Good morning again to worship.
I'm Jeff Simpson, I'm one of the pastors here.
Let me extend a warm welcome,
especially if you're new and joining us for the first time.
We'd love to meet you after the service.
We'll be towards the front on the steps
and we'd love to get to know you and hear your story.
The past several weeks,
the lectionary has taken us through the book of Ephesians.
It's this letter that St. Paul wrote
to this church in Ephesus.
And this morning, the lectionary brings us
to the first half of Ephesians chapter five.
And since we're in the latter half of this letter,
let's briefly just review what has come before in this letter.
In the first half of the book of Ephesians,
Paul unpacks what the gospel message is
and what happens to those who believe the gospel.
In Jesus, we have been redeemed, we've been forgiven,
we've been adopted as God's children,
we've been filled with the Holy Spirit,
united to Christ, seated at God's right hand,
and given an eternal inheritance.
That's Ephesians chapter one.
That though we were dead in our trespasses and sins,
God rescued us, made us alive in Christ,
saved us by grace through faith, not by works,
and has made us fellow citizens of his kingdom
and members of his household together with a family
from all the nations on earth.
That's Ephesians chapter two.
And then Paul spends chapter three praying that the Ephesians
would have the spiritual power to comprehend all of this,
not just that they would get it on an intellectual level,
but that they would have a deep experience
of the incredible riches of God's love for them.
So Ephesians chapter one through three
basically is about here's what Christ has done for you,
here's what the gospel is,
and here's who you are now, here is your new identity
based on what Christ has done for you.
And then in Ephesians four through six,
the focus is basically given who Christ is
and given what he's done for you,
given your new identity in him,
here is now how we live into that identity.
Here's how we practically live the Christian life.
That's the structure of the book of Ephesians.
And so as we come to the beginning of Ephesians chapter five,
we see that it's the continuation
of what Paul is talking about in chapter four.
It's about how to practically live the Christian life,
how to practically live out our identity in Christ
as adopted sons and daughters.
And so that's what we're gonna look at this morning.
We're gonna look at two images that Paul gives us
for what it means to practically live out the Christian life
that are centered on this theme of walking in love.
Walking in love is one of the main themes
of the Christian life.
And we're gonna look at walking in love
as beloved children and walking in love
as God's holy people.
Walking in love as God's beloved children
and walking in love as God's holy people.
That's what we're gonna look at this morning.
So first of all, let's look at walking in love
as God's beloved children.
In verses one and two, Paul says,
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.
Throughout the Old Testament,
the image of walking is an image
that meant to refer to your whole life,
every aspect of your life.
In Genesis 17, God tells Abraham,
Abraham, walk before me and be blameless.
In other words, live your whole life,
live every aspect of your life in obedience to me.
And walking is a helpful image
not only because it involves our whole life,
but because it involves purpose.
It involves direction.
It involves a destination and a goal.
So what is the destination?
What is the goal?
What is the direction of the Christian life?
Well, Paul says here, verses one and two,
it's to imitate God.
It's to become like God by walking in love,
to love God and love others
in the same way that Christ loved us
by giving himself up for us and sacrificing himself.
And we actually remind ourselves of this truth
every week in worship,
where we do the summary of the law.
We're to love God with everything that we have
and we're to love our neighbors as ourselves.
There's lots of things that we're supposed to learn and do
in order to grow as a Christian.
But this is the destination.
This is the goal, to become like God
by learning to love like God.
And we're to walk in love as people
who are already beloved.
And the order of this, the sequence of this
is absolutely crucial to understand in scripture,
in the Christian life, the indicatives
always empower the imperatives.
What is true about us in Christ
fuels what we're to do.
What God has done for us
motivates what we're to do for him.
God doesn't love us because we obey.
We obey because we are already loved in Christ.
And if you've never heard the Christian life
talk about this way,
it is absolutely crucial and essential
that you get this.
Because it's completely different
from every other religion or philosophy.
If you feel like this is something
that you've heard a million times,
well, that's good.
Because you need to hear it another million times.
Because this is the center,
it's the core of how we grow as a Christian.
It's critical to understand
that obedience in the Christian life
isn't about becoming something
that we're not yet.
Growing as a Christian
isn't about becoming somebody
that we hope to be in the future.
No, it's actually about becoming more and more
of who we already are in Christ.
Let me say that again.
It's about becoming more and more
of who we already are in Christ by grace.
It's easy, I think,
to think of the Christian life
or obedience as a Christian
as over time depositing money
into our bank account
and seeing our bank account
grow slowly over time.
A little prayer here,
it's a deposit.
Attend church,
that's a deposit.
Serve in kids ministry,
that's a big deposit, right?
It's easy to think about the Christian life
as depositing into our bank account.
But that's the opposite
of what the Christian life is.
No, rather,
obedience as a Christian
is the reverse.
It's about learning
to withdraw funds
from a trust fund
that you've inherited
that has $100 billion.
That's more what obedience
in the Christian life is.
We become,
we learn to live into our identity.
We become more and more
of who we already are in Christ.
We learn to experience
the privileges
and the inheritance that we have
that's already ours.
We learn to experience
those privileges
at a deeper level.
That's what it means
to grow and obey Christ.
Grace empowers obedience.
What God has done for us
motivates what we're to do for him.
And so what this means,
based on verses one and two,
is that much of the Christian life
involves coming back
again and again and again
to our identity in Christ
as beloved sons and daughters.
It means asking ourselves,
do I really believe
that God loves me
as much as he says he does
in his word?
And I think if we're honest,
I think a lot of us would say,
yeah, yeah, yeah.
I know God loves me.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I've heard that a million times.
God loves me.
Great.
But do you?
Really?
Do you really understand
on an experiential level
what a beloved son you are?
Do you really understand
on an experiential level
what a beloved daughter you are,
that he delights in you,
that he feels great affection towards you,
that he likes you,
that as Zephaniah 3 says,
that he rejoices over you
with loud singing,
that if you're a parent,
that the amount of love
and delight you feel for your kids
is just a small shadow
of how God feels towards you.
I think if we're honest,
I think we all struggle to believe
that God really loves us like this
as much as his word says it.
If I'm honest,
this is certainly
one of my greatest struggles
in my Christian life.
I think that many of us
are so loaded down
with shame
and perfectionism
and even self-criticism
and self-hatred.
For many of us,
the love of God
is more of an abstract
theological doctrine
than an experiential reality.
And this is why
if you go back two chapters
to chapter three,
this is why Paul is praying
that they would have
spiritual power
to know the depths
of God's love for them
because experiencing
the love of God
isn't just about
intellectual insight.
It requires
the power of the Spirit.
When is the last time
that you asked God
for a deeper experience
of his love?
That the Holy Spirit
would so fill your heart
with love
that you would know
in your soul
that you belong to him,
that you're secure,
that you're his child,
that you are the object
of his affection,
that he delights in you.
Maybe this is something
that you need to receive
prayer for today.
Maybe after you receive communion,
ask somebody over here
to come and pray this over you.
Whatever area of your heart
fails to understand
God's love for you,
maybe this is something
you need to spend time
praying with somebody
about this week.
It's not just about
intellectual insight.
We actually need the power
of the Spirit to get this.
And don't miss the sequence.
The sequence here
is so important.
It's as beloved children
walk in love.
As Christ loved us
and gave himself up for us,
walk in love.
So that's the first thing
we see in this passage,
that we're to walk in love
as God's beloved children.
But the second image
that Paul gives us here
is that we're to walk in love
as God's holy people.
As God's holy people.
The reason why it's important
to follow this sequence,
this order,
that the indicatives
empower the imperatives,
that grace empowers obedience,
that what is true
informs what we're to do,
is that learning to walk in love
involves confronting
the darkness within.
sin.
It involves confronting
the sin that dwells in us.
It involves what Paul calls
in chapter 4, verse 22,
taking off the old self.
If we're to walk in love
towards our destination
as Christians,
to imitate God,
to be like him,
then there are some things in us
that need to be put to death.
Christians across the ages
have called this
mortifying the flesh
or mortifying the flesh.
It's a helpful term.
The word mortify
means to put to death.
And that's what we have to do
to our sin.
We have to put it to death.
This is what Paul
is addressing
in verses 3 and 4
when he says,
but among you
there must not even be a hint
of sexual immorality
or of any kind of impurity
or of greed
because these are improper
for God's holy people.
Nor should there be obscenity
or foolish talk
or coarse joking
which are out of place
but rather thanksgiving.
And I think there's,
for the average person,
I think this is actually
the kind of thing
that people expect to hear
when they hear about
what it means
to be a Christian.
Basically,
someone sort of wagging
their finger at you
and giving you a list
of things that you can't do.
You gotta be holy.
No sexual immorality.
No greed.
Stop making coarse jokes.
Right?
This is what people
expect to hear
about this is what it means
to be a Christian.
But if you,
if that is how you read
these verses,
number one,
you've clearly not read
the two verses before
and you've also not read
Ephesians chapter 1 through 4.
Paul isn't wagging his finger
telling people
to be more holy.
No,
he actually says the opposite.
What does he say in verse 3?
These things are improper
for God's holy people.
He's saying,
because of who you are
in Christ,
what?
You are holy.
You are holy
because of what
Christ did for you
and because you,
by the Spirit,
are united
to him.
And that is so crucial.
Because what this means
is that pursuing holiness
and obedience,
confronting our sin,
mortifying the flesh,
taking off the old self
isn't about just avoiding
some checklist
of bad behaviors.
No,
it's about becoming
more and more
of who we already are
in Christ,
of God's holy people.
And doing that means
learning to walk in love.
Putting our sin to death
and pursuing holiness
is about increasing
our capacity
for love.
Your soul
is like a balloon.
Think of your soul
like a balloon.
When you first believe
the gospel,
God fills you
with his Spirit.
He fills you
with his life
like a balloon
fills with air.
And that balloon
always has air in it,
but it can be stretched,
it can grow.
Its capacity for air
can grow.
And that's the Christian life.
We've been filled
with God's love
through his Spirit.
And God never lets us go,
but God wants us
to stretch our hearts.
He wants us
to stretch our souls
to experience
more of his life,
more of his love.
And this, by the way,
is what all the spiritual
disciplines are for.
Whether it's prayer
or reading scripture
or worship
or fasting
or confessing our sins,
what we're doing
is we're opening ourselves
up to the work
of the Spirit.
And we're asking
the Spirit
to stretch
the balloon
balloons of our hearts
to increase
our capacity for love,
to both receive
God's love
and to love others.
And this informs
how we're to think
about this list
of things
that Paul tells us
we should avoid.
If pursuing holiness
is about becoming
more and more
of who we already are
in Christ,
about his beloved people,
his holy people,
if pursuing holiness
is about increasing
our capacity
to love,
then this frames
how we're to think
about what it means
to confront our sin.
This list,
sexual immorality,
impurity,
greed,
foolish talk,
crude joking,
what do all of these things
have in common?
Well, seen in light
of this text,
what they have
all in common
is that they are
ways that we live
more like orphans
than as beloved
sons and daughters.
Instead of looking
to our Father
to meet our needs
and trusting in his love
and his provision,
we seek to meet
our needs elsewhere.
Sin is any time
we seek to meet
a legitimate need
in an illegitimate way.
Sin is any time
we seek to meet
a legitimate,
holy,
God-given need
in an illegitimate way.
And so let's think
about a few
of these examples.
Sexual immorality,
greed,
coarse choking.
All of these
are ways
that we have
an orphan mentality.
First of all,
let's look at sexual morality.
I know that
as soon as we mention this,
as soon as a pastor
mentions this
in a sermon,
you know,
a lot of people
roll their eyes
and just kind of check out.
They're like,
yeah, yeah, yeah,
I've heard all this before.
I don't want to hear it.
And I'm not here
to avoid this topic
because it's in the text,
but I am here
to reframe it for you.
The reason why
the Bible takes
sexual immorality
so seriously
is actually
what comes later
in Ephesians chapter 5,
that our bodies
reveal a sacred mystery.
And that mystery
is the marriage
of Christ in the church.
The union of husband
and wife reveals
the heart of the gospel,
the love story
between God and humanity
where we as the church,
as Christ's bride,
are united
to our bridegroom
in covenant relationship.
An eternal life-giving
relationship
of divine love.
Often when I'm doing
premarital counseling
for couples
who are getting married,
I will encourage them
to think about the words
of Jesus
in the Eucharist.
This is my body
which is given for you.
This is my blood
which is shed for you.
And I encourage them
to think about
how these are
the words
of a bridegroom
speaking to his
beloved bride.
These are covenantal
marriage vows.
The Eucharist
is where the bride
communes with the bridegroom
this side of heaven.
It's this preview
of the great marriage
supper of the Lamb
where Christ will unite
all things in heaven
and on earth.
Ephesians 1 verse 10.
And I realize
if you're here this morning
and you're not a Christian,
you may not buy that story.
But if it's true,
what it means
is that God
has made you
with an infinite longing
for love and intimacy
that goes far beyond sex.
A love and intimacy
that sex can only hint at.
And what it means
is that the fulfillment
of our deepest desires
for love
can only happen
within God's design
and authority
and story
of love for humanity.
And so whether
it's pornography
or sex
outside the covenant
of marriage,
all sexual immorality
is like having
an orphan mentality.
It's trying to meet
a legitimate,
holy,
God-given
desire for love
through an illegitimate way
that falls outside
of God's design
and authority.
And to live
as a beloved child of God,
to live as God's
holy people
is to understand
that when we say no
to sinful sexual desires,
we are saying yes
to our deeper
God-given desires
for love and intimacy.
We're asking the Spirit
to stretch the balloon
of our hearts,
to increase our capacity
to both receive God's love
and to give love
to others.
Second of all,
covetousness or greed.
Greed.
What's the legitimate need
underneath the sin of greed?
Well, it's a need
for provision.
It's a need
to have our basic
human needs met
for food and clothing
and shelter and security.
And these are things
that we ask our Father
for in the Lord's Prayer
every week,
for God to provide
our daily bread.
But greed
is when we start
to begin less like
sons and daughters
and more like orphans
by becoming discontent
with what He has provided,
we start to pursue
money and possessions
as ends in themselves,
as objects of love,
and we seek our security
in those things
rather than in God.
And when we love money
and possessions
more than God
and people,
it shrinks our hearts.
Rather than giving
ourselves up for others
as Christ gave Himself
up for us,
we give ourselves up
for our work
and our careers
and our money
and for success.
And those things
become an idol.
Greed,
at the end of the day,
is a failure
to live as a beloved child
and to live
like an orphan.
It's seeking to meet
a legitimate
God-given need
through an illegitimate means.
Finally,
let's look at
the example
of coarse choking.
Now,
to be honest,
in this list,
you read this
and you go,
this one seems
kind of random.
You know?
Okay,
sexual immorality,
greed,
those seem
kind of heavy
and important.
But coarse joking,
why does Paul
even mention this?
Why is this
even in the Bible?
Let's think about it
for a second.
Why does it feel
so good
to make someone else laugh?
Have you ever
thought about that?
Why is making
someone else laugh
often more enjoyable
than laughing ourselves?
It's because
when we do,
we feel validated,
we feel liked,
we feel accepted,
we feel loved.
Humor meets
this legitimate
God-given need
that we have
to feel connected
to other people
and laughter
is a beautiful
God-given part
of that.
God invented humor.
God is the funniest
being in the universe.
Can you imagine
your deepest friendships
and your relationships
without laughter?
I can't.
I love
a well-timed joke
that makes other people laugh.
I love doing that.
But there is a difference
between godly humor
and coarse joking.
The aim of godly humor
is ultimately
about giving up
oneself
for another
in love.
But the aim
of coarse joking
is love of self.
Godly humor
recognizes
there are
God-given boundaries
about what's okay
and not okay
to laugh about.
But coarse joking
doesn't see any boundaries.
It seeks to poke fun
at anything
and everything.
Godly humor
over time
connects people
and brings people
closer together.
But over time
coarse joking
pushes people away.
To want to be liked
and loved
and accepted
is a good
human
God-given desire.
But when we get a laugh
at someone else's expense,
when we joke
about things
that cross
a boundary
that are inappropriate
to joke about,
when we joke
in a way
that makes us
feel good
and makes other people
feel uncomfortable,
it's usually
because we're acting
out of a place
of insecurity.
We're acting
like orphans.
We're seeking
to meet
a legitimate need
for connection
in an illegitimate way.
We're failing
to live
into our identity
as beloved
children of God.
We're not believing
the gospel
that we are
already loved.
We're already
accepted.
We're already
liked by
the one being
who matters most
by God himself.
And so instead
we seek
a kind of
false connection.
The reason
why we say
no to coarse joking
is so we can say
yes
to walking
in love
and pursuing
real
genuine
connection
with other people.
So sexual
immorality
and greed
and coarse joking
these are just
a few
of the many
examples
that Paul
gives in this
passage
of the kind
of sins
that we have
to confront.
If we're
going to walk
in love
if we're
going to embrace
our people
as God's
beloved sons
and daughters
as his holy
people
it's not about
avoiding a checklist
of bad behaviors
it's about
learning
to walk
in love.
It's about
becoming
more and more
of who we
already are
in Christ
by grace.
It's
putting sin
to death
and pursuing
holiness
is about
increasing
our capacity
to both
receive
God's love
and also
to give
God's love
to others.
And we do
this
as people
who are
already
deeply
loved
by God.
And so
as we close
our time
together this
morning
I actually
want to
provide
just a few
minutes
of prayer
and reflection
for us
to meditate
on these
things.
So I invite
you
where you're
sitting
just to
close your
eyes
and to
reflect on
some of
these
questions
together
and to
pray about
them
individually
and then
I'll close
this out
in prayer.
I want to
invite you
to think
about a few
things.
And the
first is
this.
In what
area of
your life
do you
have the
most
trouble
believing
that God
loves you
as his
beloved
child?
Spend a few
moments thinking
about that.
In what
area of your
life,
what place
of your
heart
do you
have the
most
trouble
believing
that God
loves you
as his
beloved
child?
And as
you think
about that,
I invite
you to
ask him,
ask the
Lord,
to give
you a
deeper
experience
of his
love
through the
power of
the Holy
Spirit.
Spend a few
minutes asking
him,
for that.
Secondly,
where do you
live more
like an
orphan than
as a
beloved
child of
God?
Where are
you tempted
to do
that?
Where are
you tempted
to meet
a legitimate
need?
In an
illegitimate
way?
Where are
you living
more like
an orphan
than a
beloved
child of
God?
Spend a
minute or
two
confessing
that to
the
Lord.
What?
And finally, where in your life is God calling you
to pursue greater holiness and greater obedience?
To become more and more of who you already are in Christ?
Where is God calling you to pursue greater holiness and greater obedience?
To become more and more of who you already are in Christ?
Spend a few moments reflecting on that.
Father, thank you that you love us in Christ as your deeply loved children, as it says here in Ephesians chapter 5.
We ask that by the power of your spirit, you would give us a deeper experience of that love, especially in places in our lives where there's shame, where there might be perfectionism or self-criticism or maybe even some self-hatred.
Thank you that through Christ you've made us your holy people.
Help us to become more and more of who we already are by grace.
Help us to see where we act more like orphans than as beloved children.
And help us to put sin to death in us so that we can walk in love as you have loved us and gave yourself up for us.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.