Ephesians 6 Living Gods Commands

Worship Songs

Joy to the World George Strait Version.

Better is one Day

Who you say I am

Prayer for All

Good morning, friends, today we are wrapping up our series in Ephesians with chapter 6. During our journey through this letter Paul wrote to the believers in Ephesus, we have gained instruction on how to love.....(short recap of previous lessons.

Today we will examine the ways God is using Paul to build up the Ephesians with these final preparations for a successful Journey of Faith. He is instructing them in the “how” of Christian Life. The verses we will look at today will give us a picture of what relationship with God and people will look like once we are called to do it his way. We will examine the horizontal and Vertical relationships, and Gods calls us to as Christians about how we should live this out and to answer the “why” Paul is giving them this instruction. I believe in all the things we can discuss the Why is most important. The how and what becomes secondary to why. We will see how relationship ties the ability to instruct others and the importance of such relationships when it comes to interacting with people and God. We will see in the following verses Paul commands the Ephesians to live out Gods call on their lives and then we will explore how it fits into our modern day life.

Let’s grab our bibles and read Ephesians 6.

6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise—3 “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” h

4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.

9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

The Armor of God

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

Final Greetings

21 Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. 22 I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you.

23 Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.

Simple to understand harder to live out.

Inspired by God Paul understood the importance of these principles and recorded them for all of us to gleam.

The New International Version Chapter 6

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise—3 “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” h

4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Obedience to Parents and Father don’t exasperate your children bringing them up in the training and instruction of the lord.

Direct Family Relationship

While encouraging those in faith Paul highlights the dos and donts’ of Fathers and Children so that that things will go well for both. Paul has the insight thru his personal encounter with God to see what makes horizontal relationship work well. In these first few verses Paul is calling Children first to be obedient to their parents, as it is one of the commands he has given us in the Old Testament. He calls Fathers to obedience before God the father as he instructs them, don’t exasperate your children but bring them up in the lord meaning living a godly life and teaching them to live a godly life thru our actions. Paul is asking children to uphold reverence for their parents so that things will go well for them and they may enjoy a long life here on earth. An incentive if you will. As kids we love our fathers and want to please them. Fathers Paul holds above the children as does God, and because we as men are called to lead and be head of the household we carry more responsibility. When we it comes to the actions we as men choose to take we are held in higher regard by God. I spoke of this in my last sermon about the fall and how Adam was not the leader God called him to be with his wife. The same holds true here. Here we see what God is doing thru Paul to teach the Ephesians what a picture of a Godly life looks like for men and children.

The New International Version Chapter 6

5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.

9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

Indirect Relationships

Obedience, Respect , Serving with a servants heart.

Respectful treatment of “slaves by Masters

Slave- Dulos. Greek

He is calling his people again to live in obedience to God the Father, Respect one another even in slavery to the master the servant and vice versa. God has no favorites and this is why he is calling them to this. God calls us his people and he knows us by name. Paul is calling masters not to lord over their slaves but instead be like the lord Jesus Christ and love all people unconditionally. Who did Jesus love? The thief on the Cross? The woman at the well? The woman caught in adultery? You and I in our sin today? Paul uses Christ obedience to the Father as a picture for both slave and master to follow. Christ completed the work on the Cross in obedience to the father and is enjoying a great reward for it. (Sitting at the right hand of his Father). He is the greatest slave because he was obedient to his father not for the reward but for the fellowship with him. This is a great picture of what relationship should look like with all of us. Being in obedience to the God the Father brings us to good standing with him not for works based results, but because of relationship based teaching, Its all about the vertical relationship first with God the Father and then with Man to man face to face. If were not right vertically how can we be right horizontally?

The Armor of God

As we move into these next verses 10- 17 we will see the jest is to Protect our selves against the evil forces of this dark world. He makes it clear in verse 12 the battle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil in the Heavenlies.

The New International Version Chapter 6

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

What happens when we don’t put on the full armor of God? How do you and I react when we are tempted to allow the flesh to react to any situation. There is a powerful dark spirit alive in this world therefore we need to follow Paul’s advice when he suggests we put on the full armor of God

Lets look at Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:12-17. These verses describe Satan’s fall from heaven and the reality that he is alive and well in this world. The fight we are in is not of flesh and blood but of the darkness of the underworld. I was made more aware of this by Mr Derek Prince who is now in Heaven who did a 4 part lesson on Recognizing Satans Kingdom.

We experienced the evil that can take place here on earth over Thanksgiving. We had the opportunity to share the truth about how Jesus might handle a personal situation. We were not successful. There were some lies and gossip being said about other family members that were not present to defend themselves, witch caused a conflict to arise. In the moment of the time when I could have stood up for them and the truth I chose to leave the situation and not address some deep rooted issues that were causing some overwhelming emotion. We went to apologize the next day after leaving everyone in a quandary the day before and were attacked again by a family member. This went on back an forth over the phone for 2 more days while we were there and ended in no reconciliation. This is the enemy working against us thru this family member. The enemy hates when you expose truth but he also loves seeing family pitted against each other and will use things like this all the time to bring us Christ ones down. This is pure evil at its best breaking up relationships and using conflict and disagreements to pit one against the other.

Paul was very aware that we are in a world controlled by “powers of this darkness” He understands we will never win wrestling with Satan because we would have to go against god to wrestle satan. He uses the analogy ,of the time, doing battle in a war and refers back to it as a way to get the point across to them. This is spiritual War we are fighting and it is real and more real than anything we can see in this world. Now what are we going to do to fight this Battle? We are called as Christians to fight for what is right. Lets read

The New International Version Chapter 6

14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Belt of Truth, Breast plate of Righteousness, Feet fitted with readiness of peace, Shield of Faith and the helmet of Salvation,, Sward of the Spirit.

This is the picture of Christian warriors dressed in their spiritual war clothes. Even though standing firm looks a bit different to all of us, Paul gives us a clear picture of what is should look like. There is no way to win fighting this battle in our own flesh. He gives us the clothes we need to wear to be successful in the battle. What happens to a Warrior when he takes part of his battle gear off? How protected is he? Can you say vulnerable?

I believe Paul knew they would understand his point better if he related it to them in terms they understood because war and battles were a real thing. If we have all of these tools at our grasp to use and don’t put them on how do we win for Jesus?

Had we been better clothed in the spirit I believe we could have handled our situation better and Jesus would be getting win today.

Paul instructs them to Pray in the Spirit on all occasions.This is how God our father intercedes for us as we ask his help to fight our battle for us. Its here we that we see the “Why” is all about the relationship with him in the beginning. Gods desire is to see his children with shalom, a Hebrew word meaning at peace with each other, while making that peace be something that’s not just there to keep, but a peace where relationships thrive. If we’re willing to call on him to do battle for us he knows we are rooted in him and he will gladly go to battle for us. We just have to be diligent in asking Him to help us while we stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around our waist, the breastplate of righteousness in place, and our feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, true peace (shalom) all while taking up the shield of faith to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Paul reminds them the word of God is the Sword of the Spirit . That is what keeps us grounded in his truth so we know how to tell evil from good. If you give it a little thought we have a huge advantage over non believers because we have the unchanging,everlasting, longstanding truth of Gods word to rely on.

In the closing of his letter Paul tells them to be alert and keep on praying for all of the lords people. Paul asks for prayer from the Ephesians 6:18-20 again as he has a heart to get the Gospel to all who do know it. He knows we all live in this fallen dark world. My opinion is Paul has seen a glimpse of heaven and he wants everyone to be able to experience Gods unending Love like he has.

The New International Version Chapter 6

21 Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. 22 I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you.

23 Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.

Philippians

The last thing Paul leaves them with is that he is sending Tychicus to them because he’s in prison and he ultimately cares about his people there and obviously feels a sense of relationship with them. This last verses speak Love to these friends of his with relationship being the key. Again I point out the "Why” behind all of his instruction. It is very obvious he has built a great relationship with them and one would think they knew he had their best interests at heart..

In closing we covered a lot of information in this brief amount of time and I want you to walk away today with something that will stay with you this week to pray on and ponder. The battle is real! it is not of flesh and blood, its against the spirits of the dark world. When ever you get a minute I challenge you to stop and pray for one another and the the things and people we prayed for today. It can take a lot of prayer to get thru the spiritual walls of satan but God will hear our prayer and bless this church and its people. We are living in the darkest of times today and I believe we need to be sharing the love of Jesus Christ with anyone who will listen more now than ever, so we need to be light that shines in these dark times.

(In this season of advent “becoming aware” and light, let us look into our own hearts. Where have we been, where are we at with ourselves, others, and Christ AT THIS MOMENT. Today we have the opportunity to humble ourselves as followers of Christ and partake in communion, the elements representing the body and blood of Christ....) We practice open communion here at Gateway Community church. If you have placed your trust and faith in Jesus christ as your savior and proclaim him as lord of your life then you can partake in Communion based off of Mathew 26:26-29

26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Worship song

Even So Come

Prayer out!