morning Ephesians 5 verses 1 and 2 and let's try to read these as unified as we can sometimes it's hard to do and somebody asked me this week can I get a King James Bible I said absolutely make sure you get one and that was a blessing because when we all read from the same book that helps doesn't it and we're on the same page And so let's go ahead and read verse one together and end in verse two, both verses out loud. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. Let's pray. Father, Lord, we thank you for this day. Lord, we don't deserve to live. We don't deserve to take your air and breathe your air. God, we don't deserve to walk on your planet and your earth. Although we think that we run things as human beings, God, we wouldn't last a second outside of your watch care. And Father Lord, as a born-again Christian this morning, we understand that, and we know even better that we don't deserve to be a child of God in joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Father, Lord, we thank you for heaven. We thank you that we have a home away from home, and we have a real home, and that's called heaven, and our home away from home is here. And we're here on this earth as ambassadors, as representatives of heaven. Our citizenship is there. I pray that this morning, Lord, that we would not get too comfortable here on earth. And Lord, I pray for those that are hurting today. God, you've called us to care for them and to comfort them and to help them. Lord, not to hurt them. Father, sometimes it's hard not to hurt those that are needing care because, as somebody said, hurting people hurt people. And sometimes people that are in the greatest need are lashing out. And they need love, but it's hard to love them. Father, give us that Holy Spirit strength and help. Father, the indwelling Spirit, we have the ability, a supernatural ability to love even our enemies as we've been commanded by Christ. I pray that you bless this day, all that is said and done in this service, and speak to our hearts today. Help us to grow and not to be stagnant. Help us not to retract or retreat. I pray that you'd help us to have that kind of spirit and understanding in this church. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Please be seated this morning. And the word followers is that word mimic. And be ye imitators of God. If you can look at that first verse, be ye therefore followers, imitators. Paul is arguing that children are like their parents. Isn't that true? Children grow up to be a lot like their parents. You know, we have that saying that acorn doesn't fall too far from the tree. And sometimes I've heard somebody say recently, the tree doesn't grow too far from the acorn. And sometimes you find out the child has a problem, then you realize actually it was the parent is where it started. And Paul is arguing that the children are like their parents. Sometimes it's flattering when children grow up to be like us. Sometimes it's flattering when they do things that we do and they imitate us. Other times not so much. Sometimes it's sobering to know how closely they watch us. All of the parents say amen. And all of my kids have imitated me and Michelle at times. They want to do what mom and dad do so much. And the one that does the most, I believe, of that imitating in our house is the youngest one, AJ. And if mom is cleaning, guess what AJ does? He's different than the other two. The other two sit on the couch like, Well, I won't say. But I was going to say lazy bums. But they do their fair share. They do their work. But AJ, he doesn't give up. He says, mom's cleaning. I'm not going to watch TV. I'm not going to play a game. I'm going to help mom clean. He grabs the broom. He goes and finds the vacuum cleaner. And although he's not doing much, because when he vacuums, the vacuum cleaner is tipped up in the air and the brushes aren't on the ground, so there's nothing happening. But he is working, and he thinks that he is helping because he wants to be like mom and dad. AJ, whenever I'm mowing the grass, if Dad's mowing the grass, AJ's there at the door watching. And as soon as he can, he gets out there with his little Tykes mower, and his little Tykes mower, and he pushes that thing. And it's not doing anything, but he enjoys being like Dad and imitating Dad. And he likes to help out. And he wore the pull start out on that little tykes mower. And he doesn't know it, but in the middle of the night, an elf switched out his mower that was broken with a mower that works. And he was surprised to find out that it still works. And somehow it miraculously fixed itself. And he loves to help, and we want to encourage that, right? Parents, whenever you have a child that wants to do the right thing, you encourage that. But whenever they do the wrong thing, you discourage that. And sometimes, unfortunately, children not only imitate the good things, but they also imitate our failures and our flaws. And I know that there are many parents that don't want their kids to imitate them. And I know that there's children that imitate their dad, maybe smoking or drinking, and we've seen that out in the world. And I was trying to remember who in our church told me this story. And I've actually heard some other people tell similar stories of relatives who told them to never ever smoke or never ever drink while they themselves are smoking and drinking. Because there's some people who don't want to do those things, but they're addicted. and they can't overcome it. But I'm gonna tell you this morning, this is just a side note, that all things can be overcome by the power of Jesus Christ. We have victory in Jesus, and you can overcome that. But children probably learn by watching and imitating more than any other way of learning. I'm a visual learner, most people are. Or you're an oral learner, you learn by hearing. You hear by hearing more than you do by maybe reading or other ways. We all have ways of learning. But most of us are more visual learners than anything. We have to see it imitated, or we have to see it so that we can replicate it. I heard about a father and son who arrived in a small Western town, and they were looking for an uncle in whom they had never seen, this uncle. Suddenly, in this town, after arriving just a few minutes, The father pointed across the square to a man who was walking away from them. And he exclaimed to his son, he said, there is my uncle. And his son asked, how do you know when you've never seen him before? He said, son, I know him because he walks exactly like my father. You see, we see the similarity in family. We see the similarity in how somebody, even in their body language, imitates. They have that family trait. They have that, maybe even a genetic trait that is a similarity. And if we walk in the spirit, the world should know us by our walk. The world should know us by our walk. We shouldn't walk like the world when we're children of God. We need to walk like the Father. He says, be ye followers of God. Be ye imitators of God. Mimic God. Now there's three points that Paul brings up in 17 verses. And praise God, we're only gonna go through two verses today. So I'll give you point number one. God is love, therefore walk in love. I'll give you point number two. God is light, therefore walk as children of light. Point number three, God is truth, therefore walk in wisdom. Hold your place here if you would and go to 1 John chapter number four. And there's a parallel passage for each of our points over the next few weeks we'll be looking at. And they're all in the book of 1 John. 1 John chapter four and verse number eight. John writes, he that loveth Not, knoweth not God, for God is, and you tell me the last word, God is love. God is love. Now many times we, we accentuate that character of God, that aspect of his character, the love of God. His love is so important. His love is great. But we don't need to forget that that is not all that God is. But God is love. And that's how we know how to love. God is also holy and righteous. God is just. But God is love. Isn't that a blessing? That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not Perish or die, but have everlasting life. John 3, 16. Romans 5, 8. But God commendeth or demonstrated his, next word, love, toward, next word, us. In that while we were yet, we don't like this word, sinners, Christ. Died for us. Now salvation is free to us, it's a free gift, but it costs God his son. And so it wasn't cheap. But God is love, and therefore Ephesians chapter five, verses one and two, look at it if you would. Verse two, and walk in love. God is love, therefore walk in love. If we're God's children, we need to imitate the Father. And there's the basis for these admonitions. God didn't just say, do it. He said, I'm going to demonstrate it so you know how to imitate, so you can replicate. We know what love is because of God, because of Jesus. We understand love. In the last chapter, Paul warned us, chapter 4. Can you go with me? You might even have it on the same page, but we'll look at verses 31 and 32. In chapter 4, Paul warned us against bitterness and anger. See that verse 31? Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking. He says what? He says, be put away from your neighbor. It's like when my son says, when I come in the room because I hear screaming, I'm like, what's going on? And Silas says, oh, I'm sorry. I gave it away. Uh-oh. When one of them says, hey, they're not sharing. They're supposed to share with me. And I say to them, it's not yours. And it's their choice to share. And if mom and dad says share, then yes. But just because you think that they should share does not mean they have to share when you already ate yours and you want to eat theirs too. We believe in fairness, okay? I'm not saying that we reward one child more than the other, but there's some children who are older, and they think that they need more, so they want others to share with them, okay? No, he says, let it be put away from yourselves. See that, verse number 31. He said, put it away from you, all the anger, all the bitterness, all the wrath, and the malice, all of it should be put away. In verse 32, praise God, he doesn't tell us not, he doesn't just go towards the negative side. See, he balances the negative with something positive. And if we don't know what to replace the anger and the clamor and the evil speaking and the bitterness with, then we're left with a void. That's not good. We have to put something in the void. So stop doing one thing, but then he says start doing another. Verse 32. And be ye what? Kind. Now last week we looked at this. I said it's not about being nice. He says be kind. Be ye what? Wait, wait, wait. Do you see what I see there? Verse 32. Be ye Do you see it? Because I'm not sure if you're really with me this morning. Let's try that again. And be ye one to another, tender hearted, soft heart, a heart of love, a heart of compassion. He says be ye tender hearted, forgiving one another. He doesn't leave it open ended. He gives us an imitation. He says, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven You God forgave us. He showed us how to love and he says there in verse number two of chapter five. He says walk in love as Next word Christ also hath loved us and have given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savior Now I want you to understand this morning one thing. Praise God Jesus died for our sins, but he's not in the grave and he's not on the cross anymore. Praise God for that. He's risen from the grave. But I'm going to tell you something else. Jesus. Jesus chose to die for us. See, he was the only one that ever chose to die. You might be saying, well, I know of my uncle or a relative, and they gave their life for this country. They chose to go to war, and they gave their life to preserve freedom. Praise God for that. And we thank God for our servicemen and women. We thank God for what the police officers and the firefighters do to keep us safe. Praise God for it. But I'm telling you, all of us have an appointment with death at one time or another. Some of us think that we're never going to die. But I've got to tell you the honest truth. 10 out of 10 die. Praise God, you're not there yet. And I'm not there yet. Praise God, we still are alive and we still have blood in our veins and we still have life in this body to live for the Lord and to breathe and to enjoy life. But Jesus is the only one who ever chose to die in that he did not have to die. Jesus came to earth. and he chose to die on the cross. See, some say, well, the Romans murdered him. Well, I understand, they're the ones that nailed him to the cross, but he went there because of our sin. I know that we talked about it today in Acts chapter two, about Peter, you know, saying that you crucified Jesus. Well, yes, they did put him on the cross. But his life was not taken from him. He says that he laid his life down because of love he chose to die for us. And so we see that we should walk in love because Christ loved us enough to be our substitute on the cross. And Paul began with walk in love in these three sections of chapter 5. He begins with walk in love because love is the cornerstone to our Christian walk, meaning it's the main thing that we need to focus on. What we need to focus on first is love. Matthew 22, please go there with me, and we'll look at a few verses here. Matthew 22, verse 34, and it's the first book of the New Testament. The New Testament, go to the New Testament, and the first book is Matthew, chapter 22, verse 34. Verse 34. But when the Pharisees, now I could've just done a couple verses here, but I wanted to give you context. I think it's important. We understand who's talking to Jesus and who he's talking to. Verse 34, but when the Pharisees, now who were the Pharisees? Religious leaders, they were a group, a sect if you would. There was the Sadducees, the Pharisees. Some were part of the Sanhedrin. But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, who's he? Jesus. They were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, now they knew the law of God. And this man asked him a question, tempting him. He was not curious as much as he was willing to trip him up. And he says, verse 36, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus baffled him with this answer. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. You can sum up the law with two things, love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. If we can do those two things, we have fulfilled the law. We fulfilled the law. Now can we do those things in the flesh? Absolutely not. First of all, you need to be saved. Come to Jesus Christ, stop working your way into heaven, and find out that there's nothing you or I could do that could ever appease a righteous holy God. The blood of Jesus Christ is our propitiation. He is the satisfaction of the wrath of a holy God. And when we come to Jesus just as we are and lay it all on the altar and say, here I am, Lord, and this is me, my sinful flesh, my dead spirit, all that is me, and I know that Jesus Christ is the only way that I can ever live, and I have sinned against God, and Jesus Christ is the sacrifice, the Savior for my soul. And we come to Him with nothing except ourselves. And say, I'm not bringing you works, I'm not bringing you education or baptism or church membership or attendance, but God, here I am with nothing but myself. We find that Jesus Christ will receive us The Father will forgive us, and the Spirit will give us life. And so if we walk in love, if we walk in love, we will not disobey God or injure men. Romans chapter 13, verse eight. Oh, no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. The Holy Spirit puts his love in our hearts, and you can turn to Romans 5 if you want, Romans 5, 5, you don't have to turn there, but it says that God loves us and He's given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love, and if you're saved, you've received the indwelling Holy Spirit as a gift from the Father, the Heavenly Father, And the key to receiving this gift is found in that other gift, namely Jesus Christ, God's Son, and He is the key to unlocking everything else in our life. Because without Jesus Christ, we have nothing. Without Jesus Christ, we have no hope. We have no peace. We have no joy. We have no eternity. We are dead in our sins. And so when we come to Jesus Christ for that forgiveness, as I talked about, when we receive Him and Him alone, not Baptist church, okay? We're a Baptist church and we baptize people, but there's not one person that I've ever baptized with a good conscience that has said, I'm trusting the baptism to get me to heaven. Because each and every one, we say, is there a time where you know that you turn from death to life, and that life was found in Jesus? Because it's not found in the baptistry. And Jesus is the key, not baptism. Jesus is the key to unlocking everything else in your Christian life. Jesus is the key to unlocking everything in your life. And it's not baptism, it's not church membership, nothing, nothing. Nothing can unlock that for you. The key to pardon for our sins is the same key that unlocks the power to love people. If you prefer theological language, the key to unlocking our salvation is the same key that unlocks our justification. The key that unlocks salvation is the key that unlocks the ability to love others as God loves us. Because until we've been forgiven of our sins, we have no way of understanding or comprehending, or we have no way of being able to forgive others the way we are called to forgive. So be saved by Jesus Christ. Find salvation in Jesus Christ. The power to love people, The power to love all people can only be found in Jesus. It's because of Jesus that we can be forgiven by God. And if we've been forgiven by God, then we have the power to forgive anybody. Anybody. Anybody. I don't like to say everybody, because everybody is too general. Anybody. Anybody. Each person that we come across. A cartoon in the New Yorker magazine showed an exasperated father saying to his prodigal son, this is the fourth time we've killed a fatted calf. And God does that over and over again in our lifetime. You think about how many times that God, number one, he saved us, praise God. But even as a believer, there's times where we have strayed away. As the songwriter put it, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Oh, how many times we have run from God. Now, some people might say, well, you just lost your salvation. You failed the grace of God. You fell out of grace. No, if you're saved, you're saved, okay? If you have eternal life, you have eternal life. Now there's some people that never really did get saved, we understand that, but there's some times where even we as believers, there's probably not one person in this room that can say that every day of my Christian life I have been in 100% relationship and devotion to God and I've been right with the Lord every second of my Christian walk. Oh, there's been times where we fall out of fellowship with the Lord, but praise God, we never fell out of the family of God. and oh, so many times we get away from the Lord, but he brings us back, and he says, 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, if we confess our sins, if we really, truly get right, because that word confess is the word hamalageo, same word. That word confess is found out several times in the Bible, but in 1 John 1, 9, he's saying if we say the same thing that God says about our sins, then He will forgive us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You know why some people don't get saved? Because they don't want to be honest. They don't want to be honest with God and honest with themselves even. They don't want to be honest about their sin. You know why Christians don't want to get right with God? Because they don't want to be honest with God about their sin. They're afraid that if they get right with God, then other people are gonna have to know about their sin. And they're too proud to get things right. They're too proud to say, I'm sorry, I did wrong. Oh, my friend, you're missing out on so many blessings in your Christian walk. You're gonna pay for that. Praise God, not in hell. But you're gonna pay for it by missing out on God's blessing. We were called to serve God. And Ephesians 2.10 says that we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. See, Jesus wants us to produce, and we need to be walking in the Spirit so that we have the fruit of that, the Spirit of God. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Oh, and may we have the love of God flowing through us. And when we're away from Him, when we're holding grudges and we become bitter against others or even, God forbid, against God, then we are not producing the fruit in our life that we should be producing. There's people that are sadly content to live that way. Some of the most miserable people I know You might be saying, yeah, the people that are on drugs, mm-mm, they're miserable. But I know some people that are more miserable than a drug addict. The most miserable people I know are people who have tasted of the love of God, and for one reason or another, they choose to live out of fellowship with their Heavenly Father. and they dot the churches of America. They still come to church, they go through the motions, they live the life, but it's an outward performance of something inside that doesn't exist, that should be there. The Holy Spirit's there, but he's grieved, he's quenched, and they would rather live to impress mankind than to have their soul right with God. And that, my friend, is a miserable existence. We know that God is love. Oh, praise God, we know what love is, because Christ loves us. Verse two, walk in love. as Christ hath loved us. Be kind, tenderhearted, forgive one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. My friend, there are over 50 one another commands in the scripture, in the New Testament. Over 50 different one another commands. And I'm just going to tell you, I praise God for the live stream. I praise God for the shut-ins and the ministry that we can have to them and making those visits. And sometimes all you can do is lay in a hospital bed or a rehab center for months. And my heart goes out to those that are in those situations. But I'm just going to tell you, you cannot fulfill one another commands on your own. We need to be a part of this body or another body of believers, a local church, because it's important for our spiritual growth. It's important that we not also run from one body to another because we don't want to get things right. with another in some other church. He says, be kind to one another, one to another, be tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. My friend, if you're not right with some other born-again Christian, if you're holding something against them, if you're withholding forgiveness. Now, I'm not telling you this morning that they have to say, well, you're forgiven, in order for you to be right with the Lord, okay? But what I'm saying is, if we are holding something, we are bitter, and we're just not gonna forgive, and we're just not gonna let it go, if somebody has done wrong to us, And by the way, it doesn't even have to be a born-again Christian. Sadly, that's where a lot of the issues lie in the church. But whoever it is, whoever it is on this planet that is created by a holy God, by our Heavenly Father, and by the way, I was reading something the other day, it says, you know, some things that are misunderstood. People say we're all God's children. No, my friend, we're all God's creation. We're not all God's children. But if there's somebody that's a created Somebody created in the image of God, and we're gonna hold a grudge against them? How can we be right with God? How can we be right with our Heavenly Father if we're sinning against a brother or sister or someone that God loves and created? He says, be ye kind, forgive, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Why? Because that's what Jesus did. And he says, be followers of God, be imitators of God. You know why so many people don't wanna come to church? And we might be saying, well, it's because they don't wanna believe. Or they don't wanna get things right. They maybe have sin in their life. Or they have some other hangup, some other issue. My friend, I think a lot of times people don't wanna come to church. because of the hypocrisy, and they'll even say that. There's so many hypocrites in church, and I always say, well, there's room for one more, my friend, and I understand that. There's some silly excuses out there, but I think that some people don't come to church because they don't see anything different in church. They just see something a little more dressed up. Well, people, they put on a suit on Sunday, and they worship God, and they make a lot of noise on Sunday, and they have worship, and they have this churchism or church entity or whatever you want to call it, but they're not having a Christian life. They don't have a Christian life where they live different. They come on Sunday, and they leave the same, and they go out to live in the world on Monday, and on Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and all throughout the week. They are not loving. They're not living like Christ would live. Do you understand what Christian means? Little Christ? And by the way, it was not a term of endearment, okay? It was a pejorative that was, oh, they're Christians. Those little Christs over there. You know, the Christians, the early Christians, they took it as a badge of honor. They would call us Christians, little Christ. But are we really little Christ? Are we little Jesus in our workplace, where we show love and forgiveness, and we aren't catty, and we aren't holding grudges, and we aren't, you know, stirring up strife? You know, stirring the pot? I'm accused of that when I go to my in-laws. In love, I like to stir the pot a little bit, you know. Just get under my mother-in-law, because I love them so much. And Miss Jessica, she's wondering, why do you say that to me, pastor? You give me such a hard time. Because I joke, and Miss Susan, too. We joke with those that we love, OK? But what I'm saying by stirring the pot, People that just are trying to say things to be controversial, and to be unkind, and to be mean, and to be contrary. You know, there's sometimes where people will say something. It might be 100% accurate factually, but somebody will find something where, well, not exactly, you know. And they want to look smart, and they want to be intellectual. And sometimes we're like that, because there's something not right on the inside. We're troubled. And that's how it comes out. That's not what Jesus did. Now you might say, well Jesus, he gave the Pharisees a hard time. Not because he didn't love them, but because he wanted them to, as the Unshackled says, face yourself and think. He wanted them to realize that you're, you're self-righteous. But is that really our intention when we go and we're trying to just stir up strife wherever we go? If you're a Christian, you're gonna stir up strife. You're gonna be controversial, okay, if you just live the Christian life, but our intention is not to go and to hurt people and to be unkind and to be unloving, but there's some Christians that live that way. They just wanna be, they wanna be a real, just a real discouragement. They wanna be, they're just so miserable on the inside, just comes out. And by God's grace, let us not do that. Boy, there's a temptation to be that way, isn't there? When we're not living right, when we're discouraged, oh yes, can Christians be discouraged? Yes, they can. We can go through hard times, we can go through difficulty, we can go through hurt and pain, and we can sorrow. That's normal. but let's not fail the grace of God and become bitter. Oh, my friend, God is love. And if we're gonna be followers of God or imitators of God as dear children, he says walk in love like Jesus, like Jesus. The power to love can only be found in Jesus. Because of Jesus, we've been forgiven by God. Because of that, we have the power to love and even forgive anybody. With every head bowed and every eye closed, this morning, ask yourself, is everything right with the Lord? Is there some area where I'm holding? Holding someone? holding something against someone, ask yourself that question. Is everything right with the Lord? Is everything right with my brothers, my sisters? I know that some people might have had a bad morning. We have one of those once in a while, right? You have a bad day, have bad hair days. Some people have no hair days. And some people have just a bad week or a bad month. But you don't have to live that way. And by the way, we shouldn't live that way. As Paul says, I can do all things through Christ which thinketh of me. I believe that rejoicing and forgiving and living in joy and peace, that's actually part of God's commandments to us. It's not just a nice thought. That's God's will for us. God's will. So if you had a bad morning, call upon God. And this morning, if you want to pray with me, pray this prayer. Father, forgive me for having a bad attitude or bad spirit. Help me to live today, the rest of this day, with the power of God in my life, forgiving and loving one another. In Jesus' name.