WAKE UP

Atlanta Fire Chief Fired for Expressing Christian Beliefs | CNSNews January 2015

Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran was fired on Tuesday by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. Why? Because, on his own private time, Cochran wrote a book expressing his biblical understanding of sexual morality.

John Macrthur and others have called out CA Gov Gavin Newsom for these billboards Sep2022

Secretary of Education said during a White House event Tuesday afternoon that college students needed to have access to abortions to be able to be successful in life. Oct 4 2022

World Mag school article Sep 24 2022 Parental Pushback

A mother in Wisconsin said her 12 year old daughter asked to go to a medical facility. She said she felt sad, worthless and she did not know if she was a girl. Not knowing what to do she took her to a facility. The counselors treatment plan was to tell this 12 year old your mother is your biggest adversary and will never accept you for who you are. When the daughter came home mom was now the enemy

Mom was also told by the school if she did not go along with this, anything bad that happens to her daughter would be her fault.

School officials said we side with the child even if we have to hide it from teh parents. WE now better how to help children and when you drop them off we are in charge

Other families joined in, suing the school and fighting back. Of course a victory is not guaranteed

And as a side note eventually the daughter came back and said yes I am happy being a girl

Paul uses a phrase in the middle of this passage. He says Wake Up

Cant you see what is happening.?

What’s worse is some of of you are participants. At the least you are tolerant even supportive.

So lets see what Paul says we should do when we wake up.

What do we do when we realize we have to do something to counter this stuff we see and we know it is wrong.

This passage has a very important phrase repeated over and over. In fact is is all through Ephesians

The word is "therefore” and that is going to be how I break down the passage

Paul writes with a series of challenges but he also provides reasons. And the “therefore’s” connect the reasons to the challenges.

But before we can actually get there, we have to establish who we are.

Before we can know what do do we need to know who we are

I. Therefore Imitate God. vs 1-2

This word imitate is the word we get mimic from. Mimic God. Copy his actions and attitudes. And we need to spend time with God getting to know God for this to be possible

How do you imitate God. Certain attributes we cannot, like the Omni’s

We can not imitate self existence, self sufficiency, eternality

But there are attributes of God which we share. They are things like justice, wrath, wisdom, faithfulness, goodness, love, mercy, compassion, tenderness, forgiveness. We can exercise these attributes and indeed we ought to.

James Boice said we have this going for us: We have the enabling life of God within through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Just as physical genes should lead a child in the direction of a parent’s chief characteristics, so should a Christian’s spiritual genes lead in the direction of the moral character of God.

In the same way, God’s precious ‘children (those born from him) will be eager to copy him, as he enables them. This was the teaching of Jesus himself.

Imitate God Through Forgiveness.

Because of the new life in chapter 4 and the promise of verse 32 that you are forgiven,… this is how you should conduct yourself

You are forgiven in Christ, a beloved child, therefore imitate God your Father.

God’s gift of forgiveness in 4:32 forms the basis of Paul’s exhortation here. The connection is this: God in Christ has forgiven you. This has made you His child. Now be imitators of God in forgiving one another.

The motive is added with the words, as dear children. In natural life, children bear the family likeness and should seek to uphold the family name. In spiritual life, we should represent our Father to the world and seek to walk worthy of our dignity as His beloved children. Make our Father proud.

Imitate God in Love

Another way in which we should resemble the Lord is by walking in love. The rest of the verse explains that to walk in love means to give ourselves for others. This is what Christ, our perfect Example, did. He loved us. The proof of His love is that He gave Himself for us in death at Calvary.

William Barclay calls this “the highest standard in the world.

We need to remember what God’s love is like and it is not what Gov Newsome says

Imitate God in the way He loves

A Forgiving Love

Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary Forgiving Love

That is what we have in Jesus Christ—forgiveness—and because we find forgiveness there, we can in turn be forgiving

If you start thinking I did no thing wrong I do not need to be forgiven, you are making it hard to offer forgiveness to others. We forgive in the manner we are forgiven

Again Boice says Do you know that, really know it? So long as you think you are a pretty good person who does not really need to be forgiven, you will naturally have a very hard time loving and forgiving others. But if you know yourself to have been a sinner under God’s just wrath, all that is changed. God says that in his sight even the best of us is vile to the extreme:

A Giving Love

Before Adam and Eve were created God already gave them everything they would ever need

He gives life

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Gad has given you what you need to imitate Him That by the Spirit you put off sin and pursue righteousness

Remember to imitate God is not natural therefore it takes supernatural help to go from a dead pagan to a living Christian.

God is love and the life that is like the life of God will be a life of love. If love is the essence of God’s nature, it is the essential of the Christian character. The model of love is Christ himself. It is because he laid down his life for us that we are to love others to the point of sacrifice.

Imitate God in Light

Then Paul moves from love to light. The emphasis here is we can be light only because Christ is the true light

And light exposes deeds or darkness

What the new life is not 3-7

Sexual Immorality

He says sexual immorality should not even be named among you. It is completely unsuitable for the Christian community

To be accused of or talked about and joked about.

I think we should be clear that here we are speak of condoning or accepting these behaviors. This is very different than someone acknowledging a problem and seeking help or forgiveness

If someone says I struggle with SSA, lust, pornography, they should see this as a safe place to come and wrestle with those issues. A non condemning, supporting community.

Yet we see how some groups have ignored and hidden sexual abuse. Some have ignored and redefined God’s plan for sexuality

Recently someone said of the church too bad you don’t hate sexual abusers as mush as you hate gays.

Covetousness is added here as it is just pursuing and greed over what you do not have.

Paul contrasts the sacrificial concern and love for others, to the pursuit of selfishness desires

Foolish Talk

Then he says coarse talk and foolishness. All the useless, meaningless, crude talk prevalent today

We know what obscenity is. Foolish talk is that stupid, silly, useless conversation

In chapter 4 he spoke of the effect of this kind of talk on the hearer. Now he is calling out the effect on the participant. We are called to be people of praise and should never replace our praise with this type of talk

There is a stern warning for those who practice this. There is no room for those who condone, persist, promote this behavior

He says sexually immoral and idolators have no part in heaven

Today people protest that Christian standards are too demanding and that people must be allowed to live as they like

The empty talk that abortion is necessary to succeed. That love is love etc

Empty words God is too kind to condemn everybody, and that everybody will get to heaven in the end, irrespective of their behaviour on earth. But their words are empty and their teaching deceitful

Defense of marriage says every state must accept another states definition of marriage. But it does not say what marriage is. So if Vermont says marry a woman and her daughter other states have no right to challenge it

Sounds like he is writing to us today. Don’t let the empty words of those who condone this behavior sway you. God is angry and His wrath will come

The Message of Ephesians 1. The Certainty of Judgment (Verses 5–7)

Most immoral people get away with their immorality on earth, but they will not escape detection, conviction and sentence for ever

We need to remember he is speaking of the unrepentant

We also need to remember this letter is written to a church and these are warnings for us.

Not speaking to unbelievers but believers

II. Therefore Don’t Imitate Them vs 7-14

Since they do not inherit…don’t be like them

You used to be like that

Interesting he does not saw you were in darkness but you were darkness

Not taking about where they were but who they were

Not talking about a change is surrounding but in who they are. Don’t think being in darkness think of darkness being in me now light is in me.

This is their character, their nature.

4:18

Believer’s Bible Commentary C. Appeal for a New Morality (4:17–5:21)

The vile sins which people commit in secret are so debased that it is shameful even to mention them, let alone commit them.

Walk in the light.

Union with the light

You are not dark you are light

Paul speaks again of the effects of light

Good, right, true.

Here again he says it’s not enough just to not participate it. It’s shameful to even speak of it.

How often do we condone, joke, ignore these things?

Instead learn what pleases God. He has not made it complicated. It is not hidden. He spelled it out right here

As you face whatever situation determine what response would please God.

Years ago a denomination had a campaign of God is still speaking. I wanted to say I agree, and He is saying the same thing He has said thousands of years.

He did not say never mind, I did not mean it or I changed my mind its ok now

Be different

Expose them.

In one chapter of Gospelbound by Colin Hansen and Sarah Zylstra they speak of people committed to bound to the gospel care for the poor.

They quote Piper who reminds us it is not our job to save or even change people. We are called to be faithful and God is responsible for the fruit. Getting slapped on the cheek, giving away your tunic, walking the two miles is not about the person you are helping. It is about whether you trust Jesus, love Him, bank on Him enough to be taken advantage of,

In the first century believers gained attention for their uncommon generosity to stangers, adopting abandoned infants, staying in cities wracked by famine war and plague to care for the sick and bury the dead this is what the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate said.

That is how light exposes dark.

It is disgraceful that when no Jew has to beg and the impious Christians support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see our lack of aid from us.

The good deeds were so good that even the unbelievers realized how much better the Christians treated them then their own people

Another reminder we need. We must avoid the deeds not the doers

And we can’t run away

Public school is a challenge don't avoid it

Public service is hard. It doesn’t mean run from it.

Etc

How do we expose these deeds. It is not in arguments, seclusion, twitter debates and memes.

It is not about assimilating

When our light shines, our good deeds, it helps people see the difference.

Be like this instead

III. Therefore Wake Up 14-16

Here our former condition out of Christ is graphically described in terms of sleep, death and darkness, from all of which Christ rescues us. Conversion is nothing less than awaking out of sleep, rising from death and being brought out of darkness into the light of Christ.

He does not erase your past. He takes all the stuff that happened before to prepare you to minister for Him now. Not that everything was good that you did but it is part of what makes you and what Christ redeems

He takes your darkness and brings out light

This is quoted from Isa 60 and it is believed it was used by the early church as a baptism or Easter liturgy.

We’re darkness now light

Wake up and Christ shines

These are evil days. Use whatever time you have wisely

Pay attention to how you conduct yourself

Circumspect. People are watching you

Go beyond knowledge of facts and seek wisdom. Put these facts to action

Unlike the foolishness of these others, live wisely, the God of wisdom is with you

Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary (What the Lord’s Will Is)

Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary What the Lord’s Will Is

He is concerned with wisdom, which is more than the acquisition of mere facts. He is concerned with our perception of what God is doing in history and with our wise response to it

He is concerned with wisdom, which is more than the acquisition of mere facts. He is concerned with our perception of what God is doing in history and with our wise response to it. James Montgomery Boice

He goes on to say What are we to do with our moments? How are we best to spend this day, this hour, this minute? What does God want us to be doing?” Against this background, Paul seems to be encouraging us to perceive what God is doing now and act in accordance with it.

What do we do with this circumstance, this situation

I am past my prime what can I do? More than golf and bowling for sure.

Or I am too young what can I do.

Whatever time you have do it with the time you have.

Make the most of every opportunity and circumstance you find yourself in

Time is short, Days getting worse. Make the most of every opportunity

As a church we are at that point

IV. Therefore Be Filled v. 17-21

This really could be about almost anything not just drunkeness

It’s the idea of what are you being influenced by? Don’t get wrapped up and influenced by other things.

What motivates you?

Other people, empty words etc. Substances, sports, personal pleasure. media, impress the neighbors, make my kids happy, etc.

Be influenced by the Spirit

Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary Filled with the Spirit

But it does not concern any special miraculous gifts such as speaking in tongues. Rather, it refers to our being so under the Holy Spirit’s control and leading that our thought and life are entirely taken up with Jesus Christ, to whom it is the Spirit’s chief responsibility to bear witness

Bear a faithful and effective testimony to Jesus Christ.

Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary Filled with the Spirit

bear a faithful and effective testimony to Jesus Christ.

How?

You were baptized in and received the Spirit at conversion. Keep on like that. It is passive it is about allowing God to do in you what needs doing.

I almost called this point Speak Up. Here the evidence of spiritual influence is in our speech

Believer’s Bible Commentary (C. Appeal for a New Morality (4:17–5:21))

How then can a believer be filled with the Spirit?

The Apostle Paul does not tell us here in Ephesians; he merely commands us to be filled. But from other parts of the word, we know that in order to be filled with the Spirit we must:

1. Confess and put away all known sin in our lives (1 John 1:5–9). It is obvious that such a holy Person cannot work freely in a life where sin is condoned.

2. Yield ourselves completely to His control (Rom. 12:1, 2). This involves the surrender of our will, our intellect, our body, our time, our talents, and our treasures. Every area of life must be thrown open to His dominion.

3. Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly (Col. 3:16). This involves reading the word, studying it, and obeying it. When the word of Christ dwells in us richly, the same results follow (Col. 3:16) as follow the filling of the Spirit (Eph. 5:19).

4. Finally, we must be emptied of self (Gal. 2:20). To be filled with a new ingredient a cup must first be emptied of the old. To be filled with Him, we must first be emptied of us.

The outcome?

Worship

Interesting we are back to speech. Are we speaking to one another with words of Grace and life

Psalms - speak the word of God (which you have to know it to speak it)

Hymns speak well of God,eulogy

Spiritual songs - spontaneous (Bird Peacock)

All wrapped together in thankfulness

Always thankful for everything

Instead of complaining about your gender, or … marital status or whatever

Speak words that say this is how God made me, praise God

Give thanks that this is how God made you

Instead of redefining God’s plan for sex, or crude jokes about sex speak of the gift and glory of Gods design

Instead of complaining about your spouse or neighborhood

A little closer to home

After church (before church) what does our speech look like

If we cannot speak to each other this way on Sunday in church after worship how will we ever talk like this to our unsaved neighbors, co workers. family

Conclusion

The Message of Ephesians Conclusion

Their theme is the integration of Christian experience (what we are), Christian theology (what we believe) and Christian ethics (how we behave). They emphasize that being, thought and action belong together and must never be separated. For what we are governs how we think, and how we think determines how we act. We are God’s new society, a people who have put off the old life and put on the new; that is what he has made us.

By the way this is all impossible unless you first wake up in the light of Christ

Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary (Enlightened and Enlightening)

Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary (Enlightened and Enlightening)

Some years ago the National Religious Broadcasters held their large annual convention in Washington, D.C., and the president of the United States spoke. He said what the broadcasters wanted to hear and closed with a quotation of John 3:16. The conventioneers became ecstatic. They leaped to their feet and applauded until long after the President had left the platform. It seemed as though revival had broken out in the capital. The next speaker was Charles Colson, whose experiences had taught him both the limitations and seductions of political life. He said that he was glad to have heard the President’s speech and believed the Bible quotation. “But,” he added, “we must remember that the kingdom of God is not going to arrive on Air Force One.”

That is profoundly true. In the ultimate sense the kingdom of God is going to arrive only when Jesus Christ sets up his kingdom. But until that time it will arrive only to the extent Christian people—not the highly visible people of the political arena but quite normal and far less visible people like you and me—begin to live like Jesus Christ.

When we wake up

The Kingdom will be displayed in Grace Community in LA, Bethlehem Baptist MN, Village Church TX, Redeemer Presbyterian NY, and 10th Presbyterian PA

And it is seen in Grace Covenant, Coventry Church of Brethren, Pottstown Bible Church

In churches throughout Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and those ministries coming out of CCI

In Nigeria where a christian is murdered every 2 hours. Where entire congregations are murdered during services

Regardless if its thousands in a church in Manhattan or dozens in a church in Myanmar the Kingdom is growing

And as said earlier GCC is poised in this movement. We have been praying for revitalization. We have been talked about relocation. But here is the reality. If its thousands in LA or dozens in Pottstown here is how it works. And it has nothing to do with size, or money, or buildings

Now if we are unwilling to change, to wake up, be filled nothing we do will matter.

It is about people who who recognize the state of our days and times. It is people who wake up to this reality, snap out of our stupor, our apathy or whatever it is.

We can ask God and ourselves. What does God want from us, in this time in history, in this town.

Big emphasis these days on time

Eschatological Discipleship

Inhabit the Time

To wake up and realize what time it is

To be filled and realize what God has given us

To speak up and make the most of every opportunity God has given us