Walking in Love
Notes
Transcript
Good morning
Good morning
Did you hear that coffee was just voted as the best drink in the nation?
It was an unfair vote, there were absent tea ballots!
I want to take a moment to remember all those service men and women who never made it home. They made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms. Let’s have a moment of silence to honor and remember them.
Today we are going to be in Ephesians 5:4-7.
Last week we talked about sexual sins, sexual immorality, and greed. Paul told us that these types of sins should not even be mentioned among the saints.
These sins are a worship issue. The ones who commit these sins are worshipping themselves and not God. They are more concerned with meeting their own needs instead of those needs of others. They are taking something that does not belong to them.
As believers, we are called to crucify our flesh daily and we are to take up our cross and follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Those are footsteps of sacrificial love. A love that puts everyone else’s needs above our own. It is a love that even when being mocked and ridiculed, love is still shown. It is a love that never ever takes from someone to satisfy self. It is a love that lays down its life for others. That is what we are called to! It should never be about self.
When we love like this, we will never commit sexual immorality and or greed.
We have to be intentional about every single moment of every single day choosing love and others over ourselves. The moment we begin to focus on us and our needs, that is when we open the door for this type of sin.
Today we are going to look at speech! Paul is going to tell us how we can stop sinning in our talk. He is going to tell us that no person who is marked by these sins will have an inheritance in the kingdom of God. These are serious sins.
He is going to warn us to not be deceived by the world with it’s empty words. God’s wrath is coming for those who are the sons of disobedience. He tells us to not become partners with them.
Please stand as we prepare to hear God’s Word.
4 and there must be no filthiness or foolish talk, or vulgar joking, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, which amounts to an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
6 See that no one deceives you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them;
Paul goes straight from sexual immorality and greed to our speech. All of these are worship issues. Who are we worshipping? Do we ever see Jesus talking in a way that is coarse or foolish? Do we ever see Jesus tell a crude joke? Those who are in the light should not use this type of language that is shameful and disgraceful. This type of talk is dark talk and as light, we should never let our speech turn dark. Colossians 3:8
8 But now you also, rid yourselves of all of them: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene speech from your mouth.
It is up to us to rid ourselves of this worthless, dark speech. We have to choose obedience and we have to choose to walk with God in light.
36 But I tell you that for every careless word that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment.
We have to be careful of every word that comes out of our mouths. We may not be keeping a record, but God is. One day we will have to answer for all of them! Our words matter and they have an affect on others. We are told that the tongue is sharper than a two edged sword and cuts deep. We often speak without thinking first. We must take time to think and sort out our words before we just blurt them out.
19 You know this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Now everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;
We have to be intentional about what we say. Paul tells us that we should instead be speaking thanks. When we are born again, we are made new. We are given a new heart, a heart that is soft. It is up to us to fill this soft loving heart with the word of God and the things from above.
16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
When we are thinking on all the things that God has done for us, we will have a thankful heart.
6 Your speech must always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.
Our words should always be filled with grace and love. When we speak this way, God is glorified and we are able to reflect the love that Jesus has shown us and given to us.
Our speech should be humble and God focused. It should never be about us and the things of this world.
Next Paul gives us a warning. He tells us that no one who is sexually immoral or impure or greedy, which is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of God.
Paul is not saying that those who occasionally commit these sins is going to hell. He is saying that the one who deliberately and persistently live in these sins will not share in glory.
The morally unclean, the covetous and the fornicator will face judgement and hell.
Paul’s warning deal with the habitual practice of sin, and not the occasional act.
In Paul’s day, there were false Christians who argued that believers could live in sin and get away with it because of God’s grace.
This type of life is not one that is a new creation, it is the old trying to mask itself with the new. There will be a change if salvation is true.
33 “Either assume the tree to be good as well as its fruit good, or assume the tree to be bad as well as its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.
Our actions will reveal who we belong to. It is impossible for a fruit tree to produce vegetables. Just as it is impossible for a child of the light to live a life of darkness or a child of darkness to live a life of light!
James 3:3-12.
“But no one among mankind can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. Does a spring send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.” James 3:8-12
We will reveal whose we are by what we do.
The child of God will react different to sin than a child of Lucifer. A believer will have the same attitude about sin that David had. When he was confronted with his sin, it brought him to repentance and to God.
The child of darkness will love their sin and not repent of it. They will make excuses for their sin and continue to do it.
Next we are told to not let any one deceive us with there empty words. We have the truth in God’s Word and we have the Holy Spirit in us to help us reveal this truth to the world. We are not to let the empty words of the world draw us in and get us to join the sons of disobedience. The enemy does not want us to grow and spread God’s Good News to the world. He will try every trick he knows to deceive us and get us to move off the narrow path.
We are warned that the wrath of God is coming to those who are the sons of disobedience. We see this also in Colossians 3:6
6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience,
God loves obedience. 1 Samuel 15:22
22 Samuel said,
“Does the Lord have as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than a sacrifice,
And to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.
God wants us to be obedient. He has given us His Word that has everything we need in it. All we have to do is choose it. Choose obedience, that is what God wants.
He loves a child who is loving and obedient.
There is no way a loving, obedient child would join in a partnership with the disobedient.
Church, the bottom line is, are we being obedient.
If we are doing that, all other things will take care of themselves. We have to be focused on our own choices and actions. Are they what God’s Word tells us we should be doing or are they what the disobedient are doing?
Who are you worshipping?
Who is your idol?
It is a daily choice that has to be made.
“But no one among mankind can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. Does a spring send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.” James 3:8-12
What are your words revealing about your heart?
We have to choose God and crucify our flesh. Our obedience is up to us. God does not force us, we have to choose Him.
Let’s pray
