Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The sermon text is from Ephesians 5:3-21 previously read.
For several weeks now we’ve been going through Ephesians. It’s somewhat unfortunate how they chose to divide up our readings, because I think the verse just before our text is so important: “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
The Christian life doesn’t start with you elevating your behavior to the level God can tolerate. It’s not about you proving yourself worthy to God. You and I could never reach God’s standard. It’s impossible for sinful people to reach the perfection our holy God demands. Our life in Christ began with God bringing you into a relationship with His Son – a relationship you didn’t start and don’t deserve. It began with “Christ loving us and giving Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
That’s important because I think a lot of people go through life measuring their relationship with God by what they do and how well they do it. They think being a Christian is about how I’ve got to perform to get to heaven. Just the opposite is true! The Holy Spirit brings us into a relationship with Christ – we call it faith. And faith receives and trusts and rejoices in the free gift of God’s love and the promise of forgiveness and eternal life. And when that grace fills our lives it spills over to our family and friends and neighbors. 1 John 4 says, “We love, because He first loved us.” So as we go along today keep that context in mind, because Paul is answering the question: “For us who are saved by grace for Jesus’ sake, how should our lives look?”
There are things that Paul calls “improper for God’s holy people.” Sexual immorality, greed, foul language, getting drunk- are all destructive. “Don’t be foolish,” Paul wrote, “but understand what the Lord’s will is.” Live wisely. Don’t let the devil get a foot in the door of your heart. The reason is: looking at naked pictures on the internet or foul language or dirty movies or abusing alcohol are just the wedges Satan wants to use to steal your heart. So many people are addicted to internet porn or kids having sex outside of marriage, but it all starts seemingly “innocently” – a short look or touch.
Sin is like rolling a snowball down a hill that grows and grows until it’s huge, and by the time, the snowball gets to the bottom it might smash you flat. That’s how sin is when we let the devil force his way into our hearts, we get to the point where we don’t confess and repent of sin, we justify it. We make excuses. We call it our lifestyle choice. We may even get mad and demand other people accept it, and finally our faith is lost – buried under the false god we’ve made of pleasuring ourselves. Notice our text: “No immoral, impure or greedy person – such a man is an idolater – has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.” Stubborn, unrepentant sin is dangerous. It callouses our heart to the point we won’t let God’s love in – and hell is the result.
Now someone may protest – it’s my choice – no one else’s business. I was born this way, or I still believe. But true faith doesn’t justify itself to God or the world by excuses or rationalizations. True faith lives by God’s grace and cries out: “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” It clings to Christ who alone justifies, declaring us to be forgiven by His death and resurrection. That’s why Paul says, “Be very careful how you live.” When I’m tempted to think I can go my own way or have sex outside of marriage or get drunk, the answer is always repentance – confessing our sins and trusting in God’s Son our Savior. And if that repentance is genuine, I won’t want to be the same. I’ll ask God’s strength to change my life.
That’s not to say we become perfect people, that we no longer struggle with temptation or that we never fall, but we cry out in repentance for God’s forgiveness and strength, knowing, as 1 Timothy 1 says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” He died for you and me, and calls us to live for Him.
Because the eternal salvation of our children is at stake, I’d like to explore more deeply Paul’s words: “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality.” The devil is using the computer and television and bad friends and terrible role models to steal your children. If you don’t buy that, “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Your family’s salvation is at stake. Too many things from confirmation to movie choice to music and on and on are left to kids. In the effort to maintain friendship with children, kids are making decisions that should never be decisions. It’s a slippery slope.
Don’t get me wrong there are insignificant things that are, perhaps, family choices but they aren’t confirmation, church, Sunday school, midweek. This strange children’s liberation movement is irresponsible and toxic for your child. The reason children should not be making those decisions is because they are not adults. We all needed parents when we were young to form our lives in Christ. It comes with the job. Believe me, even now I’m praying that God will prepare me to be God’s man in my home, because my kids need that from me. Humanly speaking, their eternal lives depend on it.
Moms and dads ask God’s strength to stand guard over your home: “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for whom he may devour.” Know your children’s friends, what they’re watching and listening too, and get your fellow parents on board with the project of raising Godly kids or avoid their destructive influence. Countless hours are spent taking children to lessons or rehearsals, practices and ballgames, but nothing is more important than training your kids to know the Savior who gives meaning to life and rescues from eternal death.
The Christian home should be filled with prayer and God’s Word – if you don’t know how or what to use – I can drop a ton of free material into your lap. Please ask. The church has great resources for your home. Let Paul’s words be the model for the Christian home: “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
I hope this doesn’t offend, but it’s been on my heart this week. At a young age, through mindless magazines and movies, little girls are trained to be look and act like sex objects with value for nothing else. Boys are trained the sum total of manhood is conquering the most women. This past week after the whole “Miley Cyrus stripper thing” blew up on television, parents in news reports were outraged. I’m glad they were. It’s time Christians called foul and pushed back. It’s time we stopped burying our heads and hoping for the best, but it’s easy to get mad at television. Paul says, “Among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality.”
You and I were once darkness, “now you are light in the Lord.” You are loved. Your children are precious to God, purchased with the holy blood of Jesus. God wants to have an eternal relationship with you in heaven where He fills your life with unimaginable goodness.
Since our lives are infinitely valuable to God, here’s the conversation loving moms and dad and grandparents need to have with their kids. From a very young age, we need to train our young people to want more out of a relationship than someone who looks good. As you pray with and read the Bible with your families, your kids will grow in their faith and they’ll want the same thing for their children. What does the man or woman who doesn’t know Jesus have to offer as a spouse or parent? Kids will get it if very early on they’re told how important a Christian partner is. I’m praying right now that God prepares for Daniel and Ezra a future wife that loves Jesus with all her heart. I know it’ll make their life in Christ easier, and I know, God-willing, it’ll be good for the eternal salvation of grandkids and great-grandkids I hope to see in heaven.
Moms and dads who treat each other with grace and dignity, can more easily tell their children to look for someone who shares their commitment to Jesus as the most important thing. When a little girl is adored and special and treated with dignity by her father – and also dad to mom – the little girl will want that. She won’t be too eager to accept the Neanderthal man who just wants to take advantage of her. That’s not a man at all. When boys are taught how to treat women with special kindness and dignity and they see the loving Christian example of mom and dad, they learn how important it is to find a Christian spouse with whom they can share the same joys of a life in Christ.
When moms and dads talk with their kids about the special covenant they made before God in marriage and how important it is – they’ll be less likely to settle for shacking up. You can’t make all the decisions for your adult children, but with a little wisdom guided by God’s Word you can give your kids the tools they need. Your kids might be adults living on their own, and it’s never too late to have these conversations, call them to repentance and point them to Christ. Just ask God’s strength to love them enough to speak His truth, and resolve with Joshua, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Friends, this is God’s sacred calling for us who are in Christ, whether single or married, young or old: “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” As you live out your life as a child of the light, remember… your status didn’t and doesn’t depend on you. God’s gift of love and forgiveness isn’t yours because you were a good parent or a good child or grandparent or anything else, but because God is good and His mercies endure forever. In and of ourselves, we’re all failures, but our Heavenly Father’s perfect love remains. One person never failed, and He stretched out His arms in death to make you a part of His family. Amen.
And now may the peace of God which surpasses human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.