As we know, we've been working through the book of Ephesians, and Ephesians is broken into two parts, right? You have the first three chapters, first half of the book, which is all theology. It is what our salvation is, who we are in Christ. And you have the second section of three chapters, four, five, and six. You have a focus on now how we are to act as we are in Christ, because we have been made alive. Because we have been joined to Christ. Because we have been seated in heavenly places. Because the Father chose us. Because the Son redeemed us. Because the Spirit seals us. Because we're no longer far off, but brought near. All of these things, because of these things, because of our salvation, therefore, verse one of chapter four says, therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you've been called. And as we saw in chapter four, verse 17, he says, I say this and affirm together with the Lord that you no longer walk as the Gentiles walked. Now chapter 5 verse 1 says this, be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love. So we have an encouragement to walk. Does that mean we all go out and join 5Ks, right? That's not the point. The point is this, the manner of your life, the way in which you conduct yourself as a believer is made new in Christ. Your style of life is drastically changed from when you walked as a Gentile, as an unbeliever. As when you were dead and your trespasses and sins. As when you were far off. Now you've been brought here. You're no longer in darkness, you're in light. You're no longer dead, you're alive with Christ. You have the power of the Holy Spirit at work in you, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead physically and placed Him in heavenly places, seated at the right hand of God, the same power that now works in you when you were spiritually dead, which raised you up to newness of life and to seat you in heavenly places alongside with Christ spiritually. That is the power that is at work in us. And the power that's at work in us drastically changes our walk. drastically changes the way in which we conduct our lives. And this is one of the ways in which we walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we've been called. Not only does the author stop from all these practical changes, putting off and putting on, putting off and putting on, put off lies, speak truth, put off greediness, be generous, put off bitterness and anger and wrath and clamor and slander along with all malice and be forgiving. But also now we see we are to be imitators of God and walk in love. Doesn't end there. Also, we see that we'll be walking in light later on in chapter five, and also that we need to be walking in wisdom. The first topic that we want to look at there, the first verses, verses one and two of chapter five, which is love. And if there is one chief thing in the life of a believer and a follower of Jesus Christ, it is love. It is having a love for God the Father and Jesus Christ and the Spirit. It is having a love for your brothers and sisters around you in Christ. And it is a love towards all men around us. So let's open up the text this morning. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. Ben, training us to do this. As soon as you see the word therefore, what do you do? You go back and see what it's there for, right? So therefore, because of what we just understood, In chapter 4, because we're to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we've been called, because we're called to not walk as we used to walk as Gentiles who have not learned Christ or come to Christ, because we are to let all bitterness and wrath and anger be put away from us, because we're to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ's sake has forgiven us, we need to be walking in love. Therefore, be imitators of God, because God has forgiven you in Christ Jesus. You be an imitator of God. Because we've been forgiven of all our sins by the great sacrifice of Jesus, we can be imitators of God as beloved children. We are to do our very best by the guidance of the Spirit to imitate our God. Our God and Father has adopted us into his family, brought us into his arms as sons and daughters. And as dear children imitate their parents, we are to imitate our Father. A child often plans on being what their father was or is. Very often in Bible times and throughout history, we understand this, you were simply born into a profession, right? You're born into a family which did carpentry, or into a family which were fishermen. And you simply, that was the plan of your life. It wasn't like, oh, what am I gonna go to college for? Oh, is my dad's a fisherman? I'm a fisherman. That's really been the format all through the history of time. We don't see this, of course, as much in our days in the area of professions, but we definitely see it in cute ways, right? Such as little ones having play vacuums or play kitchens, little girls playing with baby dolls. If you've ever spent time with Emmy, you know she looks up to mommy and she's constantly has a baby doll in her arms. Rosie likes pretending to vacuum or sweep. She's got this little broom that she goes about sweeping with at one year old. Little boys driving cars and playing with toy construction tools. They're cute ways in which we see children want to imitate their parents. But we also see it in more serious ways, don't we? Little ones often yell like their parents yell. Little ones often show anger as their parents show anger. Little ones are often entrapped in sin as their parents are entrapped in sin. But they also very often show kindness, or hard work, or care, if their parents display such qualities. And we are called to be imitators of our Heavenly Father. Thankfully, as we look to God, as we know Him through the scriptures, there will never be a bad example given to us by our Father. Amen? We can follow after God and walk in His footsteps, imitating Him, as we will never, ever have a bad example from God the Father. When wondering how we are to act and how we are to live, how to treat others, how to make decisions, we can look to God as we find him in the scriptures. So therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. What is the specific way in which we are to be imitators in this text of God as beloved children? Verse two, and what? And walk in love. We used to walk in sins and trespasses, chapter two, verse two. Then God saved us so that we could walk in good deeds which he prepared beforehand, chapter two, verse 10. We were called to walk worthy of the calling with which we've been called, chapter four, verse one. In contrast to how we once walked, chapter four, verse 17, we will now be commanded in staccato to walk in love, walk in light, and walk in wisdom. What we're going to do is spend some time, you don't have to turn there, but listen. We'll be in another passage, 1 John chapter 4, where we'll see a great explanation of love and answer many questions about love for us. Number one, where is love from? Where is love from? 1 John chapter 4, verses 7 and 8 says this, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from, who? God. For love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. So we understand, number one, what we have to understand is a biblical definition of love. And we've talked about this many times, but a biblical definition of love, it's not what our culture views as love, right? We have this term, you fall into love. You see your spouse, your future spouse walk into the room and instantly you know you are in love with that person. That's an emotion, all right? That's not love. And that's why our divorce rate is so high because people fall out of love, right? They say, well, I no longer love. No, you no longer have emotional attachment, but you can decide to love according to scripture. And that is why you have so many, you know, you have these high schoolers going through high school and in four years, they date nine to 10 different people, right? And they love nine to 10 different people. In reality, what we understand is no. Sorry, you don't know what true love is. What is true love? The biblical definition, and we'll get there later on as well, but biblical definition of love is the giving of yourself for the betterment of another. God looked down upon us. and saw us in our sins and trespasses and our ugliness and our rebellion towards Him, and He didn't look down and say, wow, I just emotionally love all these rebellious sinners, so I'm going to send my Son, Jesus Christ, to die for them. No, he looked down and he said, though it's going to cause me great pain, I want to redeem for myself a people and show them love, so I'm going to send my son Jesus Christ to die for them. Jesus, before he went to the cross, came to God the Father and he said, if there's any other way, let this cup of suffering pass from me. Nevertheless, your will be done, not mine. Jesus emotionally did not feel like going and being hung upon a cross. But he decided to in love so that we could be forgiven of our sins. It was not a feeling. It was a decision. It is an act. So where is love from? How do we understand what true love is? According to the scripture, we understand it because of God. And that love is from God. And in fact, the scriptures even say, because God is love. Of course, is God other things? Is God mercy? Yes. Is God grace? Is God justice? And so on? Yes. But God is love. It is from our God, our Father, which we understand true love. How do we know what love is? 1 John continues in verse 9 of chapter 4, it says this, In this the love of God was made manifest among us, or made known to us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. In other words, the act of love was God sending His Son to earth to die for the propitiation or the removal of our sins. It was an act. And it was so that we would live or have eternal life through the Son, that we might live through Him. And understand this, it says, in this is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us. Have you ever found in your life where you come up with excuses not to love a brother or sister in Christ, or not to love another being, and you say they're just not lovable? Let me tell you, we are not lovable. Yet God loved us in sending His Son to die on the cross. What is the motivation for us to love? 1 John 4 says, Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. So motivation to love one another is not how lovable they are. It is not based on what we can get out of that person. It is not how we can benefit from loving that person. or doing service for that person, ministering to their needs, encouraging them when they're struggling. No, true love is simply based out of the fact that God loved you. And therefore, we can love each other. How does this come about? Maybe you're sitting there and thinking, I just struggle with loving people. Maybe you're sitting out there and thinking, I just struggle with loving one in particular person. Maybe you're sitting out there and thinking, well, I just, I'm emotionally a joyful person and I don't struggle with loving people. And maybe you have to consider, are you biblically loving people? How is love enabled? 1 John 4, verse 19, we love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. In this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. So how can we see by God's grace a love for other individuals? It is number one, by learning to love who? God. I got to go and listen to some messages yesterday, and in this statement, do you ever have one of those moments where kind of like your mind is blown? You're just like, wow, I didn't think of it that way before. This comment was made, motivation to share the gospel. Right? In our motivation to share the gospel, we can have times of, number one, do we want people to go to hell? No. So we want to share the gospel with them. Number two, God has shown his love towards us. And therefore we want to show our love or God's love to them. That's motivation. But one of the points that was brought up was this. Jesus Christ died for mankind. Jesus Christ died for mankind. And we have the incredible privilege to do what? To tell them that Jesus died for them. Jesus Christ left heaven where everything was absolutely perfect, where angels sang his praises, where he never was hungry, he never went through pain, he took on the form of a servant, he became a baby, was born of a virgin, lived a painful and sorrowful life amidst sinners, amidst his creation. As far as we know, he lost his father, his earthly father. He had to deal with siblings who were sinful. He had to submit to a mother who was sinful. He came to earth and he had to lead his disciples who were sinful and just didn't get it time and time again. And then he had to go to the cross. He was beaten and scourged and whipped and mocked and blindfolded and slapped and spat upon and had a crown of thorns placed upon his head. and hung upon the cross to die for sinners. And yet we can't get over our own selfishness of, I don't want to be embarrassed. I don't know what they'll think. I don't want to break a relationship. All of these multitude of excuses which we can come up with for not showing the love of Christ and sharing the gospel, we come up with and we quickly forget all the sacrifice which Jesus made so that that person could be forgiven of their sins. And just maybe God has placed you next to them on the train. Just maybe God has placed you next to them in your neighborhood. Just maybe God has given you a special pizza place that you love with somebody who serves you every time you go in for a reason. And you know what that reason is? So that you can tell them too that Jesus died for them. Don't be selfish. Don't hold it to yourself. Show a love for God and what he's done for you by sharing with others what God has done for them. That is a great motivation for sharing the love of Christ. How is a love for other people enabled loving God? Because when you love someone, what they care about and what they love and what they place priority upon becomes what? What you love and what you place priority upon. And if you love God, you'll understand that He's placed a priority upon the lost souls of men to be redeemed by the blood of Jesus. You'll understand that He's placed highest priority upon His glory and that men would come and worship Him because He is what's best for them and your life ought to reflect that. That you love God and you love what he loves. There's a question, who should we love first? And that goes back to the point that we just made. You might be wondering, aren't we supposed to love all people? Yes, but who should we love first? Matthew chapter 22, Jesus is speaking, and he said to them, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. So number one, you can't love people in a biblical and true and proper way until you first love who? A true biblical and caring and sacrificial love for God's creation comes out of first a love for the Creator. But where does love go from there? If we say we love God, but we don't love people, the love of God is not actually in us. A love for God grows and it goes someplace. Jesus says right after verse 38, love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. He then goes on and says, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. In other words, if you were to take all the laws of the Old Testament and the prophets, And their message to us, if you could love God perfectly and love others perfectly, you would be fulfilling all those commandments. And yet we understand why we fall terribly short. Because we do not love God as we ought. We do not love others as we ought. What is the biblical definition of love? Jesus said in John chapter 15, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. Does that mean if you don't die for somebody in your life, then you didn't love like Jesus? No, right? That's not the point. What he's saying is it is a sacrificial love, the putting of others before yourself, even if it costs you pain. I'm going to say something in love here that I'm convicted of myself. We say we would lay down our lives for people, but we aren't willing to lay down our phones for them, pick up their mail for them, lift them up in prayer, challenge them about their sin, consistently gather together with them for their growth and our growth as we worship God. True biblical love is shown in the hundreds of little week-to-week decisions. True biblical love is not a big moment where you take a one-week mission trip a year. True biblical love is how you interact with people week to week, day to day, hour by hour. That is biblical love. Where can we show love very practically? I want to get practical this morning. How can we show love? Because we can come away with a pep talk or an encouragement from God's word. Yes, we have to be loving and then go away and not really realize how to be loving. So very practically, I want to answer some questions. Where can we show love? Where are places and physical ways in which we can show biblical love? Well, number one, start where? Start in your house. Start in your home. There's no better place to start and probably no harder place to start than at your house. People who live with you, your family knows you better than anybody else. And you know what? You know your family better than anybody else knows them. And therefore, as you're with them the most and you see the worst of those people, It is vital that believers ought to be oh so careful to seek to love at home because one of the first places where we can see love flushed down the toilet is at your house. And yet, God has given you each individual in your family, your husband, your wife, your children, others who live with you at times maybe, God has placed them under that roof for you to show them love. It's in the little things, right? It sounds silly, but in reality it's the little things such as which way you put the toilet paper, right? If you squeeze the toothpaste from the middle or the bottom. How many here are bottom squeezers, right? They squeeze the bottom of the toothpaste going up or they squeeze the middle of it. But all those little things are actually expressions of what? Of love. You care for the little things that shows actually love and the big things. The way you react when somebody does the wrong thing. They squeeze from the middle instead of squeezing from the bottom. The way you come home to your wife and she's had a hard day with the kids and the house is a mess. Is your number one issue loving your wife or being concerned that the house isn't as clean as you expected it to be? When your children do the same thing over and over and over again and fall short of obedience to you, is it a mindset of, I want to show them the love of Christ and mercy and grace? Or is it frustration that they're not doing what you want them to do? Is your spouse is sick again or has another struggle? Or is downcast or going through a hard time? Is it, I can't believe they're going through this again? Or is it seen as an opportunity I get to serve them and encourage them and show them the love of Christ? These are all ways in which we have an opportunity to show the love of Christ starting in our homes. Of course, love, biblical love, doesn't stop there. The next place that we can show it, not only in our homes, but where? In the church. The scriptures say, do good unto all men, but especially those of the household of, what? Faith. Your church. So number two, not only at home, but number two at church. And point A would be this. Be there. It's impossible to show love for your church family if you're not with them. Of course we have our sister Joan who's unable to physically be with us and she shows her love by praying for us. But as far as you are physically able, be with your church family. Think of it this way. If you were dating somebody, or engaged to somebody, or married to somebody, and you say you love them, and yet you spend all your time away from them, what's it going to cause them to start wondering? I wonder if there's actually love there, because true love wants to be with somebody. If you're dating somebody, and you keep making a date to go out with somebody, to get to know them better, and pursue a relationship with them, and they keep canceling, eventually you're going to wonder, okay, they're not very interested, are they? Actions speak louder than words sometimes. Number one, be with the church family. Be committed to the church family. Show love and care for the church family. Visit those who are sick or away. Care for them. Help them. Provide meals for them. Take care of them. Give of your time and talent to the needs of the church. Seek to build the church through evangelism. As we'll get into the next point, we show our love towards our neighbors. We can show our love towards neighbors. Number one, of course, the greatest way to show people love is what? To tell them about God's love. Tell them about Jesus. So number one in our relationship of love towards neighbors, tell them the best news. Tell them that Jesus Christ died for them. But number two, show them the best news lived out. Once again, let me make this clear as I have in the past, living a life that reflects the gospel is not enough. Romans 10 makes it very clear that only those who hear the gospel can be what? Can be saved. How can they believe on him whom they have not heard? And how can they hear unless somebody what? Tells them. So our number one priority is telling people the good news of Jesus Christ. But as we tell people the good news of Jesus Christ, we need to do what? We need to live it out, too. Our lives should reflect what we're preaching. It would be like your neighbor being a representative for Ford trucks and going about trying to sell Ford trucks, but he drives a Toyota Tundra. People would wonder, well, why are you driving a Toyota Tundra if you think Fords are the trucks we should buy? In that same way as we tell people the good news of Jesus Christ, He changes lives. He changed my life. He can change your life. He can forgive you of your sins. And yet they look at your life and there's no evidence of being changed or being different. They're going to wonder the validity of your message. So show them the best news as you live it out. So we just saw in Hebrews, be hospitable. Open up your home to others in need. Show them care, invite them in, spend time with them. Be good neighbors, help them when they're gone. If you notice a neighbor is leaving, or you know a neighbor is leaving, offer to pick up their mail for them. Help them with snow removal. Bake them cookies. Offer to babysit. Help them with their trash barrels. If you see their trash barrel rolling around on the street, go get it. If you see their dog loose running down the street, go catch it. Be a neighbor that is showing love. Be a neighbor who lives out the gospel, not only in word, but in deed. But we also have an opportunity to go even broader, not just our homes, not just our church, not just our neighbors in the community that we're in, but towards society as a whole. We have an opportunity to have an impact as believers of Jesus Christ for the sake of the gospel. taking part in voting for those who would protect morality and biblical values in society, fighting for the weak and powerless, doing your part to prevent abortion, loving, giving, serving, fostering, adopting, if you can't, supporting those who want to or do, and so on and so on. And of course, the end goal of all these things would be what? The spread of the good news of Jesus Christ, because that is what will eventually change things. But we have a responsibility to love those around us as followers of Jesus Christ. You may ask, okay, we've seen where it comes from, who it's from, what true biblical love is, how to do it, some fleshed out ways on how we do it. What does love accomplish? Then we ask the question, what does love accomplish? First John chapter four, verse 12, it says this. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Brothers and sisters, this is great joy and an incredible privilege that as we love, we are evidencing the love of God in us and making him visible to those around us. No one has seen God. But if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. God uses it to open people's eyes to the love of Jesus Christ and the gospel. God uses it to encourage other believers in their walk with Christ. Love is the heartbeat of the church, whether it be in interacting with one another or reaching out into community with the gospel, the foundation and the basis. The overarching cry is love. Love the Lord our God and love others. But how do we love? What is the heart behind our love? Verse doesn't stop there, walk in love. It continues, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. Walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us An offering and a sacrifice to God is a fragrant aroma. Christ came and he died on the cross, causing a sweet-smelling sacrifice, satisfying the Father's wrath. This isn't something often or commonly preached, and maybe it's even a new thought to you that as Jesus died, he was offering a sweet-smelling aroma to God the Father. What exactly is the idea behind that? Well, let's consider Genesis chapter 8. After the flood comes, And God wipes out the earth and preserves Noah and the ark with his family. It says in Genesis chapter 8 verse 20, Noah built an altar to the Lord and he took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. The Lord smelled the soothing aroma, and the Lord said to himself, I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth. I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. In other words, from that time going forward, God is saying, I'm not going to destroy the earth in this manner. Why? Actually, because Noah presents a sacrifice, and that sacrifice is explained as a soothing aroma, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Of course, this for us pictures what? One day Christ would come and he would be the final perfect sacrifice, a soothing and pleasing aroma unto God, that mankind would not need to face his judgment if they would accept his sacrifice. Call upon him as Lord and Savior. Leviticus 26 says this, God states that he would no longer smell the soothing aromas of sacrifice because of the Israelites' rebellion and his declared judgment upon them. There is this idea through the Old Testament that the sacrifices are an aromatic, pleasing aroma to God the Father. Of course, Jesus was that perfect, final, satisfying, sufficient, once and for all sacrifice. So as we are saved and we follow Christ, we have the opportunity to be a sweet aroma to God. 2 Corinthians 2 says this, verse 14, but thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved, among those who are perishing. In other words, as we live out our changed lives following after Christ, our lives are a blessed, incredible sacrifice to the Lord. Living sacrifices. Romans chapter 12 says what? Brethren, I beseech you, present your bodies, living sacrifices unto the Lord, proving what is good and acceptable in his sight. For it to be living sacrifices, offering a pleasing aroma to God the Father. And how do we do that? By loving. By loving Him and loving others. Why? Because Christ offered the final sacrifice. Sufficient sacrifice. Maybe you're here this morning thinking, I can't love because my heart is still dead. I can't love because I haven't been changed by the love of God. And I invite you today, behold Jesus. Look to Him. He was the final sacrifice. He took care of all of your sins and your downfalls, your shortcomings. And He died on the cross so that you could have forgiveness and be accepted into the family of God as a son or daughter. Do not delay. Do not reject for another day the sacrifice and love of Jesus Christ. Do not turn him down. He has offered freely his love and forgiveness by incredible sacrifice for you. Therefore, accept it and learn to love God and love others. In closing, I want to read a quote by R.C. Sproul, who is now in his Savior's presence of this last year. He said, in the New Testament, love is more of a verb than a noun. It has more to do with acting than with feeling. The call to love is not so much a call to a certain state of feeling as it is to a quality of action. If we are to say we love believers, number one, we love God, we love believers, and we love all around us, then it ought to be shown in action. It is not a feeling. It is not an emotion. It is a decision to love. And according to this text, as Christ gave himself up for us, he died for us, he did it for the Father's glory to please the Father. So we too, we love. And true love is sacrificial. True love is for the sake of others. Christ gave himself up for us as a sweet smelling savor to God the Father. So true love is for the glory of God. So let me encourage us in closing, whether you eat or drink or sacrificially love, do all to the glory of God. Augustine said this, What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like. God looked down and he saw the state of mankind headed to hell. And he decided to love by sending his son, Jesus Christ. He's changed you. He's made you alive together with Christ. He's given you new life. Look around you and see the pain and the sorrow and the needs and the struggles and decide to take action. Decide to love as Christ loved. Let's pray. Father, help us to love as we ought. We are weak. We are feeble. We are small minded. We are unstable in our ways. We need you by your grace to help us to walk in love. Father, we desire to be imitators of you, to walk in love as Christ gave himself up for us. We have an incredible example to look to, and though we cannot attain to perfection that example, would you help us in our weakness and our struggle to pursue it by your grace, by the work of your spirit? Would we take action and serve? Would we put hands on and feet on to go and do and perform and serve in love? As Christ washed the feet of the disciples, showing that he came to serve and to love, would we put on servants' garments and wash people's feet? For the sake of the good news of Jesus Christ, help us to be a lighthouse as we love you and love others. for the gospel sake to those around us. In Jesus' name, amen.