Walk of Light

[0:00] Please take your Bibles out to Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5. Well, before COVID hit, this is where we were firmly entrenched.

[0:17] And I wanted to save the rest of the preaching of this passage or this book when we were together or are together.

[0:32] It's an incredible book. Just to give you guys a quick recap, letter written by Paul to the saints that meet at Ephesus. If you remember, Ephesus is considered the third largest Roman city in the empire.

[0:48] And the city was an amalgamation of pretty much any type of worship. However, out of all the pagan worships that happened there, there was also the temple of Artemis or the temple of Diana.

[1:06] It was said that this cult, the cult temple, they were pretty much the most fervent in their faith in spreading that faith throughout the Roman Empire.

[1:19] And it was also a city that was considered the friendliest to magic and mystical beliefs. Calling it a mystical city or a pagan city in the Roman Empire really doesn't say much because they were all that like that.

[1:35] But think of Las Vegas. Las Vegas stands out in America as, I don't know if you like Vegas, but it's a dirty city. It has got nice, bright, shining lights, but it's got a horrible, seedy underbelly where organized crime and a lot of horrible and ugly things that we don't like to talk about occur there.

[1:57] So one of my favorite newscasters says, when I have to go to Vegas, when I get home, I even wash the clothes I didn't wear. Right? Anyhow, it was that type of city in the empire.

[2:08] There was a lot of spectacle and amazement, but there was this underbelly. So here is Paul, and he's writing a letter to a church that he's visited several times.

[2:20] He's lived there. But one thing that's great that's going on in Ephesus is the gospel spreading. People are being saved. This church is growing. In fact, the churches that we read about in Revelation 2, we believe were planted all out of Ephesus.

[2:37] So these people not only receive this gospel, they're sending this gospel out. They want other people to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen? They're excited.

[2:48] Now this group, this new group is called a church. And this church is a new people. They have never existed before like this. Right? And what's interesting about this group of people is they're not known for their ethnic origin.

[3:03] They're not known to speak the same language. They're not known for having the same national identity. They're made up of slaves, free men, women, people of all nations.

[3:22] They're made up of Jews. They're made up of straight, living, never miss a synagogue meeting. They're made up of Jews who couldn't give a rip about the synagogue and are more interested in magic.

[3:34] They are non-practicing Jews, practicing Jews, Jews from Jerusalem, Jews who've never been to Jerusalem. Then it's made up of these Gentiles, magic-loving Gentiles, pagan-loving Gentiles, money-loving Gentiles, spiritually searching Gentiles.

[3:51] But now they are a one people, not a hybrid Jew, not a hybrid Gentile.

[4:04] They are now called saints, saints together. There is no distinction except they are saints, children of God.

[4:18] They have been born again. And they are one people. And they have been brought together because they placed their faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ.

[4:32] Exactly the same thing many of you have done. You have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, and God now calls you saint.

[4:45] So Paul writes them this letter. And it's about how to live as a Christian in this entirely pagan world. How to live as a people of faith in a world where there's just crazy faith, if we can call it a faith at all.

[5:05] Any similarities to today at all? Am I just speaking about a culture you have no idea about? Or is there some semblance of understanding in the words that I'm saying? Yes or no?

[5:15] Yes, right? He could have been writing that letter to us. So what we find in the first three chapters of Ephesians is Paul is laying down the work of the Trinity and how we're saved.

[5:28] He wants us to know the works that happened, how the works of the Father began in election in ages past to this time when Jesus Christ came and died on the cross as the ultimate sacrifice to us, and how the Holy Spirit sealed us for the Father to the time we're glorified.

[5:49] So it's rich and deep in theology and the doctrine of salvation. And the last three chapters, as we're finding, are what or how we are to live in this understanding.

[6:04] It is the now what. So I'm going to start reading here in chapter 5, verse 1, 2.

[6:17] Let's go to... I tell you the verse, but I can't even read it in my eyes. All right? So we're just going to keep going. All right. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

[6:38] But sexual immorality of all impurity or conscience, covetousness, must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness, no foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place.

[6:53] But instead, let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral and impure, who is covetous, that is an adulterer, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

[7:08] Let no one deceive you with empty words, but because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not become partners with them, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

[7:28] Walk as children of light. Let the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

[7:43] For it is shamelessly even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light.

[7:56] Therefore it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. It's intense.

[8:09] Let's take a look at verse one again. And what's interesting is Paul, and as we're going to see, chapter five of Ephesians is an exceptionally intense chapter.

[8:22] And he starts by building these foundations. So first, just verse one. Be, I urge you, this is in chapter four, sorry, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called.

[8:34] So you've been called, and there's a way to walk worthy in that call, and it's in humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another. Why? Because he wants us to eagerly, eagerly maintaining the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

[8:52] And what he's teaching them is how to walk like saints. So here, when we get to chapter five, he gives the believers, the Christians, the saints, the church, us, some instructions.

[9:04] Verse one, be imitators of God as beloved children. Now, what does that encompass? And in this text, if we've read, he's given us a pace to keep.

[9:16] He's giving us instructions how to walk. The first one that we preached, I preached way back in March, was how to walk in love. And what it meant to be thankful in the way that we live our life.

[9:30] Today, we're going to talk about the second commandment in verse eight, to walk as children of light. If you look down in your Bibles, verse 15, we're going to learn about walking in wisdom. And in verse 17, it says, to be filled with the spirit.

[9:45] We're going to be learning how to walk in the spirit. Now, as you know, as we've talked about before, Ephesians has walk all over this book. And it's important to understand the vernacular, what he means by that.

[9:59] When someone says, how is your walk? You're not talking about, well, my ankles kind of tweaked and I kind of walk with the hip or my hips kind of out of joint or anything like that.

[10:10] I got a quick pace. No, no. What a person's asking you in that time, what is your walk like? It's how's your life? What is your reputation? How do you conduct yourself as a person?

[10:26] So when he's talking about walk, he's talking about who you are. And what's interesting about this, the term walk is a deliberate action. It is a way in which you deliberately carry out your life.

[10:41] Now, I want you to see where Paul's going with this. Take a look at verse 22. There's a word there, wives. Verse 25, we see the word husbands.

[10:54] Chapter 6, verse 1, we see children. In verse 4, we're going to be talking about fathers, parents, mothers. Verse 5, chapter 6, bond servants.

[11:05] In verse 9, masters. These are our most basic identities in life. And where Paul is taking these instructions of how to live the life is he's taking it right into your home.

[11:24] All right? All these things that I'm talking about now, these are the things that you have to have in order before we start getting into your kitchen. You know what I talk about?

[11:34] You know what that term means to be getting into your kitchen? Getting into your face. I'm getting up right close. And that's what Paul is going to be doing to us in this passage or the next couple of sermons.

[11:49] He is getting right in on the deepest heart issues of our lives. But you have to understand certain things before we get there.

[12:01] We have to have the foundation. And now we have to have, I called it, the pace of life. The walk. The walk of love. The walk of light. The walk of wisdom. And the walk of the Spirit.

[12:13] If we're really going to understand. Because Paul doesn't go to the kitchen. No one builds a $100,000 kitchen in a $20,000 house. Right? So what Paul's going to do is we're going to build this house and then we're going to build a really good kitchen for that kitchen to exist in.

[12:32] So this morning, we're going to learn what Paul has to talk about when he talks about walking as a children of light. Check a look. Verse 8. Simple command.

[12:43] Walk as children of light. Let me ask you a question. As Christians, who are you?

[12:56] Who are you? This is something Paul has been pounding into your heads since chapter 1. As believers in Jesus Christ, you are children of God.

[13:09] Amen? When you were saved, that's why he's calling you a saint. We're saints, not sinners. We may sin, but God calls us saints.

[13:20] We are his chosen one. We are his beloved. So he's calling us the attention to, you need to walk like who you are. All right?

[13:31] So you are children of God if God is light. John 8, 12, Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

[13:46] Life of what? Light of life. If you accept me, you trust, put your faith in me. There was a whole breakdown about what Jesus meant in chapter 8.

[14:00] If you're familiar with church history, in chapter 8, when Jesus declares that he is the light of the world, it actually happened after the festivals of light.

[14:10] A massive Jewish festival. And I don't think I can actually explain clearly when out, but the amount of oil that they would burn and over the night as they would do their celebrations, they'd light these lights with oil and they would just light up the whole city in the middle of the night.

[14:29] And that was a huge Jewish festival. And everyone who was in Jerusalem for that festival could see the temple, the light coming out of the temple. And it was supposed to remind the people of the Shekinah glory.

[14:43] Remember God's Shekinah glory with Moses, right? Started during the day. What would we see? A cloud, pillar of cloud. So all the Jews were following when they were in the wilderness could always see that pillar of cloud.

[14:58] But at night, what would they see? A pillar of fire. So they always knew God was with them. So when Jesus Christ says, I am the light, guess what he's saying?

[15:11] I am the Shekinah glory. I am the visible God come here on earth. You see me, you see God. So this is what he's reminding them when he says that.

[15:22] And guess what? when God is calling us children of light, let that sink in.

[15:38] Children of God. We are to reflect the glory of God in this world. All right?

[15:49] And see where it goes with me because he's going to teach us how to do that. So we're born of God. So here, he gives the, reading from my old note. So Paul is not making them do something that is impossible.

[16:05] He's not giving us instructions. If you do these things, you become a child of light. No, no, no. He's starting the other way. Because you're a child of light, you will do certain things.

[16:16] All right? He's not asking them anything that will make them. And what I mean is he's not, they are not being asked to do something that they cannot do.

[16:28] All right? This isn't instructions for super Christians. These aren't instructions for, hey, Christians, you're coming in, you got to get 20 years under your belt before you even start doing the things that I'm talking to.

[16:41] In fact, he breaks it down quite clearly what we're supposed to be. So let's take a look at verse 8. He says, for at one time you were darkness.

[16:56] Now, I know, I want you to note what he doesn't say. He does not say at once you did dark things. He does not say that at a time you lived a dark life.

[17:10] Nor does he say that you had dark thoughts. He's much more gentle than that. He says, you were darkness.

[17:26] See, there's only two options. You were either a child of the light or a child of darkness. There is no such thing as the child of shade.

[17:41] I'm the child of gray or I'm the child of neutrality. Just call me Mr. Switzerland. That doesn't exist. There's no haziness.

[17:55] The fact is, what he's saying here is we were all darkness. We did not grow out of darkness. We did not think our way out of darkness.

[18:08] We didn't even pray our way out of darkness. In fact, there's no amount of good thoughts, good actions, good attitudes that could get us out of the darkness.

[18:20] Why? Because when you're in darkness, what are you? You're blind. You're like in a deep, dark mind and you can't see it's pitch black.

[18:32] Someone tells you to get out on your own. You don't know if you're going up or down. Left or right. There is no way out. Why? But because you're blind, you only do what you know how to do and that is to serve self.

[18:51] So how did we get out of that darkness? Paul tells us so clearly in Colossians 1.13, God delivered us from the domain of darkness and transformed us to the kingdom of his beloved son.

[19:08] It's quite simple. God reaches in, grabs us, pick us up, puts it in this place of light we now see, we now believe. Notice what the first action is? God has to do the moving.

[19:21] He's got to take us out of that darkness because when we're in that darkness, we can't see anything, we can't think anything but darkness. It's just all darkness and the thing is, we think it's normal, right?

[19:32] When we were there until God actually knocked on our door, how many of you lived your lives thinking you were actually looking for God? You were doing the only thing you knew how to do and some of you were quite happy doing it until one day, God picked you up, lifted you up, put you into his kingdom of light and then you saw, oh, my thoughts really aren't all that good.

[20:04] My intentions really aren't all that great. I'm really not that much loving of a person. So God does that. That's the first action. So he reaches in your life, picks you up, puts you there and you're now into his kingdom.

[20:18] But I want you to pay attention to verse eight once again. What is the action? You were. Past tense. You are no longer.

[20:30] You're not there anymore. You will never go back. Nobody can take you back from Jesus Christ. You're in the domain of light forever.

[20:45] Satan can't come into that light and take you back. You're there. You're in a great place. So he's talking to people and he says, hey, you past tense.

[20:57] You are no longer. You are formerly. It is no longer who you are. So when he's talking about these pagans who practice magic and practice all sorts and we're going to talk about they did deeds that wouldn't even be appropriate to talk about in the day.

[21:20] Right? It was the stuff at darkness. It was so wrong. You don't live there anymore. But you did.

[21:32] Now you don't. 1 Peter sums it up quite well. 1 Peter 2 and 9. And let this be an encouragement to you. If there is a time that you were doubting your salvation, you were doubting where you are with God, he sums it up so good.

[21:45] But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of people for his own possession. That's God.

[21:56] That you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Amen? That's an awesome place to be.

[22:11] You are a new people, a new being. You have new thoughts, new actions. You are God's new people. Saints.

[22:23] So when he's talking to them about what does it mean to walk as children of light, let's continue in verse 8. And I want you to ignore the parenthesis that occurs in verse 9 for a second.

[22:36] It just simply says, walk as children of light and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Try to discern. This is kind of an interesting commandment, right?

[22:48] We're almost expecting do these five things. But he's saying try to discern. A couple things we need to understand. First of all, this is actually an action.

[23:01] Right? We do not drift in what is pleasing to the Lord. Did you know that? I'm a Christian. I just don't drift to what is pleasing. I actually have to try to figure it out.

[23:14] We don't get there automatically. Just because I'm a Christian, I'm indwelt by the Holy Spirit. I was just reading this article the other day. It was actually a little bit of a theological debate.

[23:25] And someone said, well, I just trust the Spirit in me to tell me. I don't need my Bible. Well, what Spirit are you trusting? I know you think it's the Holy Spirit.

[23:38] But I can guarantee you there is books and books and books and books and books written through history about people who thought they were doing what was right but were clearly doing things wrong that were displeasing to God.

[23:49] And they did it with absolute sincerity and love. Perhaps there's even some of you here today that lived like that. So he's telling us it's an action.

[24:08] All right. How many of you guys and I know for I know the Mitchells will get a hold of this and some of you guys who've got younger kids will understand this at all.

[24:22] How many of you guys have heard about like those Disney movies? You guys heard of Disney movies? They're popular in your culture? They you ever remember those stories about the girl who all of a sudden finds out she's a princess?

[24:39] You know, they do some like DNA testing or something like that and all of a sudden she's this princess and I don't know. Have anybody seen those shows? See, I haven't but my wife tells me they do exist.

[24:51] Right? And in this story it's some girl I don't know lives in New York or lives in some other kind of culture and she's chewing gum really loud and talks a lot and they find out all right you're now a princess.

[25:03] Guess what? You now need to learn how to what? Act like a princess. Right? So the whole show is a little bit of the comedy about getting this young girl to act in a way that accords with who she is.

[25:19] Teaching her to be this princess. Well, there's some things she needs to learn to don't do and there's things she learns to do.

[25:33] That's the same kind of thing with us. Once we're transferred to this kingdom of light it's not as if we have been endowed with all knowledge of how to understand how are we supposed to act?

[25:45] What am I supposed to say? What am I supposed to not say? Some things kind of come natural but some things do not come natural. So let's start with the don't.

[25:57] I want to talk about some of the don't that Paul brings out to us not to do. So verse just take a look at verse 11. It says take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them.

[26:12] I think we get that, right? Don't do the bad things that I used to do. I really don't need to blow that up. We already kind of know that. But I want you to go back to verse 6 of this chapter.

[26:27] It says let no one deceive you with empty words because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

[26:39] therefore do not become partners with them. Alright? I want you to understand we did bad things and guess what?

[26:53] We hung out with bad people, right? Is that not what we did? We were in darkness. We were hanging out with people of darkness. Notice it says therefore do not become partners with them.

[27:09] Notice it does not say ignore them. It doesn't say have nothing to do with them. It does not say do not be friends with them.

[27:21] It does not say do not love them. It does not say do not care from them. It actually doesn't even say run away from all people of darkness and actually create a city called Children of Light and only let those people in the city.

[27:37] That's actually not what the text says. It uses the word partner. I think we know what the word partner is. It's almost like a legal we're legally partaking in the same action to accomplish the same goal, right?

[27:55] If I go into a business I'm going to partner with someone because we're going to sell fat free yogurt to make as much money as we want and it's really not going to be fat free but it tastes better but we're going to tell people that.

[28:11] You guys who watch TV will know exactly what I'm talking about. But anyway, so you're making a deal with someone. Now take a look at this word fellow to define partakers to call them a fellow partaker.

[28:28] If you go up to Ephesians 3.6 it says this, this mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

[28:45] What he's saying is using that same word, Gentiles and Jews are now partners together with the same goal, actually they become one group through Jesus Christ to practice the gospel together.

[29:01] Okay, you're with me on that? You understand what a partner means? They're joint partakers. They're bonding together to accomplish the same goal.

[29:13] And our goal is that to the glory of Jesus Christ. Amen? That is what we're being called to do. Now this is impossible for someone who is of darkness to do it with someone of light.

[29:28] And that's why Paul gives us this heavy message in 2 Corinthians 6.14. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

[29:40] For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial?

[29:52] Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God.

[30:04] Remember in that century, what does it mean to be unequally yoked? And we use this often for Christian relationships and marriage, right? We talk about that. If someone is a believer and wants to marry an unbeliever, we as a leadership will do everything that we can to dissuade them because it will be an unequal matching in their lives.

[30:24] And think of an oxen, right? They got to wear that big, I don't even know, I can't think of the name anymore. Yoke, thank you.

[30:35] And, you know, if you had a big oxen and a little oxen, the big oxen's going to pull that. Everything is going to go out of whack. Anybody ever do a three-legged race? Right?

[30:47] Joey knows what I'm talking about. Sunday school picnic, Bethel Gospel Chapel North Bay, every year three-legged race. It took me about three years to figure out the secret to winning the race.

[30:58] Get someone who's your same height. That's what you needed. You just couldn't do it with someone bigger or smaller. You want to be evenly matched. And you want to be matched. What he's talking about here is Jesus Christ.

[31:12] You want to be matched with the light. There are different masters. Different masters can't serve the same principles.

[31:24] when you became a Christian, what's some of the things that you're going to do? Do you guys like Family Feud? Do you guys like Family Feud?

[31:35] You don't even know what Family Feud is? Come on. Family Feud? You grew up with a TV? Did you live in Iraq? What? All right. Remember Family Feud. They give you a question. Here's the question for you.

[31:46] Top six things you did as Christian. Top six things you gave up when you first became a Christian. Top six answers on the board. Number one, quit swearing.

[31:57] Right? You're going to make a commitment to quit swearing. Number two, you're going to quit drinking or doing drugs. Right? Number two. Number three, I'm going to dress modestly. Right? You're going to change your dress the way you dress.

[32:10] That's going to be the other one. What else? I'm going to get rid of my rock music. Right? That's the other big thing. Many people lament. I used to use the term burning their albums, but today would just be breaking their CDs.

[32:24] Today would be deleting their computer. You'd quit watching movies would be number five. And the sixth top answer on the board, give up your friends.

[32:37] Who's been there? Right? You gave up friends. Why? Because you believed that said no longer be friends with darkness.

[32:49] But Paul was saying actually no longer be partners with darkness. Let's take a look at what this matter is. The truth of the matter is we do one of two things when we're first saved.

[33:02] One, we run away and join a commune. Right? We just hang with those Christians at church. We go to church eight days a week and we make no time for anybody that's an unbeliever.

[33:15] Or you take a look at verse 11 to heart. Notice it says expose them. Expose them. So what you do is you start going on Facebook and you send them every YouTube video of every preacher of Paul Washer or John MacArthur or John Piper you can find.

[33:33] Right? You just start inundating all your friends with all these sermons. Or you make Christian little pictures and you just keep sending it to them. Right?

[33:45] That's all you do. And you really want them to get saved so you preach at them, you send them articles, you definitely make sure they're sinners bound to hell.

[33:56] In fact, you might even call your mom queen of darkness. Right? You're really taking it literally. You might even call your old drinking buddies you bunch of scallywags.

[34:08] Right? See, what we do is we start to think that that word expose them means to judge them. So we judge them. They're either good or bad.

[34:19] We judge them as bad. So we're going to either send them stuff to make them feel even more bad or we're just going to run away and let them live in ignorance.

[34:33] Let me, does anybody relate to any of that what I'm talking about? Am I really out in another world in Ontario and that never happened here in BC? Right? We all did it, right? How'd it work for us?

[34:49] Right? How many of those people all came and we have these loving respectful friendships and how many of them came to the Lord through that? Sometimes, but more often than not, I was thinking how many Christmas cards do we get?

[35:06] Dear old friend, thank you for pointing out that I am a wonderful, horrible thief and drug addict I am. And that I'm a total embarrassment to everybody in our lives, especially to my mom and dad.

[35:21] I cannot wait to see you at Christmas so you can tell me all about Jesus and how much you love me. We don't get those Christmas cards from those people, right? chances are we don't hear very much from them at all because we thought our call was to expose them.

[35:46] Or if we don't have a lot of friends, we start hating this filthy dark culture. We start to pick at the booze store. We start a political party called the moral majority and we try to force Christian values on people.

[36:00] And then sometimes we even make demands of our co-workers or friends to quit swearing around me. I'm a Christian now. Use a clean mouth. I remember I was at this golf tournament just a couple years ago.

[36:12] Some guys brought me in. There's about, I don't know, 30, 40 guys. And as soon as they found out I was the pastor, no one wanted to golf with me.

[36:23] Because everyone knows nobody swears more than a golfer than maybe a sailor, right? Nobody wanted to be. Then finally someone said, are you kidding? I want to have a blessed game and jumped in the cart with me.

[36:35] But it's true, right? We just make people uncomfortable sometimes. Now let me ask you this question. What was Jesus like around the tax collectors?

[36:50] What was Jesus like around the prostitutes? How was Jesus around the broken and the oppressed? You see, this is the first do that I want to talk about.

[37:06] First don't is don't be partners. But the first do is you want to expose them to the light of Jesus Christ. You guys remember in Mark, Matthew gets saved and the first thing he does, he holds a party and he invites all his tax collecting and prostitute friends.

[37:25] he wants them to meet Jesus. I'm betting Jesus didn't judge them.

[37:40] Let me ask you this. How would you like yourself as a judge over you? If you think of yourself going back to a non-Christian, how would you feel if you judged you?

[37:53] Jesus has this interesting thing he says in the high priestly prayer, the last prayer in the garden of Gethsemane before he goes to the cross.

[38:07] He prays for us. And what's interesting, he doesn't pray that God would remove us from this world. He prays that he would keep us from the evil one.

[38:23] See, the point is, God wants us here. God wants us in the lives that we have. We believe in the sovereignty of God.

[38:33] He wants you to have the mom that you have and the dad that you have. He wants you to have the co-workers that you have. He wants you to have the neighbor that you have.

[38:44] He wants you to have the same interest, whether it's art or sports. God created you as an individual, and he wants you to have those people in your lives.

[39:00] You see, because we are children of light, we are to what? Reflect the light of Christ in they are. Our role is not to remind people how lost they are, how dark they are, how blind they are.

[39:18] some of us feel called to judge. But like I said, would you like to be judged by you? But this dark, horrible, wicked culture is the same dark, horrible, wicked culture that Christ died for.

[39:37] He came to save the broken, amen? He came to save the lost. He came to save those who were darkness. In fact, Jesus didn't hate them.

[39:49] What did he do? He wept over them. Father, forgive them for what they do not know they do. We learn last week as he was looking over Jerusalem, he did not curse them, but he wept over them.

[40:09] Are you willing to weep over the lost dark, hell-bound friends and family that you have? Or do you just they got my YouTube video.

[40:26] They got that sermon I sent. It was this great illustration by an 18th century preacher. He says, if Jesus is the sun, we are to be the brightest moon in the sky.

[40:42] Because we all know the sun has no light of its own, but it simply reflects the light of our king. Amen? And yes, sometimes we sin, we cloud it up, sometimes we're far away as the moon is far away, but sometimes, you know what I'm talking about, that moon is so big in the sky and it lights up the night that makes you think it's day.

[41:06] you see that word expose that he's using there, it says it's not talking about exposing people. Paul is making reference to exposing their deeds.

[41:21] Let your light expose them. Think about what it would be like to shop in the first century, right? There's this merchant, he's got a tent, and he wants to sell you some vase or vase, whatever which way you prefer, and you're kind of looking at it.

[41:37] You know what to do? You actually take it out from underneath the tent, and you're going to go look into the sun, right? You want that light to be fully exposed on that vase you're supposed to buy.

[41:51] You want to make sure there's no cracks, because that's what light does, is exposes the cracks. So how do we do this?

[42:02] Well, take a look at verse nine. For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.

[42:14] You see, the good that he's talking here is moral excellence, living to the greater good of the other. So when we live like that as children of light for good, when we live for righteousness or right, that is a consistent, walk of our faith and we pursue what God wants us to pursue and we pursue the things of God and not of the world, whether it be how we raise our family, right?

[42:42] Because that's where we're going. Paul's taking us into the family where we work. He's going to be taking us out where life is worked. heart. And it says what is true means what is of God.

[42:57] How you live your life will be light into the darkness. Okay, do you know what I mean by that? Your friend, first thing that I noticed, I remember at university, the one thing that I always get comment on, and it was weird, is the swearing thing.

[43:14] I just didn't swear. And people would notice this all the time. I didn't notice it. I didn't think about it. I'd be in a study group. You don't swear. Okay. But it would stand out in a culture where everybody's swearing all the time.

[43:29] I just really didn't make a big deal of it. I'd never ask anybody not to swear. That was their own business. They wanted to talk the way they talked. That's it. But they know, right?

[43:41] As we are living for truth, we are living for God, it is an automatically light into their lives.

[43:54] Verse 12, for it is shameful even to speak of the things they do in secret. I know the story of a pastor and his wife.

[44:05] They took over this church. And one of the big things that really happened was a lot of drinking. You could show up. He used to talk about the worship. You could smell the alcohol. He would go to the wedding parties.

[44:16] People would be just overly drunk. The stories about the bachelor parties and bachelorette groupings was all alcohol all the time.

[44:27] Just shameful. And he said he never said a word. He said him and his wife who did not have a problem with drinking just made the decision that they were never going to drink.

[44:38] And by just not drinking within six months, there was no other alcohol ever talked about in that church again. All it took was one family being willing to follow after Christ in this context, didn't have to say a word, and everybody kind of got in line.

[44:57] Why? Because they know it's wrong. You don't have to tell a prostitute it's wrong what she's doing. she's already feeling deep sense of shame and brokenness.

[45:13] That's why she's doing it. I remember at university just a girl who got saved out of a very loose life and just asking her what was her thinking.

[45:26] She says, I just wanted love. It's true. I believe her. She just wanted love. But that's what blind people in a dark place look for. It's not wrong what she was looking for.

[45:41] The way she went about it was wrong. And I praise God that she found it in Jesus Christ and her marriage to a godly man. You guys know who are in business when you look at girls in the eyes and you don't check them out.

[46:00] There's a different respect for you at work. When you're fair with your dealings with people, when you are respectful, when you treat your boss correctly, it will either shame people or bring people closer to you.

[46:21] I really believe as we get into Ephesians, the biggest witnesses we have is our families. And I want to get into something right now. It's not our perfect families.

[46:32] right? Most of us do not come from perfect families that had perfect moms and perfect dads who loved us perfectly and we're perfect kids and we now have our kids and we're raising them perfect.

[46:47] That's not what he's going to be talking about. The church has somehow created this other entity that somehow makes people come from broken families feel like they're second-rate Christians.

[47:07] But that's not it. It's how we respond to the obedience and love of Christ and how we treat others despite coming from bad dads who beat us, mothers who neglected us, children who did not honor us, and sometimes even us, we were broken when we were in darkness when we fathered and mothered our kids.

[47:31] But we're going to be learning about what it is, the grace of God which surpasses all things, and why this world looks in to see how we live this life in light of Christ's word.

[47:52] You guys have heard the stories, right? People have come up to you. Are you one of those? What? Born again.

[48:03] Are you one of those? Anybody ever been asked that question? Just by virtue how you're loving them, caring them. Being light, exposing them to the light of Jesus Christ to them.

[48:17] Verse 13. It says, but when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. people, how else can someone in the deepest throes of darkness ever come to know Jesus Christ if you don't bring light to them?

[48:41] Why do you think Jesus Christ has those parables? Don't hide your light, right? We all know the story. This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine, right?

[48:52] Don't put it under a bushel. Right? We're supposed to let it shine. So what happens when people are exposed to Jesus?

[49:07] I mean the real Jesus. Fact is, you may be mocked, you may be avoided, they might not invite you to the Thanksgiving dinner anymore.

[49:18] They might feel weird around you but Jesus Christ makes it clear, it's not you, it's me. He tells us that. It's not you, it's me.

[49:30] Galatians, or 1 Peter 4, 3 says, for the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

[49:43] With respect to this, they are surprised. When you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery. Just think of that word, eh? When they're surprised that you don't want in anymore.

[49:55] And what do they do? And they malign you. But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead.

[50:08] That though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does. If you don't shine that light, they are going to be dark forever.

[50:26] But to the one God is calling, to the one who might be searching, to the one who might be convicting, you might get that call.

[50:39] hey, can I have a lunch with you? Maybe coffee. I need to ask you something.

[50:51] I need to know more about how you love your kids. It's different than the way my kids respond to me. you don't talk about debt.

[51:06] Tell me about this God that you serve that, and you give money away. How does that work? And hopefully it will lead to a conversation.

[51:19] Tell me about this faith in Jesus Christ that you have. You see, this is why Jesus died. Jesus didn't die for the righteous, right?

[51:31] He died for the unrighteous. Jesus died to redeem our brokenness, blindness, stupidity, and foolishness. Notice of how he ends verse 14 of this section.

[51:51] Therefore it says, awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead. And Christ will shine on you. Walk as children of light.

[52:04] Let me pray. Father, sometimes when I think of my life, I look at all the mistakes and the stupid things that I've done, and I wonder why you call me.

[52:16] Father, I'm filled with embarrassment. Sometimes I'm embarrassed to call people that I sinned against in my stupidity, in my darkness, in my zealousness to know you or want them to know you.

[52:31] I said and did stupid things. Here's the great thing. You're such a forgiving God. You allow our dumbiness to become your glory.

[52:43] We've got friends and family that we know that have been saved despite us not having the right words or doing the wrong things. grace. Your grace is so amazing.

[52:56] But Father, as we learn what it is to walk in light, we are to shine your light. We are to be the light, not to ignore, not to just huddle with a whole bunch of other people of light.

[53:10] We're not supposed to be partners with darkness, but share the truth that freed us from our darkness. So Lord, Heavenly Father, it's kind of a heavy message in a lot of ways, and I think as Paul uses that to lead us into our family, it's overwhelming.

[53:37] I think as we try to struggle with our own sin, we're sometimes reminded of the sin that's been done to us, whether it's through our brothers or sisters, pastors, friends, parents, moms, dads, grandparents.

[53:54] Sometimes they screw us up with their teaching about our identity without us first understanding that we are children of God. We are yours now. There's so much to say, but there's going to be plenty of time to say it.

[54:10] Lord, I just ask that those here in this church would be praying to prepare their hearts for the teaching that's coming. Maybe you help them forgive.

[54:26] Help us release things from the past. I'm so thankful that you tell us in verse 8 that we were darkness.

[54:37] We're no longer darkness. It's not who we are anymore. We're part of a holy nation. A nation that's been set apart to be used by you.

[54:54] Father, I pray that you work in the hearts of the saints that are here in this church. That they would be desirous to take this next step.

[55:07] To be obedient. And to live what is good, right, and true. We ask these things in your most gracious and holy name. Amen.

[55:19] in.