Sealed as Light

Sealed as Light

Ephesians 5:8-14

Series Slide

Good morning and welcome to worship. I hope you are staying cool and checking on your neighbors. It’s been great to have a mild summer, but the mild days are behind us as we make our way through the dog days of Summer.

A couple of things I want to share with you. Some people have asked when we will start Wednesday night supper… and some people have asked when we will have our big kick-off for the Fall… Well, we have dates!

First of all, we will be having a church-wide Back to Church Sunday. Who remembers the old “Slip and Slide Sundays?” At least that’s what I called them… We would have the water slides and the tarp stretched out with water on it in the courtyard. The kids, and the youth, and the adults all had a blast. We are doing that again and more… along with a potluck lunch on Sunday, September 8. So, get your recipes out and start getting ready for a Sunday full of Jesus and fun as we kick-off the Fall and welcome everyone back to church! And, kids… you get to wear your swim-suits to church! How fun is that?!

That same week, on Wednesday, September 4, we will kick off all our Wednesday night activities! Our Kid’s program will kick-off, Bible Studies will start, and the Wednesday Night Supper will be back!

I will be leading a study at 4:00 called “I Believe,” where we will be looking at what it is that we believe as followers of Jesus Christ that call ourselves Global Methodists. Jerod will have his study for Young Adults going, I think Gary’s Wednesday night study has already started. Youth will be going strong by then!

Getting connected is the entire focus of our Wednesday night program! Getting connected to one another, getting connected to our community, and getting connected to God!

So, come and find your place to connect!

Now, let’s get back to the reason we are here. When people look at you, what do they see? Do they see a child of the light? A follower of Jesus? Or do they see something else? This summer, we have been working our way through Ephesians and we have been talking about our identity. We have been talking about whether or not we are marked, we are identified, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ. Like a wax seal on a letter identifies who it is from… we need to have the imprint of Christ on our lives so that everyone who sees us, knows that we are a child of the light of Jesus Christ.

Sermon Slide

Today, we are looking at the fact that we are sealed as light. Not sealed by the light… you and I should be sealed… marked… identified as light. So that is where we are headed with today’s text.

As we get started, let’s invite the Holy Spirit into our midst as we consider these words from Scripture that we just heard.

Let us pray…

<Prayer>

I couldn’t have been more than 8 years old. My family took a summer vacation to Ink’s Lake State Park and decided to tour all the caverns in the area. Natural Bridge, Inner Space, Wonderworld, all were great, but I think it was Longhorn Cavern that impacted me the most. We hiked down deep into the earth, seeing all the stalactites and stalagmites, seeing the crystalline and fried egg formations, and “the cat” formation carved by the water rushing by… just taking in all these otherworldly sites deep inside the earth. When we got to what they call the “great room” the guide told us to stop and stand very still… for the parents to put a hand on their children and they explained that we were about to experience total darkness. When everyone was ready, they turned out the lights. Those of you who have experienced this know what I’m talking about. The darkness that we know isn’t dark… that was dark. Pitch black. So dark that you can’t see your hand in front of your face… I know I’m not the only one that tried and ended up hitting their face because they couldn’t tell how close their hand was…

As powerful as the darkness was, that wasn’t what made the most impact… it was what happened next. The guide lit a candle. One lone flame of a candle, and the darkness was gone. A single flame chased away the darkness. That one flame was enough for us to see each other's faces… we could see the shadows of where the water had carved out the limestone. We could see the path before us.

Light is not only a powerful metaphor, light is a powerful force.

All through scripture we see examples of this dichotomy between dark and light. It was a pillar of fire… of light… that led the Israelites in the wilderness at night. It was light that separated the darkness of night at creation. John uses this dichotomy all through his gospel and letters. Matthew quotes Jesus in his Gospel,

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16 - NIV)

The themes of light and dark are all through the Bible. Here, Paul uses it to talk about the things of our former life that we don’t need to have anything to do with. In fact, Paul says in verse 11-12 to have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. Next weeks text will get into some of these fruitless deeds so we will save that discussion for next Sunday.

Today, I want us to look at the other side… the fruits of the light.

Last week some of you heard the takeaway as ‘Live like Jesus’ or ‘Love like Jesus’. That’s a good takeaway! If there is one this week, I hope it is what we read in verses 8-10… Live as children of light and find out what pleases the Lord. Inside those verses is a little parenthetical statement that defines what it means to be a child of light… what it looks like to be a child of light… what fruit results from being a child of light... it says, “For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.”

If you live like Jesus and you live as a child of light… then you will generate fruit… your life will yield certain traits.

Paul says that we will produce:

Goodness – agathōsynē – kindness, generosity, happiness…

Righteousness – dikaiosynē – right, honest, just, correct…

Truth – alētheia – steadfast, trustworthy, faithful…

I don’t know about you, but that is the life I want to live. That is what I want my life to look like.

Can you imagine what our world would look like if we who call ourselves Christians would live like that? In other words, what would the world look like if we really did follow Jesus?

Here is our challenge though… sometimes we get so use to the light, that it seems to loose it’s impact. The light is just as powerful as it always has been, we just stop recognizing it. Like driving at night. How many of you have been on a long drive at night and you think your lights are on dim, so you flip them over to bright… only to realize they were on bright the entire time. When you switch them back, after dimming them, they seem bright again.

Sometimes, we need to flip the switch to remember that we are reflecting God’s light to the world. How? Going on a men’s retreat, or a women’s retreat, going on or working a Walk to Emmaus, helping with a children’s or youth camp, going on a mission trip, or maybe it’s taking a true Sabbath to spend time alone with God in prayer and in the Word. There are so many things we can do to wake up to all that God is already doing in our lives.

I love the way Paul wraps up this passage with a hymn… It has become the opening to J.D. Walt’s “Wake-Up Call” daily devotional and a rally cry for Jesus Followers everywhere… and it’s where I am going to wrap this up…

Wake up sleeper –

Have you ever been driving on a long road trip and kind of ‘wake up’? You haven’t been asleep, but you realize you have no memory of the previous 10 or 15 miles you drove…

Some of us have lived our lives as followers of Jesus that way. We’ve just coasted through… not really producing fruit… not living as a child of Light… not being the light of the world you were called to be…

Maybe it’s time to wake up! Pay attention. Don’t sleep through the life God has given you!

Rise from the Dead

Or as the New Living Translation puts it, “Rise Up.” We don’t have to live a life of darkness that leads to death… we need to rise up as a child of Light! We need to live the life we were created for… or as Paul put it, live a life worthy of the calling we have received.

And, when you do that,

Christ will shine on you

Like the song we sang a few moments ago…

Lord, the light of your love is shining

In the midst of the darkness, shining

Jesus, Light of the world, shine upon us

Set us free by the truth you now bring us

Shine on me, shine on me

Brothers and sisters, we need the light of Christ shining on us, illuminating our lives so that we are the very reflection of the light of Christ for the world.

When we are sealed as light, it isn’t our light that the world sees, it is the light of Christ that we reflect for the world to see. Our identity isn’t our light… our identity is the light of Christ that those around us see. You are the light of the world!

So… Wake up Sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you!

Let us pray.