Ephesian Series
Light Affects
Ephesians 5:8-14
April 14, 2013 AM
Subject: Light
Central Theme: How Light Affects
Objective: Every person should serve Jesus because of how He Who is Light affects us.
Introduction: I’m loving this series in Ephesians. There are some great teachings in the book.
Last week we got very specific and talked about the immorality and impurity of sin. We exposed deception and brought to light the deception that many people hold as something pure and right.
In this talk today we will be contrasting light and dark. These two are contrary to one another.
Let’s take a journey through the scriptures and see what they have to tell us today.
PRAY
READ Ephesians 5:8-14
I. Light Converts vv. 8a
Contrast Light and Dark.
A. Darkness
1. You are in the darkness of spiritual death
2. You are ignorant of your ignorance of spiritual things.
3. This is the default mode of every human.
4. Darkness is a kingdom.
a. It enslaves you to its will
b. You cannot see anything but what it wants you to see.
c. You have no desire for God
d. You just don’t think it is a big deal to believe in Jesus.
B. Light
1. Jesus has opened your eyes to spiritual things.
2. You are no longer ignorant about your ignorance of spiritual things.
3. You desire God and want more of Him.
4. Jesus is on your mind all the time.
5. You know you are saved out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light.
I. Light Converts vv. 8a
II. Light Guides vv. 8b-10
The Christian’s responsibility
A. Walk as children of light.
1. Jesus has saved your soul from damnation
2. He has given you eternal life starting from the moment you passed from darkness to light.
3. Make it obvious to everyone that you are a Christian.
B. What are the fruits of light?
1. Goodness
a. Moral goodness is what we strive for.
b. Morality for the Christian is not an optional accessory, it is standard equipment on every model.
c. When all the world does bad, Christians still do good.
2. Righteousness
a. This is simply doing what is right.
b. You behave in such way because you understand something about God.
1) You are not God.
2) God judges sin and His wrath is upon sinners.
3) You want to please God, so you consider yourself dead to sin and alive unto God.
3. Truthfulness
a. Jesus is Truth.
b. There is a deception in the world (vv. 6). Truth conquers deception everything.
c. The love of God in your life allows you to see truth like never before.
d. Not only do you love the Truth, but you find yourself hating deception.
e. You are genuinely grieved when you see someone in darkness believing the lies of the devil and this world.
I. Light Converts vv. 8a
II. Light Guides vv. 8b-10
III. Light Exposes vv. 11-14
A. Light makes darkness hide every time.
1. Light triumphs over darkness; it barley has to try.
2. Darkness is the absence of light. Just a little bit of light is all it takes to overcome darkness.
3. Perhaps you are in evaluation mode. You heard about this Jesus guy, but you are not sure. I ask you to allow some light into your soul and see Jesus for yourself.
B. Please the one you love.
1. You give your wife flowers and chocolates on her birthday
2. You give your man a steak dinner and some good kisses on his birthday.
3. Your children get good gifts.
4. Pleasing others is a source a pure joy.
5. A person walking in the Light will want to please the Lord all the time.
6. A man searching for a wife may try and try to figure out what pleases his girlfriend; he wants to win her heart.
7. In the same way, a Christian ought to be about searching all the ways it is possible to please the Lord.
C. Some ways to please the Lord
1. Have no part in unfruitful works of darkness
2. Expose the darkness for what it is.
a. Those in darkness ought to be exposed by the light of a life lived for Jesus.
b. A Christian by your presence reproves the darkness.
[I’ve had many instances of being around people that act very weird as soon as they find out I’m a pastor. The cussing stops and they start apologizing for everything.]
D. Light makes the invisible things visible
1. Use this to your advantage when working for Jesus in His kingdom.
IV. Conclusion
Jesus affects us by His light.
1. Light Converts vv. 8a
2. Light Guides vv. 8b-10
3. Light Exposes vv. 11-14
Jesus made it all possible to move from darkness to light.
He is the light of the World and so are His saints.
Where are you? Darkness or Light.
Do you have an interest in spiritual things? Do you think there is more to this world than what is seen?
Jesus came to pull you out of darkness and into light. Will you accept his invitation and be saved today?
