Ephesians 5:1-2 - My Desire: A Message of Love and Redemption

Learn what it means to be a follower of God and the importance of being a doer of the word.

Understand the difference between talking and walking in love.

Discover the power of love in changing the world and overcoming hatred.

Find out how to show love even in the face of adversity and how to be an example of Christ's love.

Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Our subject today is my desire. We sang a song that chorus, My Desire to Be Like Jesus. And this morning I want to talk to you about our desire, what my desire is, what I hope your desire is as well. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 1, always good to start at the beginning. So it says this, Be therefore followers of God as dear children. I like the term followers. I'd like to find out what a word means, right? Followers is a noun. It means an adherent or a devotee to a particular person, cause, or activity. That's what a follower is. So he says, Paul's writing here says, Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children. It's not enough just to be this, a talker. We've got to be a doer. We've got a lot of people that are talkers, but we don't have enough doers, right? James chapter 1, 22 and 23 says, But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror. Meaning that it doesn't do any good. All you're doing is just looking at yourself, doing nothing. We're not doing anything. We're just looking. We're just hearing. We're not doing anything with it. And we've got to be not only hearers of the word, but doers of the word as well. You remember there's an old statement that used to be said, actions speak louder than words. Do you remember that? It's true. Because we can talk the talk. And that was one that I remember when I was a kid. Oh, you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? Right? And that's the point. We can talk the talk. Oh, we talk a good game. But when it comes to doing it, do we get it done? You know, we've got to be more than just talking. We've got to be more than just talking about it. We've got to be about it. That's the thing. You can't just be talking about it. You've got to be about it. You've got to be doing it. This is really interesting. He says in verse 2 And walk in love All your actions and words Should be ordered by love I think that's one of the most focal points That we need to focus on in this generation In which we live right now Is that fact Because we see so much hatred going on All around I mean all around Protesting and so much hatred And so many fights and all this going on What can change all this? One word. Love. Exactly. Love. That's what can change it. If we love one another, if we show love, you can't hate somebody that loves you. I guess you can, but, you know, if you're a crazy person, you can hate anybody. But the point is, if somebody really shows you love, it's very difficult to hate somebody that loves you. Because that love permeates. That love is there. It's right there and people, they feel it and they say, wow, you really do love me. Not to get ultra political here and I'm not getting all political, but I'm just saying, I think we all would say what happened with that dear man was terrible. It was a horrible thing. It was a horrible, terrible thing. But the hatred that is permeating this world is not going to fix what happened. All these fights, all these things that are going, that's not going to fix what happened. That what happened is in the past, we've got to try to make it better for the future. And the only way we can do that is with love. and that's got to come from the White House down to us and all around that goes to the White House to all our senators all our congressmen all our mayors and governors and all our elected officials all the way down to us we need to start speaking love we need to start showing love that's the point we need to walk in love why do we need to walk in love because Christ also has loved us See, Christ followed We need to be that example that Christ showed We need to be following that example See interestingly enough In 1 Corinthians 13 1 it talks about this It says though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and though I have not charity I am becoming a sounding brass and tingling symbol. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith and I can remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing and though I have still all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing the term charity literally means love See, Jesus showed love when he walked the stores of Galilee. He showed love. When people were always after him saying, oh, he's a heretic, oh, he's this and that, Jesus didn't open his mouth. He never rebuttled or rebuked or any of this. when people would say things to him, he kept his silence. And I know what that is. That is so difficult. It really is. When somebody's attacking you or somebody's saying something about you that's untrue, the first thing to do is to raise up and scream and holler and spin your fist down and say, I will not have this. You are not going to do it. That's human nature. but Jesus showed us what we should be doing. See, he was led as a lamb before the slaughter, and he was a sheep before the shearer. What did he do? He opened not his mouth. He didn't say anything. He showed love. There's an old thing from the Bible that says, it says, keep coals fire upon their head. Because the idea is, let me tell you something, If somebody's attacking you, you know what they want? They want you to attack them back. They want it. They are desiring it. That's why they're doing it. If you don't say nothing, you know what it's going to do? It's just going to make them mad. Because they're going to say, well, see, that's not a problem. So you don't say nothing. God comes to saying, oh, take it, they're mad. And they get all upset, and then they take off. Because there's nothing they can do to get you upset. They'd be like a little kid, you know? Kicking and doing all that, right? Because that's keeping cold fire on their head. It's showing love even though somebody shows you hatred. I love this. And walk in love as Christ also hath loved us. And have given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice. I love the idea of this because on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, the Jewish priest would go and take the sacrificial lamb, that perfect lamb, into the Holy of Holies. It would sacrifice that lamb, put it on the altar, burn it, and the owner would go up into heaven of the burnt meat, the burnt offering into God. And God would see that and smell that burnt offering and then would accept it. Kind of reminds me of two people. You probably remember them just as much as I do. They were two brothers, Cain and Abel. See, Adam told his sons, it's time to sacrifice. Take the best of the best of what you've done and give it to God. So Abel went through his flock. He was a shepherd. He went through his flock and he found the best of the best sheep that he could find. perfect, without a spot, without any sort of deformity or anything. He took him and he gave it to God. Cain, like many people, went through his garden, because he was a farmer. He went through his garden and he said, Boy, look at that tomato! Boy, that tomato's too good for God. I'd eat that. Boy, look at that tomato! Look at that cucumber, man. That'll make a good pickle. No, I'm kidding. That's for me. I love pickles. But he said, look at that cucumber, man. That's great. That's too good for God. And he went through his stuff, and he found the stuff that was okay for God, but not okay for him. Think about it. Think about it. This is okay for God, but it's not okay for me. So I'll give it to God I don't want it, but I'll give it to God Yeah, doesn't work that way It doesn't work that way You can't give what's left over to God I remember my dad saying this one time If you don't want it What makes you think God wants it Right That the point But we will we give it to God Oh well that okay give it to God It not my best God but it okay for you We need to be giving God our best. Can't even give his best to God. He said, gave what was left over. And when he burned up the sacrifice and went up to God, God said, I don't want it. You don't want it, I don't want it. And he rejected it. See, we're so often what we want to do is just give God my stuff up. It's okay. God wants your best. God wants the best of your mind, your heart, your actions, your abilities, everything. We need to come to church with our best foot forward. We need to come to church with the best intentions. When we look at our church, we need to look and say, what is the best we can do for it? When it comes to our commitment to God, going out and sharing the gospel, we need to say, what is the best I can do? We need to do that all the time because God wants our best. And let's be honest. Does he not deserve our best? He does. Because what did he do? God gave us his best. He gave us his best. I'll love this. He has given himself as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. As we said, the fumes of that offering would go up into heaven and God would accept that offering. And I say this today. In our actions, in our words, in the things that we say, in the things we do. Is God smelling the actions and the words that we perform and the words that we say? Is God smelling it and saying, ah, I'm satisfied, I'll accept it. Or is God looking at our actions and our words and saying like, hey, I don't accept it. It's not enough. It's what's left over. What we need to be is more like Jesus. My desire is to be like Jesus. My desire is to be like Him. His Spirit fills me. His love overwhelms me. Indeed, in order to be like Him, that's what we need to be. Nothing less will do. Nothing less is going to do. So I looked around and I found three things, three ways we can be more like Jesus. You'll probably want to write these down Because these are good These are really good stuff Alright, number one The first way that we can be more like Jesus Is forgiving people that hate us Now this is difficult But let's be honest Jesus asked for God to forgive those Who were nailing him to a cross Right? And we say, well but that's Jesus Jesus was God in flesh. Well, look at Stephen. Stephen asked God not to hold it against those that were stoning him to death. So, is it beyond the realm of possibilities for us as human beings to hate or to love those that hate us? No. Because Stephen did it. And Stephen was not God. but Stephen had a God mindset and that's the point we need to be that desire to be more like Jesus that's number one number two a way we need to be more like Jesus is giving our lives for others Jesus taught this in John 15 and 13 when he said greater love hath no man than this that a man would lay down his life for his friends now am I saying you need to die for somebody that's not what I'm saying that's not what I'm saying but I'm saying you should be willing to put someone else's well being above yours that's the point that's what God is meaning in this he's meaning we should have that desire we see someone that's hurting to try to help them out if we can put their well-being above ours. That's being more Christ-like. And then the final one, the third one, pray for your enemies. Say what? Right? I know somebody was thinking it. Say what? I'm telling you, it's true. See, Christians are called to a higher standard than any other religion is. Think about it. All you've got to do is go study all the religions. You will not find any of the religions in the world talking about love your enemies, pray for your enemies. You're not going to find that. They may say, be good to your enemies, or stuff like that, but it doesn't say pray for them. We're held to a higher standard. See Jesus said love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you This is according to Matthew 5 44 and 45 Pray for them who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. That also includes daughters, for the ladies. for he makes his son rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. We need to pray for those that are our enemies. You don't have to answer this out loud, but I'm just saying, think about it today. When's the last time we all got enemies? We all got people who don't like us And there ain't no point in saying that. Somebody going today, everybody loves me and I know them. We all got enemies. I know we do. We all got some people that just don't like us, right? Just don't like us. When's the last time you prayed for that person? Think about it. I'm talking to me too today. I'm talking to me too. This is hitting me too, but it's true. When's the last time you prayed for that person That just doesn't quite like you Probably it's been a long long time If we ever did Right We need to be more like Jesus This is what we need to do We need to have a desire that says God I want to be more like you I want to be more like what you want me to be I don't want to be just what I am I don't want to continue in the same old way that I'm going. I like to say it this way. If we always do what we've always done, we'll always get what we've always got. And that's the point. And if we want to get better and we want to be more Christ-like, we're not going to get more Christ-like unless we change. Because that's the point. We've got to move forward. We've got to keep one foot in front of the other. We've got to keep going. We've got to keep moving. We've got to keep advancing. And if we're not advancing, what are we doing? We're standing still. And if we're standing still, we might as well be moving backwards. And that's the point. I say this today, and your own mind, think about it. Are you better today in your love for God, in your desire to do things for God, than you were yesterday? than even you were last week. Can you honestly say in your heart that if God said to you today, I want you to do this, you would say, I'll do it, Lord. Without any hesitation. Abraham was told by to keep your stuff together and start walking. When you get there, I'll come. That takes a lot of faith. But Abraham didn't argue with God. He just started walking. If God said to us that today, would we be willing? Or would we sit there and say, Well now, God, let's have another compad here. Let's sit down, let's talk. You give me the GPS directions and then I'll go. Or would we be willing to do whatever God says? No matter what. See, that's the idea. Are we living a Christ-like experience? Are we growing every day? Are we more like Jesus than we were yesterday? Or are we kind of standing still? We need to have that desire to be more like Jesus. More like Him. I say it again in that beautiful chorus. My desire to be like Jesus. My desire to be like Him. His Spirit fills me. His love overwhelms me Indeed and were to be like Him Burn away all the impurities All the things that are me And let it just be you Let it just be you, God All of you, none of me Because if we have any ounce of us We can't be all of God We can't We gotta burn it all away Thank you. Thank you.

Playlist coming soon.