Who Are You Imitating
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning
I was at the Doctors office the other day and there was this man in the waiting room who said he was invisible.
I heard the doctor tell the nurse that he couldn’t see him today.
Happy Mother’s Day. We are who we are today because of our Mother’s. Will all the mothers please stand up. I would like to read this scripture and then pray for our mothers.
10 An excellent wife who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels.
11 The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.
12 She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life.
13 She seeks wool and flax,
and works with willing hands.
14 She is like the ships of the merchant;
she brings her food from afar.
15 She rises while it is yet night
and provides food for her household
and portions for her maidens.
16 She considers a field and buys it;
with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
17 She dresses herself with strength
and makes her arms strong.
18 She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
Her lamp does not go out at night.
19 She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her hands hold the spindle.
20 She opens her hand to the poor
and reaches out her hands to the needy.
21 She is not afraid of snow for her household,
for all her household are clothed in scarlet.
22 She makes bed coverings for herself;
her clothing is fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is known in the gates
when he sits among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them;
she delivers sashes to the merchant.
25 Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.
26 She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
27 She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
29 “Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.”
30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the gates.
Pray
When we get done with the invitation, we are going to take the Lord’s Supper. What a fitting way to honor our mothers, we remember and partake of the ordinance that Jesus gave us as a lasting remembrance of the Passover that was fulfilled in the Messiah. We are to do this until the day we get to partake of it with Him in glory.
I had two options in picking the passages today. Verses 1-7 go together. I felt that if I took on all of them at the same time, we would be celebrating Mother’s Day dinner and not lunch. So in light of that, I have chosen to just do two verses today and then next Sunday, we will tackle the rest of this section in chapter 5.
We will be in Ephesians 5:1-2.
Last week we talked about how to walk in the new self we have put on in Christ Jesus. We looked at our speech. We are to have no false speech and we are to speak the truth and in that truth, we will build each other up.
Paul told us that we are to not sin in our anger. He shows us that it is not a sin to get angry, it is what we do while we are angry that makes the sin. We are to take care of whatever it is that had made us angry before we go to bed. When we allow our anger to linger and smolder, it builds into a raging fire and destroys us and the good that we are trying to do. When we don’t take care of our anger, we give the devil an opportunity to influence us and leave the door open for him.
We saw that it is good to work. Paul told us that if we are stealing, we are to stop, but rather go to work. We are to not only work, but to do honest work with our own hands. Idleness is the playground of the enemy. We are to work just like our God worked in the beginning. He worked for six days and then rested. We are to follow this pattern that He modeled for us. Isn’t it amazing that God loves us so much that He showed us the way by His example. We don’t have to guess or wonder if we are doing it right, He showed us and gave it to us in His Word. We are told that we are to work so that we will have something to give those who are in need. That is one of the main duties of the church, to be here and lend a helping hand when someone is in need. I love that Liberty is so willing to help when the occasion arises.
We ended by talking about not grieving the Holy Spirit. We can be assured that we will not do that if we do the three things that Paul listed at the end of chapter 4. If we are kind to one another, if we are tenderhearted towards each other, and we above all things forgive each other because we are forgiven by God in Christ Jesus! These last three chapters of Ephesians, if we will meditate on these teachings Paul has given us and we apply them in our daily lives, and we truly seek after God, he will move like we have never seen in Liberty and in Duncan. When we truly do our part and are obedient to our Father, He is good and faithful to move in our lives!
I just want you to know that if your toes have been stepped on lately by these sermons, know that my toes are sore when I get up here and preach. You have heard it on time for a few minutes, I have wrestled with them for seven days at a time. If we are not getting our toes stepped on then I am not preaching the right message. That is what this is all about, praising our God and learning to be more like Him. In that process, we are going to get uncomfortable and have to make some changes. Changing is not fun or easy, but it is worth it.
Today we are going to look at walking in love.
Please stand as we prepare to hear God’s Word.
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Pray
I want to read this in the NIV just because it words it a little different and I like it. Ephesians 5:1-2
1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Paul is telling us that we are to imitate God, be like God. Notice he is not telling us to be more like God. It is not good enough to just be more like Him, we are to be like Him.
We were created in His image! Genesis 1:26
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
We were created to be like God. Sin changed everything, we were no longer like God anymore. We chose to be like ourselves and not like our creator. When Adam sinned, he said that he didn’t want God, he wanted his way and wanted to do things his way. When that first sin took place, something changed in Adams DNA, it was broken from how it was created. It was no longer perfect, it had a flaw. Our DNA since that day in the garden, has us choosing us over God, choosing us over others. We became the most important thing. But God sent His Son, Jesus the Christ to fix what is broken in us. When we repent of our sins and believe in Jesus as our Saviour, we are recreated in God’s image again. He fixes what sin broke. It is up to us to put on that new image and walk in it. When we say walk, we mean how we live. We have to chose to live a life that is made in the image of God the Creator. God will never force us to do anything, He will strongly tell us, but never force us to do anything. We have to chose, we have to be obedient. We have to want to be like Him. We have to want to take off the old self and put on the new one. God has done everything we need for Him to do, He created us, He sent His Son so that we can have a restored relationship with Him, He has given us His Spirit to guide and direct us. He has given us His Word to show us the way. All we have to do is do it. Once we have been made new in Christ, it really is up to us to do something with the new creation God has given us. We have everything we need to be like our King, do we want it?
Paul tells us to be like a child and imitate our Father. If you watch a little boy for very long, you will see some of his father in him. He will do some of the things that his dad does. Every little boy wants to be like his dad. One of the reasons it is so important to make sure that your walk is right and true. There are little ones watching and imitating. I have seen it in my sons. The good and the bad! Praise God that there is no bad in Him. So when we are imitating God, we are only doing good things. I know my kids get to see plenty on bad to imitate with the good. We are called to be like children multiple times in the Bible. We are adopted into God’s family and are now His son’s and daughter’s. When we are adopted, God seals us with the Holy Spirit, His Spirit. He walks with us and guides us and helps us grow more and more like Him every day. It is with this sealing of the Holy Spirit, we can call out to God and say “Abba, Father” Galatians 4:6
6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
We can boldly come to our Father since we are sons and daughters. With this adoption, we are given a new family, the church, our eternal family that is filled with brothers and sisters that we will one day stand before our Father and sing praises! Just like with our earthly families that we are members of and we have chores that we have to do, we also have chores to do in our heavenly family as well. The chores that we are given by God are amazing privileges and they are a sacred responsibility. God has shown us great love and mercy through His Son. As adopted sons and daughters, we are to now show the Father’s love by doing great acts of compassion and mercy, just like He did for us. In Luke 6:36
36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
As members of God’s family, we should be known for our practical acts of mercy, hospitality and our caring for the poor and needy. We should also be giving special attention to the needs of the members here at Liberty. Also we should have a unity that reflects the unity of the trinity. Nothing should separate us or divide us! We will have our differences and disagreements, but they should never split us. Remember how chapter 4 ended, we are to be kind, tenderhearted and forgiving towards each other. We have been forgive so much, how can we not forgive each other?
Paul tells us that while we are imitating God, we are to walk in love, just as Jesus loved us and gave Himself for us. He was the most fragrant offering that was ever offered. He gave Himself as a sacrifice for you and me to God. Paul starts by telling us to imitate God and then he sets us down at the foot of the cross! The greatest symbol of love that has ever been! If when you are at the foot of the cross, you are not moved to love, you are not actually at the cross! You are at a cross, not The Cross of Christ. It is a Jesus’ cross that we can the power of love! We are told to imitate God, Jesus was the ultimate imitator of God the Father.
Love others like Jesus! No problem, easy peasy! No, we all fail at this. Non believers really can’t grasp the concept of sacrificial love, and they certainly do not want to submit to God’s authority by loving Him with all that they are. Even believers have not love God and neighbor perfectly, like Jesus did. Paul shows us that we need more than Jesus’ example; we also need His redeeming grace. We need a Saviour who has forgiven us and we need the Holy Spirit in us to empower us to love this dark world, demonstrating the saving work and fruit of true salvation.
Even with all this help, we still fail! A lot! If it were not for the cross of Christ, we would be crushed by the guilt of our failure. We would have given up long ago in frustration. Jesus demonstrated perfect love in His obedience and He loved perfectly, giving His life as a sacrifice for lawbreakers like us. What a Saviour we have!!
Exalting Jesus in Ephesians Love like the Son (5:2)
I assume you know this, but if not—Christ Jesus came to earth and lived a perfect, sinless life. He kept the law perfectly, and then He died the death we deserved, as a substitute for sinners like us (cf.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
Exalting Jesus in Ephesians Love like the Son (5:2)
He rose on our behalf. If you have faith in Him, He will receive you. He will save you. Once people come to know Jesus, the Spirit of God then indwells them and empowers them to love sacrificially.
So, how did Jesus love? I am glad you asked!!
11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
While we were still enemies of God, He sent Jesus and He was obedient all the way to the cross and death. He sacrificed Himself for us.
Love is not just sentimentalism. It is not just feeling sorry for someone. It involves sacrifice and action. John tells us this in 1 John 3:18
18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
Jesus showed His love by what He did, with flesh and blood action. He loved one another, forgave others, gave financially, spread the good news, He was patient with others, He loved the annoying, He loved all people groups, and He gave aid to those in need.
This seems like an impossible task to love like He did! How can we grow in our love for others? First we must know how Jesus loved, then we must meditate on how He loved, and then we must begin to go and put that love into action!
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
We have to be fully surrendered to the authority of Christ in our lives. That is the only way to grow into a love like His.
Jesus was the perfect sacrificial lamb of God. Paul tells us that His sacrifice was a pleasing aroma to God. The phrase pleasing aroma to God was a sign of God’s acceptance of the sacrifice made to Him. Christ was the ultimate acceptable sacrifice to God. It gave the perfume of grace, love, and glory, the most pleasing aroma of a sacrifice ever.
Exalting Jesus in Ephesians Love like the Son (5:2)
Amy Carmichael exemplified this type of love. She was a great missionary to India who spent much of her ministry caring for ill-treated children, and she saved many from forced prostitution (which took place in the temples). She founded the Dohnavur Fellowship, which became a refuge for more than a thousand children. She died in India in 1951 at the age of 83. Before dying, she asked that no stone be put over her grave. But the children she cared deeply for decided to put a birdbath over her grave, with the single inscription “Amma,” which means “mother.” Carmichael lived out her saying: “One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving.” Sherwood Eddy said of her, “Her life was the most fragrant, the most joyfully sacrificial, that I ever knew” (Pathfinders, 125). May God make us a people that love others like Christ loves us, and may our love be a pleasing aroma to God.
How are you imitating today?
Is you love causing you to have action?
Nothing about being a Christian is sedentary. We are called to go and spread the good news to make disciples of all nations. We are called to imitate God, we are called to love like Jesus!
All of these thing require action, movement!
Liberty, lets make sure we never stop moving!
Let’s pray
