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You're listening to audio from Faith Church Indy.  This fall, we're studying the book of Ephesians,  learning about the new life that we find in Christ.  Now here's the teaching. oh Our scripture today is from the book of Ephesians chapter 5, verses 1 through 7. Therefore, we imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a frequent offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among the saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this.  that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of God, 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 become partners with them. This is the word of the Lord.  Good morning. Good to see you all and be together. Good morning. Good to see you all and be together.  I'm Jeff, one of the pastors here at Faith.  Glad to be able to get into God's Word with you today.  Hey, as we start, I want to ask you a quick question.  Who did you copy? Who did you look up to when you were growing up? Was there somebody that uh you tried to emulate that you wanted to look like?  Maybe, you you like to  play with grandpa's work gloves or or you put on dad's suits, or you wore mom's shoes, or tried on her makeup.  For me, my older brother, Brad, was probably the biggest influence in my life.  He was the cool older brother that I always looked up to. He was smart, he was funny, he was handsome, he was athletic.  He was kind of a second dad to me in a lot of ways, someone that I  wanted to be like.  So whatever sports Brad was playing, those were the sports that I wanted to play. I remember trying on his football pads at one point. He's like six years older than me, so like I'm swallowed up in these pads and this big helmet, right?  Whatever teams he liked were the teams I liked. The New York Mets or the Texas Longhorns.  Whatever comedians Brad thought were funny, those were the guys that  I liked.  We used to watch old MASH TV episodes together.   and then quote the lines back and forth to each other until we drove our mom crazy. I spent so much time  with my brother.  I tried to dress like him. I tried to act like him. I ended up picking up his mannerisms, his way of speaking.  In fact, I got so good at it  that when I was in my late teens, early  20s, I would call up our mom,  and this was back before caller ID, right? And see how long I could get her to think I was my brother. before she'd finally say, oh, Jeff, you did that again.  Each of us, each of us, you know, has people that we look up to, people that we try to emulate,  people who shape us, people who have made us  who we are. Who are those people for you? Maybe it was parents, maybe it was siblings, maybe friends,  maybe the culture around us, because the reality is the world around us probably shapes us more than we'd like to admit. We are  all who we are because we learned how to be who we are from  someone else. Who are the people that shape you? People that you look like, that you speak like, that you  act like? I think what  Paul wants us to see in this passage is it just like Jesus, God's children walk in selfless love. We are called to imitate  our older brother Jesus and walk in selfless love. If you haven't already, turn in your Bible suit, Ephesians chapter five.  It's on page 20. If you have your scripture journals for Ephesians.  Pastor Tom took us through the end of chapter four last week and just introduced these first couple of verses which he recognized which we said are kind of bridging verses. They're transitional between what Paul has covered before and what he's  getting into now. And  as we get into chapter five in Ephesians,  you're going to see over the next few weeks there's this repeated theme, this repeated phrase that Paul brings up of walking. Here he says in verse two, walk in love. little bit later, he's going to say,  walk as children of light and then  walk in wisdom. Now walking is not about moving our legs and going in a particular  space. It's about a way of life. It's about what characterizes us and defines us.  In the Bible, walking is often a picture of just our whole life and the direction that we're going and what defines us, whether it's  sin and disobedience and immorality or whether it's righteousness and holiness and obedience. God calls us over and over again in scripture to walk in his ways to look like him.  We heard remember way back in the Old Testament Enoch  walked with God walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you. We walk by faith not by sight again not  literally right like that would be a really bad idea. I you know.  We literally walk by sight, but you get the idea, right? Paul has  urged us  just recently to walk worthy of the calling that we have received. And now he urges us to  walk in love. first three chapters of this book, remember, Paul has given us this amazing big vision of who God is and all that he has done for us in Jesus Christ. how he has made us his children because of his grace as a gift that we receive by faith. So how do we walk in a way that aligns with that that reflects who God is and what he's done? What does it mean to walk in love and imitate God? I want to spend just a couple of minutes on this. God Paul says be imitators  of God. So what is God like? Well, for example,  in his first letter, John tells us that God  is  love.  1 John 4, this is how the love of God was demonstrated among us, that God sent His Son into the world that we might live in Him. This is love. Not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God  is  love. And whoever abides  in love abides in God. Love is so  central to God's character. John even says it  is who God  is. And so it's not surprising then that Paul tells us to be imitators of  God to walk in love. Now, this is not love in some sort of generic sense of just trying to be a nice person and letting people go ahead of you at the four-way stop intersection, right? Look at how Paul defines us. Verse two, walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. It is a self-giving love. Paul's saying this is what the nature of God is. It is seeking the good of others.  Even or especially at cost to ourselves. That's what we're called to imitate.  As God's children, because the children that the father loves  want to be like him, just like when we were kids and we  tried to walk in our dad's two big shoes or our mom's shoes. We walk in the footsteps of the one we're trying to imitate. Jesus gives himself sacrificially for us. He shows us the love of God. And so Paul is saying, therefore now walk in that same kind of love that you have received. Because just like Jesus, God's children walk in selfless love. So  what does it mean to walk in love? Paul starts than with sort of a negative example. we walk in love, what does that mean? First, it means  mostly  not in immorality. We walk in love by avoiding turning away from immorality. Look in verses three and four. But sexual immorality, all impurity, or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness or foolish talk or crude joking which are out of place. But instead let there be thanksgiving. Those who  walk in love, Paul says, put away practices that don't reflect what God is like, that don't reflect Jesus' character. See, do you get the connection here? The contrast. Paul is saying God is self-giving love. And it's in contrast to what the world calls love. Christ loves sacrificially. And the things Paul is talking about here is what we might call love, but it's selfish love. Let's look at that. Two contrasting ways of life. Immorality.  Immorality is selfishly pursuing gratification, often at the expense of another and always  at the expense of God's glory. Now, the Bible tells us we were created male and female to  join together in a physical depiction of a spiritual, emotional, relational union.  And Paul is affirming over and over that physical intimacy in marriage is a wonderful blessing and a gift of God. But the world has twisted sexuality into a perversion of what God intended it to be. People pursue lust and emotional attachment and physical pleasure, often without any concern for the other person involved, their heart, their soul. We're concerned about satisfying our desires. We end up taking advantage of others and degrading ourselves. And Paul is affirming what the Bible consistently teaches that any sexual expression outside a marriage of a husband and wife is immorality and includes our thought life, indulging in lustful fantasies and an impure imagination. It's a kind of selfishness, Paul says, because self-control and self-discipline show love to one another. impurity, Paul goes on to talk about, which is just a broad category that would cover  any kind of sin that stains us, that gives a wrong picture of what Jesus is like in the life that God intends for us.  Covetousness,  Paul talks about it  as a word that we probably don't use a lot  in our culture much anymore, but it essentially means a lack of contentment with what we have. and an endless  drive to have more, to be discontent.  Later, Paul goes on uh in verse uh five to call covetousness idolatry. So it's this idea of putting ourselves and our desires at the center of what we want and what we do.  spending all our time on ourselves and what will make us happy and what will please us. There's no  love even in doing good if it's about checking a box, especially so that I can feel better than other people. Greed, covetousness, causes us to take advantage of other people and  hoard for ourselves. selfishness and self-indulgence in fact ultimately end up becoming destructive as Paul will explain a little bit later. To walk in love though means to be content with what we have and look for ways to share it with others.  We've been blessed, my wife Amelia and I,  to have a roof over our heads,  never have to worry about where our next meal is coming from and usually to have family to share holidays with.  And we know that's not true of everyone. And for many years, my wife Amelia has been very intentional to look for people who don't have family nearby, who don't have those blessings to invite in to share Thanksgiving dinner with us. I she's developed gifts of hosting and  baking and  cooking, and  she's  grown a heart to serve others and to look out for those who don't have what we have so that we can bless them with what God has. entrusted to us a home and food and an ability to welcome people in.  Maybe that could be something you could do if you haven't done that before. Maybe you could look for ways to share a  dinner with a brother or sister who doesn't have family around because we're a community that looks out for one another's needs. If you have a healthy body,  you could take part, for example, in the Wheeler Mission Turkey Trot coming up in a couple of weeks. It's a way to  raise funds for serving needs  of the needy in our community.  We partner with other ministries in the community like Shepherd and Good News and Life Centers to provide help and hope in the name of Jesus. That's what God's people do. We serve and give generously because we know how richly that we have been blessed and how it is all an undeserved gift of God's grace. Paul is saying, listen, life is not about how much I can get. It's really about how much I can give for the good of others and the glory of God. And in that, I trust that there will be enough for me.  Paul goes on to mention filthiness and foolish talking and  crude joking, uh coarse joking in verse four, which are out of place.  God's concerned not just with what we  do, but  what we  say that can either harm or help people. Vulgarity describes what is  shameful, foul language that shames or embarrasses or degrades others. Foolish talk is language that has no benefit to anyone. doesn't build anyone up. It doesn't encourage them. It doesn't inform them. It doesn't help them. It makes no sense. It's literally the language of fools.  So think about all that the Bible says, particularly in Proverbs, about what a fool is. And Paul says that kind of language, encouraging that kind of behavior, celebrating it is no part for God's people. Course jesting, humor that's in bad taste, dirty talk, double entendres, you know, with a nod and a wink. Why do we do that? Paul says, why would we do that? I think it's related to this idea of a contrast between selfless love and selfish love. We want people's approval. We want to be in the in crowd. We want to be cool. We want to be not thought of as, you know, stick in the mud or prude or whatever it is. And so we go along with the  jokes and the vulgarity and the coarse language because we don't want to be on the outside. We don't want people to think what their one of those narrow-minded Christians, right? And so we, in a sense, are  loving people by going along with the humor, but it's actually selfish. Because we're degrading them and degrading ourselves and other people in the process. Walking in love, Paul says, means that we recognize our words have an impact on people, even if they're not in the room. Because it matters the way we talk about people  who aren't even there. Do we use our speech to make ourselves look good in other people's eyes to get something from them?  Jim Miles grabbed me after first hour and he told a story about uh walking with a co-worker one time and Jim was starting to tell a funny story and this co-worker said, oh you and your clean jokes. Wow, what a statement, right? mean, one, what a great thing to be known for.  What a great thing not to be known for. Oh, you're one of those people that doesn't tell  vulgar crude jokes all the time. What if that were true of us? Like, what a great thing to have someone say about us. Because Paul's not condemning humor. It's the abuse of humor that he's warning us. Don't be afraid to be labeled at work or at school the person that doesn't tell coarse jokes or doesn't want to hear crude  language. Don't make a show of your righteousness. It's not what's at play here, but you don't have to go along with it because just like Jesus, God's children walk in selfless love with a concern for what my language does to other people. We don't separate ourselves to the point where we can't reach people who don't know Jesus.  But there does have to be a separation regarding immoral behavior and speech. Because it doesn't fit with God's people and there's also a danger to it. Look in verse five. You may be sure of this. That everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous that is an idolater. has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ than God. Let no one deceive you. Because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience. This  impure, unclean person that Paul talks about is  one whose actions are an offense, whose life reflects a rejection of God's will and character and holiness. The term  impure immoral is used in fact in the New Testament of unclean spirits or demons that Jesus drives out of people. Such a person is an idolater, Paul says, because life revolves around what I can get and what I can get from people and what I can build up for myself.  All expressions of selfishness and self-focus, exalting yourself, taking  whatever you want that seems good to you. There's a warning here. There's a warning for  anyone who hasn't come to Christ. This is a life that brings wrath and judgment and God warns us of that because He  loves us. Those who live this way show themselves to be children of disobedience. disconnected from God. There's a warning here, I think, for us as well. Those who claim to know Christ. There's a danger  for some apparently of living in a way that contradicts  what we claim to believe about Jesus that I've been saved. I've been rescued that I'm no longer slave to those things and Paula saying so don't put yourself back in slavery to those things. How can you live that way? That's what you were freed from. Apparently some were either in the church or in the world around them suggesting that you could be a Christian and live this way. It makes no difference how you live. God loves you. That's the world we live in. And Paul is warning us against that. The danger of a life that professes Christ but shows no evidence that the Spirit is actually changing you or reflecting in you what Jesus is like.  The world that we live in, the media around us, entertainment industry creates illusion and perversion and wants to pass it off as truth.  And our society, the world around us is constantly telling us that immediate pleasure is the goal of your life. and denying that there's any danger to it. In fact, celebrates it as good. And Paul warns us that there's a widespread deception and a message that the world is telling you that says if it feels good, you should do it. That's what life is. And Paul says that's actually what death is. God works all things  for the good of those who love Him, who are reconciled to Him through His Son. but he will work wrath and judgment for those who hate him and reject him and refuse to submit their lives to him because God is loving. Because he is loving, he protects the weak, the vulnerable, and the innocent, and therefore he judges and will punish the arrogant, the selfish, and the destructive because he is loving. Oh, don't let that be true of you. Don't live in a way that's going to invite God's wrath and judgment on you. You can be reconciled today to Jesus  simply by saying, I want to turn from that life  and come to know God's forgiveness. And I want Jesus. I want to look like him. I want him to change my life. People whose lives are shaped by self-focus, Paul says, are idolaters, self-worshipping, and it should not even be named among God's people, he says. How we live matters to our own well-being as well as to the well-being of people around us. That's why Paul is saying walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us. That's what it means to be  new. To reject that, to walk in a different kind of life is a denial. It's a rejection of the life that Jesus has died to bring us into. and that He's offering us. It's not about earning salvation. It's just about recognizing that God does not condone sinful destructive behavior. Jesus has not saved us to set us free to hurt people and selfish sinful lifestyle. Verse seven, therefore, don't be partners with them.  Don't think that you can connect that with a life that's oriented towards Jesus. Remember, Paul says back in the end of verse six, that the wrath of God is coming on the  sons of disobedience. You remember hearing that phrase? Does that ring a bell at all? Back in chapter two, remember? You once walked in sins and trespasses in the way of this world, following the spirit that is at work in the sons of disobedience. Do get what Paul's saying here? The connection. Look, you used to live that way. You've been freed from it. How could you go back and walk in the way that God has rescued you from? How could we be partners with that kind of rejecting and disobedience to God? There's another  repeated term here. Remember back in chapter three, Paul writes about this mystery that us, Gentiles, the non-Jewish people are now heirs  with the Jews, partakers in  the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel. Partakers sharing, right? Paul is saying don't be partners, don't be partakers, don't share in...  what the lost world is doing in regard to vice and immorality  because you have come to share in Jesus. You are a partner in what  God has done through Christ. So live out of that partnership, out of that fellowship. Don't let people deceive you, Paul says, into thinking that sin is somehow normal for God's children. Yes, we all stumble. We all fall short of God's glory. But God has saved us and changed us to be a people who  strive against that pull and against that drive with all the power that God provides so that His life, His love would flow out of  us in a self-giving way that looks like Jesus. Just like Jesus, God's children walk in self-giving love. So how do we do that? How do we actually arrange our lives in a way to help make that happen? Because  like probably all of us here, I mean, I'm here because I love God, but I mean, there's also a part of me that loves to have more stuff and loves to have people's approval or the short term pleasures of sin. How do  I grow in a way that keeps God at the center so that I'm loving him more than I love those things? How do we  see through the lies and the temptations of the world and the desires inside of us? One commentator shared this, thought it was so great. We will not reflect what is not present to us. And we cannot copy what we do not see. We will not reflect what is not present to us, and we will not copy what we do not see. In other words, what motivates our obedience is not  knowing the right thing, but being aware of God's presence and who He is for us.  This idea back in verse one, be imitators of God. Does that sound a little overwhelming to anyone else? Right? When it stays up in the abstract, right? Because it's so huge, it's so big. It's overwhelming in kind of a theoretical way. But the experience of God's grace and love to us is what makes that imitation possible, even natural for us as God's children. See, what I'm trying to get at is when our attention is shifted to God, when our attention is shifted to something greater than ourselves, we can escape the trap of self-interest and a short-sighted vision. The more that we focus on Jesus, the more that we see Him, the more that we remind ourselves who He is and what He's done for us, the more that we reflect and meditate on God's truth and God's love. We're going to grow into actually living that out, right? Our kids  would tell me when I  spent time with my brother Brad, they would say, man, when you're around Uncle Brad, you sure sound a lot like him. That's what Paul is getting at here. The more time we spend with someone, the more we become  like them.  Our awareness of God's presence with us, our meditating on His grace and His truth and His goodness is what shapes us into actually living that out ourselves. Be imitators of God as beloved children. I mean, we just start there, right? Remind yourself you are a  dearly loved child of God. You're not here by accident.  Your life is not a series of  random happenings. You have been saved, you have been rescued, you've been brought into God's family. because of God's love for you at the cost of his own son.  in order to bear the family resemblance. We can walk in love the more that we see how Christ  loves us. Does that make sense? Like the more time we spend reminding ourselves, reflecting on soaking in Jesus' love and grace and  telling the story, reminding ourselves of how we've been blessed  and what gifts of grace He's given us and what promises we have.  the more I'm empowered to actually reflect that kind of love to others. You are beloved, you are a dearly loved child of God. There is nothing that God is holding out on you. You already have God's approval and God's smile, so we don't have to run and try and get it from other people. Verse four, instead, let there be thanksgiving. How many ads do we see in a given day, a given week? What is the message  of all the media and the ads that we see? You're not enough, and you don't have enough. That's what it all comes down to. And the more that we soak in that, that's going to shape our hearts and our lives, right?  But what is appropriate, what is freeing and life giving for God's people is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a core attitude, an antidote to the dissatisfaction, to the grasping, to bitter and unfruitful and destructive speech because Thanksgiving and selfishness cannot live together in the same space. Thanksgiving and selfishness can't live in the same space.  Gratitude, contentment, diffuse selfish desires. And Paul is encouraging us to reflect, to meditate, to remind ourselves  the outpouring of God's love, the beauty of Jesus, that His glory. God made us to enjoy what He's created. He's not some cosmic killjoy. He actually wants us to enjoy it in a way that is life-giving and freeing. Just like Jesus, God's children walk in selfless love and what empowers that, what fuels that is gratitude out of a reflection and just reminding ourselves of who God is and what He has done. I grew up with two older brothers, so I didn't have any experience growing up around girls in my home. But I will tell you that about the age, you know, nine, 10, 11, 12, when boys start going through change, start hormones are course, and we start growing towards adulthood. Teenage boys stink, okay?  I did when I was that age, my mom had to remind me to actually take a shower and  Axe body spray does not cover a multitude of sins and  maybe it's true for girls too, again, I didn't grow up with sisters, but  I certainly know it's true for boys. And walking into a junior high boy's locker room or bedroom, yeah, you guys know, right? That it's not a sweet smelling aroma. Right, it's stinky because it's unselfaware, it's kind of selfish, right? Like, well, this is just my smell, take it or leave it. Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant  offering and sacrifice to God.  Selfless love  smells sweet. It's beautiful. It's  life-giving for ourselves, for the people around us.  And Jesus is saying, that's the kind of love I've saved you, the life I've saved you to live in. Out of. thankful hearts as God's children aware of all the good that he has given us so that out of that awareness our lives could actually be like Jesus's  a fragrant offering of sweetness and refreshment and blessing and joy  to people around us. We're here to build one another up as we speak the truth and love. Because Jesus people want to look more like Jesus. We want to be a church that's full of people that want to look more like Jesus. Are you thankful? God has delivered you from an empty way of life of selfishness and destruction. be imitators of God and walk in love as God's children. Let me pray for Father, thank you so much for these reminders from your Word. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Oh Jesus, we need more and more to see you, to be reminded of your grace, your goodness, your love,  so that out of gratitude, our lives would be full of  selflessness. There's a sweet aroma of your love to others. Oh Jesus, help us see you more and more. Help us walk in obedience and the power of your Spirit. to the glory of your name that we would be a blessing to others, trusting that as we do that, we'll be a community that does that for one another and we won't miss out on anything. And that what you have for us, Jesus, is so much better than what the world can offer.  Thank you, Lord.  Thank you for engaging with our community by checking out this podcast.  If you would like more information about our church and ministry, you can find us at faithchurchindie.com.