What is the structure of the universe? How did God order the church? How has God ordered the family? God's structure for the Christian family is redemptive and restorative. But that doesn't make it easy.

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Ephesians

Arise! Christ Will Give You Light! (Ephesians 5:6-14)

Bryan Schneider

September 25, 2020

Ephesians 5:6-14

Corporations pay good money to convince you of something that you "need" to buy. But they also pay a lot of money teaching people how to spot lies. That is exactly what we, as children of the light, need to do. We need to be alert -- testing things according to the Word of the Lord. A big problem in today's culture is the danger of people "following their hearts," instead of following God's Word. The world is always trying to lead us astray, and we are only to prone to go after our own "feelings" on matters. But here Paul is telling the Church that we must be on guard. We cannot keep on sinning, just because we enjoy the privileges of grace. We must put off the works of darkness; and although we cannot avoid the world, we don't have to have close fellowship with it. Paul teaches us to be on guard, for we are always exposed to temptations by the sins around us -- and these sins may even be working within the Church. When we go to church, we are going as professing saints, to grow in faith and expose the works of darkness. Why does God want us to expose these works of darkness? Because as God's children, we ought not to be walking in those dark ways any longer; we are to be walking in the ways of light. Formerly, we were slaves to the works of darkness; but now we have been raised up to new life in Christ! And it is because we have been made God's children that we become holy; we are called upon to imitate our Heavenly Father. If we find ourselves walking in darkness, then it is time for us to repent of our sins and pray to God for grace to walk in light and bear the fruits of the Spirit!

Audio

Ephesians

Imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1, 2)

Bryan Schneider

August 28, 2020

Ephesians 5:1-2

Have you ever been unable to find your shoes in the morning -- only to discover that one of your children is walking around the house in them? Just as our children often imitate what they see or hear in us, the Lord calls us to be imitators of Himself. "Be holy," He says, "for I the Lord your God am holy." Since we have been adopted as God's own sons and daughters, there should be some sort of family resemblance. But this imitation is expected from us because we are already His children; it is not something that we do in order to earn His love and favor. What is one way in which we may imitate our Savior? "Walk in love," the Apostle tells us, "as Christ has walked in love!" In John 15, we read that there is no greater love than a person laying down his life for his friends. Jesus sacrificed His life for us -- not just when we were His friends, but even when we were His enemies! And surely, if He has done that for us, there ought to be some sort of practical response from us! What would that look like? That is what the latter portion of Ephesians 5 will show us. Holiness is something which we must daily strive for. It is something for which we must continually cry out to God in prayer. If we find ourselves becoming too familiar with the world, and not desiring holiness -- then we must pray for grace to imitate our Savior!