Walk in Love

Pastor Jason

Ephesians - We are the Church • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

Ephesians 5:1–2

Love

0 ratings

· 10 views

Walk in Love

Notes

Transcript

Introduction

Funny Story about love:

Talk to amy about this ???????

Trans; Today we are going to talk about love...

Review:

Chapter 1-3 where the Doctrine of the church

and then in Chapters 4-6 we have been looking at Duty of the church.

How we as the church lives out the doctrine of Scripture in our every day lives with one another.

4:1-16 - Walk in Unity

4:22-30 - Walk in Holiness

4:31-32 - Walk in Kindness

Now OUR BIG IDEA FOR TODAY IS in 5:1-2 “ Walk in Love”

About 22 years ago I fell “ in love” with the girl of my dreams. (amy)

We started to walk in love together-

We wrote each other letters (actual letters on paper)

We wrote poems to express our love for one another.

We talked for hours on the phone getting to know each other.

We went bowling, and ice skating, and hiking, and swinging, and fishing, We spent hours together.

But do you know what was really the cats meow of our love - Amy made me a mixed cassette tape.

Thats right a cassette with all the songs that were suppose to remind me of her when I played.

Amy and I were walking in love. We had a relationship that was focused on the other person. A relationship that was growing and a relationship that we were excited to be part of.

Paul in our text this morning as we continue on in Ephesians doesn’t just tell the church to wing it and figure out what it means to “walk in love” but He gives us an example to follow.

He is telling us, as the church, that if we want to walk in love than we need to follow this example.

Imitate God

Moms have you ever seen your kids respond to something in a way that totally reminds you of your husband?

Illustration: When Linden was almost 2 years old- we were driving down the road and a guy swerved in front of me and I made a disgusted noise (Grunt) because I got cut off in traffic- and from the back of the car we heard this sweet little 2 year old voice say “ what a jerk He's an idiot right dad? “ Talk about being convicted- Do you know where my 2 year old heard those words? It wasnt from Veggie tales - It was Form his dad- He was imitating me based on my actions and my attitudes that He saw in my life-

I learned very quickly on as a dad ,that my kids where watching me to see how to respond to other people in this world.

Linden didn’t grow out of looking and acting like me- In fact The more time he spent with me the more He acted just like me.

Ashley Ronney- at Ladies Retreat- Linden visted Soteria- our former church this past Sunday- and even though Ashley - one of our teens hasn’t seen me or linden in about 10 years She said the moment I saw Linden walk into church I new who he was because he looked and acted Just like his dad.

Paul in......

Eph. 5:1 says “ be imitators of God, as beloved children”

Paul is say “just as our children follow our example in this life, We need to imitate God in our lives.

What does it mean to imitate God in our lives?

---------- I’m glad you asked:)

Just like Linden grew up becoming more and more like me, so we row up in Christ looking more and more like Him.

The more time with spend with God- the more we reflect His character in our lives.

The way that we imitate God in our lives is to walk in love, and the way that we walk in love is to live like Jesus.

As we break this short passage down, I want to begin by looking at the 2nd half of this verse and then we will jump back to our Big Idea for the day and that is to “WALK IN LOVE”

Christ Example of Love

How do we imitate God? By imitating His Son Jesus

Our Example to follow is Christ

“as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Christ gave Himself up as a substitute for our sins.

Phil. 2:5-8 “You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature. He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death —even death on a cross!”

The motivation behind Christ Actions was His love for us. and it’s this kind of unconditional love for others that is the pattern that God wants us to follow as the church.

3 Points we need to see about the pattern of Love Christ shows us

Christ Emptied Himself Willingly

Phil 2:5 “but He emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature.”

Who is Christ:

Christ is the 2nd person of the Triune God.

This means that He has all of the attributes of God

He is eternal, All knowing, all powerful, and omnipresent.

John 1;1-2 “In the beginning was the Word, (the Word here is another name for Christ we see this explained in vs 6-18) In the Beginning was Christ and Christ was with God, and tChrist was fully God. Christ was with God in the beginning. All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.

Christ is not only God but He is also the creator of all

Here we have the perfect Holy Righteous creator of all, being motivated by His love for His own creation, willingly choose to empty himself of all His rightful glory and humble himself in order to save mankind from their own sin.

If we are going to love others like Jesus loved others than we must humble ourselves .

We must give up our own desires, our own comforts , and our own glory, so that we can love others like Jesus - Even when we get nothing in return.

Transition: the second pattern of Christ love that we must follow is that......

Christ Served Others Generously

Listen to what the apostle Mathew said about he purpose of Christ on earth.

Matthew 20:28 “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.””

As the creator owner of the world, Jesus Christ had the power and the ability to obliterate mankind because of our sin,

He had the right to say “ because of our sinfulness man is going to get exactly what he deserves>”

He had the right to condemn all of us to an eternity in Hell forever without any way of escape.

, but His love for us was so great that instead- He chose to come to earth and redeem us from our sin.

The motivation that drove Jesus to the cross was His love God the Father and His love for mankind.

But notice in scripture -Christ didn’t just come to meet our spiritual needs but he came to give us an example of how to love one another unconditionally.

Matt 14- after speaking all day Jesus willingly served 5,000 people a meal.

It took 2 fish and 3 loaves of bread and broke them into enough pieces to feed over 5,000 people.

Mark 8- again after he had preached all day - He went to someone who had leprosy - a very contagious desease of his time and met with him and healed him

Luke 7- again after he had preached all day - He went and healed a sick servant girl for a Roman centurion.

Jesus Graciously served the people who He new would one day reject Him and nail him to a cross.

Jesus didn’t come to serve those who could repay him with wealth or prestige our honor. He served those who had no way of ever repaying Him for His acts of love.

Christ gave us a perfect example to follow

He emptied Himself of all his glory and came to earth Humbly to serve mankind generously. , and the reason He chose to do this was out of Obedience to the father.

Our 3rd pattern of love that Jesus exempted for us was that HE Obeyed the Father completely.

Christ Obeyed the Father Completely

Phil 2:8 “ He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death —even death on a cross!”

Jesus is showing us as His church, that there is no task too great when it comes to obeying God the father.

Christ motivation for obedience to God the father was His love for the father and His love for all of mankind.

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Jesus understood that the culmination of God’s perfect love for mankind would come to complete fruition through His own death on the cross as a ransom for Man’s sin.

Christ demonstrated to us what he meant when he Said in

Matt. 22:36-40 “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Paul is telling us in Phil. 2 that if we are going to love god with all of our heart, our soul, and our mind, and we if we are going to love others the way that God desires us to love them -than we must follow Christ example and go All in.

We must leave nothing back when it comes to loving God and Loving others.

To Love others

We must empty ourselves of our own Pride, desires, comforts, and pleasures,

We must humbly serve others generously, and

we must do it so that God' name is glorified and not our own.

Transition: jumping back into our text in Ephesians 5:1-2 “be imitators of God as dearly loved children and walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.”

TO imitate God means that we will walk in Love, and to walk in love means that our lives will look like Jesus to the world around us.

Paul began his instruction on the duty we have as believers in chapter for with the command to Walk in a manner worthy of that which we have been called.

To walk worthy of that which God has called us to means that

4:1-16 - Walk in Unity

4:22-30 - Walk in Holiness

4:31-32 - Walk in Kindness

and that we Walk in Love”

Walk in Love

Practically Speaking what does it mean for us to walk in Love?

To do what Jesus did is impossible- He died for the sins of the world.

Paul is not saying that the only way to love like Jesus is to die for someone else,

he is saying let this mind be in you-

The idea that you would put others above yourself that you would invest spiritual good into the lives of others no matter the cost.

TO help us understand what true love I believe we need to read from Gods word what the actions of true love looks like in the life of the believer

Turn with Me in your Bibles to 1 Cor. 13

13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

13:2 And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

13:3 If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I receive no benefit.

13:4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up.

13:5 It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful.

13:6 It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. 13:7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

13:8 Love never ends.

To Walk in Love means that your life exemplifies Jesus compassion for the Lost and hurting people around Him.

To walk in love means that you put yourself aside for the spiritual benefit of others.

TO walk in love means that whatever you do you do all to the glory of God,

WRAP UP

We are called to reflect God’s love to the world. We are called to walk in Love

As much as my kids may want to deny it, the more time they spend with me the more they look like me to others around them. Its not just their smile or their hair, but its how they talk, Its how they walk, It’s how they care for others, and it’s how they respond to things in this world.

OPTIONAL: Story of Lee in the Store- If you knew my father in law lee at You could always tell when He was walking towards you. It didn’t matter if he was 3 blocks down the road, If you knew Lee You knew it was Him walking towards you because of how He walked.

He had this bounce to his step , and a stocking hat that would flop from side to side.

Lee is gone now But do you know What? I still see that crazy bounce.

Now when I see my amy’s brother Adam from a ways away I know it’s him ? Why- because He walks just like His dad. He is an imitator of his father.

The same thing is true with our relationship with our heavenly father.

If we want to be an imitator of God - If We want to walk in Love- than we got to be spending time with Him learning to walk like He walks.

We can not be imitators of Christ if we are not walking with Christ.

To imitate Christ......

We must be faithfully reading His word

We must be generously serving His church

We must be contagiously sharing His gospel.

We must be continuously bathing all of this in Pray.

AS HIS CHURCH CHRIST HAS COMMANDED US TO WALK IN LOVE.

When people look at you as God’s church - they should see the Characteristics of God ‘s love for others lived out in your life.

Lets be a church that Walks in Love!

PRAY