Walking in Love

Practical Ways to Live Out Our New Identity

Good morning everyone, my name is Kent and I’m one of the pastors here at Crosspoint. It’s a blessing to have you here for our worship morning service. We as a church are in the middle of a series called Reset as we study Ephesians. Today we will be in Ephesians 4:25-5:5 as we discuss how to Walk in Love with others.

For those who don’t know much about me, I had a birthday this past August and turned 25 yrs old. I thought to myself, a quarter of century already? I thought Jesus would’ve come back before I got this old. It’s hard turning a quarter of century, Amber and I are already talking about life insurance and just the thought about me dying lead me to write my own eulogy to make it easier for whoever is assigned to officiate my funeral. So here is preview of what my eulogy would be.

Kent Hinrichsen survived by his wife Amber Hinrichsen (because we already made an agreement that I’m going first). Kent never cheated on his wife. He didn’t curse at people. He never got drunk. Kent never held any grudges against anyone. He wasn’t a murderer or someone who slandered a lot and he didn’t steal. Overall Kent wasn’t a terrible person. Put me in the ground already. The End.

Now I just want to clarify that this is a terrible eulogy and I hope and pray that it is not used at my funeral. But on a more serious note, I hope that I am not remembered for the things that I didn’t do but rather for the things that I did do like loving my wife and family in a Christ like way, or serving others in a way that brings glory to God.

What about you? What kind of legacy do you want to leave? What do you want people to remember you by? This doesn’t even have to be when you die. It can even be how people will remember you after having an interaction with you or possibly if a friend remembers you if they move away. Whatever the situation is, what do you want people to remember about you? I would hope that it would be more than just the things that you didn’t do but rather by how you loved God and loved others well.

Transition statement: In our passage today, Paul writes about what Christians need to keep putting away and what to replace that with as we grow in following Jesus. Paul talks about how a Christian shouldn’t just be described as not doing certain things but they should be described by how they are following after God. With that in mind please open your bibles and meet me in Ephesians 4:25. Ephesians 4:25. I will be reading from the CSB translation.

Read, Therefore and stop.

When we come across the therefore we must ask what is the therefore there for. If you remember from last week we talk about growing in spiritual maturity. We talk about changing our metaphorical old clothes for new clothes when we became a Christian and we showed a chart that illustrated Spiritual Maturity having two main aspects which are more awareness of our sins and more awareness of the holiness of God. So in light of what we talked about last week we read this passage in Ephesians.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 4

25 Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor,, because we are members of one another. 26 Be angry and do not sin., Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and don’t give the devil an opportunity. 28 Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need. 29 No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. 30 And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. 32 And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.

We are going to pause here for a moment to digest what we just read.

If you were here last week you would have seen this chart. (Show Cross Chart)

We see the darkened area below the line and that is sin that we are unaware of and the darkened area above the line is God’s holiness that we are unaware of. We said, last week, that spiritual maturity happens when we grow in our awareness of our sinfulness as well as our awareness of God’s holiness which happens when we are living in the light by the power of the Holy Spirit. There are two other truths that we can see in this chart that relate to what we just read.

First, as we become more aware of our sinfulness, the more we should we turning away from sin. As we grow in our awareness of our sin, the more pain we should feel we sin against God. We then repent for our sin and we turn from it and put it away. We don’t want anything to do with it because as we mature we grow in our disgust for our sin.

The second truth, the more we grow in our awareness of God’s holiness, the more we see God’s love for us. The more we see God’s love for us, the more we should be prone to show love to others. The passage we just read gives us a visual of what it looks like to mature. It gives Christians practical ways to live out their new identity in Christ.

In this passage we see Paul listing some things that we as believers need to put away or repent of and turn away from and then we see Paul giving believers examples of Christ-like living to replace what they are putting off. When studying this passage I see two categories of things we need to put away.

The first category that Paul tells believers to put away is lying. Now when we think of lying we usually think of a situation where we messed up and someone addresses us about it and we say a lie to get out of trouble. For example, during a lunch recess little Timmy pushes Johnny onto the ground and Johnny runs to the teacher and says Timmy pushed me to the ground. When addresses by his teacher, Timmy responds, I didn’t push him, he tripped over his own two feet and fell on his own. We would all agree that Timmy lied to his teacher.

There is another use of this word lying and it means living in falsehood. This is can be seen when you have a person who comes into church and it a two faced Christian. At church or around church people, they seem like everything is fine but the reality is that there home life is a wreck but for the sake of saving their reputation they put on this outer facade which is living in falsehood.

So what does Paul say to do instead of lying, he says speak the truth, each one to his neighbor because we are members of one another. This means that when we are in trouble for something we did, we need to take responsibility for our actions or if our life is a wreck we need to reach out to a friend or church leader and ask for help and be honest with them. Why? Because we are a community which means that we are people who need others in our lives to forgive us when we sin against them or people to help us when life gets hard, instead of worrying just about our own reputation or what people think of us.

Another aspect of lying is stealing. When you steal something the lie that you are living is that you have obtained something by honest means. If I steal a candy bar from the store, what I am saying that the candy bar is mine even when no financial transaction or gifting that took place. To say such a thing would be a lie because technically that still belongs to the store but you are claiming it for yourself. Or if you are in school there is something called cheating and plagiarizing. When you cheat on a test or plagiarize on a paper, what you are doing is claiming someone else’s work as your own. You are saying that it is your own work and knowledge but in reality it is someone else’s and you are stealing it. Paul says instead of stealing do honest work with your own hands, so that when you come across someone in need, you have something to share. The idea here is that instead of stealing something, work hard to so that you can have the means to obtain something honestly so that later you can share it as your own.

The second category is putting away sinful or divisive anger. Paul writes don’t let the sun go down on your anger and don’t give the devil an opportunity. Also he writes, no foul language should come from your mouth (which often results from anger) as well as, later is verse 32, let all bitterness, anger, wrath, shouting, slandering (or talking bad about people behind their backs), along with malice (or hatred) should be removed or put off. So instead of doing those things we rather be angry and don’t sin. How? by addressing the person who made us angry. How? the end of verse 29 says by saying what is what is good for the building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear it. Because the person who wronged you is in need of you forgiving them and showing them grace and so we add this with the verse 32 which says and be kind and compassionate to one another, why? because God also forgave you in Christ. Know what happens when we don’t do that? We grieve God’s Holy Spirit. We grieve the Holy Spirit when we have been shown love and forgiveness even though we are sinful, but when someone sins against us instead of forgiving, we become angry to the point of being divisive, demeaning, and slanderous. That is living a hypocritical lifestyle and that grieve’s God’s Spirit.

Transition statement: Paul is not done here with his instruction to the believers. He keeps going in chapter 5.

Read Therefore

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 5

5 Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, 2 and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. 3 But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you, as is proper for saints. 4 Obscene and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks. 5 For know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

What it looks like to Imitate God