Follow In Jesus' Steps
Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted
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· 5 viewsGod is committed to forming us, His children, into the image of Christ.
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God is commited to conforming you into Jesus’ Image
God would appreciate if you cooperate
6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
God will preform that work in you.
21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
You are an advertisement for the Lord and God’s salvation plan.
1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
Be ye therefore… pointing us back to previously discussed
We are to be different not imitating the world. In no fashion.
Putting off the old man - the Adam nature, carnal man
Put on the new man who is Jesus Christ
Be ye… - With your heart you have a choice, a will, a volition - we will wish we did if we don’t
Be, live, talk, walk like Jesus
The Grace of God is the power and desire to conform into the image of Christ and to follow the will of God.
The power and the desire to do what we should in any situation
If you and I live humbly before God, He gives us the desire and power to be what He’s created us to be and to do the will of God.
Follower = imitator of God as dear children
Boys like to imitate their dad - there is a natural desire to be like their father.
Story of children mimicking
God wants us to follow / or imitate Him
16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
The apostle Paul said something similar = imitate me.
How could the apostle Paul say that?
1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
All of us are to be imitating Christ and being an example.
Can you say that about your experiences?
12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
13 Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
You are supposed to be an example no matter what age you are.
Young should be an example to the older, the older should be an example to the younger.
Word = Doctrine, speech, seasoned with grace and truth - even in your greetings with one another.
We must get out of our little box and see that our words are important.
Are your interactions about you or about Jesus and others?
Conversation = behaviour, how you carry yourself; your demeanor; how you conduct yourself
11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Charity = in the expression of love and care for others
I love you, I appreciate you and your character
Spirit = your disposition; your attitude
Be like Jesus
How would Jesus spirit be
Faith = Moral conviction, your persuasion, your creed, your faith
Do others believe God more because of being around you?
Whose faith follow
Purity = Moral cleanliness, virtue, chastity
These are all qualities that we are supposed to be imitating as we look to Christ and modeling as others look to us.
2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
Imitate me by walking in love.
As Christ hath loved us… Imitating in a love that dominates us
Jesus gave everything - that’s what love does, it gives all
God likes when we imitate Christ with “i’m all in type of love”
Giving when we feel like it
Giving when it doesn’t cost
Giving when we have time for it
Giving when it doesn’t mess up our schedule
How much did Jesus give?
Love is sacrificial - It’s more than words
People need to see your love
Jesus love was sacrificial - our love should be sacrificial
Every single person here has blindspots
Well i’m only going to love those I like
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
You are not close to loving like Jesus unless you can love someone where they are at.
Our love should extend to those we don’t know personally
Our love should begin at the home
The greater I love you the greater I have the ability to love those outside this church
2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
There is a special aroma to God in sacrificial love
As Jesus died there was a sweetsmellling savor that God enjoyed.
There is a sweetsmelling savor that God enjoys as you love sacrificially
6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,
7 There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.
8 But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?
9 For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.
10 When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.
11 For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.
12 For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.
13 Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.
There was sacrifice on this woman’s part
There was expense that proved loved
alabaster stone
ointment that was saved for their own death
then she set that aside for Jesus
It was broken demonstrating how we are to love
It was filled with perfume and the aroma filled the house
As She was emptying Of her gift it was A love that fills the room
a broken vessel
Her love brought her to a place of offering
He loved us so we love Him
He loved us, so we can love others
Follow me
Imitate me
How do we follow how do we imitate = Love
3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
Sensual sins, impurity, greediness - what a contrast
When a man morally fails it is a wound to a marriage.
It is a damage to your spouse
The opposite of loving your spouse is giving yourself to someone else
The opposite of loving Christ is yielding to fornication, uncleanness, covetousness
God wants us to love Him but these things reveal we’re cheating on God
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Loving God with all our heart is for our benefit
15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
My eyes are Jesus’ eyes
My body is Jesus’ body
There is a soul tie that is damaging when you are outside the boundaries of marriage
This is for our benefit, we don’t want to sin against our own body
What a wonderful gift
Sinful passions should not
As we fall in love with Jesus we fall in love with the body of Christ.
If you don’t love the body of Christ, you don’t love Jesus.
Why don’t you be an example to believers