got something. And that something is his word that became flesh and dwelt among us, which is Jesus the Christ. So here we are. But now we need, we when you start to experience something and you start enjoying something that you're experiencing and maybe even love what you're experiencing, which is living a life of sin, of unrighteousness, wickedness, immorality. Now you, when God said, All right, I want you, Paul, as Paul is saying, God is saying through Paul, I want you to leave that alone. Now that's where the challenge comes in. Because you you you only know what you've been doing. And if you do not get to know God, if you're not experiencing God through his word, and you have been born again and having the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth, you will not want to leave what you were doing. Because it won't make any sense. It won't make any sense to you. You you can't see why, if I'm not hurting anybody, if I'm minding my business and I'm doing what I'm doing, you know, or everybody is doing the same thing, why is it that I gotta stop doing it? Start leaning to your own understanding. You start analyzing it according to what you know. But Paul here, who has been transformed, who was at one time a persecutor of the church, a Pharisee, a learned man. And he is telling you, as he is telling the church in Ephesus, again, get rid of the truthful, you know. You know, stop telling lies, manage anger properly, and refuse to give the devil opportunity. Now, the the passage also extends to address theft. See, uh, anything that is self-gratifying, self-fulfilling, self-dependent, corrupt speech and bitterness, and you know, and he and what he wants you to do, he wants you to come become kind and tender-hearted, compassionate, and and and and forgiveness, which is a which is a big one. That that actually is the door that leads you into the presence of God. If I don't get forgiven, I can't get into the presence of God. It won't happen. Now, the presence of God said the uh uh there's a fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore in the presence of God. Okay, Psalm 16, 11 says, That will show me the path of life in thy presence is the fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. So when you don't understand that, that I gotta go through the door, but I can only go through the door if I'm covered in the blood of the Lamb. So God only see the blood of the Lamb and He don't see me, He don't see you, a sinful individual. And because of the completed work of Jesus the Christ that the eternal Father has accepted, because Jesus is now sitting at the right hand of the Father in a completed position, we now can get in his presence and we will have access to everything we need to navigate through time as we make our way to eternity. But we can't do it without forgiveness. And we must forgive one another. So, because remember, God made us in his image and likeness. So the likeness is his character. So God is a forgiving God. So now, according to the character of God, I am now going to be forgiving people. I'm not gonna be at weighing out, well, you know what, I can't forgive you because that you know what? That's bad. No, because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. What we did, becoming enemies to God, his creation. Think about it. God made humanity, he made it, it belonged to him. He gave him his the breath of life. This is his creation. And we turned our backs on him to accept a lie. And now, being in that condition, being a sinner, he gives us an opportunity so that we can now get back in the right relationship with him. And if we if we accept it, we now have to live according to the standard that the owner of his property decides. Now you figure when you go buy a car and you look at the car and you say, they say, what color do you want? And you tell them what you know, what kind of equipment you want in it, you know, what kind of seats. You want massaging seats, you want air-cooled seats, or you want, you know, um, what kind of radio, you know, because they got different packages. And when you you're choosing what you want in your car, and you're gonna purchase your car. That's your car. It got on the registration, it has your name and address. The payments are gonna come in your name if you didn't buy it all cash. The insurance is gonna be in your name. And you're gonna drive your car. You got your own key. That's your property. That's the same thing when God created us. He got He gets to dictate who and what his creation is gonna be and how they're gonna function. So when you give your life back to the Lord, now you're under the control of the owner of your life. Because I don't own my life. Sometimes we need to understand that. I don't own my life. If I own my life, can I stop time so that I can get in a year that I really enjoyed and stay right there? No, I can't. That's why you must stay focused on the love of God because you have to understand there is no other way for you to navigate through time and receive a joyful ending when time is over, when you stop breathing, when you die. Because sometimes we don't want to think about that. We want to, oh, we're having a good time now. Well, at some point, that life of sin, that wicked ways and and and those unthose uh unlawful uh principles that you use, it's gonna come to an end. And you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to deal with it. You see? Now, let me see something here. It tells us, neither give place. Now, what is giving place? And I've been describing it, I've been giving some um illustrations and some understanding according to what Paul was talking about, because that's all of what I've been talking about is what you will give to the devil. All right. But it it is a Greek term that literally denotes a physical location, but metaphorically means opportunity. Some translations render it as foothold, but it's mostly an opportunity. We don't want to give the devil an opportunity. We don't want to give the adversary an opportunity. We don't want to let a plan that is against the will of God have an opportunity. We don't want to give a plan that doesn't want us to be grateful for the love of God an opportunity. We don't want a plan that wants us to be dependent on ourselves and think that we have the power to do everything that is needed according to all of the situations that we may encounter. You know, we don't need God. We don't want that type of plan to have an opportunity. Because we do need God. As I have highlighted, when God created us, we had no idea what was going on. And he used dust. You know, I know we look at our bodies now, and maybe we go to the gym, and maybe we think we're beautiful and awesome, and we have a talent that God has given us, and it and a lot of people gravitate to us because of it. And so the roar of the crowd has given us the big head. But the bottom line is that we are dust and we would not have been alive if it was not for the breath of life that God has given us. And at some point, what we are what we are worshiping our own ability that we think we have, which actually is something that God has given us, and we are misusing, we're misusing God's stuff, it is going to cease. So staying focused on the love of God is staying awake and not allow, so be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. We we haven't allowed the world to rock us to sleep. We we have not allowed the world to woo us and steal us, not even really steal us, but to convince us it's okay to walk away from God. Because we're making the decision. Now the adversary don't want us to think that, uh, but or I should say, he he he he just giving, he's just making the case, and we're making the decision to walk away. He convincing, he convinces us with what he has to say and the things that we experience in the world that is not of God. So we gotta stay awake. We cannot allow ourselves to let the enemy, the devil, destroy God's property. And see, this destruction is spiritual because physically we we're moving along. We're getting older by the breath. We're getting closer to the door. Well, we're gonna exit time at some point. But the relationship with God is what the adversary wants to destroy. He wants, he, he, he don't want you to have a relationship with God. Because that's that's that's where the power is. When I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I enter into covenant in relationship with God. That's what Adam had prior to sinning. So now that when I become a covenant keeper, now the covenant, the relationship with God, I now have the most valuable asset that I could ever have. Because it gives me forgiveness, it gives me restoration, it gives me new birth. So now I gotta, God is gonna restore what he originally intended for my life when he created me. And now I'm gonna grow in the knowledge of God so that now I could work. I'm a servant. I'm not just receiving it so I can go sit in the corner. Uh, yeah, I got I got eternal life coming. I'm just gonna hang out over here. No. There's work that needs to be done. So as God called me to what He He has equipped me and empowered me to do, I get the doing. And all things that we do for the Lord is important. What I'm doing ain't more important than you. Whatever you might be doing, you might have a soup kitchen. It ain't more important to you. All of it is based upon the will of God, and he has equipped us to do different things. So there's different members in the body of Christ, but there's only one body. And we all serve a different purpose, according to the will of God. That's why we have to stay focused on the love of God, because it opens up a lot of things. It helps us to see things according to an eternal view, according to the mind of God. That's why the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth. We want to pay attention because it's very easy if I'm trying to do things on my own, that I will go through a situation, a circumstance that will be painful, that will add pressure, that will appear to be so heavy, I can't lift it, I can't move it. And before I know it, I will be exhausted, I will be frustrated, and now I'm looking to try something else.

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And the adversary is right there to seize that opportunity. Stay focused on the love of God. As I come to my conclusion and my benediction, I want you to consider that anger is a very dangerous thing.

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And a lot of times anger, it, you know, it gets used, and we can fall victim to um the solution that we might want to choose because we we forget at that moment when it comes and it takes us, you know, and and and and overwhelms us at that moment. But but also you we we gotta remember, and we have to prepare ourselves for this before these things can happen. You need to be on guard. And you need to make sure that you don't allow anger, you don't allow um your wrath, you don't allow unforgiveness to have its way. Because you may justify it because of you evaluating the situation through your flesh because of what you're feeling, the pain that has been um administration, I should say, given to you through the situation, how you have how you how how you are you're feeling now. But if you stay focused on the love of God and you ask yourself, how did God feel when we turned our back on him and he had given us everything? That's that that that that is something that will keep you humble, and now he still wants me. He wants me, and I am an enemy to him as a sinner. And he is showing me love, a love, an unconditional love, because God never stopped loving us. And and and now I can put my anger in check, I can move my wrath out of the way, I can forgive because I remember now what God did for me. And that should motivate you to move forward and and and to um and not allow the things that are not of God to have its way. Don't give the opportunity, neither give place to the devil. Don't give it to him. Because you have the power to give it to him. He ain't taking nothing. You're you're you're surrendering it, you're turning it over after you have been convinced of what he is saying or what is being presented to speak to you. So if it's money, I might be in a situation where I don't have enough money at the time. And I think God is not paying attention to me, and He's not He's not supplying my needs. So now I don't want to trust Him anymore. So now I wanna I want to try some other stuff. Because I heard you can make a little money.

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Walk by faith and not by sight.

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Don't don't give the opportunity. Stay focused on the love of God. And don't just live to be blessed, live to be a blessing. Let God work through you. Because when he works through you, he's gonna take care of you according to what he knows I need. I don't know what I need. You know, my prayer life, I said this before, my prayer life has changed over the years. I don't have no long list of things coming to the Lord. I, you know, because when you go to prayer, you go to prayer to worship God. You could go to prayer to petition God for something like intercessory for somebody else. And you can go to prayer to thank God for things that He has done and what He is doing and what is to come, the promises of God. And I want God to let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven in my life. I don't know what I need. I might think I need something right now. And it may appear that that what I'm asking for is, yeah, I need that right now. But what about tomorrow? Will that thing I asked for today, if he gave it to me, will it be a problem for me tomorrow? I don't know because I don't know what put what's coming in tomorrow. So therefore, I gotta depend on God who knows everything. He knows the end at the beginning. There's nothing out of his view. So I need to depend on God. I don't want to be asking for something that is gonna be a hindrance and gonna be a challenge to me that cause me pressure, cause me uh uh uh something that is weighty, that I can't move, where I'll get exhausted. I don't want to do that. So I leave it up to God. So as I live my life to be a blessing, God gonna bless me with what I need. Because He knows me better than I know myself. He knows all his creation. He created us. Thank you for tuning in to the Power to Change Ministry. And uh, my name is Reverend Alvin Lewis. I pray that everything that has been delivered here was crystal clear. And God willing, we're gonna be here again next week with another word from the Lord. I pray that you will enjoy the balance of your day in the presence of God. And if you have not given your life back over to the Lord, I pray that this message here will be instrumental. It will help you to make that decision, to ask God to forgive you and that you want to be back in the right relationship with him so that you can learn of him and you can experience his love for the rest of your life, all the way into eternal life. Now, my benediction. Now, unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. God bless you and your family. Go in peace.