Walk as Children of God Pt 1

to the book of Ephesians, chapter 5.

Ephesians, chapter 5.

We continue on with our theme that we've been talking about, which is how we walk now that we know who we are. Now that we know who we are. And so we've been talking about this walk that we have. And I have to be honest, verses 1 through 21 of chapter 5, I have battled with how to break them down, whether I make them all individual messages, what I do. So I had lumped them all together

under one heading because I feel like as we move into chapter 5, he really picks up an entire theme that he'll break down three ways. And the theme that really we pick up in chapter 5 is that we are to walk as children of God. That we are to walk as children of God. But within that, there's going to be three things that he tells us about what it looks like to walk as children of God.

We are to walk in love. We are to walk in light. And we are to walk in wisdom. Again, I've battled with how to put all of those together, but I have decided to separate the three of them out. So for today, what we're going to cover is the first one, to walk in love. And so we pick up in chapter 5, verse 1, and this is what it says. Therefore, be imitators of God

as beloved children and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you as is proper among the saints. And there must be no filthiness and silly talk or courteousness or first jesting which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not be partakers with them. Interesting things that he ties together. Interesting things that he brings together to teach us to walk in love. So let's take each of them individually, shall we? The first thing he tells us is that we are to be imitators of God.

We are to be imitators of God. Notice what it says in verse 1. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. Now as always, when we see the word therefore, it causes us to look back at what we just learned. And that word therefore immediately links us with verse 32 of chapter 4, which says, Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ

also has forgiven you. And so from that as a springboard, he says, Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children. Well, how are we to imitate God? Well, as Christ, as God forgave us in Christ, so we are to imitate God in that same way as dear children. We are to be those who show inordinate grace to the people around us. Because that's what the idea of the word forgiven there means.

It means to show grace to those that don't deserve it. And that's what we are to be like as children of God. We are to be imitators of our Father. That word imitator is where we get our English word mimic from. It means to mimic somebody, to do what they do, to follow in their example. And of course, he tells us that we are to imitate or to mimic God as dear children.

Now, kids are fun, aren't they? I'm in the process of raising a couple of them right now, and it's always fascinating to know what they pick up on. It's always fascinating to see how they imitate you. Sometimes it's on purpose. For instance, both of my daughters know how to imitate me, and sometimes it's funny, and sometimes they get in trouble. But they both know how to imitate me

because they're around me a lot, right? And they can do it. My youngest daughter's really, really good at it, and my oldest daughter's more sarcastic about it. But either way, they both like to imitate me kind of as to make fun of me. That's not what's being indicated here. The idea of mimicking or imitating here means to by nature do what you have watched someone else do.

Now, I love, one of the things I love about working with young people is once I also get to know their parents because it explains so much about the way that kids act. I'm not really joking about it. Like, it's just true because, okay, so for instance, I used to work with this guy. His name was Lou Holtz, right? Worked with him up at Lakeview Village, and Lou's one of the hardest working men

I've ever been around in my entire life. But he was a strong-willed, passionate guy who had lots of quirks. We'll put it that way. Well, there used to be this thing, I don't know if there's still this thing anymore. I don't pay attention anymore to a lot of this stuff. There's bring your child to work. Do you guys remember when that was like a thing? I think it started as

bring your daughters to work, and everybody was like, can I bring my son? So it became bring your child to work. So we had those when I was at Lakeview Village. I was in my mid-20s at this point in time. No kids, of course. And so Lou brings his son, and Lou had all of these little sayings, right? They were just very unique to him. I never heard anybody else say them,

and we teased him about them sometimes because that's what guys do with each other. But his son comes in, and his son's sitting there, and literally has all of the exact quirky sayings. And every time he'd say one of them, all of us in the shop would just go, well, that's Lou's son. There's no way. I mean, I could see him in the mall without his dad around and hear him use those sayings and go,

do you know Lou Holtz? Because that's who he sounded like. He held his mouth like he did. He used the same sayings he did. He used the same expressions that he did because he would mimic what he had seen. That's what we're to be. We're to be imitators of God as dear children. Well, I want to point something out to you. You can't imitate someone that you're never around.

It's fascinating how that works. We tend to imitate the people that we're around the most. And so the things that you do are a really good indication of who you're around the most. That's why it's always fun to meet parents because you go, ah, you're who they're around the most because they act just like you. And my question for you is, if we're to be imitators of God as dear children,

who are you imitating? Who are you mimicking? Because it's who you are around the most. And if you're spending time with the Father, if you're spending time attached to the Son, abiding in the Father, abiding in Christ, then that's who you're going to act like. But if you're spending your time abiding in the things of the world, listening to the things of the world hearing all of the things of the world then that's who you're

going to imitate that's who you're going to mimic he says be imitators of god as dear children and i love that phrase dear children or as i think in this translation it says beloved children because it not only is the illustration of what we're to be like but it reminds us as believers in jesus christ of who we are that phrase dear children it's interesting to do a little word search through scripture and you'll find that one of the first ones to use it was jesus jesus used it often as he spoke of his disciples especially towards the end of his time on earth with them and then we see paul use it in his writings and then of course we get to john the beloved disciple who loved the phrase dear children you

because that's who we are as believers in jesus christ be imitators of god as dear children he goes on to say and walk in love just as christ also loved you and gave himself up for us as an offering and a sacrifice to god as a fragrant aroma we are to walk in love again not to belabor the point but the word walk means to order your behavior or order your way of life according to this that means that as we imitate god the way that we order our behavior should all be filtered through the governor of love it should all be filtered through the screen of love so that everything that takes place in our life is walking in love well if we are to understand that because the world has sort of destroyed this word and we'll

talk about that a little bit later in the message we should understand what the word love is used here because in the greek there are multiple words that are used in the greek word love is used in the words that are used for love one of the first main words that's used for love is the word eros it's where we get our word erotic from and it is more of a self-satisfying physically attractive sort of a love that's not the word that's being used here the second word that's used often in scripture is the word phileo it's where we get our word philadelphia from it means brotherly love it is a strong friendship kind of a love i would say that that is by and large what most of us have that comes somewhat naturally to us but then there's a third type of love

and that third type of love is almost an unattainable unachievable sort of love and that's the word agape because the word agape is a divine sacrificial love that will always put the needs of another ahead of my own because it is always looking out for what's best for another that's the word that's used here walk in agape walk in sacrificial love it's interesting to think phrase sacrificial love because again since it does not come naturally to us sometimes we need definitions for what this looks like so if you would go with me one place in scripture go to first corinthians chapter 13 first corinthians chapter 13 because paul gives us a perfect picture of what this agape love is supposed to look like and so starting in verse 4

of first corinthians chapter 13 it says this and i want you to allow your mind to really think about these words love is patient love is kind love is not jealous love does not brag and is not arrogant it does not act unbecomingly it does not seek its own it is not provoked it does not take into account a wrong that is suffered or may i say does not keep a record of wrongs it does not rejoice in unrighteousness but it rejoices in truth love bears all things love believes all things love hopes all things and love endures all things love never fails what does it look like to walk in love well it looks like this it looks like to walk in patience to walk in kindness to not walk in jealousy to not be a braggart or arrogant

it's like not acting unbecomingly or seeking your own or not being easily provoked or provoked to anger it doesn't take into account a wrong suffered it never rejoices in unrighteousness love always rejoices in truth to walk in love means that you will never fail now that's a difficult task to think about isn't it so go back to ephesians chapter 4 or excuse me it's ephesians chapter 5 it says and walk in love just as christ also loved you just as christ also loved you the example that he gives to us if what we read in first corinthians chapter 13 wasn't enough to make us go whoa that's a tall order the example that he gives to us is none other than christ himself now i want to throw a little qualifying statement in

because some have diminished the work of christ on the cross and they have diminished the work of christ on the cross to being nothing more than an example christ died on the cross therefore if you want to be saved follow his example and live a sacrificial life that's not what christ did on the cross he died to be our savior it's not something that we can mimic that's that's the one thing we can't mimic about the life of christ is we cannot be someone else's savior but while christ's death is not just an example for us it also is an example for us because christ in his life was an example for us he says just as christ also loved you and gave himself up for us as an offering and a sacrifice to god as a fragrant aroma

i want you to notice the words that are used of what it means of christ giving himself up for us it refers to it as an offering and as a sacrifice and as a fragrant aroma now if you're a christian you're a christian you're a christian you're a christian you're a christian you're a fan of leviticus like i am those words immediately stuck out to you right because those words are used often in the first five chapters of the book of leviticus as all of the sacrifices were being described whether they be the whole burnt offerings the fellowship offerings the sin offerings you name it they're all referred to as offerings and sacrifices and when those sacrifices and offerings were made they were all a fragrant aroma or a sweet smelling aroma

to the lord so that's the example that's set for us something that is pleasing to god by offering up oneself to the lord so how did jesus do this well he did it in three ways number one he laid aside his glory because jesus chose to come down and dwell among us to be our savior and to set an example and the way that he could do that was by laying aside his glory so that he could put on a human body the second thing that he did is he served sacrificially he served sacrificially think about all of the things that jesus did while he was here on earth all of the times that he showed up and sometimes he just wanted to rest for a little bit he just wanted to hang out with his disciples for a little bit but he chose to set himself aside and instead

to serve those that were in front of him and of course the greatest picture of this was when he washed the disciples feet when he took upon the form of the lowest bond slave and he washed the disciples feet he gave up his glory and he gave up his glory and he gave up his glory and he gave up his glory he served sacrificially and then the last thing is that ultimately he gave his life ultimately he gave his life what does it look like to walk in love well to walk in love looks like following the example of jesus well how are you and i to follow the example of jesus who laid aside his glory served sacrificially and gave his life well number one i'm to lay aside my pride you know the biggest thing that keeps me from walking in love is

pride there's a section that i go through with couples when i'm doing premarital counseling and it's the section on love and we go through the three words for love and we talk about the importance of sacrificial love and friendship love and all those kinds of things and i always ask two questions they're not my questions they're in the book that i use i think they're great questions first question is how will you make your love for your spouse a growing part of your life the second question is what are the three things that you're going to do to make your love for your main hindrances to you growing in that kind of love for your spouse well the first time i ever did

this ever took a couple through it was a really long time ago and and i actually filled out the whole workbook myself i remember coming to that and sat and pondered that for a little bit i thought what is the biggest thing that will keep me from loving my wife the way that i'm supposed to love her the top three things and all i could think to write down were these three words me myself and i because the thing that will keep me from loving anybody the way that god is calling me to in a sacrificial way is my pride because my pride will always force me to put me first my pride will always say me before you my pride will always say i don't want to do that because i'm not going to

lower myself to that level i don't have time for that that doesn't fit into my schedule pride is the thing that will always hold me back so if i am to follow the example of jesus who laid aside his glory i need to lay aside his glory and i need to lay aside his glory and i need to lay aside my pride number two i need to serve sacrificially i like the first word serve serve sounds good i can do that i can i can serve people as long as it fits my schedule as long as it's on my time the hard part about that phrase is the sacrificially part because none of us likes that you know what the hardest problem that we have in today's culture with commitment is it gets in the way of my me time you know something else came up that i would

rather do and i know i told you that i would be there for this but i'm going to do what i want to do instead nobody will ever actually use those words but that's exactly what's intended when we cancel on somebody it's the easiest thing in the world to cancel on people today we do it all the time but that's what we are as a culture is that people who do not serve sacrificially we like to serve on our terms but jesus jesus served sacrificially was never on his terms it was always on the terms of the people that showed up it was always on the terms of the people that were and so if i am to follow the example of love that jesus has set i need to serve sacrificially but

then the third thing that i need to do is i don't necessarily need to give up my life by dying for somebody but i do need to give up my life by dying to myself i need to give up my life by dying to myself and so i give of myself and i give myself wholeheartedly listen even though i know it may come back to bite me in the end that's the thing about serving sacrificially and giving of yourself is it may mean you get nothing in return it may mean you get no recognition it may mean nobody knows as a matter of fact it may mean you get criticized for it but that's a part of giving ourselves we are to love as christ loved us now i want to point something out to you because i just

gave us all a really tall task right that's very impossible in my flesh so how do i do that well i would like to remind us all of what we talked about in the book of galatians do you remember what we talked about the fruits of the spirit do you remember what the first fruit of the spirit is and what i think is the actual fruit of the spirit that finds its outworking and the other fruits that are mentioned for the fruit of the spirit is love agape love that means that as this is laid out for us and we say lord i want to walk in love just as christ also loved me and gave himself for me but lord i can't do that because i'm a really selfish person he says perfect you

have the desire you understand you're lacking you're lacking you're lacking you're lacking you're lacking now you come to me and let me do that in you that's the work of the holy spirit that's why when you see yourself starting to give of yourself you kind of go i would never have done that at one point in time in my life why because i'm a selfish person the holy spirit's at work in me the holy spirit's at work growing me in these things there is nothing that i enjoy more than watching a young person grow up and see them start to become somebody who will every now and then lay aside what they want and seek the best for somebody else that's when you know maturity is starting to happen the life of a young person and there's

nothing better than watching somebody grow in their faith to go from being somebody who is glad that they're saved but still living selfishly to somebody who is not only glad that they're saved but giving of themselves to somebody else because you go that's the fruit of the holy spirit in their life we are to be imitators of god and we are to walk in love now we come to a third thing which ironically takes up most of what we're going to talk about today because as we talk about walking in love he now tells us what it looks like to not walk in love because walking in love means walking in purity walking in love means walking in purity as a matter of fact the first thing he's going to tell us in verse three is the things that are not to be

named among us if we are to walk in love i want you to notice what it says in verse three it says but immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you as is proper for the saints must not even be named among you as is proper for the saints he tells us about three things that should not be named among us if we are to walk in love and the first one that is immorality immorality the greek word that's used there is the greek word pornea which is where we get our word pornography from and it is an all-encompassing word as far as immorality is concerned it involves all forms of sexual immorality including heterosexual and homosexual including sex outside of marriage including

voyeurism or the viewing of pornography it deals with any kind of immorality and he tells us that immorality should not be named among us now i want you to ask yourself a question he's teaching us about love why on earth if he's teaching us that we are to walk in love as christ has loved us and as he offered himself as a sacrifice and a pleasing aroma for us what on earth caused him to jump all the way over to immorality i want you to think about the world that we live in today what's the overused word the world that we live in today that's used absolutely in the wrong context it's the word love as a matter of fact what's the major slogan that we hear today love is love indicating it doesn't matter what you call love it doesn't

matter who you choose to love the important thing is that you love and it always involves sexual immorality right and we've and we've watched this degradation take place in our society there's nothing new under the sun it's always taken place but within our society we watch this degradation begin to to take place and we hear it in music and we see it in the culture and all of a sudden we hit fast forward with how fast we're going with it and now now immorality is what absolutely encompasses our culture in just about every way possible in just about every uh class of people possible we we see it in the things that we tend to be the most upset with right we have seen the homosexuality be rampant and we've seen what it's done to to our young

people and we've seen what it's done to our culture we've seen transgenderism uh as it has run rampant and we've seen what it's done to uh to our kids and to our kids and to our children culture and to society in general. But I want you to think about the things that we don't always talk about. I want you to think about all of those that are living with pornography addictions and what it's doing to our culture and to our society. I want you to think about those that think that they're totally okay because they're living with their significant other apart from any kind of a marital commitment and they think, well, at least I'm not a homosexual or at least I'm not doing this. You know, my sin's not as bad as theirs. And we forget that all of these

things are a problem. Adultery is on the rise in the culture. Oddly enough, divorce is not on the rise in the culture right now. But do you know why? Because the number of people getting married tends to be less and less. As a matter of fact, within the church, I believe there are as many people living together unmarried as there are outside of the church. Because we've

lost our bearing. Because we have been those who have become hardened to the sin that is around us and we're no longer shocked by it, right? I talked about this last week with the bad language in movies, but I remember when I was a kid, there was a show that started to come out. And I still, to this day, have never watched an episode of this show. It may not be as bad as some of the

things that are on TV now, but I remember there was a television show that came out and it was incredibly controversial. It was called NYPD Blue. Do you guys remember when that came out? One of the most controversial. I mean, there were petitions that churches were signing. And now you look back and you go, I think that's on like Nick at Night now or something, right? Because of

the things that are on TV. But I remember that being a really big deal. Because you can't allow that to happen on TV. I remember as a kid watching Nick at Night because I wasn't old enough to watch things like the Dick Van Dyke Show and stuff growing up. And you know what always struck me? Is it, or Mary Tyler Moore, no, Dick Van Dyke Show. Those two never slept in the same bed. They

married and they slept in separate beds. And I remember thinking, that's weird. Why are they sleeping in separate beds? My mom and dad don't sleep in separate beds. That's weird. Why do they do that? You know why? Because there was a form of morality at that point in time that said, we don't even want it to be named among us. But people are thinking that that's what's going on. And now

Jesus comes soon, right? I mean, it's just, there's some craziness going on on TV. You don't watch TV after 10 o'clock, right? Unless you want to be embarrassed. As a matter of fact, I can't even hardly watch a sporting event with my daughters without being like, okay, let's not watch the commercials right now because none of us need to watch that because of what goes on

today. But these are the things that are going on in our culture. And these are the things going on in Paul's culture. That's why he said, but immorality shall not be named. He goes on to name a second one, or any impurity. Literally, it says, and impurities of any kind. The word impurity means uncleanness, filthiness, or immoral behavior. In other words, if he didn't cover anything with the word immorality, he covers it with the word filthiness.

And then he comes to a third one, and that's greed. It's interesting to throw that word greed in there. The word greed also means covetousness, which is a constant desire for more. Now, typically, we don't want to be called impure. We don't want to be called impure. We don't want to be called impure. We don't want to be called impure. We don't want to be called impure. We don't

always attach this word greed or covetousness to two things. We usually attach it to either money or material things. And that is a really good thing to usually attach it to. But when we look at scripture, we also must bear in mind the context. What's the context that's being spoken of here? Walk in love. Don't walk in immorality or uncleanness or greed that involves immorality

or uncleanness. In other words, we find the downward spiral that once you start giving into, if your life is matched by those two words, immorality or impurity, there is a greed that always comes along with it because there is always a desire for more. I think the thing with sin is we tend to think to ourselves, if I just give in this one time, it'll deal with my cravings. And then I won't give in anymore, right? I read a diet plan that went along with this.

I usually institute this diet plan, although not the whole thing, right? Check this out. I follow this. I get emails from this thing called NC Fit, right? And it gives you all these dieting and workout ideas. And the diet idea was this, eat a donut in the morning and you will lose more weight. Now, I read a line like that and I'm like, count me in. Let's read the whole article.

I feel like I will devour every word of this, just like I devoured the donut I just ate, right? So here's the principle, okay? You ready for this? So the principle is this. They put all these people on the same diet. So they put a baseline together, right? They kept half of the people on the exact same diet. No, no. They took half of the people and said, you can eat whatever you want to now,

now that you've reached kind of your ideal weight, you can eat what you want to and we'll see how you do. And then they put people on a diet. Where they ate one donut first thing in the morning and then kept up with the diet for the rest of the day. The people that ate one donut in the morning and then kept up with the rest of the diet for the rest of the day lost more weight. The idea is that you curbed your cravings by giving

into them in the morning and then you've got the rest of the day to sort of work that off and eat properly because you've already dealt with your cravings. I remember thinking, yeah, I should try that. So I did. You know what? after I ate a donut in the morning? I wanted more later in the day. Matter of fact, I bought extra for myself that day. I was like two sprinkled donuts and a chocolate.

That's right, I ate sprinkled donuts because I'm still five, okay? Two sprinkled donuts and a chocolate donut, just in case. I haven't done any good with that whatsoever because I find that once I start giving into my cravings, you know what I want? More of the same craving. And that's the way it is with sin. Once we give in, we just want more of the same craving.

And so he says, these things should not be named among you. Now, I want to point out what he says here about this being named among you. When he says, let them not be named among you, literally what he says is, don't discuss them. Don't discuss them. Now again, I want to point something out that I think we all need to pay attention to. It's one thing to give in to sin.

It's a whole other thing to read about somebody else's sin. If you notice what we really like to do in our culture, we like to read about everybody else's sin. And we like to hear about everybody else's sin. And whether we like to admit it or not, it's because there's a certain aspect of us that lives vicariously through everybody else's. We love to pay attention to other people's lives, right?

I've been trying to determine all week whether or not Travis Kelsey is really dating Taylor Swift, right? I'm just, that's a joke. I don't really care one way or the other, but that's what everybody's talking about right now, right? And we love to know what's going on in everybody else's life. And then, the scandal happens. And what do we do when the scandal happens?

Tell me more, right? Only what happens when we start reading about the sins in other people's lives? We start thinking about the sins in other people's lives. When we start thinking about the sins in other people's lives, what do we have a tendency to be dwelling on? All of that sin. Where does sin start? It starts in the mind. Therefore, he says, let them not even be discussed among you.

Don't sit and have conversations about the things that are going on in the world. Well, you know what I heard is happening right now. No, don't do it. He says, let them not even be named among you. Why? Because that is what's proper among the saints. You should talk about the things that are proper among the saints. Which brings us to the second thing that he deals with

in this aspect of walking in love means purity. And that's unloving talk. Notice what he says. And there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather the giving of thanks. Again, he deals with the way that we talk. I want to point something out to you. Have you noticed this is the second time in two weeks that we've talked about

the things that come out of our mouth? This is the second time in not very many verses that he discusses the things that come out of your mouth. It's almost like the words that come out of your mouth are really important. The things that come out of your mouth, are an important thing for us to pay attention to. He says, and there must be no filthiness. The word filthiness literally means obscenity.

I tried to look up the word obscenity and like as usual, it called it that which is obscene. So I think we all get the idea of what obscenity is. It's anything that is gross or disgusting that comes out of our mouths. All of the things that come out, whether it be the, the, the, the swearing that comes out of our mouth or in this particular instance, the gross talk that comes out of our mouths.

Again, I worked in construction for a very long time and I worked around some very rough talking guys and I mean to tell you, there's just nothing quite, nothing makes you feel quite as bad as hearing a group of guys talk about women. As, as hearing a group of guys talk about who they think is attractive. It's, it's an awful thing. And man, I'm talking to us, specifically right now.

It's one thing when the, when the men of the world do it and I don't like it, but it's a whole other thing when the men of the church do it. And I think that we need to know and understand that, that these things are not to be among the men and women of the church. As a matter of fact, we should be concerned if the things that are coming out, coming out of our mouth are obscene, are filthy in their nature. Because he says those things, that's not what should be coming out of your mouth.

He says, but all obscenity. And then the second thing he says is, silly talk or foolish talking. Now again, this can just be empty-headed talking, but within the context, we understand that it's empty-headed talking that carries with it a coarse nature. And then that brings us to the third word, coarse jesting, coarse joking. What are the things that we laugh at?

What are the things that we say? What are the jokes that we tell? Again, I talk to men mainly on this because we are the ones that tend to be a little bit worse about this than the ladies. We tend to be the ones that tend to joke a little bit more coarsely. But ladies, I'm not going to leave you out because I promise you, I have been in some rooms with some women

where I have blushed because of what they've said. And I'm going, dude, I don't even talk like that. Like, I don't know very many guys that talk like that. Like, that was something. I'm kind of surprised that that, that came out of your mouth. And it's, again, a sign of where the culture is today when that's the pervasive part of who we are. He says, these things ought not to be who we are.

These things should not be coming out of our mouth. And again, we should put on it that governor that we talked about last week. The governor that we should put on is, does it build up? Does it impart grace? And so how do we keep from talking that way? Well, he says, instead, or but rather, verse four, thanks, the giving of thanks. Let me give you another word.

Instead, praise. How do we change the way that we talk? How do we change the things that come out of our mouth? Has the things that have come out of your mouth always been somewhat obscene? Well, it's time to turn all of those words into praise. Let the words of your mouth and the meditation of your heart be acceptable to God by praising God in the things that come out of your mouth.

Because if you are always praising, praising God with the things that you say, it's really hard to say obscene things. It's really hard to say bad things. I will never forget Mark Fry telling a story up here. And he said he was driving down the highway and somebody was driving really dangerous, whipped around him, cut him off, caused him to have to slam on his brakes.

He said, and all I could think was, God bless you. He said, because that was the only way I could keep from saying anything obscene at that point in time. You see, that's what that means. Rather, the giving of thanks. Rather, the praising of God with the things that come out of your mouth. And so, walking in love means purity. There are some things that should not be named among you.

There is unloving talk that we should not take part in. And then we come to the reason why. For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. For this you know with certainty, no immoral person, we've already discussed what that is, no impure person, and no covetous man.

I want you to notice how he refers to a covetous man. A covetous man who is an idolater, because the things that we want the most, the things that we crave the most, tend to be the idols in our lives. Those people, they have no inheritance, they have no inheritance in the kingdom of God. They have no inheritance in the kingdom of God. The people whose lives are marked by those things

have no inheritance in the kingdom. And that's an important thing for us to pay attention to. Because as believers in Jesus Christ, our lives should not be marked by those things. Because that's what the world around us is marked by. We need to know and understand something. That when we come to Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we have to forsake the sin. We have to leave behind the sin.

We can't have it both ways. Because the people living in the world, the people living with their lives completely wrapped up in the sexual sinful things of this world, they have no inheritance among the kingdom of God. And that should do a couple of things for us. It should purify our lives and give us a desire to get the truth out. He says, these things, these will not inherit,

the kingdom of God. And so, it is first of all a word of warning to us as believers in Jesus Christ. You should ask yourself a question. What are the things that come out of my mouth? What are the things that go through my head? What are the things that mark my life? Is any of this a part of who I am? Because if it is, I need to start questioning where I really am in my walk with Jesus Christ.

Because if these are the things that I'm living by, then these are the things that need to change. If these are the things that mark my life, then these are the things that need to change. And if these are the things that mark my life, then these are the things that mark my life. And brothers and sisters, I'm here to tell you right now, this may not sound like a message for the church, but this is the message for the church.

Because sexual sin is what marks our society. It's what identifies our society, and it should not be what identifies the church. Unfortunately, within the church, the secret sins run rampant. The secret sins run throughout many people, and they're not coming forward, and they're not confessing their sin, and they're not abandoning their sin, and they're not, and they're not forsaking their sin.

Instead, they're living in it. And as they live in it, they're living in the guilt that goes along with it. And so this is a word of warning for believers in Jesus Christ. I believe this is also a word of warning for anybody that were to be watching online, sitting in here, or perhaps comes to second service, that if that's what marks your life, it's time for you to come to Jesus.

That if that sin is what you are caught up in, then it's time to come to Jesus as your Lord and Savior. But I also want to mention a third thing here, because the third thing I want to pay attention to is this. Don't allow this to be a word of condemnation on your life. Don't allow this to be a word of condemnation on your life. I always know that whoever I talk to,

whatever group of people I talk to, there's always going to be somebody who's battling it with this area of sin. And with this area of sin comes the deepest condemnation, because you know that immorality, impurity, and greed should not be what marks your life. You know that you've put your faith in Jesus Christ, and yet you have found yourself trapped in sin. And you want to get out, but you can't.

I want you to know that there is freedom in Christ. I don't want you to live in condemnation because He still loves you. I don't want you to live in condemnation because He still wants you to repent. I don't want you to live in condemnation because you can still come to Jesus and be set free. But it starts by coming to Jesus, and confessing your sin. It starts by coming to Him and saying,

I know that this isn't what you want from my life. I know that this isn't what you have for my life, and I want to walk in freedom. And know and understand that the same blood of Jesus Christ that brought you to faith is the same blood of Jesus Christ that now cleanses you from all unrighteousness. The second reason why is this. He says, verse 6, He says, let no one deceive you with empty word.

For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. He starts off by saying, let no one deceive you with empty words. Well, who's deceiving? Well, there were two different groups of people that were deceiving believers in regards to this type of sin in the early church. First of all was the outside world. The outside world, especially in Ephesus,

said this is all fine. It was a part of their worship. It was a part of the way they lived their lives. Statesmen took part in this kind of sin. The lowest of the slaves took part in this kind of sin. You name the person, this sin marked the culture that they live in. And so just like the world today, they would say, hey, it's not that big of a deal. And the world would deceive them to say,

hey, maybe it's not that big of a deal. But let no one deceive you. It's that big of a deal. But you know, there was a second group of people that were deceiving people in the church. And that group was within the church. That group was known as Gnostics. And Gnostics had this idea. The idea is that the material world is evil. Our bodies are evil. And so as long as our soul belongs to Jesus,

it doesn't matter what we do with our body. So I can sin however I want to with my body because it's eventually going to be destroyed as long as my soul belongs to God. Friends, we call that licentiousness. Right? But don't, don't those two things sound like exactly what's going on today? The world around us is saying, it's not that big of a deal. Everybody's doing this.

You need to be the authentic version of you and quit being held back by those awful ideas that the Bible has. You're being kept in bondage to wrong ideas. But do you know that there's another thing going on and it's within the church? And within the church today, they're saying, we need to expand our borders. We need to make a bigger table because we know more than they did back then

and we know that that's not actually what was being talked about in Scripture. That those ideas about sexual immorality, that those aren't actually what's being talked about in Scripture. We know more than you do. We know more than they did back then. I'm not making this up. This is what's really being said. And within the church today, we've started saying,

you can live how you want to as long as your soul belongs to Jesus. And actually we say, you can live however you want to as long as you're a good person. As long as you're good outweighs your bad. As long as you make sure you give to the poor and every now and then feed somebody that's hungry. Other than that, you can live however you want to. But brothers and sisters,

we need to realize, let no one deceive you. Because of these things, wrath is coming. Upon the sons of disobedience. The last marker for the fall of a society are sins of this nature. We saw it in Sodom and Gomorrah. We saw it with the Canaanites that the children of Israel came in and took over. You saw it with the Roman Empire. We're seeing it with the United States of America.

These sins are the marker of the end of a society. Why? Because these sins are what bring about, the wrath of God on the sons of disobedience. Therefore, verse 7, therefore, do not be partakers with them. Therefore, don't be partakers with them. Brothers and sisters, we are to walk away from immorality so that we can walk in love. The things of the world will always lead us to sin.

They will always lead us towards self and pride and self-centeredness. The things of Christ will always lead us to love. So if the Holy Spirit's gotten a hold of your heart this morning, and as Jared comes up and leads us in this last song, I just want you to take that time to confess those sins to the Lord and allow God to do the work in our hearts that needs to be done so that we can walk strong with Christ. Amen?

Let's all stand.

And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come to you. And Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you for how good it is to our souls. I thank you for how good it is to our spirit. And Lord, would you continue to draw us near to you. Father, I pray that we would be able to walk in love as you have called for us to. And so Lord, I just pray for that fresh filling of your Holy Spirit right now.

A fresh filling in our lives as we empty ourselves of sin. May you fill us with you. And so Lord, continue to do your business in our hearts today. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

That outlasts darkness and hope that's in the blood. This future grace that's mine today. That Jesus Christ has won.

So I can face tomorrow. What goes in your hand. All I need you will provide. Just like you always have.

Sing about.

No matter. No matter what comes my way. I will.

I don't know what you'll do. But I know what you've done. Cause I'm fighting a battle for anyone.

There's mercy in the waiting. And I'll fall today. When it's gone. I know you're not in state. The sea is raging. Your spirit is my heaven. Fix my eyes on Jesus Christ. I say that it is well. Oh, I know that it is well for anyone. No matter what you do. But I know what you've done. I'm fighting a battle with you again.

You're my savior. You're my savior. You're my savior. No more fear in life or death. My savior. My defense.

No more fear in life or death. And I know how this story ends.

For anyone. No matter what comes. What you'll do. What you've done. I'm fighting a battle. I'm fighting a battle. Oh, you've already won.

Lord, we know that you've already won the battle. Lord, we know in the end, you win. That you've already won, Lord. So help us just to rest in your victory. God, help us to rest in your victory, Lord God. I pray that as we leave here today, I pray that your spirit go with us and continue to lead us in the right path. And continue to minister and work on our hearts.

We love you and we praise you in your precious and holy name. All God's people said, amen.