Living In The Light Series

Living In the Light

Text: Eph. 5:1-14

Introduction

1. Have you ever noticed what often happens when a light burns out? Many times, when a light is turned on for the last time it produces a sudden burst of light (even burning brighter than it normally does) until the element burns into darkness. A sudden explosion of light is followed by the search for a new lightbulb. None of us would want to light our homes with flash bulbs, or the pulse of a strobe light. We want a steady consistent light that will make the room comfortable to be in.

2. Our lives are to have that same kind of consistency. Jesus said that our lives should be as lights for the world to see.

3. In our text this morning, Paul gives us some principles to follow as we live in the light.

a. Be Imitators of God

b. Live As People of the Light

c. Find Out What Pleases God

4. Read Eph. 5:1-14

Proposition: As children of God, we need to let our light shine for everyone to see.

Transition: First, Paul tells us to…

I. Be Imitators of God (1-2).

A. Imitators of God

1. From the time I was a little boy, I’ve always been fascinated with entertainers who do impersonations. In fact, often I have worked on doing impersonations of my own. It started with Richard Nixon and continued through John Wayne, Ross Perot and so on.

2. In the first verse, Paul tells us, “Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.”

a. Just as I loved to imitate politicians and TV and movie stars, so Paul tells us imitate God.

b. We are instructed to model ourselves after God, who loved us so much that he gave his own Son as a sacrifice for our sins.

c. Furthermore, we should try and emulate the way that Jesus lived his life as someone who loves the unlovable, cares for the outcast and shows mercy to the sinful.

d. The reason that Paul gives us for imitating God is because “you are his dear children.”

e. Typically, children try and be like Mom and Dad, and as children of God we should try and be like God in all we do.

3. Then in v. 2, Paul tells us to “Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.”

a. Paul gives the prime example of imitating Christ by loving the way that Jesus did. Our love should be the same kind of love that Jesus showed us.

b. It was an unconditional, self-sacrificing love. It’s only through Jesus that we know what love is.

c. “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16).

d. This is the kind of love that Paul is talking about.

e. It is a love that doesn’t consider what it does for us, but rather what it does for others. It doesn’t even consider if the other person deserves it or not, because we certainly didn’t do anything to deserve it.

f. Jesus not only gave up his life for people who didn’t deserve it, but rather for people who deserved the exact opposite.

g. Paul says that this kind of love is a “pleasing aroma to God.” Jesus’ offering of himself was a pleasing aroma to God because of his attitude. He was doing it not because of what he got out of it, but because of the fact that we needed it.

h. This is the kind of love that we should be imitating.

B. He Is Your Example

1. Wayne Cordeiro tells of a receptionist from his church who has found a “little slice of heaven on earth” around God’s people: He found out she worked her “day job” six days a week and volunteered to be a receptionist at the church building her one day off. He says: “Why do you come here and do this?” I asked. “Being here is like a breath of fresh air,” she replied. “Don’t you want to take a day off?” “This IS a day off,” she responded. “It fills my soul.” He reflects: “She feels valued. That is the kind of love we want to show. This love is not something we muster on our own; It comes from learning to recognize evidence of God’s presence. It is easy to look for evidence of God’s absence, but we focus on the opposite, because we know that people tend to see whatever they look for.” (Culture Shift, authored with Robert Lewis, p. 115) In the context of today’s text, it is not so much about looking for God, as in imitating God, so that when others LOOK, they SEE and EXPERIENCE the truth and love of God at work in us: they experience a little slice of heaven.