Ephesians 5

Intro

We are going to continue our Ephesians series

We have a reading plan for you to go through as we Go through this book.

Here is the cool part

If you go through the reading plan, and get a parent to sign it for you.

I will give you some candy

So make sure you grab a sheet

For those who remember a couple of weeks ago when we started this series

I did a little trivia for y'all about the book of Ephesians

So if you remember the book of Ephesians is believed to be written between 60-62AD

It was written by who? Give away

it was written to the Ephesians who are from the city of where? Give away

Paul was writing the letter because of the persecution that the Ephesians were facing

However one thing that was different about this letter compared to many of Pauls other was that he wasn’t addressing a bunch of problems in the church

But instead he gave encouragement and simply just wanted to motivate

That being said, very often the book of Ephesians is known as the letters of what?? Love giveaway

Today we are going to talk about 4 ways to live

And I want to give you a heads up one of things that we are going to be talking about is mariage

4 for things that I believe tells about how we ought to be living

4 Characteristics of a faithful life

1. Be imitators of Jesus

Ephesians 5:1–5 “Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.”

When I was a senior in High shcool

we took a senior class trip

Tell my story about San Antonio

Friend who could Shaggy impression

How many of you think impressions are funny?

What makes an impression so funny

Is because of how accurate it is

Hand gestures

facial expressions

Phrases

The more close, the more funny

The closer you are to the real thing, the better the impression is

In our Scripture Paul is talking about the ways for us to live a faithful life

And he says “IMITATE God”

Now that doesn’t mean we put on a fake beard and quote scripture

It means that we are called to look and act like Jesus did

Many of you know this, but maybe some of you don’t

But we as Christians believe that Jesus was fully God, but also fully man

Jesus was God in human form

And so the Jesus that we saw on this Earth was a perfect imitation of his father. GOD

John 5:19 “So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.”

And so if Jesus is the perfect example. we need to look to him for how we ought to live

BUT ADAM HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO THAT??????

Go back to that scripture slide

Ephesians 5:1–5 “Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.”

So right there. there are already some clear as day things that he irons out for us

But I love that he doesn’t just leave it at that.

Look what he says next

Ephesians 5:6–10 “Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. Don’t participate in the things these people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.”

Here this this morning

Imitating Jesus means seeing right and wrong the way our Father sees it

If Jesus is the standard

And thats a very high standard

and If he constantly lived in tune with God

we need to see the world the same way that Jesus did

what does that mean for us?

“God I am so frustrated with this person, help me love them the way that you would”

“God This situation that I have been put in is super hard right now. help me to trust in you through it”

“God I feel like I never believe in myself I feel like I am a mistake. help me to see myself the way you do”

Its not about being perfect, but its about being able to come to God and ask him to see our world, situations, and lives. the way that he does

2. Live Wisely

Ephesians 5:15–20 “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Paul continues on with this idea of how we need live wisely

I talked about living wisley a few weeks ago

If you remember I explained that wisdom and knowledge are 2 different things

one of the definitions I gave was that wisdom doesn’t mean just having alot of knowledge

But it means knowing when and how to apply it

As I thought about idea of more of living wise

What I felt like the Lord was laying on my heart

Is that we need to be people that will pay attention to God

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about, tell me its familiar

“Go get the ketchup out of the fridge”

“can’t find it”

“Its there, you’re just missing it”

She comes in and finds it

Here thing the Ketchup was there

we just missed it right

Like it wasn’t trying to be hidden from us

it didn’t get moved up on you

IF WE ARE BEING HONEST WE JUST WEREN’T PAYING ENOUGH ATTENTION TO SEE IT

why do I share that this morning

I believe that many times The Holy Spirit is moving and speaking more than we are paying attention

Because just like that bottle of ketchup that we can’t find in the fridge we seek God

“I can’t find him”

“Iv’e been looking but I don’t see him”

“I swear iv’e looked high and low”

when in reality he is right in front of our faces

Now I am not saying just pray harder, or believe more

But there are some us of that if we are being honest

we haven’t even taken any practical steps to try to hear where the Holy Spirit wants to take us

“God I want to live wisley”

“God I want to know how to deal with this sitation”

“Okay have you been seeking me?”

really

not just open the fridge

taking one glance

If want to live wisley it means we need to pay attention to the Holy Spirit

3. Live Sacrificially

Ephesians 5:21–27 “And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.”

Look I know none of you are even close to marriage

But I still think this is important for you for 3 reasons

1. Some day when you are old enough to get married you come back to these scriptures

When you are dating and you are wondering is he or she worth it

Are they going to treat me how I should be treated in covenant of marriage

2. because for many of you. you get to go home and see these scripture modeled by your parents

But even more so there are some of you who have seen the opposite

It’s good for you to know what the Bible says about marriage

3. Some of these main overarching principles go beyond the bounds of Just marriage

We aren’t called to just be sacrafical in our marriage but in multiple aspects of life

SO LETS TALK ABOUT IT

looking at the beginning of this scripture

This is one of the most misused and twisted scriptures

Which is sad, because the meaning behind it is truthfully beautiful

“And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything”

And for too many people they stop right at this

but there is more

look at what Paul says next

For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.”

way to often in our media

our culture, we here this word submission and we cringe

because we think its like this “Do what I say or else”

And to be honest thats how our world has portrayed it

especailly in the confinds of marriage

“Shes gotta do what I say because I’m charge”

But what does the Bible say?

Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church

What did Christ do for the church?. HE DIED FOR IT

Why is this so important for us

If you never find yourself sacrificing anything. you aren’t really serving

It might not be everytime you do something for someone else

but at some point in life you will find that in order to do something for benefit of someone else you will have to sacrafice

your time

your money

your resources

your Physcial enery

your mental energy

your popularity

your comfort

your sleep

The list could go on forever

And so as we look at this in the confides of mariage know that it extends

If Jesus could sacrifce his life for us. we can sacrifice these things for him and others that he calls us to

4. Live out of Love

Ephesians 5:28–33 “In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body. As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”

Paul takes this one step further

That not only is there sacrifice in marriage and in the Christian life

But we also are supposed to love our husband our wives

as we walk the Christian life

But what I find interesting is that he doesn’t just talk about loving each other

But he says to love each other the way that we love ourselves

Question for you guys:

When you are super hungry what do you usually do?

If you are super tired what do you do?

When we are super thirsty what do we do?

Right when our head hurts we take medicine

When we our feet hurt we sit down

The point is that we take care of oursleves right

Some of us maybe take care of oursleves better than others

But the point is that there are things that we do to benefit ourselves

And Paul is saying that

all of the way that we care for oursleves husbands and wives are meant to care for each other the same way

Now like I said

I know that none of you are married,

but I think there is a very important princple from this that Jesus modeled for us

Matthew 7:12 ““Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.”

“You know love is real when someone else’s need becomes more important than your want.”

Pick one of these things that you feel like you need to learn the most

Pray about it

Write it down