Intro to Seven Churches Series

Main Idea: Walk as children of light

Scripture: Ephesians 5:8, 14, 15-16

Introduction:

Happy New Year! Anyone have any goals for 2023?

Maybe it’s to make some new friends

Could be to make it on a sports team, or to try out for something new

Maybe you want to read 50 books in a year

Did anyone set any spiritual goals? No?

That’s okay. We are going to read a short passage in Ephesians, and then look at some ways that we can grow in our walks with Christ this year.

Example:

This past week, I got to go to a conference called Passion. It’s this super awesome 3 day experience in the Hawk’s basketball arena, and thousands of college students gather to worship Jesus, and learn from some really great speakers.

One of the guys who spoke was Louis Giglio, and he’s the guy who started this over 20 years ago.

He gave this illustration regarding the moon that I thought was really cool.

So we all know that the moon comes out at night, and maybe you have learned this in school, but it orbits around the earth.

On the surface of the moon, there’s this fine dust called Regolith. There have been asteroids that have hit the moon, and so this dust has collected on the surface of the moon.

When do we mainly get to see the moon?

What does the moon do? How does it give off light?

It reflects the light of the sun. Its job is to get in position to reflect the light of the sun.

What are we to do as believers?

Scripture:

Let’s read about it:

Ephesians 5:8-9

For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! 9 For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.

In this chapter, Paul is describing what we all know to be true. We live in a dark world. Not physically dark, but spiritually dark. There are a lot of people who do not know Jesus, and who do bad things because of that.

This world needs the light. In the Bible, Jesus is often referred to as the light.

It even tells us a little about his characteristics and attributes in this passage we read: He is good, right, and true.

The moon reflects the light of the sun, so that even in darkness we have light.

In the same way, when we reflect the glory of God, what does it produce in us?

What is good, right, and true

Conclusion:

Now I want to take the moon example a step further.

I did a little more research because I was curious, and found out that one of the phases of the moon causes us not to be able to see it in the dark. NEW MOON PHASE

This is when the moon is in front of the sun, and so it isn’t able to reflect the sun’s light to the earth.

How often does this happen in our lives?

We call ourselves Christians, but often we get in the way of God, and instead of reflecting his light, we blend in with the darkness.

Instead of producing what is good, right, and true, we produce what the world is producing, and tend to just blend in.

How do we fix this? How do we make sure that we don’t end up in this “NEW MOON PHASE?”

We get ourselves in position to reflect God’s light. We do this by knowing God, and growing in our faith.

We walk as children of the light.

Who does our light come from?

Christ

V. 14: “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

We’ve talked about this but often we need this reminder. Are we spending time with Jesus? Are we allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us?

Are we reflecting the light?

Series Preview:

The next few weeks we are going to look at the book of Revelation, and this series will challenge you. Often we can take for granted the purpose God has given us, and go through the motions of living life. We forget to reflect the light of Christ, and the book of Revelation will help us take a look at how we can avoid those obstacles in our lives.

We need this to see how we can avoid blending in with the world, and instead walking as children of the light.