Becoming A Childish Imitator
Ephesians 5:1-21
Intro: Two weeks ago we began to look at Paul’s standards for being part of the perfect church. At the end of chapter 4 Paul gave us the 4 standards we are to live up to regarding the old life; the old life of sin. We found that Paul says that we should be Christ-like in our Thinking, Christ-like in our Speaking, Christ-like in our Disposition and Christ-like in our Behavior. Today, we find Paul giving us the standards we must keep regarding the evil that is all around us. He gives us the standards that all Christians; the Church should live up to while living in the world but not being of the world. Evil is all around us and comes in many forms and Satan is just waiting for us to fall pray to is evil ways. Paul is telling us how we must relate to this evil.
Read/Special
Have you ever watched a little boy watching his dad work on something and trying to imitate him? As dad works with his hammer to build a sand box the little boy is behind him with his toy tools doing everything his dad does. Dad takes a piece of board and measures it, the boy takes out his toy tape measure and does the same. Then dad takes the power saw and makes the cut, his son does the same. Then dad lays the board down next to another board, again, his son does the same. Then dad takes his hammer and a few nails and starts to drive a nail into the end of the board, of course the son does the same thing. All of a sudden the dad hits his thumb with the hammer and yells “xoxalkjkjajga” and you guessed it, his son says the same thing.
We all have imitated someone in our lives and for the most part most of us have been imitated by someone else. We may not realize we are being imitated but we are. Our kids will imitate people they think are “cool” or “popular” or “famous”. They will try to imitate famous athletes, what to see this in action watch the kids when they play basketball. Many of them will try moves that only Michael Jordan could make only because they are trying to imitate someone. Speaking of Michael Jordan, when he was at the height of his basketball career there was a song out called, “I want to be like Mike.” The entire song was by a boy who simply sung, “I wana be I wana be like Mike.” The urge to imitate someone is not limited to kids. Go to the race track sometime and watch as men as they pull out of the parking lot on to the highway. You can tell many of them are trying to imitate the drivers they just watched.
The problem is many people, kids and adults alike, pick the wrong role model to try to imitate. As much as I hate to say it, there are many young boys and young girls in our country today who will try to imitate the performers that put on the halftime show during the Super Bowl. The question is today, how are you imitating with your life? As I said, all of us, weather we believe it our not imitate someone with our lives, so who does your life style imitate?
In our text today Paul says we are to be “followers of God, as dear children.” That word “followers” here actually means “imitators”. What Paul is actually saying is we are to be “imitators of God like dear children.”
Paul then gives us four areas that we should imitate God.
We should imitate God by our…
1 Loving others Sacrificially Vv. 1-2
a) Why we should love sacrificially:
1) Because we are God child and it should be our nature: 2 Peter 1:4 “4Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, …”
(a) If we have the nature of God in us then the nature of God should come out of us and God is Love 1 Jn 4:8 tells us.
2) Not only are we God child but we are His Beloved Child V.1
(a) The word “Dear” is actually “Beloved”
(b) The same word used to describe God’s relationship to Jesus in Matt. 3:17).
3) Because we were purchased with a great price.
(a) It was His love for us that held Him on the cross - John 15: 13 Jesus said “13Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. “
(b) But He loved us even when we were not loveable - Rom. 5:10 “10For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”
4) Because we are commanded to:
(a) John 13:34-35 Jesus said “34A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
(b) John 15:12 “12This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”
b) The way we are to show love – by sacrifice
1) 1 John 4:7-9, 11-12 “7Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God... 8He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him… 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12…If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.”
We should imitate God by our…
2 Loathing of Sinful behavior Vv. 3-7.
a) The Sins we should find distasteful:
1) Sins of immorality V. 3
(a) Fornication
(b) All uncleanness
(c) Covetousness
2) Sins of impure talk V. 4a
(a) Filthiness
(b) Foolish talking
(c) Jesting
b) The way we can avoid these sins V. 4b – Being continually in a state of thanksgiving.
c) The reason we should avoid these sins V5
1) This is the kind of life lived by those without an inheritance
(a) Whoremonger = pornographer
(b) Unclean person
(c) Covetous man
(d) Idolater
2) Without access to the kingdom.
3) The unsaved live this way…we are saved, children of God and should not live or even have them named among us.
d) ILL: The best illustration of what Paul was talking about here is Sunday’s Super Bowl. If you watched all of that and were able to over look the commercials and the entire halftime show then you can’t possibly find sin disgusting. In the Sermon on the Mount we are told “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” In context what Jesus is saying is “those who mourn because of the sins in their own life and the sins around them” will be comforted. Jesus wept over the sins of Jerusalem. What Paul is saying here we need to loath all sin and sinful behavior.
e) Before we were saved we found sin funny and something worthy of celebrating.
(a) Prov. 13:19-20 “19… it is abomination to fools to depart from evil. 20He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”
(b) Prov. 14:9 “9Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favour.”
f) Now your saved and all sin; sins you commit and sins you see others commit should disturb you and cause you to turn your head.
We should imitate God by our…
3 Lighted Spiritual walk Vv. 8-14
a) Children of Light. V.8
1) Before we were saved we were not in darkness; Paul says we were darkness.
2) Now that we are saved we no longer have “communion with darkness”.
3) Light produces fruit. ILL: When we lived in Missouri I once got this bright idea to grow some spring flowers in a make-shift greenhouse I made in my garage. Built this shelf on the wall. Then I bought some “sidling pots” from Lowe’s, platted some seeds and began watering them. As I read on how to do it the books all said to cover the pots with plastic and put a 100w light bulb in side and seal the edges. According to the book I read about doing this all I had to do was keep the dirt moist until the plants sprouted. Unfortunately, the spray bottle I was using to water the seeds had had weed killer in it the year before and I forgot. Needless to say I never got flowers out of my little greenhouse. But the thing I remember the most was the statement that it took light to produce growth; it takes the light of Christ to produce fruit.
4) The truth is that as Christians we are to always walk after the Spirit.
(a) Rom 8:1 “1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
b) Children of darkness. V8.
1) The works of darkness are unfruitful as far as spiritual things are concerned.
2) According to Rom 13:13 the works of darkness are “13Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting [wild living] and drunkenness, not in chambering [promiscuous sexual relations; living with someone] and wantonness [filthy, promiscuous], not in strife [quarrelsome, debater, cause of a fight] and envying [jealous with a zeal] ”
c) Fruit of the Spirit is:
1) All goodness
2) Righteousness
3) Truthfulness
d) The Purpose of the light: Vv. 9-10
1) Bear fruit. V.9-10
(a) It is impossible to have a walk that shines light and live in darkness.
(b) As a matter of fact a walk that shines is one that proves your life is acceptable to the Lord (Look at verse 10).
(c) Walking as children of light means to live before the very eyes of God, not hiding anything.
(i) We can hide things from other people; it is impossible to hide anything from God.
(ii) The light of God is always shining on a Christian’s life.
(iii) Heb 4:13 “13Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. “
(d) Our livers should be lived as in the open. ILL: The great preacher of the 19th and early 20th century, Charles Spurgeon, was once asked by a writer for permission to write his life story, and Spurgeon responded, “You may write my life in the skies – I have nothing to hide!
(e) Walking as “children of light” also means revealing God’s light in our daily lives.
(i) By our character
(ii) By our conduct
(iii) We bring light into a dark world
(f) As light we are expected to help other find Christ.
2) Expose sin 11-14
(a) Light not only produces fruit but it also exposes wrong
(b) No surgeon would willingly operate in total darkness; not artist paint a true picture in total darkness.
(c) Light reveals truth.
(d) That is why unsaved people avoid Church; they walk through the doors, hear what God thinks of their lifestyle and they can’t take it.
(e) We Christians are commanded to walk in light and to have “no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”
(f) Jesus said He came as “a light into the world.” (Jn 12:46)
(g) He then said to His disciples, and us, that we, “are the light of the world.” (Matt. 5:14).
(h) Verse 12 warns us the to be careful how we deal with the “unfruitful works of darkness,”
(i) The motto of the day seems to be “Tell it like it is!” That can be a dangerous policy when it comes to exposing the filthy things of darkness. If not we will run the risk of promoting and advertising the sins they commit.
(j) ILL: I am always mindful of what TV shows and movies I use to illustrate sinful behavior lest I inadvertently promote their sins. I read a story about a youth pastor who read all the books, listened to all the music, went to all the movies and watched all the TV shows his teens were involved in so he could know what they were thinking and to better understand them. The result was he fell into sin.
(k) We don’t need to perform an autopsy on a rotting corpse to expose its rottenness. All we have to do turn on the light! Read V.13
We should imitate God by our…
4 Living Wisely in a Foolish World Vv. 15-21 The word Circumspectly means = “to walk carefully, with exactness.” In other words to walk with wisdom.
a) CHARACTERISTICS OF "WALKING AS WISE"... (15-17)
1) Doing so with great care - Ep 5:15
(a) The word translated "circumspectly" means "exactly, accurately, diligently"
(b) Unlike fools, who care little about where they are going or is happening
2) Taking advantage of the time available to one - Ep 5:16
(a) To "redeem the time" is "to make wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good, so that zeal and well doing are as it were the purchase money by which we make the time our own" (from the "Online Bible")
(b) This is necessary, because the days are "evil" (bringing toils, annoyances, perils; of a time full of peril to Christian faith and steadfastness; causing pain and trouble - Online Bible)
3) Understanding the will of the Lord - Ep 5:17
(a) Only by understanding the will of the Lord can we be a "wise people"
(b) Just as Israel was to demonstrate their wisdom by doing the will of the Lord, so we can "walk as wise" only if we understand His will for us - cf. Deu 4:5-6
b) TO WALK AS WISE REQUIRES BEING "FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT"... (18-21)
1) While those who "walk as fools" delight in being filled with, those who "walk as wise" will endeavor to be filled with the Spirit!
2) What evidence is there that one is "filled with the Spirit"? Paul describes three indications...
(a) One indication is singing praises - Ep 5:19
(b) Another indication is giving thanks - Ep 5:20
(c) A third indication is submitting to one another in the fear of God - Ep 5:21
1. Children of God who delight in...
a. Singing praises and making melody in the heart
b. Giving thanks always for all things to God
c. Submitting to one another in the fear of God
-- demonstrate that they are "filled with the Spirit", and as such,
truly are "imitators of God as dear children" (Ep 5:1)
2. As children of God, and "filled with the Spirit", they are able to
walk in a manner worthy of their calling,
as we imitate God by our ...
a. Loving others Sacrificially
b. Loathing of Sinful behavior
c. Lighted Spiritual walk
d. Living Wisely in a Foolish World
3. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we live in a world...
a. That has perverted the meaning of "love"
b. That takes perverse pleasure in works of darkness
c. That stumbles around aimlessly, like drunken fools
-- Can we not see the need for the people of God today to live up to
their "calling", and to "prove what is acceptable in the Lord"?
4. May God fill His children with His Spirit...
a. So that we can truly "walk in love", "walk as light", and "walk as
wise"
b. And thereby show to the world the "fruit of the Spirit" (i.e.,
goodness, righteousness, and truth)!
