You're very welcome to today's Triumph Church podcast.
We pray that you enjoy the message.
Well, this morning we're going to be finishing our series on
the book of Ephesians. You know, we're on chapter 5
this week, but I want you to notice as we dive into this
chapter today that the apostle Paul is not just giving us
doctrine here, all right? He's actually giving us the how.
How do you walk this out in your life?
And I think that's where a lot of believers struggle.
That's where there's a gap. I see in God's word some things,
but how do I how do I walk that out practically in my life?
So today we're going to talk about that gap and what
Ephesians 5 says about closing that we're going to begin in
verse one and verse 2. If you want to turn there in
your in your Bibles or we'll have it up on the screen behind
me here. But in verse one, Ephesians
chapter 5 says imitate God therefore in everything you do
because you are his dear children, live a life filled
with love, following the example of Christ who loved us and
offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.
So Paul begins this chapter really with a massive statement,
doesn't he? He begins chapter 5 saying to
imitate God. A statement like that would make
religious heads just turn around, go mad, go crazy.
Paul says that we are to imitate God.
Paul is saying that we're not just to believe in God and we're
not just supposed to come to church on Sunday, but we're to
imitate him in everything that we do.
The, I guess, label Christian, right?
Christian means Christ, like, so if you're a Christian, if you
call yourself a Christian, what should be evident in your life,
right? The apostle Paul said follow me
as I follow Christ, right? What are we supposed to imitate
in our lives? What should people see in our
lives? Not Pastor Bradley.
I want them to see Christ. I want them to see God in my
life. When they talk to me, what do
they walk away with? When we're in fellowship
together, when we're around one another and they walk away, what
are they taking away from being around me?
Is it something positive? Can they say that person has
been with God? Pastor Bradley, he knows Jesus,
right? Can people say that?
That's what I want them to know, right?
We're imitating God, and that's evident in our life by the fruit
of our life, what we say, what we do, how we live, right?
So we're going to talk about three things this morning that
the Apostle Paul mentions in this chapter.
The first thing is walking in love.
The second thing is walking in light, and the third thing is
walking in in wisdom. And then the latter part of this
chapter is kind of talking about the husband and wife and things.
We'll come back to that another time 'cause I'm not wanting to
do a, a marriage series right now.
We're talking about the first part of this chapter.
But Paul opens this chapter with the most fundamental command in
the Christian life. Imitate God, follow Christ's
example, and walk in love. And I want you to understand
something here. Paul's not talking about a
feeling. You know when the world defines
love, when the world talks about love, right?
They just define it as a feeling.
You know Boston sings a song more than a feeling, right?
You want to know Boston, but the world defines love as just a
feeling, as just a, an emotion. You know, well, I, I don't feel
anything in this relationship anymore.
And because I don't feel anything in this relationship
anymore, that must mean that I no longer love you anymore.
And so we're just going to sever this could be a, a marriage,
could be a friendship, It could be anything.
We're we're not supposed to be people that are ruled by our
emotions, right? Our emotions are wild.
How many of you felt really happy and joyous to wake up on a
Sunday morning, right? Any hands?
If you're normal, right? I'm just kidding.
If you're normal, you don't feel like, like sometimes it's really
weird. Like you, you have a dream and
that dream is your reality, right?
While you're dreaming. And then you wake up, your alarm
goes off and you wake up and you're like, oh, oh, right, that
was a really good dream. Snooze, 10 more minutes.
I was really enjoying myself, right.
If we're, if we make decisions and live our lives based on how
we feel every single day, how we feel from minute to minute to
hour to hour, we are going to be have these incredible highs,
these incredible lows and our life is going to be chaos.
We're not supposed to live by our emotions.
Love is more than just an emotion that you have.
It's more than just a feeling. The Apostle Paul is saying to
make an intentional decision to walk in love.
Like that's something we have to purpose to do because not
everyone is lovable. Are they right?
Why are you laughing? Are you laughing at me?
I'm not always lovable. I know that not everyone is
lovable, right? We have to make that decision to
love that person in spite of them acting unlovable, don't we?
Love is something that we're purposeful and intentional to
do. It's a direction that you have
to choose every single day, and it determines what you think
about others. It determines how you treat
others, determines how you speak to others.
Because you've made a decision in the morning.
I'm choosing today. No matter what anyone does, no
matter how anyone treats me, no matter what anyone says, I'm
choosing to walk in love towards those people.
Why? Because I'm imitating God, the
Bible says that while we were sinners, while we were enemies
of God, Jesus came. He wasn't ruled by his emotions,
was he? Jesus on the cross said, Father,
forgive them because they know not what they're doing, right?
He wasn't ruled by his emotions. He was purposeful and
intentional in his love. Paul goes on to say in Ephesians
5 and verse 2, he says live a life filled with love, following
the example of Christ who loved us and offered himself as a
sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.
You choosing to walk in love is doing what Christ did.
Imitating Christ. You're sacrificing your feelings
in order to love someone else, right?
Because sometimes it's justified.
I'm not saying that it's not justified that you would have a
right to be angry with someone, that you wouldn't have the right
to act or react towards someone. But that's not what Christ would
do. And He's asking that in spite of
how they are acting, you would lay your feelings.
You would lay your emotions at the foot of the cross just as
Christ did. And something really interesting
in chapter 5, I'll just say really quick, the apostle Paul
in talking about a husband and wife relationship, he says
husbands love your wife as Jesus loves his church.
Well, what did Jesus do for his church?
He sacrificed his life for the Church, right?
So, husbands, what are we supposed to do in a
relationship? We're supposed to sacrifice our
lives, our wants, our needs, our desires for our wives, right?
We're supposed to be willing to lay down all of our wants, all
of our desires, all of our needs, and meet our wives.
That's what Jesus did for the church, right?
Husbands, love your wives. This is a whole different thing,
you know, but it goes across the board for everything.
That's how we're supposed to respond toward others.
Jesus is giving an example. Love others as I have loved you.
Love your enemies. Jesus taught about.
They're not very lovable, are they?
They're your enemy. But Jesus says to love your
enemies. And in fact, he goes to say pray
for them. That's an act of love when you
pray for your enemies, not Lord, bring fire down on top of their
heads, right? That's not what I'm, that's not
the prayer that I'm talking about.
All right. Pray that God would bless them.
Pray that the Lord would open their eyes.
Pray that you would be an example in their life of God,
even in spite of how they're treating you.
I'm not saying it's easy all the time.
Sometimes it's incredibly difficult.
Sometimes it takes every ounce of strength that we have to
react to someone in love when we don't want to.
But that's the example that Christ gave us, right?
My point is this is that we've been made in the image of God
and we carry His nature on the inside of us through the new
birth. Romans 5 and verse 5 says, and
this is the hope that will not lead to disappointment, for we
know how dearly God loved us because He has given us the Holy
Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.
You have God's love on the inside of you.
He's poured that through the Holy Spirit into your life.
All you have to do is make the decision that by the Holy
Spirit, you're going to tap into that and He'll help you.
Sometimes you have to pray. Lord, help me love this person.
I'm really struggling with it. Like it's OK to be honest with
the Lord, but the Lord will give you the strength to be able to
love people that are unlovable. Amen.
Let's move on to verses 8 through 11.
Here Paul takes the love thing and now broadens it into
something equally as powerful, which is walking in the light in
Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 8 through 11.
Let's read through this says for once you were full of darkness,
but now you have light from the Lord.
So live as people of light, for this light within you produces
only what is good and right and true.
Verse 10 Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.
Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness.
Instead, expose them before Christ.
You walked in complete spiritual darkness, didn't you?
Ephesians 212 explains this, and it says that this is because you
were living without God and without hope.
But that's not the situation that any of you hopefully find
yourself in anymore. Now you have the light from the
Lord, but God's expecting you now to walk in it.
And one part of walking in light is casting off.
Paul says the works of darkness, Those used to be a part of our
life without Christ. But Paul's now saying to expose
those worthless deeds of darkness in your life.
Once you've exposed them, then you're supposed to uproot those.
Don't just cover them up. That's really simple, but it's
only a temporary fix. Weeds come back when we don't
properly pull them up by the root and I'd bought some weed
killer this time of year. We live on some property and
there's weeds that pop up everywhere all over the the
property and that's a lot to try to maintain.
So every every year I buy some weed killer and I go around the
entire property, different parts and I spray like all the weeds.
You know, I did that. I don't know, early last week
and over a couple couple days, you know, a lot of the weeds
around started to die. Could see them Browning, could
see them, them withering. But there is ones that I had
missed, right? They're bright and green and
they're thriving. They're doing really well.
It's like, ah, man, I missed a whole bunch of weeds, so I had
to go around on all those weeds and, and, and spray those, you
know, but the purpose of of that is, is I'm trying to kill those
weeds. I don't want them in my yard, in
my garden. I don't want them in my
property. I don't want all these
dandelions who are going to, you know, bloom and blossom and then
they have, you know, all the seeds that blow all over and it
just makes a whole bunch more dandelions all over.
I want a nice garden, right? I cut the grass because I want a
nice garden, so I but I have to go around and and get rid of all
of these weeds. Well, part of walking in the
light is, is those when you walk into the light, things are
exposed. And that's a good thing.
You know, for us who, who are trying to, to follow and imitate
God and, and follow the example of Christ in our lives, like we
want those things that are, are a hindrance between US and him.
We want those things removed. We need those things uprooted to
take those things out, because if not, it's going to cause an
infestation and it's going to cause that, that separation.
And we're only going to be able to get so close to God because
we have all of these things in our life.
So when we draw close to God, those things, things in our
lives are going to be exposed. But that's a good thing.
And when those things are exposed, then ask for God's help
to attack those things and pull them out from the root.
But you do a good job. When I was little, my dad would
send me out into the garden to weed, and sometimes I'd just
pull them. I didn't even care about the
root, but I didn't realize what I was doing to myself because I
didn't do it right the first time.
Well, guess what? Those weeds came back and the
next weekend, guess what I'm doing again?
I'm having to weed again. My dad's like, you know, you
don't have time to do it right the first time.
You don't have time to do it right the second time, but you
have time to do it right the third time.
Like just do it right the first time so you don't have to keep
doing it. So when we draw close to God,
there's going to be things that are exposed in our lives.
Just deal with it right then and there instead of it being a a
problem, something that we keep having to deal with through our
life. But there's another aspect of
walking in the light. Have you ever heard the song
This Little Light of Mine? And I remember singing it a lot
of times in children's church. You know, this little light of
mine. I'm going to let it shine.
Is that anyone know that one? Everywhere you walk, you're
taking the light in the presence of God with you.
Everywhere, no matter where it is, you're taking the light in
the presence of God with you. Jesus said this in Mark chapter
4 and verse 21. Then Jesus asked them, would
anyone light a lamp and then put it under a basket or under a
bed? Of course not.
A lamp is placed on a stand where it's light will shine.
And we have some some blinds here.
But if all the lights went out in this room, it'd probably be
pretty dark, wouldn't it be? Imagine there weren't any
windows in this room. If the lights went out, it would
be complete pitch black, right? And everyone would be sitting
there in their seats. OK, what now?
Right. And then I take my, my phone and
on there, I turn the torch on my phone.
And that light illuminates the room, doesn't it?
And everyone now knows where Pastor Bradley is standing.
He's standing here with his torch.
And we can all be directed out the exits very simply to safety
wherever we go. It may be dark, but you are that
light that leads people to safety.
And listen, not everyone is going to go, not everyone is
going to follow, but you're being that light.
You're giving people the opportunity to come to that
light, aren't you? You know, there's a the
percentage we and our discipleship group that I was
doing this past week of sharing with a group of men.
And I'm like, when you the statistic is that people
typically hear the gospel 7.4 times.
I don't know where the .4 comes from, but 7.4 times before they
actually make a decision to yield their life to Christ.
So someone rejected Christ the first time, the second time, the
third time, the 4th time, the fifth time, the sixth time, the
7th time, and then the point 4th time that they heard the gospel.
They finally decided to yield their life to Christ, but they
rejected Christ seven other times, Right?
Our job is actually not to lead people to the Lord.
Jesus never said in his Great Commission go into all the world
and lead people to me. No, He said preach the gospel,
right? That's our job to be a light to
preach the gospel. And those people will make a
decision to either reject God in his word or they will make a
decision to accept him. That's between them and God,
right? That pressure is not on your
shoulders. You don't have to lead someone
to the Lord, you just share the gospel and maybe you're the
point forth person after 7 rejections that you have the
privilege of actually leading someone to the Lord.
How amazing that you're going to get to heaven and you have
someone else there with you high fiving you, giving you a bump.
Thanks so much for being a light.
That's our job is to be a light in a dark room.
That's it. Walking in the light, wherever
you go, you have the light of God inside of you.
You know, the Scripture greater is he who's in me than he who is
in the world. So it doesn't matter how dark of
a place that we're in. Listen, I've been in places in
this world where people who are demon possessed are manifesting
that demon inside of them. All right?
I've been in some dark places. Have you been in a place like
that where you've had people, you're sharing the gospel and
all of a sudden people jump up screaming like deathly demonic
screams and start like convulsing and throwing
themselves on the floor? Have you been in a place like
that? That's darkness, right?
That's a dark place. But listen, when you share the
gospel, some people, demons don't want you sharing the
gospel. There is tremendous power in the
gospel message. That gospel message changed and
transformed all of our lives here, right?
There's power in that message. It's foolishness to the world.
People run from it. People run to it, and demons
react to it. They hate it, but listen,
because my friends and I were in that place of darkness and we
were a light. There was a lot of those people
who were demon possessed, who got freed from those demons in
their lives and gave their lives to the Lord, became Christians,
joined God's family, decided to reject that darkness and decided
to accept that light. But you know what?
There was some people that chose.
They wanted that darkness. They liked the darkness.
They were OK living possessed by a demon.
That's not my decision. It's up to them.
They're either going to choose to accept the light or accept
the darkness that's between them and God.
But I'm going to be a light. God told Joshua this as he was
going to be leading Israel into the into the promised land.
And Joshua chapter 1 and verse 3, God told Joshua, I promise
you what I promised Moses, wherever you set your foot, you
will be on land that I have given you, all right?
Wherever I set my foot, wherever these feet go, how beautiful are
the feet that share the good news?
In Ephesians chapter 6, it says, right, How beautiful are the
feet that share the good news? Because these feet, when they go
on a place, the Lord's given me that land, right?
I'm going there, right, to make an impact with the gospel.
I'm sowing seeds of God's word. You know, there's the movie
Braveheart, you know, and there's this crazy Irishman that
comes over and he says, this is my island, right?
Well, that's what I say. I step on my feet on this
island, Ireland, and guess what? I say?
It's my island, right? Because where I put my feet, the
Lord has given me, right? Not that I take possession or
I'm going to become the tea shock or anything, right?
It's not what I'm saying. I'm saying spiritually, I'm
working step by step with God. We're in partnership together to
share His gospel, to share the good news so that people will
come to the light of Him. Some people are going to run,
some people are going to run to it, right?
I'm just going to do my part and one step at a time, taking
territory. Now let's get to our Third Point
here. Walking in wisdom, and I think
this is one of the most practically challenging things
for us is to walk this out in our life.
Ephesians chapter 5 and verses 17 or 15 through 17 it says so
be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like
those who are wise. Verse 16 make the most of every
opportunity in these evil days. Don't act thoughtlessly, but
understand what the Lord wants you to do.
So Paul begins by saying these two things.
Be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like
those who are wise. Paul says be careful how you
live. And if we're honest, I see many
Christians not really living as careful as they probably should.
They're not walking in wisdom. I see many believers live still
trying to have one foot in the world, 1 foot in that darkness,
in one foot in the Kingdom of God, in that light, right?
One foot in darkness, 1 foot in light.
Well, that's a strange place to be, and it's not a really
attractive place to be. Jesus actually said in the Book
of Revelation, I would rather you be hot or cold, right?
Because you can tell what someone is if they're hot after
God, right? They're passionate about their
relationship, about God, they love God.
Or if they're cold, they just flat out reject God.
They reject the God like you can tell where they stand, right?
But someone who has 1 foot in either place, it's kind of
difficult to place. Are you, are you a Christian?
Like you, you were a Christian on Sunday, right?
But it's Wednesday now and you're living like this way.
I, I really can't tell, like what place you're at in your
life. And Jesus says that if a person
is like that, that it actually makes him want to vomit them out
of his mouth. Like that's, that's how God
feels about it, right? The world calls those people
hypocrites, right? That's living like a fool.
That's not walking in wisdom. It is very difficult to be a
light, to imitate God, to follow the example of Christ when we
have a foot firmly planted in this world.
Alright, listen, I understand. We're tethered to this world by
this body. We all live in this world, don't
we? Like, is there anyone who's
spirit here likes my Can my hand pass through anyone?
We all live in a body, We live in a flesh.
We all live on this planet we call Earth, don't we?
Right. So we're in this world, but the
Bible says we're not of this world any longer.
We're living our lives differently.
We're living to a higher standard, a standard of God
instead of the standard of the world.
You know, you have the story of the prodigal son.
You know, the, the, the world lives in a, in a way, in a
manner that that's just defiling to themselves.
That's not how God wants us to live.
We're we're, we're a child of God.
And we talked about in Ephesians chapter 1 how we've been given
an inheritance. We have such an amazing
inheritance. We're supposed to live from that
position in God, not the position of this world.
It's such a lowly position. The apostle Paul says this in
Two Corinthians, chapter 6 and verse 14.
He said don't team up with those who are unbelievers.
How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness?
How can light live with darkness?
And here's the point of this. It's foolishness to think
walking in darkness as a Christian.
Well, please God, it's insulting to the sacrifice that Jesus made
to free you from the slavery of sin.
And I know that's a little bit heavy, but I'm trying to make a,
a contrast here. I'm trying to, you know, like we
talked about last week, the purpose of, of church, the
purpose of, of a pastor in your life is to equip you, is to help
you to push you forward in your walk with Christ, to help you
triumph in this world, in this life.
And sometimes those things mean we have to have like real
conversations. You know, there's times with my,
with my children that, that I've had to have different
conversations with them. You're acting a certain way.
You know that's not an appropriate behavior.
When we go out in public, this is how you should act, right?
You've had those conversations with your children, I'm sure
too, right? So sometimes in church, we have
to have conversations. It's not that you're acting this
way. It's not that I'm saying that
you're acting this way. It's just a conversation that we
have so that we're all on the same page because we're supposed
to do 2 things, preach the gospel and make disciples.
My hope is, is that all of us in this place are going to get to
the point or be at the point where we're going to be able to
disciple someone else who we've led to the Lord or has been led
to the Lord. And, and they start coming to
this church and we need someone to start, start sharing with
them things of the word of God. Because I can only go around and
talk to so many people. I'm only one person, right?
I need you. So it's important that we know
these things so that you can then disciple someone else in
the ways of God's Word too, right Then the apostle Paul says
this in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18.
This is an interesting scripture.
He says don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your
life. Instead, be filled with the Holy
Spirit. Isn't that an interesting thing
that he's comparing that he's linking 2 things together?
The Holy Spirit is amazing. You know when people, when
people drink and they go out to the, to the club, the nightclub
or whatever and they feel good for a little bit until morning
comes and then they feel horrible.
The Holy Spirit doesn't have that effect at all.
He's such a blessing to your life.
But being filled with the Holy Spirit is really the key that
unlocks everything here. If you want to walk in love, you
need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
If you want to walk in light, you need to be filled with the
Holy Spirit. If you want to walk in wisdom,
you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus, before he went to the cross, was preparing his
disciples and telling him and explaining to them who the Holy
Spirit is going to be in your life.
I'm going to be sending him to you soon.
I don't want you leaving Jerusalem.
I don't want you stepping a foot outside of the city and hell.
I send the Holy Spirit, and the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to
be your helper. That's what Jesus called him,
the Paraclete, the one that comes alongside of you to help
you. He helps you walk in love.
He helps you walk in light. He helps you walk in wisdom.
Don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.
It's the Holy Spirit who helps you walk in this, trying to do
this all on our own power. Like you can read the Bible,
right? And you can say, and OK, I need
to do that in my life. But a lot of times we just trip
up and we are not really able to do that.
But the Holy Spirit, he's sent to be your helper to help you
walk in this in your life. He's the one that comes along to
empower you, right? Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus sent him to be your helper, to lead you to guide you
through this life and help you walk in the light of God's Word.
Now let me give you some practical steps here that you
can walk in this week. Here's what walking in love,
walking in light, and walking in in wisdom looks like in real
life. All right, if you have a paper
and pen, you can write these down.
If you have a a note app on your phone or tablet, you can write
these down. OK, the first thing is to start
every day in the morning time when you wake up, while you're
doing your hair, while you're doing your makeup, while you're
brushing your your teeth, while you're eating your breakfast.
Start every day by speaking God's word over yourself.
Who does God say you are? Say that over yourself.
Say it out loud. I am a child of God.
I am the light of the world. I am filled with the Spirit of
wisdom. Speak over yourself what God is
speaking over you. All right, Align your mouth with
His word. Align what you're thinking with
His word. Another thing is choose love
before you respond, before you reply to the difficult text,
before you react to a frustrating situation, ask
yourself, what does love look like here?
Like these are practical steps. You know, my mother used to say,
if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything
at all. Like that's a conscious decision
that we have to make. I'm really angry right now.
I'm going to say something wrong.
So I'm just not going to say anything.
I'm going to count to 10. I'm going to take a deep breath
while I'm doing that, I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, help me to respond to this in love, right?
Practical steps expose darkness by shining light, not by loudly
condemning it. But your life is a testimony.
When people look at you, do they see Christ?
Would you be able to lead someone to the Lord based upon
how you've treated them? Would you be able to lead
someone to the Lord based on the things that you've spoken to
them? Right.
Imitate God. Walk in a way that makes people
ask what's different about that person.
Be a light and then ask the Holy Spirit to fill you fresh every
single morning. Just takes 30 seconds and you'll
say, Holy Spirit, fill me today. Let me be conscious of you in my
life. Let me hear and know that that
still small voice that is going to lead me, that is going to
guide me. Lead me by your peace.
Holy Spirit, help me walk in love, help me walk in in your
light and help me walk in wisdom.
Today some practical steps, things that you can do to walk
out what it is that that God is really like.
Why are those things in this word?
Is it a suggestion that God's giving us or is it behavior and
things that he expects us to have an 8 year old, 8 year old
daughter, have a 18 year old son, right?
I expect him to act like an 18 year old at the very least.
I don't expect him to act like my 8 year old daughter, right?
God has expectations for us as his children, as he rightly
should. We're his ambassadors in this
world. Paul says in Corinthians, right?
We represent him to everyone around us in this hotel Triumph
Church. We represent Christ to all this
hotel staff, right? If you go out to lunch after
church today, you're a light where you are.
When you go to your place of employment tomorrow, you're a
light where you are. When you talk with family
members who maybe aren't born again, who don't know Jesus,
you're a light to them. You're God's light, his
ambassador wherever you are. But wherever you are, God says
that where you put that foot, he's given that to you.
You don't need to be afraid of darkness.
You don't need to be a intimidated by darkness.
Listen, I when those demons manifested themselves while I'm
preaching the gospel, let me tell you inside, like my
emotions freaked out. I'd never experienced anything
like that before. But at the same time, something
rose up inside of me, a strength from the Holy Spirit who helped
me in that situation that I'd never encountered before, and
people received freedom that day.
Be the light wherever you are. Amen.
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