A Study In Ephesians: New People, Children of the Light

A Study In Ephesians: New People, Children of the Light
Ephesians 5:1-21

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SPEAKER_00 0:13

Thanks for reading, JT. Morning, church. Super thankful uh to be with you guys today. And as always, when I get to preach, I get really, really excited just to be together because I love the Word of God and I love what it says and I love how it changes our lives. And I was saying this to the group that prays at 9.45. We which by the way, uh any and every one of you are invited every Sunday morning, 9.45, right in the back of the room. Uh we just take time to pray for each other, pray for this family of believers, we pray for our city, uh, we pray from the scriptures that we're reading that day. Um, but this morning I was reminding them that like even as I preach the word, like, even if no one else benefits from it, I know personally, like I am so shaped and sharpened by God's word, and I love um the teaching uh experience just because I'm shaped by God and his goodness as I sit in front of his word and just say, God, teach me, show me, uh, lead me. And and he does. And so um, I hope other people benefit from that, but I want you to know that first and foremost, when I preach, I'm actually preaching to myself. Um, that I'm asking the Lord by his spirit to preach to me and then somehow preach through me. And and so I pray that somehow that you will benefit from what God has been doing in my heart all week long as I've meditated on one of my favorite sections in the Bible. My wife would say it's one of her favorite sections in the Bible, and uh such a good text that JT has already read for us this morning. This week I had uh, well, before I jump there, I just want to get a couple things. First off, when you came in, if you did not get a worship guide, uh, which is the little half full with our logo on the front of it, uh, you can lift your hand and our ushers would love to give that to you so that you can take some notes, so that you know some of the scripture readings that we have during the week, because we encourage you to read God's Word every day, um, not out of duty, but out of it it really will grow you and help you uh to mature in your walk with Jesus as he speaks to you on your in your everyday life. Um so if you have one, if you did not get one of those, you can lift your hand. Anybody not get one? Okay. And there's a few things in there also that help you get more connected here at Point. And if you are a guest, by the way, and you're interested in getting more involved, more invested here, um, my left, your right, as you're on your way out the door, we have what's called a connection point. Uh soon to be on this side of the room, uh, and we'll talk about that in a sec, uh, because we want to make sure that you know how to get involved and how invested in community life here. Uh, because we believe that the Christian life is uh best lived in community, because when we're saved, we're not just saved as individuals, we're saved into a family. And so that's part of the reason we want us to live in community together is because that's what God's heart is for us. We're created his image for that kind of community. And uh that'll even come up today in some of our messages well. Um, you may have noticed when you're walking in that there's some uh some construction going on the right side. And a few weeks back, uh you guys heard us talk about this, but in case you weren't here and you want to know what that is, uh I'm super excited about the fact that uh there's two parts to that space. One part is specifically designated as a prayer space, and so we believe that uh we want to be a people of prayer, not just the church that prays sometimes, but a people of prayer. And one of the things that we felt um you know convinced of as an elder team, even was creating a space where, and we're gonna give more instructions about this, where we could just have dedicated prayer time uh to the Lord and on behalf of the body. And so uh in the new year, starting January, uh the 20th day of every month. And the reason it's the 20th day is because of Ephesians 3.20, which uh reminds us that when we ask, God will give us beyond what we even could ask or imagine uh because of his glorious riches in Christ, that the 20th day of the month we will be covering 24 hours of prayer as we join with other churches across our city to pray for God to bring people to salvation and to let his church uh become the church we're called to be. And so that'll happen uh after the first of the year, but between now and then um we will begin to tell you a little bit about how that space is going to be utilized, even in our Sunday morning gatherings and throughout the week. Okay. Um so I'm I'm excited to tell you more about that in the coming days. Um this morning, we as we continue our series in Ephesians, and if you've been with us, we've been working our way through it, and we're actually going through large sections of it on Sunday mornings with the intent that during the week, through both uh personal interactions with other believers, maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's a friend, maybe it's someone in your life group. Uh, then in our life groups, we even have a Ephesians study guide to really unpack and dig into the depth of what God's trying to say to us. And even when we finish this series, I can guarantee you that we have not covered everything that's there, okay? Just go ahead and say that. We have not, and you could spend the rest of your life studying Ephesians and not get to the depths of everything that's there. And Sunday mornings, in some ways, is kind of a helicopter flyover of some of these core passages, and we're talking about these big ideas that Paul is listing out. And remember, if you didn't already know this, I think most of you do, that verse and chapter were were not in the original letter. Okay? And so when we break this down, we're trying to break it down by um ideas and thought flow of Paul, which sometimes, I'll be honest, love Paul to death. Sometimes it can be a little tricky to follow. He does have rabbit trails, but he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write it in his own personality, in his own voice, in his own way. It is God's inspired word, and it does speak to us. And so we want to encourage us as we read it uh just to ask God, what do you want to say to us today? I know what you were saying then, and we want to make sure we understand that, but what are you saying to us today personally? How do you want us to reorient our lives around the things of the kingdom of God, around Jesus Himself, okay? So that's where we are. Um I had the privilege this week of doing something that I love to do, and that is hold a newborn baby. Anybody held a newborn baby lately? One of my favorite things is to hold a newborn baby and just to think, wow, like this is a miracle. And when you know the people uh who've had the baby and you've watched the woman carry this baby and this belly grow and this life inside of them being put together, it's it's awesome. And so we were sitting with the Berry Hills. Uh, Landon helps lead our worship here, and we were sitting with them um on Thursday night, and and uh just had the opportunity to look at this new little baby and and just think, God, you're so good. You're so amazing how you you uh you work in this. We actually have a lady here in the in the church, some of you know, um, that she actually works around babies all the time. She gets to see new life all the time. And I like, I it's one of those things where like for me personally, and I know not everybody may not not everybody feels this way, but every time I see one, I just like it makes me worship God. It just makes me reminded uh of God's good creator, as miraculous God that He does this. Um, that being said, uh the good thing about holding somebody else's baby is because my wife and I, we have six kids and we're done. And so we can like find our baby fix that way now. Um we love all six of our kids, we're just done. And uh we're ready to start to wait for grandkids one day, which will be a while, right? Okay. Um my 16-year-old daughter's like, yes, uh, she's our oldest, so uh, but what's interesting is when you hold a baby and and you look at this baby, uh it's it's funny how you can tell they belong to mom and dad. Right? Even at that very early age. Now, and I'll be honest, like maybe people get offended by this. Newborn babies are really not cute, okay? They're just not just generally they're just not cute. Their faces are wrinkly, there's some, you know, some things going on there. Uh generally, it takes a little bit before they get cute, okay? They're a miracle, they're amazing, but they're not necessarily cute. But you can already see from early on that they look like mom and dad. There's these things that are there, and especially when you get a family that's got like multiple kids, and you start to say, Oh, yeah, that's definitely a shock baby. Yeah, you can see that, right? Uh this week I saw the Berry Hill Baby. Oh, yep, that's definitely a Berry Hill baby, right? That's definitely Landon and Taylor's baby. Got that brand. And so you can see the different looks there. And I love that because it is just one way that we can say, you know, kids look like their parents. Kids, kids look like their parents. And kids look like their parents physically, and then as they grow, they actually start to copy mannerisms, they copy facial expressions, right? Uh they start using vocabulary words that sound like mom and dad, that can be good and bad. Um they start to interact with people like mom and dad, because in essence, we're discipling our kids by our example, right? And I and I use the discipleship not so much even just in the spiritual sense, but we're literally reproducing ourselves in these little lives. And for better or for worse, they're gonna be a lot like us, okay? And uh, and there's things that we're like, we're so excited about that, and there's things we're like, Lord help them, right? There's moments I'm like, oh my goodness. I'm talking to one of my kids, I'm disciplining them over something, and I'm like, this is me. I have reproduced my sin in them, and now I'm having to deal with it. And God's using it to shape me, and he's helping me also like uh to learn how he deals with me as I have my own sinfulness, right? And in that, we're reminded again um today in the text that as God's children, which was a primary emphasis of the message last week, that our primary identity is sons and daughters of God if we are in Christ. Okay? Now I want to make sure you understand, not every person that's on planet earth is a child of God. Okay? And I don't say this in any way out of judgment, condemnation, arrogance, because I feel incredibly humbled by this reality. But not every person who was created by God has been recreated by God, right? Not every person who was created in his image has actually been adopted into his family, has actually been brought into his family, because every person is has inherent worth and value just because they're created in God's image. But to be recreated, to be made new, is a step of faith, putting our trust in Jesus and receiving the gift of not only eternal life, but a new nature, a new identity, a new life in Christ. And this is really important because we don't want to convey to people that going to church, being a good person, being moral, or just being simply created in God's image is what equals salvation. Um, that is a transaction, that is a that is a an exchange. Many theologians have talked about, where we become a new creature in Christ. As John the Baptist, uh Jesus talking to Nicodemus, and he says, You must be born again to Nicodemus about how new life happens. We were not only born with our mamas, but we now must be born in the spirit, be reborn. And so that's that's a thing. And if you are your child of God, then this text says, as his dearly loved children, that we should live and look like our father and our older brother, specifically, is the illustration here, who is God, by the way. And then we don't have time to touch all that, so I don't want to distract you with that, but because it's really key that Jesus is God's Son and He is God, and we are following Him, we are imitating Him, we are following His example, and that's Paul's exhortation. But notice this chapter, particularly in this translation that I read, which is Holman Christian, if it's not at the first, it's definitely in the sentence where he says, Therefore, as dearly loved children, therefore. Listen, this is so, so key because we say this uh fairly often around Point Communion Church in our teaching times, because we want to make sure you get this. Want to make sure we don't miss this, that this is what makes the Christian life distinct. We don't do the right things in order to become children of God. We are children of God who then do what God has called us to do. So the therefore is referring again to the changed identity that then precedes and leads us into new activity and new ways of living. Does that make sense? Okay. I just want to make sure that we are clear on that because the Christian life is not a performance-based system where we earn our way. Okay, we live in response to what Christ has done. And we creep back that way, at least I do. I'll just be honest. I'll creep back the other way a lot of times and try to earn my way. And I see this specifically around how much shame and guilt do I feel when I fail. But when I understand that I am in Christ, I am his dearly loved son, then it motivates my heart to move towards obedience, move towards a greater sense of worship and gratitude for his grace in my life. And I don't lose my salvation um because I blow it. I'm in Christ. Praise God for that, right? And it stirs me every day to live for him. So we're gonna we're gonna talk about that a little bit in this text today, and because we are doing a helicopter view of this versus like a deep dive uh into all the text here, I want to see really three things. And this is specifically the title today is Children of Light, because God is a God of light. He's a God of light, and he's a God of love. And there's a lot of passages of scripture where we could talk about this idea, where we could go into this, and I could refer to them. I could uh cross-reference other passages of scripture where God is a God of light, and as his children, we are called to be children of light. Okay? Children of light, not children of darkness. He's already referred to this in this uh letter before, but children of light, and I'll read it again. Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children, and walk in love as the Messiah also loved us and gave himself for us a sacrificial, fragrant offering to God. Now, we could spend the rest of our time there and the next ten weeks, okay? And and that's an amazing, amazing passage. An amazing couple of verses there. But I want us to lean into a few things. First is this children of light take sin seriously and they live with increasing obedience. So that's one piece we're gonna cover today. That children of light take sin seriously and live with increasing obedience in their life, okay? Second thing is this children of light take time seriously and live with increasing wisdom. Okay? We're gonna see that in the passage. And then thirdly, children of light take knowing God seriously and live with increasing joy. Now, you may not have gotten all those, we're gonna cover them, but there's three pieces that I want us to look at today, all right? Each one of them, something we take serious, and then what results from that, the kind of life that's lived from that place. Remembering this is part of our identity in Christ. Now, first one. Children of light take sin seriously and live with increasing obedience. The longer I'm a Christ follower and the closer I get to Jesus, the more I see the ugliness of my sin. The more I walk with Jesus, and the more I sit still in his presence, and the more I look honestly at my life, I see the ugliness of my rebellion. I see the messiness, I see this old man. We've talked about the putting on the new man, the old man still worrying for my affections, worrying for my space in my thought life, uh, worrying for the things in my life that are leading me down a path to um to what the world would say we should value and what we should love and where we should invest ourselves. And so the longer I walk with Jesus, the more I find that, man, I've got a lot of work to do. I need I I've got a lot of areas of my life that are still not surrendered to Jesus. I still see areas of my life where I'm not fully open-handed before the Lord because I I want to do my thing. I want to call the shots, I want to be in control, right? And so sin is still warring against me, and many days, many moments in my life, I find myself succumbing to it. Now, again, praise God, I'm not stuck there, but it is a reality, and we in our Christian life need to take sin seriously. And Paul lays out for us why. Now, first thing he says here is he says, there are there are these outward behaviors that we would say these are sinful, and he could have listed a whole lot of a whole lot of other things, but the three he does list three in verse five. He says, sexual immorality, impurity, and greed. Okay, he addresses three of them in in verse five. He says, We know and recognize this, every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person. So three things that he lists out, and he says, These sins are serious. They are contrary to living as a children of a child of the light, a child of the Father. This is opposite of imitating God. This is imitating the world. Okay? Now, again, we could just spend a bunch of time talking about each of these, but I think we understand, I hope we understand, that sexual immorality and impurity and greed are not of the kingdom of God. And it is so interesting. I think these are good teaching moments for us, just to remember that sin ultimately is a perversion of good things. Is it wrong to have a sex drive? I know we have a lot of kids in the room, right? No, it's not wrong. God gave us that. Is it is it wrong to want things, good things that God's given us? No. Is it wrong to make a lot of money? Well, you would have to like eliminate some people in the Bible who God used greatly, right? Like, what about Abraham? Uh he was a wealthy man, uh, right? We could go on through the list. But here's the point. When it's not so much that we are are sinful when we have desires for those things, it's it's when we operate and act on those desires in a way that supersedes our desire and our love for God. It's when we look to those things, which we're gonna talk about here in a second, to those things to be more than what they actually are, and we look to we look to those things to be God in our life. We take good things even and make them God things, okay? So we need to understand sin. And so sexual immorality, impurity, greed, one of the reasons why he lists these things is because in the Ephesians church, they were there. And guess what? In the American church, they're there. They're still there, right? They're still here right now. We see these things, we see sexual immorality, we see impurity, we see greed. And we live in a culture where um even within the church, uh, the the last decade in particular, the church is taking this posture of like um free sexual expression. And we could go a whole message on that today. And like basically saying, well, look, let's let's just let people do what they feel like they're called to do, like what they want to do, what they feel like doing. Guys, we have to stand on the word of God. And so Paul says sexual immorality and impurity and greed should not even be heard of among you. Should not even be heard of among you.

unknown 19:18

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

And yet we know that's not completely true today. Now I don't throw rocks at people who struggle with these things because I struggle with these things. But we need to continue to ask God to help us eradicate these things in our lives. I have to move on. He says, not only is it the outward behaviors, but did you notice the last thing he says, this? He says, every sexually moral, impure, or greedy person who is an idolater. Now he he goes below the surface here, an idolater. And this is what I was already alluding to. When you take things and you begin to worship them, you begin to ascribe worth to them. Paul's going to that heart level. Because underneath all sin is what is called the sin beneath the sin. And the sin beneath the sin is false worship, it's idolatry. And you could actually say that behind every one of our idols, be it our children, which are good things, right? Be it our marriage, be it our job, be it our house, be our possessions, be it experiences that we want to go on, behind all these things that we we elevate above God, what we will find is that it's about us, right? It's about us. It's about our own self-realization, it's about our own self-uh-focus and our desire to do what we want in our flesh. And so he's saying these things should not be true of us. Worshiping something or someone other than God should not be true of God's people. And yet, there are many days, if we were honest based on how we're living, not what we say, because we know we know what to say, but how we actually live, how we spend our time, how we spend our money, where our headspace goes. As Tim Keller says, when you have nothing to think about, what what is filling your thoughts? What is what is actually in your mind? What do you daydream about? That's what you worship. That's what you actually care most about because you're in that moment kind of drifting where your heart will lead you. And I would tell you, if you knew my mind and my heart, you would say, Whoa, you got some idolatry going on in there. Because there are things that I see in my life that I drift to to be what only God can be. When you I want you to understand that what we put our trust in is the primary difference between believers and unbelievers. Um, that what we put our trust in, what we put our hope in, where we where we really look to, it's the primary difference. And so um that means that still in the heart of Christians, God's children, children of light, as we're talking about today, there's still unbelief. Would you agree? It's true whether you believe it or not, okay? Because it is in our hearts in those moments we Look to other things. Now, Paul goes even further, and this is where he would be really unpopular today. He's already been unpopular. He already is getting criticized, even in the local church, for things uh I've heard him them saying, like Paul's just not trustworthy and he just has an issue that we we can we he culturally doesn't get it. But listen, listen to what Paul says in verse 8. Did you see it? For you were once darkness. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul doesn't just say you walked in darkness, which earlier in this letter to the people at Ephesus, he says you walked in darkness. Now he actually says, you were darkness. Why is this unpopular? Because there is a belief that somehow in our humanness we are good apart from God. I want you to know today, like while there are good things in our lives because we are created in the image of God, we are inherently not good. While I can hold a newborn baby and go, this is a beautiful miracle of God who has his image on it, this baby is inherently not good, is inherently selfish, is inherently worshipful of the wrong things. Right? And he says, You were darkness. You were darkness. So Paul goes again below the surface, even to the brutal reality that's not very popular, and that is that we as humans had a major problem. And this is why salvation is increasingly beautiful. It's because I think you guys know this, but we say we say things like, um, you know, we want to remind ourselves of the beauty of the gospel, and it's not because the gospel doesn't just make people who were sort of bad making bad decisions make them into better people, it makes people who were dead, who were headed to destruction, alive and headed to life now. So that's a major change. In fact, in this letter, we we're kind of given this hint, even where Paul says, as he's talking to Gentiles, he says, Gentiles, you you church in Ephesus, don't live like the Gentiles do. They are Gentiles. What is he saying? He's like, You're not that kind of person anymore. You're new, you're a different person completely. Your primary identity has shifted. And in our Christ, in our walk with God, in our becoming a Christ follower, a child of God, our identity has shifted. We're going to keep saying that over and over to drive that home. I need to be reminded of that daily. So he goes on to say, don't go back to the fruitless works of darkness. Don't go back to the fruitless works of darkness, but rather expose them by living as a contrast to those things, by living a different way of life, by valuing the things that are different in the Lord. Now, um, this is very, very hard, and I and I want to just confess that like because we live in a culture um where we have such a high view for tolerance, which I would I would argue the the culture's definition of tolerance is really off. Okay. Um I would say that that the way that tolerance works right now is I will tolerate you as long as you um just give me permission to believe whatever I want. Uh to maybe you might even say uh agree with me, adhere to my beliefs. And inherently, the way the tolerance works, especially in our culture, is it it's it sets it up where if you disagree, then you're now the one who's being intolerant. You know what I love about the Bible is that first off, first and foremost, none of us in here are called to do the work that God's called to do. So God's by his spirit is the one who brings people to truth and brings them ultimately to life. But I don't just tolerate people as a Christ follower. I love people. And I show them grace. You see, tolerance is really a cheap substitute for grace. And in our world today, I would encourage you, I would really encourage you to ask the Lord to show you what it looks like to be a gracious person, not just a tolerant person. And a gracious person is someone who still speaks the truth, but shows compassion, shows kindness, shows love as we do that. We would live a life of love like Jesus did. Okay, we're imitating him in our lives. So let me let me just say it this clearly, as we kind of I want to encourage you this morning as we think about sin in the world and sin in our own lives. Like we cannot take an indifferent or neutral posture towards sin. Right? But how we address sin has to be addressed in a Christ-centered way. And that is that even while we were sinners, Christ died for us. And that posture is one of saying, I'm gonna pursue a relationship with you, even though you're in sin, because that's what Christ did for me. That's what he did in my life. That doesn't mean that there aren't moments, that there aren't places, there aren't boundaries, that there aren't ways that we need to pull ourselves out of relationships or situations where uh we might find ourselves being tempted to be drawn in, or there needs to be space for a season because someone is not repentant and you've already tried, you've been gracious. But we are to be people of light, and we are to be people of truth, and we are to be able, as he says, don't go back to the fruitless works of darkness, but rather expose them. And we should know that if we do this, you're gonna get some pushback. Probably more than pushback, right? You're gonna probably get criticized, you're gonna get condemned. And this is why I think it's really, really key. Earlier in this series, we talked about how that we have to be gentle and humble and patient, right? We have to be gentle and humble and patient as we address sin, as we expose deeds of darkness. We first start with ourselves. That brings true humility, because we're reminded how much we need God. We are gentle because we know that sometimes people don't see it rightly. And we're praying the Holy Spirit would bring that revelation. And we are patient because we know God's timing, like it doesn't, it's not always immediate change. So we want to be patient in that. But I would say that one of the big keys for us, and and I think this is really helpful for me personally, is we need to appeal to our to God's authority and not our moral superiority. Listen, listen, let me say that again. When we have to address sin in our culture, we need to appeal to God's authority and not our moral superiority. Does that make sense? So one of the things that happens sometimes is when we want to address sin, we we don't mean to, but we end up posturing ourselves as if we're better than those people that we're having to address the sin about. And that is not helpful. But we want to appeal to God's authority. Listen to what Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 as he's writing a letter. It's interesting how many letters that Paul writes that he has to address the issue of sexual immorality. We think our world's messed up. Let me just go ahead and tell you, it's always been messed up. Okay? It's always been sexually immoral. That's been a problem with the human race. And he says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, finally then, brothers, we ask you and encourage you in the Lord Jesus that as you have received from us how you must walk and please God as you are doing, do so even more. So he said, We've told you how to live. Keep doing that. We do it, do it even more. For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus Christ. For this is God's will. If you ever want to know what God's will is, well, this is one of the cool verses in the Bible, for this is God's will. Here's one of God's really clear, direct wills. You don't have to pray about this, you don't have to fast about this, you don't have to go seek godly counsel on this. All right? You ready? For this is God's will, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality. If you are living outside of the bounds of, this is not even a sermon on this, but I just want to say, if you're living outside of the bounds of God's will with your sexual life, you're outside of, you know, you're outside of God's will, and he you're not gonna find blessing there. You're gonna find pain and heartache and destruction there. I'm just telling you. This is God's will. Okay? Now Paul says that, and he's not saying, just because I said so. As parents, did you ever have those moments because I said so? Paul could just say, hey, because I said so, but he says, this is God's will for you in Christ, that you would control your own body in sanctification and honor, not with lustful desires like the Gentiles. There's the Gentiles again. Man, they get a bad rap. Did you know we're Gentiles, by the way? Okay, just making sure. And at the very end, verse 8, key in on this. Listen to this verse. I'm sure Paul just wanted to make sure and emphasize his point here. He says, Therefore, the person who rejects this, this teaching, this instruction, does not reject man, but who? But God, who also gives us his Holy Spirit. So, just as a point here, as we are children of the light, as we are serious about sin, we see that the behaviors of sin, we see the under-the-hood, idolatry, the worship, the false worship that's actually driving those behaviors, as we begin to see that the consequences of it, which by the way, he says in this passage, the consequences of that are the wrath of God. And when we we hear that, some of us in this room, like we're struggling, because the word wrath, it sounds like just like out of control anger. You know the Bible, what it means by wrath, is it means that it's a judgment. It means an accurate and a right and a fair judgment. That's what wrath is about. So it's not just God flying off the handle and going ballistic on people, it's him making a right judgment of what's really going on in the heart of humanity when we sin. And it says the wrath of God will be revealed, which is consistent with what Romans 1 reminds us of and tells us about, that the wrath of God is being revealed in the world as people get what they want, as people get what they think they want. And in this text, we're reminded that as we walk in the light, as we walk apart from sin, then we then go out and we expose the deeds of darkness, we expose sin, and we do that by the power of the Holy Spirit, appealing to his authority, to his moral superiority, to his holiness, not ours. And now that still may not be popular. You're not just because you say, well, I'm appealing to God and not myself, people aren't just gonna, oh great, now I'm gonna receive that. Because many people don't want God's authority in their life, right? But we can let the weight, the burden fall on God because He's the one who we actually are trying to follow. And his word, listen, his word is good. If you obey his word, you will not find yourself headed to a path of destruction. You'll find yourself headed to a path of life and joy and peace. You'll start to see things the right way. Doesn't mean that you want to have hard circumstances, just gotta make sure we're clear. Doesn't mean you don't still suffer, doesn't mean God doesn't still uh the world is not okay, not fully yet, but we will find life there. So we need to actively avoid sin. We need to live out who we truly are as people of the light and be prepared. So in the church, um, when we come to faith in Jesus Christ by grace, it's a grace gift, um, we are also called to live changed lives, different lives. And we'll do that from our new identity in Christ. We'll do that from our new place, our new um new walk with Jesus that we have. Now, second thing, we gotta move on. Children of the light, take time seriously and live with increasing wisdom. I'm not gonna take as much time on these next two, but did you notice what he said in verse 15? He says, Pay careful attention then how to you how you walk, not as unwise people, but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So don't be foolish and understand, but understand what the Lord's will is. Did you know that not only are we by default darkness, but we are by default foolish. They fit together, by the way. But we are by default foolish, just to make that explicitly clear. We naturally will choose things that hurt us. We will naturally choose to do things and worship things that will, again, take life from us rather than give life to us by by nature. By nature. That's what we will do. That's why if you look at the book of Proverbs, anybody love the book of Proverbs? If you're a parent, you should love the book of Proverbs, right? It's a great way to constantly like have good resources to instruct your children. Don't forget to apply it to your own heart first, moms and dads, right? But here's the thing the book of Proverbs is great because it gives us wisdom in very practical ways. But you know what's interesting about the book of Proverbs is that the book of Proverbs doesn't just talk about wisdom as some uh idea or concept, it actually talks about um wisdom as a person. Personification happens in Proverbs. I know all of you people out there with literary expertise, you know what personification is. Personification is, you know, they take this idea and to put it in the form of a person. It's got like characteristics like a person. And in the text, we're reminded that God is wisdom, that Jesus is wisdom. And so if we want to know wisdom, we need to know God. We need to know Jesus, right? We need to know them. We need to walk with them. That's where we're gonna learn wisdom. We must acknowledge that not only is our default foolishness, which Romans 1 outlines for us really, really clearly, it tells us that the nature of humanity is that we will be darkened in our minds, we will exchange the truth of God for a lie, right? We will worship the created things instead of the creator. If you haven't read Romans 1 lately, go read it. I was just having a conversation with my oldest daughter this week about this very thing and how quickly we as humans digress towards foolishness and how we get darkened in our minds. And we ignore the one who created life. We ignore the very one who made us and who made marriage and who made us with the capacity to have children and made us with the capacity to work. We ignore him on those big things in our lives: sexuality, all these things. And we ignore him and we wonder why it's not working. I mean, we got to listen to the creator, right? But we are foolish and we we move towards that. And in this passage, he says, listen, be careful how you live, because your natural tendency is going to be foolishness. Be careful how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, and make the most. Literally, the the language there is redeem the time. Redeem the time that you have on this earth, redeem it, and live for the things that matter, the things that will last, the things that will ultimately bring not only you joy, which we'll talk about in a second, but ultimately God's glory. And that's what we were made for to do. That we were made to do from the very beginning. So I love that in this passage we're reminded to be wise, to walk wisely. Um to be wise is to know God and therefore increasingly know and choose the path that He has desired for us. Um this word walk, just so we know, just to be clear, is is is really synonymous with the word live. So he's, you know, we throughout the Bible we see like walk means to also live in this way, live in the light, live in such a way to honor God, live in a way that brings uh truth and goodness and grace. Live in this way. But the word walk also is truly a metaphor. That every single one of us on a daily basis, we are making a choice where we're walking, where we're going. And this fits so well with Proverbs because he talks about two paths in life: one path that leads to life and one path that leads to death. And so some of you may have heard this before, but um I remember it really striking me that direction, not intention, ultimately determines our destination. So we can intend to go a direction, but it's really where we are headed, our direction, that that's where we're actually gonna land, right? And so in your life, are you headed towards life, or are you headed towards death or destruction in your life? Um, in fact, it says in Proverbs 16, 25, there is a way that seems right to man, but its end is the way to death. If you haven't heard us say this before, let me say this again. Do not follow your heart. It's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Because if you follow your heart, you're going to go away that will ultimately lead to pain and suffering. Now, I understand that if you're a Christ follower and you have new desires and you have new emotions, maybe you kind of lump that in, and so you you can listen to the spirit working, but if you follow your emotions, Lord help us, right? We are in trouble. Do not follow your heart. Because the Bible says in Proverbs, in another place, it says the heart is deceptive above all. So our emotions will lead us to places that we don't want to go. We should be careful. We should be very, very careful to live. And this also means that we need community with godly people. I think this is a great point here. If we're going to redeem the time, if we're going to walk with wisdom, if we're going to redeem the days because they're evil, we're going to need godly community. Listen to this Proverb 1320. I mean, we could just quote Proverbs all day. This is awesome, but it says the one who walks with the wise will become wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm. Teenagers, kids in the room, practical advice. Who you're hanging out with will determine the direction you're headed. Right? Moms and dads in the room, single adults in the room, who you hang out with, what they're talking about, what they value will shape your life. It will help, it will help or will hurt you. And so it's why we need godly community. We need people who will speak truth in love, who will help eradicate, who will help expose the deeds of darkness. So if you're walking with people or you're spending a lot of time with people, if your friendships are predominantly people who don't believe in Jesus or don't value the things of the kingdom of God, that is going to have an effect on you. Should we have, as Christians, should we have non-Christian friends? Yeah. We're supposed to be in the world, but not of the world. Right? We're supposed to be in the world. This is not a call to the church to go, hey, everybody, let's run to our fortress and have a holy huddle and wait for Jesus to come back, right? That's not what this is about. I'm talking about the people who deeply influence and affect how you view your world, how you view life. You need people who are gospel-oriented, you need people who are Jesus-centered, who understand imperfectly that you are all sinners, that we are all sinners, that we need Jesus and we need truth. And what's great is that we can much easier see, much more easily see the sin in other people's lives than our own life. We need to be very, very skeptical of our ability to evaluate our motives. I'm just speaking from honesty and from from like firsthand here, okay? There have been times I was like, man, I am like so right here. And somebody godly and gracious enough was able to speak to me and say, you are not right. And at first I was like, get back. And then I realized, you know what? God was using that to help me see the error of my heart. To see that even though I'm a Christ follower and I'm new and all those things, I don't see my sin rightly. I don't see my motives rightly a lot of the time. And we need community. We need safe space for that. We need to give people permission to say they're struggling, to confess sin, to acknowledge that we don't have it all right, that we can give feedback to each other. We hope that our life groups are a place where we don't just have superficial theological conversations about biblical truth, but that we actually know each other. We actually talk about where we don't believe rightly, and we speak in to that. So we will live with greater and greater wisdom as children of the light when we walk with our Savior, knowing him personally, intimately, and we will also live with greater wisdom as we get into communion with other people who are wise, who believe the gospel, believe the truth of Scripture. Okay, thirdly, children of the light, take knowing God seriously and live with increasing joy. Now, this is gonna be hard for me to go quick on, but we have to. What an interesting juxtaposition. I love that word in this text. Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Does anybody else think that's odd? Um It's just funny to me, honestly. When people get drunk, they do things they don't want to do or they don't mean to do, right? Sometimes it loosens the lips and they start saying things that they probably wouldn't say, right? They're under the influence. But bigger than that, if you think not just about the influence of it, but why do people drink? What are they hoping to get out of it? Now I'm not talking about just having a beer with a burger and pizza, okay? I'm talking about why do people drink to excess? Why do they get drunk? The Bible doesn't say we can't drink. The Bible says don't get drunk because you're gonna do foolish things. Okay, when you're not no longer uh in a self controlled state. It's dangerous. Some people get angry, some people get crazy silly, but we know it's deadly even. But here's the bottom line why do people Drink. Because they are looking for happiness. They're looking for an escape, right? They're looking for a way to minimize the fear, the anxiety, the struggles, the doubts, the difficulties they're facing many times. The ones who drink to excess, right? It's one thing to sit down and to have, again, a drink with a dinner, but it's another thing to just drink yourself into a stupor because you don't want to have to face what you're facing. And so we want to numb it. And it's not just alcohol, right? It's other things, it's drugs. But here's the alternative. While that alcohol or that substance, it will try to numb and make us less aware of reality. Here's the juxtaposition. The Holy Spirit will make us more aware of reality. Think about it. When the Holy Spirit comes in, when we're influenced by the Holy Spirit, one, we live completely changed lives, and the fruit of the Spirit coming out of that, which is awesome because we're now under the influence of the Holy Spirit, but also the Holy Spirit will make us more aware of God, more aware of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us, more aware of how he is working even in our mess, how he is working even in our trials and our struggles. He'll make us more aware of how alive we are, not less. He will make us more aware of God's grace and his goodness and his kindness. He will bring us to life more. And I love that. Because God wants us to be happy in him. Let me say that again. God wants us to be happy in him. You know the reason I sin? It's because I'm not happy in God. I'm actually not convinced God's good, so I go looking for good and other things. And I would say to you this morning, the engine and the motivation for the Christian life is the joy that we find in our God. That is not what I thought for most of my Christian life. You know what was driving much of my Christian life? And I'm guessing a lot of you in this room, it was driving your life, maybe still is. Guilt. Guilt. I better be the right person so that God will love me, so that people will think I'm a good person, so that I will fit into the religious community of people that I'm a part of. And while it does have power, and while it does have the ability to change some external behaviors, it's only God's grace that changes the heart. John Piper says that God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him. You know what drives transformation in the heart of the believer? Joy in Him. Psalm 16, 11. You reveal the path of life to me in your presence is abundant. Say it again. You reveal the path of life to me in your presence is abundant joy. Do you believe that there's abundant joy in God's presence? He goes on to say, in your right hand are eternal pleasures. Forever. Eternal pleasures. That's our God. God is not up there going, How can I make these people's lives more miserable? How can I make how can I ruin their life? Our God is a good, good father. And some of you don't believe that right now. Some of you don't believe he actually loves you. And he's actually for you. In his presence is the fullness of joy. When we live with an awareness that he is our joy, notice what he says in the passage. It's awesome. He says, we will not just don't get drunk with wine, which reads to which leads to reckless actions. Amen. But be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making music from the heart from your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for everything. And I love, by the way, he doesn't say it's going to sound good when it comes out, right? That's good, because some of you like probably not going to sound great when it comes out. Okay, maybe you should keep that to the shower. No. But whatever, whenever our hearts are stirred by God, we can't help. It is in us. We are hardwired to worship. We are hardwired to sing. We are hardwiredwired to celebrate. And the thing we were most designed to celebrate is God and His goodness. Giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. And so, which by the way, we're going to come back to that next time we get back into Ephesians. But when we find joy in our God, it will move us from where we are to where God has called us to be. We will grow. We will mature. We will obey. Following Jesus, living as a child of the light, it's not a have to kind of thing, right? It's not a forced thing. It's a gift. It's a privilege. It's a blessing to obey our God and to find the fullness of joy in Him. What if you don't feel like you actually measure up today? What if today you came and you're struggling with greed or sexual impurity, right? In some form, maybe some other form of impurity. What can we say today if you came to this place today and you know your behavior is not measuring up? And even maybe as we we list those words, you feel some heaviness on your heart. Well, let me proclaim the gospel to you today. He says that the Messiah loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Jesus died for your sin. And he died to forgive your sin. And today you can exchange the heaviness of the guilt that you have in your heart for the freedom and the forgiveness that God offers in Christ. You can do that. And what if you don't feel anything stirring in your heart? You hear all this, you're like, yeah, yeah, I know, I've heard this text before. I mean, I hope that's not the case, but maybe you're there and you're just like kind of indifferent to it. Maybe you're just like, I've heard this before, I'm callous, I'm like. Then I would say the words of verse 14b, which was actually a part of what we understood to be a hymn in the early church, where they would sing it to themselves, right? Because they were saying it to each other. Listen to what he says: Get up, sleeper, rise up from the dead, and the Messiah will shine on you. Some of us need to wake up. Let me exhort you to wake up to the grace of God. He is here, he is good, he loves you, he's for you. Abundant joy is available to you in his presence. Like, man, I pray we would be a people who are increasingly just experiencing and knowing, like Paul prayed earlier in Ephesians, like the the realities of God's love for us, the joy he brings. Um pray for us. God, I thank you for the people in this room who um you brought together today for your purpose. And and I'm praying that even in this moment, even in this brief time together, that God, you would you would remind us by your spirit who you are and who we are. God, we want to to imitate you. Jesus, we want to imitate your life of love. We want to live in such a way that it is a fragrant offering to you, God. A life of worship that literally, as we love our neighbors, as we love our coworkers, as we walk out in sexual purity, as we walk out in generosity instead of greed, that God, that you get the glory for it. That it just brings uh just a sweet fragrance to you, God. That God, we would we would be people of the light. We are light now. Help us to be wise today. God help us to walk with an increasing awareness of how much we need you. Yeah. God help us to be joyful. Celebrate you. You are so good. Amen. Um, let's uh let's wrap up our time together today over the next couple songs here, and just I I understand that the Christian the Christian life, the more I walk with Jesus, I don't base uh what I believe about God on how I feel. Because I my feelings come and go. And and I base it by faith on what God says. And what's great, what's awesome, is as I by faith believe truth, my feelings are changed. My feelings towards God are changed. My feelings towards others are changed. And so the truth today is we have an awesome God who sent his very own son to die on the cross for our sin, right? And we now are adopted into his family, and we get to live in the light. We get to become increasingly generous, truth-filled, loving people by his power at work in us, by his spirit. So wherever you are today, if you are not a believer, if you know, like, honestly, if you knew today was your last day on planet earth, and you have no idea if you're truly his child, my prayer is you wouldn't you wouldn't leave this place today until you talk to someone and said, I need to, I need to receive the gift of salvation and be confident that I'm actually God's child. That's a grace gift that's offered to you today. It's an invitation to you, okay? You're never gonna find the satisfaction, the joy, the significance that you're looking for in this world. It's not here. It's in Christ. If you are a Christ's follower and you again have fallen asleep at the wheels, let's ask God to wake us up today. To refresh us, to give us a new sense of awe and wonder. And um, one of the things we can simply do in that, it's as a child of God, is we can go to take communion. We have five tables set up, and when you go there, you remember Christ's body was broken for you. His blood was shed for you. Because he loves you that much. And if you need to confess sin, we're free to do that. If you need to just pray and ask the Lord to press in on anything, we can do that. And if you need somebody to pray for you, we'll have some people available at the back to pray for you. But let's let's not move quickly on to the next thing before we deal with deal with God, okay? Um let's do that together this morning.