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Ephesians 5:1-21 Ways to Show Our New Thinking

July 24, 2018 by Dan Sullivan

Sermon on Ephesians 5:1-21 from Westminster Church in Evansville, Indiana. Here are the notes I used.

https://biblescribbler.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Ephesians-5_1-21-2.mp3

Ephesians 5:1–21

[1] Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. [2] And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

This is a response to the last verse of chapter 4: Ephesians 4:32

[32] Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (ESV)

Again, just like last week, this stuff isn’t a law, but a response to what God has already done. This list is here because we do better when we have a guide instead of just trying to figure stuff out.

It’s like bending your elbows when you give someone CPR. You might know you are supposed to give chest compressions, but in the training they tell you not to bend your elbows. You need that weight and those shoulder/back muscles to do it because your little arms will wear out too fast. I don’t want you to figure that out for yourself!  That’s why this stuff is in here. We can gain wisdom from it and grow in the Lord from these insights. This is our head-start on living a life that is pleasing to God.

[3] But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. [4] Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

Again, this isn’t a law saying that we should talk about it. We should be so blameless in this that nobody can talk about us doing it! We all have to be examples of this because we are all affecting the world’s perception of Christ.

  • Filthiness – ranges according to the culture, and we need to be sensitive to that.
  • Crude jokes
  • Covetousness – “greedy desire to have more”
  • Impurity – Out of control living, reckless, amoral, wasteful

Amish people have a reputation in the world.

Galatians 6:7–8

[7] Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. [8] For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (ESV)

Then back to Ephesians

[5] For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. [6] Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Note the difference here between people that own this sin as a lifestyle and people that stumble into sin and fall.

[7] Therefore do not become partners with them; [8] for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light [9] (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), [10] and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

We have to be completely deliberate with these things. Holiness will not be executed on accident or by passively doing whatever.

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist. – CS Lewis

Ephesians 5:11-14

[11] Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. [12] For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. [13] But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, [14] for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

“Awake, O sleeper,

and arise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

Darkness is not exposed by our elaborate and excellent definition of darkness. Darkness is exposed by light!

[15] Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, [16] making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

[17] Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

[18] And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, [19] addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, [20] giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, [21] submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. (ESV)

 

Filed Under: podcast, Sermons Tagged With: church, discipleship, Ephesians, freedom, grace, holiness, Jesus, works

John 21 and What Peter Needed to Hear

April 24, 2018 by Dan Sullivan

Here is my sermon on John 21. It struck me how much Jesus worked with Peter and helped him to have confidence that he would follow Jesus. I think Peter was afraid to make any promises to Jesus, considering how passionate he was about his devotion the night of the last supper.

Filed Under: podcast, Sermons Tagged With: calling, confidence, discipleship, grace, John, mission, resurrection

Numbers Part 2 – Plagues and Devotion

June 7, 2017 by Dan Sullivan

Here are some cool bits from early in Numbers. People are dedicated to the Lord and being formed into His people. At the same time, Moses and Aaron are being formed into High Priests – the men that will represent God to the people and vice versa.

 

Filed Under: podcast, Sermons Tagged With: discipleship, enemies, grace, Numbers, OT

The Holy Spirit – Imparted as a Whole

March 2, 2017 by Dan Sullivan

I just started reading “The Holy Spirit in Action” by Sheed and some of it is already blowing my mind. Some of it is just pondering the implications of God having and being a spirit. I’ll post the quote from the book, which is kind of heady and out there, then my interpretation which might be clearer or might be even more out there.

In a spirit – God, our soul – there is no division of parts as in matter. Therefore there is no dispersion of powers, but total concentration of being and of powers in one single act of being. the body has parts, each with its own function, which only it can perform. But all the things the should does are done by the whole soul, for there is no element in the soul which is not the whole of it. It knows, loves, hates, wants, chooses, refuses to choose, decides, animates a body. And one single soul does each of these things with the whole of itself.

Two things emerge from spirit’s absence of parts – it does not occupy space; it is everlasting.

Space is emptiness. A being which has parts can spread them in it! Even the minutest material thing has parts – the top is not the bottom, one end is not the other. But this is not so of the soul, not so of God: They have no parts to spread. They are not in space.

What of permanence? A being with parts can be taken apart; therefore it can always become something else by union with parts taken from some other source. But a spirit having no parts can not be taken apart; it has no parts to be taken from it. It is the whole of itself.

 What he is saying here is that a spirit isn’t something that has distinct parts like a person. I have an arm and a nose, they are distinguishable parts that do different things. They also take up different spaces. If I reach for a hammer with my nose, it can’t do what my arm can do. If I dip my arm into a barrel of dandelions, it won’t sneeze. That part isn’t affected by pollen in the same way as my nose is.

That means that wherever the Holy Spirit is, there isn’t a part of it there that is different than another part. ALL OF GOD’S SPIRIT is there. God doesn’t put a little bit customized for Dan Sullivan into Dan Sullivan. All of God’s glorious self, is put, by the power of the Holy Spirit, into Dan Sullivan. The other wild part about this is that since the Holy Spirit can’t be cut up into parts, it can’t be combined with things and changed. Everything that exists in mass can be altered somehow like Lego blocks being switched out. The Holy Spirit isn’t and can’t. Therefore, the full and holy and complete spirit of God doesn’t get changed when He enters into someone. The person is what does the changing.

One more bit then we’ll give it a rest for the day. God’s unchanging, fully full and complete spirit is in all who believe in Him (Ephesians 1:13-14). Think about the implications of that. There is no training or urging or laboring as far as getting God to do something more because He has already filled you, Christian, with all the fullness of Himself. You have a lot more access to God than you realize, so pray today that we’d realize that!

Filed Under: Bible Study, Bookstore Tagged With: baptism, christian life, discipleship, Ephesians, faith, Holy Spirit

Notes from One Life Church just before Christmas 2016

January 4, 2017 by Dan Sullivan

Name Him Jesus, because He will save His People from their sins.”
Jesus would be so with us that we’d be called “His people.”

It’s God’s story to tell and He tells it His way.

God spoke to Joseph after Mary told him about Jesus – DANG!

Righteousness was a part of the operating system of Joseph’s soul.

He was a righteous man, not about do-gooder, but right about seeking God.

Righteousness motivated him to NOT disgrace Mary. (So often we use righteousness as an excuse to shame others, but that is not the right way.)

Righteousness is a real thing and it’s good.

Sin is the lack of righteousness.

Which brings us to redemption by redefinition.
That’s what our culture does.

 

Redemption by redefinition was in the Garden of Eden too.

Jesus came to SAVE us from our SINS.
Don’t re-define it! We NEED those words to really mean what they mean.

Sin makes an ungodly mess.
It messed up everything we use to clean it up.

That last note was from this video below. It was pretty moving.

Filed Under: Bible Study, Handwritten Blog Tagged With: Christmas, church, discipleship, Jesus, Sermon notes

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