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Ephesians 5:1-17 Walking in Love, Light & Wisdom in the Spirit
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Dr. Terry greets everyone and opens up the discussion on the book of Ephesians. The church in Ephesus is primarily made up of Gentiles, with some Jewish people as well. The Apostle Paul gives instructions on how to live as a Christian in chapters 4 and 5. He emphasizes that the Gentiles should not live as they did before coming to faith in Christ. The speaker mentions five ways that Paul instructs the Ephesian Christians to live on a daily basis. One of these ways is to walk in love, which will be discussed further in the next session. The speaker also shares the story of Billy Sunday, who drastically changed his life and language after coming to faith in Christ. The speaker expresses frustration with the presence of ungodliness in television shows. In the next session, the speaker will discuss the other three ways that Paul instructs the Ephesian Christians to live. Good morning. How are you all today? Y'all alright? You're mighty quiet today, that bothers me. When you're so quiet back there. In fact, I turned around to see if anybody was back there. You were so quiet. Okay, in your Bibles, turn to chapter 5 of the book of Ephesians. And we're going to explore chapter 5. I have two weeks on it, so I don't have to hurry, which is kind of nice for a change, when you don't have to hurry. And so we're just going to kind of walk through it, take our time, and see what the Apostle Paul had to tell us and the church in Ephesus about Christian living. How do you live as a Christian? If you don't know, chapter 4 and 5 of the book of Ephesians will tell you how you're supposed to live. And it talks, actually, in chapter 4 and 5, and Brother Jim has already done chapter 4, so I'm not going to rehearse what he's rehearsed, but I'm going to talk about it a little bit. There are, in chapter 4 and 5, five ways that Paul tells the Ephesian Christians that they are to live on a daily basis. So what he's going to tell them is he's going to tell them five ways, or five very important things that they need to do every day while they are alive as Christians. Now, the thing you've got to remember about this church, that in deference to the Roman church that we talked about in the last book we studied, this church was a Gentile church. The Roman church primarily was a Jewish church, whereas this church in Ephesus was a Gentile church because most of the people who were brought to Christ by the Apostle Paul when he became the pastor of the church in Ephesus and was there for about two years to three months, while he was there, he brought a lot of Gentiles into faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so these people primarily in Ephesus at the church were primarily Gentiles. Now, there were some Jewish people there. We can't deny that at all because there were probably some people in Jerusalem who were Jews from Ephesus on the day of Pentecost. And probably some of these people could have been brought to Christ on the day of Pentecost. If they had been Jewish people, they would have been in Jerusalem on that day because, you see, there were three days in the Jewish faith that every Jewish male has to be in Jerusalem. There are seven feasts. And of the seven feasts, there are three that every Jewish male must be in the city of Jerusalem. And, in fact, many Jewish males who lived in other parts of the world, Rome and Asia Minor and northern Asia and Europe, many of them would make long trips to get to Jerusalem for a particular day. In fact, you remember, as the Apostle Paul began his third missionary journey leaving the city of Ephesus, he kept telling his disciples he had to go to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. And he kept telling his people, I must be there for Pentecost. Now, the three feasts that every Jewish male was required to attend was Passover, which is in March-April, Pentecost, which is in May-June, and Tabernacles, which is in September-October. So you have those three feasts. And a lot of people, when you ask them, do you know the three feasts that Jewish people, Jewish males, and not everybody was required, folks, Jewish males, were required to attend in Jerusalem, they will tell you that they had to be there for the Day of Atonement, which is not true. It's kind of interesting. That was one of the feasts that they were not required to be there for. Now, as you look at these three feasts, the first one was eight days in length, the last one was eight days in length, and the middle one was four days in length, which meant that a person traveling to Jerusalem could come and stay for a period of time. It was not like day, you get the word, Day of Atonement, which meant that that was going to happen on one day. And so they would not travel for the one day, that was a pretty heavy travel schedule, but they would come for Passover, they would come for Pentecost, and they would come for Tabernacles. So those three feasts, in three different parts of the year, they had to travel to Jerusalem. So, many of these people in Ephesus, of course, could have been Jews in Ephesus, that were there in the city of Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. And they would have been required to have been there. We don't know how many, we do know that the church in Ephesus was primarily a Gentile church, which makes what the Apostle Paul says in chapter 4 and 5 a lot of sense. It does make a lot of sense when you begin to look at what he's telling them, and as he's telling them these five ways in which they are to live, he tells them something about Gentile life. And why would he tell a Gentile about Gentile life? Because he knew that the prior Gentile life was a life of hellish ungodliness. And he would tell them about the Gentile life, which was not a life in Jesus Christ. And so he would tell them. Now, in this book, he tells them five ways to live. Now, if you see the word walk in the New Testament, W-A-L-K, walk. If you see the word walk, it's always translated as the following. The way you live, your manner of living, your manner of lifestyle, how you handle every day, the way you go about your business, all of those are in that little bitty word walk. And so every time you see the word walk in the New Testament, you can translate it, the way of living or your manner of lifestyle. And so the Apostle Paul, in these two chapters, are going to tell these people to walk in five different ways. Now, it's kind of interesting. He first starts off in verse one of chapter four. And he says, My dearly beloved, I entreat you to walk worthy of the vocation to which you have been called. Wait a minute. He's talking to the church. He's not talking to Timothy. He's not talking to Titus. He's not talking to Tychicus. He's not talking to his good buddy, Silas. He is talking to a whole church. And he's telling the church something that this church and I and you need to hear. We have all been called into faith. You didn't just join. Nobody joins. Nobody can join the kingdom of God unless the king of the kingdom of God calls you to join. And so he's talking to a church here. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, that you walk with worth. Now, the word we use, worship, and we use it a lot, we say we worship eternal God. Actually, that word in its true translation is worth-ship. We love him. We adore him. We praise eternal God because he has great worth. And it is his worth-ship that we honor. Now, he's using that same word. And he's saying to this church, My dearly beloved brethren, I impeach you, I implore you to walk worthy, worthy, of the calling to which each of you and I and everyone else who is in the kingdom of God has been called. So your first matter of living is to work in relationship to his worth-ship. Now, the second matter, Brother Jimmy covered last week as well, and he says to them, I implore you not to walk as the Gentiles walk. Okay. This is kind of interesting. He's talking to Gentiles. He's talking to Gentiles who have been saved. He's talking to Gentiles who had a manner of lifestyle that was totally irrelevant and totally opposite of the lifestyle of the Lord Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. And he's telling them, remember how you lived when you were outside the kingdom of God. Remember how you lived when you were a Gentile. Now, to the 21st century church, he's saying the same thing. You all remember how it was when you were outside of faith. You remember how it was when you were not in the kingdom of God. You remember how it was. Now, some of you don't because some of you were children. Barbara was saved when she was five and has never had any question about her redemption. I was saved when I was 16. Many of you were saved when you were in your 30s, some in 40s, some in 50s. And so he's saying the same thing to us. Just be assured that you understand in the new lifestyle that you have in Jesus Christ your Lord, you are to walk not as you did before. 2 Corinthians 5.17 If any person be in Christ, he, she is a new creation. All things gone. See what he's saying? Now, Billy Sunday was a stevedore on the docks of Chicago. Filthiest mouthed man, they said, that lived in the city of Chicago. Said he could outcuss any sailor that came off any ship on the stevedore dock. Filthy, vile, ugly, alcoholic, drunk, ungodly, hated the church, hated the kingdom of God, hated Jesus Christ, hated everything. Billy Sunday was an ungodly mess. But one day, an evangelist shared Jesus Christ with Billy Sunday. And Billy Sunday was saved. I don't mean somewhat, I mean Billy Sunday was saved. And if you ever read his biography, you'll tell about how he was saved on the docks of Chicago. And his own biography says, on the day that I was saved, I lost 75% of my vocabulary. You get the picture? Billy Sunday said, the scripture is telling me that I'm not supposed to talk that way anymore. I'm not supposed to have those ugly verbiages anymore. I'm not supposed to be in that alcoholic bunch anymore. I'm not supposed to be over there anymore. The kingdom of God tells me he's taken me out of darkness and he's put me into light. Therefore, I can no longer walk like I used to walk in the flesh. And Billy Sunday said, I lost 75% of my vocabulary. Now ladies and gentlemen, I'm getting really perturbed at television with all these people who raise their fingers and yell and they have to black out their mouth, put a little bubble in their mouth, and they're cussing up a storm on every television show you look at. Ungodliness. And the Lord Jesus Christ, through Paul, is saying to these Ephesian Christians, don't act like you used to act. Don't walk. Don't live like a Gentile. Now, in chapter 5, he's going to give us three more. And we're going to look at those three today and next week. He's going to tell us, first of all, to walk in love. And we'll look at that one in depth in a moment. He's going to tell us to walk in love. And then, later on in the same day, in chapter 5, he's going to tell us to walk in light. Because, quite frankly, in the fact that you are a child of God and you are in the kingdom of God and we are part of the kingdom of God, we are now to be people of love and we are to be people of light. We are no longer to walk in the darkness. We are no longer to have the darkness of this world in our lives. We are to walk in love and walk in light. And then, last in this chapter, which we'll get to next week, will be our primary discussion next week, he tells us to walk circumspectly. Now, that word, circumspectly, means with extreme carefulness. Walk, live, participate, be a part of your lifestyle with careful preparation and careful abilities. Walk with great care. You see, folks, the only gospel a lot of people will ever read is not the Old Testament or the New Testament. They're going to probably read the New Testament. And what is your testament like? Since many people will never read the Bible, but they do read you. And they watch us. And they watch your manner of lifestyle. They listen carefully to your vocabulary. They listen carefully to your manner of speech. They listen whether or not you are giving God all the praise and all the glory or whether you're taking all the praise and all the glory to yourself. Listen, folks, the people are reading the gospel according to you and me. Say, what do they read? And how does it show up? So with those five things, you now know chapter four and five. He's telling these Gentile believers, these wonderful Christians who have come into faith in the city of Ephesus, the church of Ephesus, he's telling them five ways they need to watch very carefully how they participate in the community and how they participate with those who were their friends in the other life and how now, in the presence of Jesus Christ in their life, they are participating with some of those same friends and all at the same time allowing their life to shine as a light in the darkness. And to demonstrate what Christ had given them, Christ gave them his love. Can it be that he loved us so much that he gave himself for us? What manner of love has a man that he would give his life for a friend? And so Christ loved so that he gave us himself. And so the apostle is telling them there are several ways that you, as a child of God, need to present yourself to a lost and dying world. They're watching you. They're wanting to see if what happened last night is going to cause you to move away from your faith in Jesus Christ. They're checking to see if what happened last night over the skies of Israel are changing your mind any at all. And if it is, is it changing it toward the eternal, effective coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? Even so, John said, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Has it changed your mind or are you looking at the dark side of this world? And they'll be watching to see how we react to what's been going on. And so I'm going to read chapter 5 through verse 14. And I want you to listen carefully because it's kind of interesting. The thing about which the apostle Paul tells us we should live in the love of Jesus Christ has attached to it in this chapter some very unusual, ugly activities. I'll show you in a moment when we read it. And then when he talks about light, it too has some attachments that are kind of interesting. So let's just read the verse. Now, chapter 4 is finished. And the apostle in his manner always says, therefore. Which means, I've just got through telling you what I'm going to tell you. And I told you and I'm going to tell you again. OK. And so he's getting ready to tell you again. So he uses this little word, which is a transition word. Therefore, what I have told you about walking worthily and what I've told you about walking not in your old lifestyle, I'm getting ready to show you three other ways Jesus Christ himself walked. Jesus Christ walked in love. He walked in light. He walked very carefully. You and I have read the New Testament. We've read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We've read the Gospels pretty thoroughly. Never in any of the Gospels, in any of the occasions, in any of the activities community-wise and otherwise, Jesus was never ever able to be accused. They could never accuse him of living outside the kingdom of his father. You say, yeah, Jack, but he was Jesus. Really? May I ask you a simple, simple question? Because the Lord Jesus saved you and came into your life, may I ask you who lives in you? You see? We can say, oh yeah, he was Jesus. Yeah. And the same spirit that lived in him abides in us. Get over it. Get over it. Get the picture. And since the same spirit that lived in Jesus abides in us, we too have the responsibility of walking how? Worthy of the kingdom. Of walking how? Not in our old lifestyle. Lose your vocabulary if you have to. How? Walking in the love that Jesus walked in. Walking in the light that Jesus walked in. And walking very carefully as Jesus walked. And the Apostle Paul is going to clearly show those. So here we go. Therefore, be followers of God as dear children. And here's the third one. And walk in love. Christ has loved us and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. But fornication and uncleanness and covetousness, let it not even be named among you as fishing for saints. Don't let covetousness and fornication and uncleanness even be part of your memory process. Or your personal process. Don't let it be named among you. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor coarse gesturing which are not fitting but rather giving of thanks. I just had something that hit me when I was reading this the other day. Instead of cussing, just say praise God. Have you ever thought about that? Instead of accusing somebody, say praise God for you. It's necessary for you to do that. It says rather than coarse gesturing or making ugly movements or activities toward them, just tell them. You know what I'm going to say to you, Brother Robert? Praise God for you. Now, in a moment, I'm going to show you in the Greek how the Apostle Paul used two words here that are so closely related in the Greek and so opposite in their meaning. Paul was a wordsmith. And he knew how to use the words and he knew what words to use. And this word, praise God, is a beautiful word in the Greek language. And the word ugliness or fornication or ungodliness is a terribly ugly word in the Greek language. But they are so closely sounding alike that the Apostle Paul uses them. So he says, therefore, praise God. No, cuss, praise God. No, he says here, for this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of God, through the kingdom of Christ in God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Empty thinking, foolish, ugly, fornicating thinking is the lifestyle of the sons of disobedience. And we are no longer sons of disobedience. Therefore, the Apostle Paul says again, I'm finished with love. I'm going to talk to you about another one. Do not be partakers with them, for you were once darkness, and now you are light. In the Lord walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is all goodness, righteousness, and truth. Galatians 5:22-23. For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, gentleness, you know the seven. Proving what is acceptable to the Lord. The fruit of the Spirit is acceptable to the Lord. The works of darkness is not acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by those in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light. For whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore, he says, and he quotes Isaiah, Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. Isn't that interesting? Isaiah said that in 2619. Many, many centuries before Christ ever walked on this earth. He said, arise, awaken from your sleep. Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. Now we're going to stop there, because the next passage starts talking about circumspect walking. And we're not going to go there today, we'll go there next week. So let's go back and start looking at these two manners that the Lord Christ tells us to live. Live in love, and live in light. Okay, 1 John 4.19. Do you know what 1 John 4.19 says? You know it, don't turn to it, you'll know it when I tell you. It says, we love him. What? Because he first loved us. Now everyone generally knows 1 John 4.19. We love him, because he first loved us. And what did he do? And gave himself a sacrifice for our redemption. That's why we love him. He gave himself for us. And we are, as Christ calls us, we are his beloved children. We are to walk in love. When you walk in love, you do not do those things which are of the world. So, if we walk as men, the writers say we do ill. But if we walk as sons of God, then we do well. If we walk as children of mankind, we walk in ill. If we walk as children of God, we do well. And so we are to walk in love. You see, Christ loved us. Gave himself for us. Provided for us the only means of escape out of a dark and sinful world. Gave us the privilege of becoming not just redeemed people. But he gave us the privilege of becoming his inherited brother. We are brothers and sisters with Jesus Christ. We are joint heirs with Jesus Christ. We are joint heirs in the kingdom of God. Because of one thing. Love. And the only reason we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God is because Jesus loves us. And he gave himself for us. He said, the Apostle Paul said about himself, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I'm alive. I live. Yet not I, but Christ who lives in me. And the life that I live by the flesh, I live through the power of the Son of God who loved me, there it comes again, who loved me and gave himself for me. So we are crucified with Christ and he loved us. Now, in the book of John, in 15:13, it says, greater love hath no man than this, and a man does what? Lays down his life for his friend. Greater love hath no man, no love than this, that a man lay down his life for a friend. Peradventure, would a good man, would a good man lay down his life? Or would someone come along that would be worthy for a person to die for them? But God extended his love toward us in that while we were yet his enemies. I'm letting it soak. While we were his enemies. You see, the world of darkness hates God. The world of darkness hates Christ. The world of darkness hates the kingdom. The world of darkness hates this church. And we have seen in many other places in the world where darkness takes over, the church suffers severely. Darkness and the church have never ever worked well together. And since we are in light, they hate us. And so we are to participate as those who walk in love. So what do we do? We take the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world, we share Jesus Christ with everyone with whom we can share, and all we meet, we take the gospel of Christ in our own testament, and we present it to a lost and dying world, and we are walking in love even as Christ walked in love. Now the end of this thing in talking about love ends up in a statement of sacrifice. Now we know that in the Old Testament temple there were five major sacrifices that could be presented to God at the temple. If ever you want to see them, go to the book of Leviticus, chapters about one through six, and each of those chapters in the book of Leviticus will share with you what each of those five sacrifices were. You know some of them by name, you know some by burnt offering, you know some by sin offering, you know one by votive offering, what you paid off a vow, so you primarily kind of know all of the sacrifices, and they were for particular situations in which the Jewish people found themselves. And the reason they were always covered with blood was nothing could be forgiven without the shedding of blood. And so each of these, with the exception of the grain offering, now there was one exception, and the exception of the grain offering was for a particular purpose, which I don't have time to talk with you about this morning, but sometimes go to the book of Leviticus and read the sacrifice of the grain offering, how it was put together, and what manner of use it was in while it was done in the temple. But now what we're coming to understand at this point is in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ wrapped all of those sacrifices into one, himself. And he became the ultimate sacrifice on the cross, shedding his blood, for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. He became the ultimate sacrifice for eternity. And there are no other sacrifices. You say, well Jack, I read in the book of Revelation where the temple is going to be rebuilt during the period of the thousand year reign. Really? Good. I also read that they're going to be doing some sacrificing in there. Really? For what purpose? You need to go back and read that chapter one more time and see what it's really saying to you about the period of that thing we call the millennium. The temple will be built, ladies and gentlemen, the third temple will be built. You and I will not see it. It will be built during the period of the tribulation. And you and I will be gone. The rapture will happen before the period of the tribulation begins. Yes, I am a premillennialist. I'm not embarrassed about that. I'll tell anybody I'm premillennial. I also believe in premillennial doctrine. I don't have a program or a plan. I just believe that what the Bible says is premillennial activity. And the temple is going to be built. In fact, several Jewish architects have already measured temple mound. I receive books at the seminary that you all never think about. I receive lots of magazines at the seminary. And one of the magazines that I receive at the seminary is a magazine that talks about the temple activities. They have already measured the temple. And these Jewish architects have already determined that they can build the new temple in 18 months. Right next door to the dome of the rock. Never touching the dome. Which means that I don't know if you ever look at temple mound. I don't know if you ever look at the layout of temple mound. But the dome of the rock sits here. The new temple will sit here. And the new temple's front door will look right into the eastern gate. The dome of the rock is over here. It doesn't look into the eastern gate. And they can build it in 18 months. And it can be completed in 18 months. And there can be sacrificing going on in 18 months. Have you figured out what 18 months is? Three and a half years. The first part of the tribulation. And you and I will not see that. We will not see that. We will be gone. And we will be enjoying heaven. We will be at the marriage supper of the Lamb. And we will be in glory. Everything's going to be fine. But it's going to be a terrible situation down here. So, the reason we're going to be there is because of this wonderful gift that Christ has given to you and to me. He has given us the ability because He lives in us to work out from us like Him. Now, I keep sharing with you all pretty heavily and you know that I do. I want you to understand you are full of the Spirit of eternal God through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is in us. He lives and dwells in us. He is not outside of us. We do not call Him in. He is in us. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit is in us and He is working through us just as His Son did because He has made us to be bearers of love. We love Him. Why? Because He first loved us. Walk number one. We can walk that way because He first loved us. Now, look at what it says about life. You once were walking in darkness. I mean, that's an understatement of the year. You once were walking in darkness, verse 8, but now you are light. You are light in the Lord. Therefore, walk as children of light. It's kind of interesting as the Gospels begin to write out the story of Jesus Christ. It is kind of interesting that John's Gospel oftentimes is more clear in some situations than are Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which are the synoptic Gospels they seem like. John saw things that the synoptics did not see. And one day, Jesus, in the presence of these men who would become His apostles, John wrote it this way, and we beheld His glory. And that glory that we looked at was like the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John said, we beheld His Shekinah. It was in His face. It was in His eyes. It was in His demeanor. It was in His ministry. It was in His love. It was His life. And that life was what John goes on to say. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. Do you realize what John just said? In Jesus Christ was life given by eternal God. And that life became the light of men. You and I received that light because we received that life. Without that life, there is no light. In Him, first of all, was life given to Him by the Father. And that life became the light of men. That light shined into the darkness, and the darkness was never able to overcome it. Still not able to overcome it. In my life, ladies and gentlemen, because we walk in the light, the darkness can attack us, the darkness can cajole us, the darkness can insult us, the darkness can threaten us, but the darkness cannot overcome the light. Now either we are walking in the light or we are liars. And if we walk in the light as He is in the light, what happens? What did Paul say? If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with Him, and the blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing us from all unrighteousness. It never stops. If you walk in the light as He is in the light, and the blood of Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all unrighteousness, that little word that he used there, and the darkness could not overcome it, it is an illustration of a child. It's a child sitting on the floor with an adult. And the child has a ball, and he wants to play catch with the adult. Have you ever sat down with a one-year-old, two-year-old, on the floor with a ball? And you say, you say, throw it to me, and they'll kind of lob it to you. You want them to lob it back. And you all want to play catch with each other. Have you done that? Have you played with a child? Well, this word, and the darkness could not overcome it, is that word. It is katah laban. Katah laban. Simple little word. Katah means down. Laban means to throw. And it is the picture of a daddy and a child playing ball. Or you say, lob it to me, and he will lob it to you. Although you probably don't use the word lob, you probably say throw. It means the same thing. Lob it. Watch the word katah laban. Isn't that interesting? And we get the English word lob from that word. Throw it. Lob it to me. And we say, katah laban. Throw it down is what that word means. Now watch the scripture. And the darkness could not katah laban. The darkness could not throw down the light. And it never will. Now, two words that he uses in this thing of love. He uses one word in there that is the word eturapese. Now that doesn't mean a thing in the world to you all. Eturapese. And that little word simply means coarse speech or coarse gesturing. You know what made me mad on the television the other day? It was when that Venezuelan illegal was uglying us with all kinds of signs. And telling us what he thought about us. And he'd come across our border and he's taking our money and he was doing ugly gesturing toward us. That word is eturascratai. Now, the other side of that where he says, don't do that to them. Don't do that kind of speaking. But do eucharistos. Eucharotelia. Coarse talking. Eucharistos. Praise. Do you understand the word eucharist? It means to praise almighty God. Now, if you ever attended a Catholic worship, there's a period of time in the worship when they elevate the host and that is the period of eucharistos. That's when they praise God. And that's when they say, praise God from, you know. And the whole thing breaks into praise God. Eucharistos. Paul's playing on words. Don't euphorostia. Don't use coarse language. But, rather than cussing him out, why not just say, praise God, Gerald. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Use eucharist. And in your language, praise God in love, in your life, walk in life as he is in life, and his fellowship will continue to redeem us from our sins. Four ways to walk. Walk with worth. Be sure that your life gives worth and has saved you. Don't continue to live like you used to live. I want to tell you something, Robert. I've done that in chapel a couple of times. It's really embarrassing when you do it in chapel. Walking. How are you going to walk? First of all, he says, walk with worth. Don't act like you used to act. Get rid of all that. Walk in love because Christ first loved you and since he has overcome darkness and you are full of light, walk in light. I had a dear friend who was pastor of Polytechnic Baptist Church here in Fort Worth. I've been in several revival meetings with him. He had a wonderful little poem when we had a daytime early morning worship service. He always started the service with this one and he used to say, I met God in the morning when the day was at its best and his presence rose like sunshine with a glory in my breast. All day long his presence lingered. All day long he stayed with me and we sailed in perfect calmness over a very troubled sea. Other ships tossed battered. Other ships so distressed and the wind that seemed to drive them gave to me a peace and rest. So, I think I learned the secret gained from many a troubled day. You must meet God in the morning if you want him through the day. You are love. You are light. It was given to you by the Father who dwells in us. And all we can say is with me, Praise God! Father God, we thank you for Paul's expression telling us how we are to live. And although the world around us is full of darkness, we know that we are full of light. And we know that we have the love of Jesus Christ coursing through our veins because we are joint heirs with him. And we have the light of his life in our eyes and our hearts and we know that we are capable. And yet, Father, we are beat down by the world. We are beat down by the darkness. We are beat down by everything that's around us. While in the truth of the matter we are super victors through Jesus Christ our Lord. We are super overcomers through Jesus Christ. Help us to remember who we are and to live who we are and to respond to who we have. And that is eternal God through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit in whose name we pray. Amen. See you next Sunday. We'll finish 14 and following. Maybe.
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