Its Mine!

As we look at Ephesians 4–5 [show]Ephesians 4–5 I there­fore, a pris­oner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a man­ner wor­thy of the call­ing to which you have been called, [2]with all humil­ity and gen­tle­ness, with patience, bear­ing with one another in love, [3]eager to main­tain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. [4]There is one body and one Spirit–just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call– [5]one Lord, one faith, one bap­tism, [6]one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. [7]But grace was given to each one of us accord­ing to the mea­sure of Christ’s gift. [8]Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of cap­tives, and he gave gifts to men.“ [9](In say­ing, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? [10]He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heav­ens, that he might fill all things.) [11]And he gave the apos­tles, the prophets, the evan­ge­lists, the shep­herds and teach­ers, [12]to equip the saints for the work of min­istry, for build­ing up the body of Christ, [13]until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowl­edge of the Son of God, to mature man­hood, to the mea­sure of the stature of the full­ness of Christ, [14]so that we may no longer be chil­dren, tossed to and fro by the waves and car­ried about by every wind of doc­trine, by human cun­ning, by crafti­ness in deceit­ful schemes. [15]Rather, speak­ing the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, [16]from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is work­ing prop­erly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. [17]Now this I say and tes­tify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futil­ity of their minds. [18]They are dark­ened in their under­stand­ing, alien­ated from the life of God because of the igno­rance that is in them, due to their hard­ness of heart. [19]They have become cal­lous and have given them­selves up to sen­su­al­ity, greedy to prac­tice every kind of impu­rity. [20]But that is not the way you learned Christ!– [21]assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, [22]to put off your old self, which belongs to your for­mer man­ner of life and is cor­rupt through deceit­ful desires, [23]and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, [24]and to put on the new self, cre­ated after the like­ness of God in true right­eous­ness and holi­ness. [25]Therefore, hav­ing put away false­hood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neigh­bor, for we are mem­bers one of another. [26]Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, [27]and give no oppor­tu­nity to the devil. [28]Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing hon­est work with his own hands, so that he may have some­thing to share with any­one in need. [29]Let no cor­rupt­ing talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for build­ing up, as fits the occa­sion, that it may give grace to those who hear. [30]And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemp­tion. [31]Let all bit­ter­ness and wrath and anger and clamor and slan­der be put away from you, along with all mal­ice. [32]Be kind to one another, ten­der­hearted, for­giv­ing one another, as God in Christ for­gave you. Therefore be imi­ta­tors of God, as beloved chil­dren. [2]And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave him­self up for us, a fra­grant offer­ing and sac­ri­fice to God. [3]But sex­ual immoral­ity and all impu­rity or cov­etous­ness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. [4]Let there be no filth­i­ness nor fool­ish talk nor crude jok­ing, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanks­giv­ing. [5]For you may be sure of this, that every­one who is sex­u­ally immoral or impure, or who is cov­etous (that is, an idol­ater), has no inher­i­tance in the king­dom of Christ and God. [6]Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of dis­obe­di­ence. [7]Therefore do not become part­ners with them; [8]for at one time you were dark­ness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as chil­dren of light [9](for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), [10]and try to dis­cern what is pleas­ing to the Lord. [11]Take no part in the unfruit­ful works of dark­ness, but instead expose them. [12]For it is shame­ful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. [13]But when any­thing is exposed by the light, it becomes vis­i­ble, [14]for any­thing that becomes vis­i­ble is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.“ [15]Look care­fully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, [16]making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. [17]Therefore do not be fool­ish, but under­stand what the will of the Lord is. [18]And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauch­ery, but be filled with the Spirit, [19]addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spir­i­tual songs, singing and mak­ing melody to the Lord with your heart, [20]giving thanks always and for every­thing to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, [21]submitting to one another out of rev­er­ence for Christ. [22]Wives, sub­mit to your own hus­bands, as to the Lord. [23]For the hus­band is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is him­self its Savior. [24]Now as the church sub­mits to Christ, so also wives should sub­mit in every­thing to their hus­bands. [25]Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave him­self up for her, [26]that he might sanc­tify her, hav­ing cleansed her by the wash­ing of water with the word, [27]so that he might present the church to him­self in splen­dor, with­out spot or wrin­kle or any such thing, that she might be holy and with­out blem­ish. [28]In the same way hus­bands should love their wives as their own bod­ies. He who loves his wife loves him­self. [29]For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nour­ishes and cher­ishes it, just as Christ does the church, [30]because we are mem­bers of his body. [31]“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” [32]This mys­tery is pro­found, and I am say­ing that it refers to Christ and the church. [33]However, let each one of you love his wife as him­self, and let the wife see that she respects her hus­band. (ESV)
at Flatland Church, our pas­tors have shown us that we acc­quire a lot of spir­i­tual junk and we need to have a spir­i­tual garage sale and get rid of it. Jesus has already paid the price, we just need to be will­ing to give it up. Unfortunately, we have a ten­dency to cling on to all of it say­ing, “Its MINE!!” This week Pastor Bart showed us that being sep­a­rated from the life of God equals acquir­ing junk. If we stay con­nected to God we will not col­lect junk (or at least keep it to a min­i­mum).  But how do we stay con­nected to God?

Pastor Bart had three points to share with us that we can see in Ephesians 4–5 [show]Ephesians 4–5 I there­fore, a pris­oner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a man­ner wor­thy of the call­ing to which you have been called, [2]with all humil­ity and gen­tle­ness, with patience, bear­ing with one another in love, [3]eager to main­tain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. [4]There is one body and one Spirit–just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call– [5]one Lord, one faith, one bap­tism, [6]one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. [7]But grace was given to each one of us accord­ing to the mea­sure of Christ’s gift. [8]Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of cap­tives, and he gave gifts to men.“ [9](In say­ing, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? [10]He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heav­ens, that he might fill all things.) [11]And he gave the apos­tles, the prophets, the evan­ge­lists, the shep­herds and teach­ers, [12]to equip the saints for the work of min­istry, for build­ing up the body of Christ, [13]until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowl­edge of the Son of God, to mature man­hood, to the mea­sure of the stature of the full­ness of Christ, [14]so that we may no longer be chil­dren, tossed to and fro by the waves and car­ried about by every wind of doc­trine, by human cun­ning, by crafti­ness in deceit­ful schemes. [15]Rather, speak­ing the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, [16]from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is work­ing prop­erly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. [17]Now this I say and tes­tify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futil­ity of their minds. [18]They are dark­ened in their under­stand­ing, alien­ated from the life of God because of the igno­rance that is in them, due to their hard­ness of heart. [19]They have become cal­lous and have given them­selves up to sen­su­al­ity, greedy to prac­tice every kind of impu­rity. [20]But that is not the way you learned Christ!– [21]assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, [22]to put off your old self, which belongs to your for­mer man­ner of life and is cor­rupt through deceit­ful desires, [23]and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, [24]and to put on the new self, cre­ated after the like­ness of God in true right­eous­ness and holi­ness. [25]Therefore, hav­ing put away false­hood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neigh­bor, for we are mem­bers one of another. [26]Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, [27]and give no oppor­tu­nity to the devil. [28]Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing hon­est work with his own hands, so that he may have some­thing to share with any­one in need. [29]Let no cor­rupt­ing talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for build­ing up, as fits the occa­sion, that it may give grace to those who hear. [30]And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemp­tion. [31]Let all bit­ter­ness and wrath and anger and clamor and slan­der be put away from you, along with all mal­ice. [32]Be kind to one another, ten­der­hearted, for­giv­ing one another, as God in Christ for­gave you. Therefore be imi­ta­tors of God, as beloved chil­dren. [2]And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave him­self up for us, a fra­grant offer­ing and sac­ri­fice to God. [3]But sex­ual immoral­ity and all impu­rity or cov­etous­ness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. [4]Let there be no filth­i­ness nor fool­ish talk nor crude jok­ing, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanks­giv­ing. [5]For you may be sure of this, that every­one who is sex­u­ally immoral or impure, or who is cov­etous (that is, an idol­ater), has no inher­i­tance in the king­dom of Christ and God. [6]Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of dis­obe­di­ence. [7]Therefore do not become part­ners with them; [8]for at one time you were dark­ness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as chil­dren of light [9](for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), [10]and try to dis­cern what is pleas­ing to the Lord. [11]Take no part in the unfruit­ful works of dark­ness, but instead expose them. [12]For it is shame­ful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. [13]But when any­thing is exposed by the light, it becomes vis­i­ble, [14]for any­thing that becomes vis­i­ble is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.“ [15]Look care­fully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, [16]making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. [17]Therefore do not be fool­ish, but under­stand what the will of the Lord is. [18]And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauch­ery, but be filled with the Spirit, [19]addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spir­i­tual songs, singing and mak­ing melody to the Lord with your heart, [20]giving thanks always and for every­thing to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, [21]submitting to one another out of rev­er­ence for Christ. [22]Wives, sub­mit to your own hus­bands, as to the Lord. [23]For the hus­band is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is him­self its Savior. [24]Now as the church sub­mits to Christ, so also wives should sub­mit in every­thing to their hus­bands. [25]Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave him­self up for her, [26]that he might sanc­tify her, hav­ing cleansed her by the wash­ing of water with the word, [27]so that he might present the church to him­self in splen­dor, with­out spot or wrin­kle or any such thing, that she might be holy and with­out blem­ish. [28]In the same way hus­bands should love their wives as their own bod­ies. He who loves his wife loves him­self. [29]For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nour­ishes and cher­ishes it, just as Christ does the church, [30]because we are mem­bers of his body. [31]“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” [32]This mys­tery is pro­found, and I am say­ing that it refers to Christ and the church. [33]However, let each one of you love his wife as him­self, and let the wife see that she respects her hus­band. (ESV)
. We should 1. Know God 2. Imitate God and 3. Thank God.

There is a big dif­fer­ence between reli­gion and a rela­tion­ship, between know­ing about God and know­ing God. Maybe the most impor­tant thing pas­tor said was that it takes time to have a rela­tion­ship with God and by tak­ing time with God we won’t have time for the junk. We often don’t take time with God because we are cling­ing to our junk. My time is MINE! What I want to do with that time is mine! But if we give that time over to God, we have to give up that junk. The choice is ours, time with God or time with our junk.

The chal­lenge we all have, the chal­lenge I have to to take time with God putting aside some of my “fun.” Stop play­ing games and start pray­ing more. Stop read­ing a lot of tech news and read the Good News.

As we get to know God we should want to become like Him. Eph 5:1–2 [show]Ephesians 5:1–2 Therefore be imi­ta­tors of God, as beloved chil­dren. [2]And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave him­self up for us, a fra­grant offer­ing and sac­ri­fice to God. (ESV)
is fairly clear there. Imitators of God. Christ is our great­est exam­ple. As I have writ­ten else­where on this blog regard­ing Philippians 2:1–11 becom­ing like Christ means giv­ing up our rights.  Clinging to “my rights” is pos­si­bly the biggest piece of junk we can carry. As imi­ta­tors of God we must give up our rights, give up every­thing that we have and are for God. As we imi­tate Christ, we will no longer have strong desires to keep that junk. Pastor Bart said it, “Live the Life of Love.”

Finally, we must give thanks to God always. Paul says this so many times through­out his writ­ings it is not triv­ial. By thank­ing God, who He is, what He has done, and for what He will do, all the junk we try to carry around with us becomes obvi­ous in our way of liv­ing the life of love (Eph 5:3–4 [show]Ephesians 5:3–4 [3]But sex­ual immoral­ity and all impu­rity or cov­etous­ness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. [4]Let there be no filth­i­ness nor fool­ish talk nor crude jok­ing, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanks­giv­ing. (ESV)
). We truly need to always give thanks even when what we are going through seems hor­ri­ble and what we have gone through was the worst thing in the world. How, because we know that God is work­ing in us some­thing won­der­ful. We may not see it or under­stand it but if we let God be God, if we thank God for His won­drous works even when we don’t see them or haven’t seen them yet, we enter into a rela­tion­ship that is marvelous.

This week I will take more time to be with God, to live the life of love in God, and thank Him for all He has done, is doing, and will do for me and my family.