SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Walk as a child of the light.
SPEAKER_00: That's what St.
SPEAKER_00: Paul exhorts us to in his epistle this evening.
SPEAKER_00: So go ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Walk as a child of the light.
SPEAKER_00: What's the problem?
SPEAKER_00: Do you not know how?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you expecting three truths from me about how to walk as a child of the light?
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, that's what our modern ears are waiting for, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's what many people who visit Christian bookstores nowadays are looking for.
SPEAKER_00: You can almost find hundreds or even thousands of Christian resources out there telling you how you too can walk as a child of the light.
SPEAKER_00: That's what our modern ears want to hear.
SPEAKER_00: But you're not alone.
SPEAKER_00: That's what ancient ears wanted to hear as well.
SPEAKER_00: And I guess it's somewhat a viable question.
SPEAKER_00: If you're exhorted to do something, like the apostle says, you want to know how to do it, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: So I guess one in three ways on how to walk as a child of the light isn't a bad thing, but it's not entirely asking the right question either.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: If I simply provide you with three biblical ways to walk as children of light, you would instantly gravitate towards it.
SPEAKER_00: You might even write it down, you might commit it to memory.
SPEAKER_00: You might walk out of here this evening thinking to yourself, how can I implement these three fundamental truths into my life?
SPEAKER_00: And I would agree that if I provided you three ways that were at least half decent, well, they may appear to guide you in some sort of moral living, which may help you temporarily and make you appear to be a good Christian to the world around you.
SPEAKER_00: But if these three pieces of advice were poor, or were lacking some real biblical substance, or at the very least, not in line with good biblical doctrine, well then I have just sent you out off in pursuit on how you could better yourself, which sounds no different than all the other secular self-help books out there.
SPEAKER_00: In the end, they would not be efficacious for your spiritual life because all they would do is focus your attention on the follower and not the one you follow.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's good advice or bad advice, chances are it wouldn't do anything but put your eyes on what you can do in this life, about how you can live your best life now, or maybe discover what it is that God really wants you to do, as though he's hiding it from you.
SPEAKER_00: Make friends, or tell yourself, as long as I do all the right things, I can make God happy, and he will at least bless me with the things that I want.
SPEAKER_00: None of these types of Christian self-help things actually end up delivering what they promise.
SPEAKER_00: So getting three truths on how to walk as a child of the light is really not the right place to start.
SPEAKER_00: Should we go to our Lord for help in all things?
SPEAKER_00: Most definitely.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible isn't God's self-help program.
SPEAKER_00: Because this kind of teaching often only serves to make us all leave here staring at ourselves and wondering what we're doing, and it will make belly button gazers out of all of us.
SPEAKER_00: You may feel as though it sustained you in this life for a little bit, but the more you have your eyes on yourself, and the less you have your eyes anywhere else, the more you have your eyes on yourself, and the less you have your eyes on Christ, your Savior, well, that's the problem.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you have your eyes on yourself, you don't have your eyes on Jesus, who is the author and the perfecter of your faith, and what he is actually doing in your life.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to walk as a child of the light, if you want to discern ways that are pleasing to the Lord, if you want to try and take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them, like St.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, well, then you must be about taking your eyes off yourself and turning your gaze to the one who is the light.
SPEAKER_00: Because there is only one light, and he is the eternal light.
SPEAKER_00: The light that shines in the darkness, and that light is Christ Jesus, the crucified and risen Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to walk as a child of the light, then take your eyes off yourself and look at Christ the crucified one.
SPEAKER_00: Only He is called the morning star.
SPEAKER_00: Only He is called the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: But what about walking?
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to walk as a child of the light?
SPEAKER_00: Or as we say in our divine liturgy, walk in your ways to the glory of your holy name.
SPEAKER_00: Walking in someone's ways presumes following.
SPEAKER_00: In order to follow something, you can't stare at your own feet if you're following someone else.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, you watch their feet.
SPEAKER_00: Where they go, you go.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples were followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They followed him.
SPEAKER_00: Even American sign language, they get this right theologically.
SPEAKER_00: The sign for Jesus follower.
SPEAKER_00: So stop spending time watching yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: It will only turn you inward.
SPEAKER_00: Even Jesus only does what he sees the Father doing.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to be Christ-like, if you want to know how to make it through this life, how to walk as a child of the light, then you must have a relationship with the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But in order for you to have a relationship with God, you must have Christ, who is the light.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have Christ, well then you don't have a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And you are not light in the Lord, as the text says.
SPEAKER_00: I promise.
SPEAKER_00: It is exactly as Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: No one comes to the Father except through me.
SPEAKER_00: No one can have a relationship with God the Father unless they have God the Son.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you must have Christ to create that relationship for you.
SPEAKER_00: And he does that by atoning for your sins on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_00: What he won for you on the cross, he delivers to you in his word and his sacraments.
SPEAKER_00: For it is just as Luther taught.
SPEAKER_00: But it's kind of funny how we treat the forgiveness of sins, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Like old hat.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of like saying, Yeah, yeah, Pastor, I know all about the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: But what I really want to hear about is happy living, about how God wants me to have peace, or how I can incorporate in my life rest.
SPEAKER_00: And the list goes on and on.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord does want his children to have joy in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: He does want you to have rest.
SPEAKER_00: He does want you to have peace.
SPEAKER_00: But you will find none of those things by what you are doing or not doing.
SPEAKER_00: If you want true peace, then receive the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.
SPEAKER_00: That peace, that peace that Christ Himself made on your behalf between the Father and you.
SPEAKER_00: He appeased God's wrath, making peace by the blood of his cross, so that you, dear baptized believer, now have true peace between you and God the Father, because Christ died for your sins and then washed them away.
SPEAKER_00: Right there in the waters of holy baptism.
SPEAKER_00: And yet you might say, but I want rest, like Scripture says, you know, Sabbath rest, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Again, true rest is only found in Christ where he comes to you.
SPEAKER_00: Because only Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, Luke 6, 5.
SPEAKER_00: Only Jesus can provide you true rest, Matthew 11, 28.
SPEAKER_00: Only Jesus says to you, Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: Learn from me.
SPEAKER_00: I am gentle.
SPEAKER_00: And where else can you go so that you know you both have Jesus in word and sacrament?
SPEAKER_00: Right in his divine service to you.
SPEAKER_00: True rest is found where Christ is.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have Christ, you don't have true rest.
SPEAKER_00: Until you have eternal rest, we go to where we worship him in spirit and truth, where he deigns, and I do mean that, to come to you.
SPEAKER_00: To come to all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Children of the light seek not to find rest in themselves, nor this life, but they seek rest in Jesus, where he condescends to them, where he makes his home with them, where he dwells with them in word and spirit and body and blood, where he gives all of himself for them on this side of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So then, how do we do what St.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is exhorting us tonight in this Ephesians text?
SPEAKER_00: How do we walk as children of the light?
SPEAKER_00: By taking our eyes off of this world and all its pleasures, by taking our eyes off ourselves and our belly buttons, and looking to the true light, who is the author and the perfecter of your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Let his Holy Spirit turn your gaze off of the things of these worldly things around you and turn them to heavenly things, where he promises he is for you right in front of your very eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you have Jesus, you have the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: And if you have the forgiveness of sins, well then you have life and salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus.