Right Thinking Brings Right Action

Ephesians 5 - September 3, 2006

**Prayer for school starting - students, teachers, AWANA

Good morning. Join me in turning to the book of Ephesians, chapter 5. We have been going through this letter of Paul the Apostle, written to Christians in the town of Ephesus, the capital city of Turkey or Asia Minor as it was known back them.

•Chapters 1-3 deal with doctrine, and chapters 4-6 deal with duty.

•1-3 deal with who we are, and 4-6 with how we live.

*We look at 1:3 and we see the key idea:

•we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ in the heavenly realms.

In chapters 1-3 Paul talks about what these blessings are. Now in chapters 4-6 he talks about how we live them out in our lives.

In chapter 4, Paul says Live a life worthy of the calling you have received. In our terminology today, Paul would be saying, Whatever you are doing, make sure your life “measures up”! Make sure that your life lives up to the standard of Christ. He reminds us that as Christians we have UNITY.

•We are UNITED in IDENTITY (that’s WHO we ARE) but UNIQUE in MINISTRY (that’s WHAT we DO). • We have UNIFORMITY in the FOUNDATION of the GOSPEL, but we have INDIVIDUALITY in our FUNCTION, using our GIFTS.

In the second half of chapter 4, Paul goes on to talk about PURITY. Unity has a focus on the community as a whole. Purity has a focus on the individual Christian. In chapter 4 we see the MODEL. In chapter 5 we see the MOTIVE. The key thought we come away with in chapter 4 is this:

•Right Thinking Brings Right Actions.

Paul says don’t live like the unsaved but change your thinking. Put off the old nature and all its actions just like you take off dirty clothes. Be constantly renewing your mind and think rightly. And when you do, you will “put on” certain traits that characterize your life. Paul then goes through a list of 6 Areas of Lifestyle Change.

1. Don’t lie - instead we are to tell the truth.

2. Don’t sin by your anger - instead we are to deal with anger as it happens.

3. Don’t steal - instead work so you can help others.

4. Don’t attack with words - instead build others up with our words.

5. Don’t be bitter and unkind - instead be compassionate and loving.

6. Don’t be obscene about sex - instead t we should be thankful for it

And this brings us today to chapter 5. Today we see the motive for these 6 areas of lifestyle change. WHY do we make these changes in our lives. Let’s read Ephesians 5:6-21.

Why do we live the way we do? Why do we live differently? Why do we put off the old and on the new?

There are some times that we wish we didn’t have to have such an upright lifestyle. Times that you just want to tell your boss what you really think of him, times you want to be malicious and ruin the car that took your parking spot, times you want to give in to sin with that person of the other sex. So WHY don’t we? What is our motivation for doing right. That’s what we want to be reminded of today. Paul gives us

Four Reasons for Right Living:

1. It’s the SAFE thing to do. (vs 5-7) Paul reminds us that God punishes those who live sinfully. Satan would love to have us forget that. He wants to lull us asleep thinking we can get away with whatever we want. But the truth is that God is a God of justice, a God of wrath, a God of vengeance. Verse 6 reminds us that God’s wrath comes upon the disobedient.

Our culture has pretty well done away with the idea of “hell.” Many don’t believe in a real, literal hell. But for those who do, they basically believe that only the worst of sinners would go there. We need to understand that ALL sin faces the judgment of God.

Rom. 1:18 - The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against ALL the godlessness and wickedness of men.

We tend to like to think our sin is insignificant. We say it isn’t hurting anyone. But God says sin is deadly!

Gal. 6:7-9 - Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.