Being God’s Beloved — Sermon by the Very Rev. Dr. Craig Stephans

Let us pray.

Father, open our eyes and our ears that

we might see the working of the Holy

Spirit and hear what the spirit is

saying. And Holy Spirit, invite you to

come to speak through me your word, your

message for this congregation today.

Apply it to our hearts with power and

conviction and help us to walk it out

for the sake of Christ. It's in his name

that we pray. Amen. Please be seated.

I encourage you to turn to Ephesians

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5 in your Bibles as that's where

I'm going to spend the time this

morning. Even though it's tough to

ignore the story of David from 1 Samuel

and his anointing or the story of the

blind man and Jesus healing him or Psalm

23, the psalm of the good shepherd. But

God has really led me to focus on

Ephesians 5 and primarily the initial

verses. So if you turn there with me to

Ephesians 5, you'll see a very simple

and easy command and exhortation from

the Apostle Paul in verse one.

Therefore, be imitators of God.

No problem. Right?

So this is the scripture and you know we

as Anglicans here we stand on the

scripture. I mean, people in this church

made a great sacrifice and stance and

movement based on the scripture that we

would all be here and be Anglicans

today. And here's the message and the

exhortation to all of us. Be imitators

of God. It leaves it pretty open.

There's no emphasis on be imitators of

God when you're at church, be imitators

of God when it feels right, or be

imitators of God when he's doing

something that you like. It is general

and all the time. Be imitators of God.

It's overwhelming.

But you know, there's a wonderful saying

from the church fathers. What God

commands, he enables. That's grace.

That's grace versus law that leads to

punishment. Grace

enables what God commands and leads to

reconciliation and peace with God. So if

God commands us in his word to be an

imitator of him, he must

be willing and planning on being willing

to and planning on giving us the grace

and the power to imitate how God has

made himself known to us. And I think

the next phrase is key to understanding

how can we as sinful people so weak

created as we are how can we imitate God

how can we fulfill this command should

we just say well I can't do that and

move on and go from there or do we take

this seriously as the word of God and

try to understand how can I imitate God

and one of the keys is right away in the

next phrase as beloved children

and as Hard as it is to believe that we

are supposed to imitate God and that

maybe we can in some or all ways in our

life. It I think is just as hard for us

to believe to really believe to accept

and to live out the truth that we are

beloved children of God.

Now I know some of you are are thinking

what are you talking about? I know John

John 3:16

3:16, God so loved the world that he

gave his only begotten son that whoever

believes in him should have eternal

life. I of course God loves everyone. I

know that.

And we we could just gloss it over, go

on to the next thing. But to live in the

reality, in the true awareness and

acceptance that we are beloved children

of God is transformative.

It's also very confrontational and even

threatening because it requires us to

expose ourselves to God who knows all

things, who knows how to ask us

questions, who knows how to convict us

of our sins, who knows how to align us

with his word by disciplining us.

It's also very uncomfortable and

vulnerable

to just stop and be still and to let

someone love us. Even though I've heard

more than one Christian author say that

the most important thing that a believer

can do in his or her prayer life, in his

or her Christian life, is to let him or

herself be loved by God.

And that's the message. That's the

emphasis that God has put on my heart

this week and would not let me get away

from it. Even though I'd love to tell

the story of David or talk about the

blind man, God wants us to be imitators

of him by living in the reality and

truth that we are his beloved.

Now,

we can believe that Jesus is the beloved

son of God because he's perfect in every

way. We know that he is God, that he's

one with God.

And so, of course, God the Father would

love the perfect son, Jesus.

And in fact, that's a message of

scripture. It's emphasized. It is God's

expression to Jesus. In Mark chapter 1

Mark 1 · chapter mention

at the baptism, just like Matthew and

Luke's accounts, when Jesus is baptized

by John, he goes into the river and as

he's coming out of the river and

praying, the heavens are open. The Holy

Spirit descends on him and then they

hear the voice of the father in heaven

saying to Jesus, "You are my beloved

son. With you I am well pleased."

And I think none of us doubt the

reality, the truth of God's expression

of love for Jesus. We also hear this

again on the mount of transfiguration.

Again, narrated in all three, Matthew,

Mark, and Luke when Jesus is there on

the mountain. It's a time of prayer and

he's all of a sudden there with Moses

and Elijah. And then a cloud envelops

him as he is transfigured and glorified

there before John and James and Peter.

And as they're overwhelmed with the

glory of God, they hear God's voice say,

"This is my beloved son. Listen to him."

And we hear that and we think, "Of

course, Jesus is beloved of the father."

The miracle of the gospel

and the grace of God

is that we as sinners created by God

through the redemption that comes by

Jesus Christ can live into his

belovedness before the father.

that as the father loves the son, so

does he love those who by faith in Jesus

are adopted through him as the father's

sons and daughters. That God loves you

today, those of you who are in Christ no

less than he loves Christ himself

is the mystery of the gospel. It is the

overwhelming message of grace that he

who created you

loves you today as much as the one who

is the creator. And and this is a prayer

of Jesus. And I know sometimes I doubt

my own prayers, but I don't doubt

Jesus's prayers. Do you? Do you think

the father answered Jesus's prayers?

In John 17, before he is arrested and

taken to the cross, Jesus in the garden

is praying for his disciples. He's

praying for the disciples that are with

him and those who will come after him.

He's praying for those like us who would

believe in him through the message that

is carried through the ages. And in John

17 26, his last petition to the father

on our behalf is this. He prays, "I made

known to them your name, and I will

continue to make it known that the love

with which you have loved me may be in

them and I in them."

While Jesus is praying to the father,

this is less of a request than an

assertion of truth of what is going to

happen. What is going to happen is that

Jesus is going to continue to make

himself f and the father and the holy

spirit known. And as he does that,

people are going to come to faith. And

the love that the father has for the

son, Jesus, is going to be in those who

come to faith in Jesus.

The same love that the father has for

the son that he declared at the baptism

and on the mount of transfiguration is

the same love that he has for you who

are in Christ today.

Can you believe that?

To imitate God,

we look to Jesus who is the exact

representation of God in the flesh. And

to imitate Jesus where we begin and

where God begins with us is to believe

in the belovedness of the father for the

son which Jesus lived into his entire

time on earth and for eternity. If

there's anything that stands out, for

example, in the Gospel of John, it is

the father's love for the son, the son's

reception of that love, and his response

by obedience and sacrifice to the

father's will on behalf of all people.

To imitate God is to begin with

accepting his love for you and believing

that you are loved

and living into that love.

And this is exactly what God has come to

us to do.

Jesus makes promises that those who

believe in him will receive the Holy

Spirit. Another like himself he calls

the helper, the counselor, or the

comforter. It's sometimes translated.

What he says is that to those who

believe in him, the father and the son

will come and make their home in that

person through the Holy Spirit. And what

is the Holy Spirit doing in us today?

Well, he's forming and shaping us in the

image of Christ. We know that he's

perfecting God's purpose and will in our

lives. But one of the very specific

things that the Holy Spirit of God is

doing in us is conveyed in Romans 5:5 as

Romans 5:5

Paul is speaking to those who have come

to peace with God through faith in

Jesus. And he says to them,

God's love has been poured into our

hearts through the Holy Spirit who's

been given to us. This isn't a it was

poured into our hearts

or God generally loves everyone. This is

that the Holy Spirit is in your heart

now. If you've received Jesus into your

life and he is pouring out God's love

into your heart constantly, it is the

living water of his presence that is

being poured into your heart. Our life

of faith is to believe in that love, to

receive it, to spend time really

wallowing in his love. That it would

seep into every crevice of our soul.

That it would flood the doubts that we

have about ourselves. whether we are

loved, whether we are good enough,

whether we've made so many mistakes in

our life that we've missed it, whether

we're just going to skate to heaven by

the skin of our teeth, whether we've not

really lived a life that God can use or

that he would be happy with us. And so,

he's probably just put us in the corner.

to believe and to imitate God. To

believe in and imitate God is to believe

that we are 100% loved with

unconditional unfailing love that just

keeps pouring from the father's

expression.

There's a wonderful scripture in the Old

Testament. It's in Deuteronomy 33:12.

Deuteronomy 33:12

And it's when Moses, he's about to die,

and the Israelites are going to go into

the promised land. and he he declares a

blessing over them and speaks a blessing

individually to each of the 12 tribes

and to the tribe of Benjamin

representing Benjamin, the youngest son

of Jacob, perhaps the smallest of the

tribes at that time. He prays this

blessing and he says in Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 33:12

33:12,

"Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure

in him for he shields him all day long

and the one the Lord loves rests between

his shoulders."

Now, we could read that and think, well,

he's talking about Benjamin. you know,

they went into the promised land. But

but the it is a statement of truth not

just for Benjamin but for the beloved of

the Lord

whom the New Testament says is us. For

God so loved you that he gave his only

begotten son. You are the beloved of the

Lord. And what this says about the

beloved is let the beloved of the Lord

rest secure in him. Let the beloved of

the Lord rest.

You can rest from trying to earn love.

You can rest from trying to hide

yourself from God's love because it's

just too overwhelming and

confrontational in comparison to how you

have lived your life. You can rest from

worrying about whether God loves you,

whether he is with you, whether he

delights in you, whether he is going to

welcome you into his eternal paradise

with joy.

You are the beloved of the Lord. Rest in

him. And in that rest, let his love

cascade over your life, your soul, your

mind, your heart.

Rest secure in him, for he shields him

all day long. And the one the Lord loves

rests between his shoulders.

Imagine this figurative image. The one

whom the Lord loves rests between his

shoulders.

If you're a parent, imagine yourself

giving your child a loving hug right

there between your shoulders. If you're

a child, imagine your parent giving you

that hug, embracing you so that you rest

right between his or her shoulders. your

imagine your friend, a a sibling, a

loved one, someone who comforts you,

encourages you, giving you that hug.

That's the expression of God's love for

us. We don't see it. We may not feel it.

We have to walk by faith in this love

that is for each of us through Christ.

It is an embrace. God saying to us,

listen, you can rest secure because I've

got you. And I want you to be as close

to my heart as can be between a creature

and the creator who created him or her.

As we come to that truth, to be

imitators of God as his beloved

children, verse two tells us to live

this out, to walk in love.

Walk in it. Live in this

true and real love that you have from

God.

walk in love as Christ loved us and gave

himself up for us a fragrant offering

and sacrifice to God. Well, now we get

to the part that's just simply

impossible. How who who of us can walk

and live as Christ did? He was perfect.

And yet, this is the command twice given

in John to love one another as he has

loved us. And again, my hope, my

encouragement is in that reality that

what God commands us, what he demands of

us, by grace, he enables. By grace, he

edifies us so that we can live this out,

maybe not perfectly as Jesus did, but we

can walk it out and we can grow in it.

This love that Jesus demonstrated

as we offer ourselves to him, as we

follow him, we can live and walk in love

so that our lives become a fragrant

offering, a pleasing aroma to God as we,

as Paul exhorts in Romans 12:1 and 2, as

Romans 12:1

we offer ourselves to him as a living

sacrifice,

holy and pleasing to God through Christ,

not on our own.

When I think of Christ being a fragrant

offering and I think of fragrant

offerings being made to God, I think of

the image from John's revelation,

his vision of revelation where twice he

sees the throne room of God. He sees God

on his throne and he sees the prayers of

the saints ascending to God as incense.

And another way that we can imitate and

walk imitate God and walk in love is by

offering our prayers of intercession for

others. Others who are close to us,

others we don't know but who are under

threat who are in need and offer our

prayers to God as a fragrant offering

and sacrifice to him. Because if you've

spent much time in prayer, you know that

it is an offering. And it takes a

sacrifice to be still in God's love and

to offer prayers to him.

And I want to encourage you in your

prayers um with a testimony of an answer

to prayer I heard uh last week when we

were at a clergy conference with the

clergy of our dasis and one of the

priests Brooke Bachelor who's in

Jacksonville came up to me and he said I

got to tell you what happened at your

church and my response like oh oh no

what happened because he was here for

the rehydrate conference and then spent

the weekend here for his meetings on

Monday and was with us Sunday a few

weeks ago, but it was good. He said,

"During that service, I went to the

prayer intercessors during communion and

they prayed for me. His knee had been

hurting him for a long time and he

couldn't move it without it hurting."

He's probably 50ish. And so he went to

the prayer ministers at communion and he

said two mornings later he got up and

did his normal thing and realized that

his knee was no longer hurting that God

had healed it. And uh just a note he did

what what I could totally relate to. He

he found that his knee was healed and

wasn't hurting. So he kept moving it

around trying to make it hurt, which is

what we do because we just can't believe

that God loves us so much that God would

actually bless us like that, heal us, do

good for us. And that's exactly what

happened. He was healed through the

intercessory prayers that are prayed

here on Sundays. And God he hears and

answers our prayers. Maybe not always

how we want them to be answered. You

know, sometimes just like the beloved

son Jesus, we may have to pray, God, not

my will, but your will be done, and I'm

going to trust you that you're going to

bring me through this and express your

love to me in goodness.

And I also want to encourage you every s

every Sunday, those prayer intercessors

are there. They are an expression of

God's love. They are there to walk in

love and to serve you through prayer. So

don't leave here with un with prayers

that have not been made on your behalf.

if we need to, other people will jump up

and pray for those in line.

There is then a a change in the the tone

of what Paul writes here in verse three.

And I just want to touch on this a bit a

bit. Now he contrasts walking in love

and imitating God.

In verse three, he says, "But sexual

immorality and all impurity or covetness

must not even be named among you as is

proper among saints. Let there be no

filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude

joking, which are out of place, but

instead let there be thanksgiving."

Why does he emphasize sexual immorality

and covetness here? Filthiness, foolish

talk, crude joking as contrast to

walking in love. There's a lot of sins

he could list. But as I thought about

this, sexual immorality and covetousness

objectify other people. Rather than

loving them and expressing God's love,

it creates a desire to get from them

something to indulge ourselves. And so

it's the opposite of love. And what this

is getting to is the severity of the

contrast between walking in the love of

God and living according to the ways of

this world and our own flesh. It is

directly contrasting.

And as we devote ourselves to God as his

disciples, as we learn of him, to follow

Jesus through scripture, through prayer,

through worship, through our ministry

together, we are also being discipled by

the world and the devil that tickles our

flesh. And we have to be really careful

how the world is discipling us in so

many ways to make us like it.

One way to guard against that is

mentioned here in verse four. But

instead, let there be thanksgiving.

Devote yourself to being thankful to the

Lord. Rather than wanting somebody,

wanting to lust after something,

desiring something of the world, be

thankful to God for all of his goodness

and his grace and his blessings. I heard

a wonderful testimony today about a a

woman who had gone through some trials

and by God's grace she rather than

bemoone those trials she committed

herself to being thankful to the extent

that whenever she was asked how are you

how are you doing she would answer I am

thankful I thought what a wonderful

posture to life to be constantly

thankful

for God's goodness and love rather than

lusting or covet ing after what's in

this world to be thanksgiving or to be

thankful always.

Paul goes on to warn us later in this

chapter to look carefully how we walk.

How are we walking in this world? Is it

in love? Is it as God's beloved? Or is

it in anxiety, in fear, in covetousness,

in lust, in panic,

wondering whether God is really going to

come through for us or if he really

loves us. When we find ourselves

doubting his love or forgetting that we

are his beloved, it just means to come

back to him, to rest secure in him, and

to let him pour out his love upon us.

And as we are filled with love, that

love will overflow to other people

around us. And we can let them know how

much they are loved by God. And I heard

another wonderful testimony. I love

hearing the testimonies of the people in

the church and our dasis. And one of

those is from Christy. So Christy, you

can come up. Christy Krill, as you know,

leads the ministry of the dive and is

interacting with some people in very

dire straits um here in our community.

and she's coming off a wonderful gala

that they had last night as a

fundraiser. But I want to share I want

Christy to share with you a story about

someone she interacted with this week in

the hospital who was really bad off and

we would even say was a really bad

person, but Christy walked in love. And

so tell us about that.

>> Can you hear me?

>> Yep.

>> Good morning.

I uh visit and work with homeless

patients all over Chattam County in

partnership with every hospital, the

court system, and um every first

responding organization in town. It's

not unusual for me to get a call to come

to the jail, the streets, the hospital,

a detox ward, or anything like that. But

what is unusual is for me to get a

patient that spans every single one of

those um organizations that I just

mentioned. About a week and a half ago,

I got called to come to Memorial

Hospital for a patient whose name I

can't disclose, but he was in CPU 10 in

the tower at Memorial.

I was briefed on this patient by every

uh organization pretty much that I

mentioned. I had his criminal background

um record that was read like a phone

book. I had his medical chart that was

bleak. I had his toxicology report. And

I had it under very good authority from

all of the people that that briefed me

on this man that he was not a person

that I wanted to know. This was

hopeless. But we're calling you to see

what you can uh do here and are you

willing? And I was willing. I said,

"Yes, I'm willing." However, I was

prepared to be offended and appalled

because of what I had read. So, I headed

to Memorial Hospital. I went up to his

room and um I knocked as I do and when I

stepped inside, the doctor was finishing

up with him and um all of a sudden u my

my wall came down and all I could see

was this man's soul. I asked him if it

was okay for me to talk with him, he

said yes. And I explained while why I

was there and that when they call me,

it's usually because it's it seems

pretty impossible. And he said, "I'll

I'll agree with that." So

I said to him the only thing I could

think to say, and that was, "What do you

need God to do for you?" And this man

said, "I don't think God can do anything

with me."

I said, "That's not true." Psalm 139

tells me, tells you that he saw every

day you would ever live, everything you

would ever do, everything that would

ever be done to you. And he looked at

you in every moment of your life, and he

said, you know, he's going to do a lot.

He's going to leave a lot of harm. a lot

of harm's going to be done to him. But

if I don't create him, creation

won't be complete. So, I'm going to make

him and then I'm going to spend every

breath he takes drawing him back to me.

So, we move from Psalm 139 to John 3:16

John 3:16

where God so loved the world that he

gave his only son. That also applied to

my patient. The gospel was not complex

in that room. There were heavy issues.

many many things going on.

But I said to him,

"Do you believe what I just said?" And

he said, "I think you believe it." And I

said, "I do believe it with all that is

in me, but especially sitting right here

with you." And he said, "I believe,

too." And I said, "Would you like to ask

Jesus to come into your heart and to get

involved in your life?" those are the

steps. And he said, 'I would, but I

don't know what to say. And I said, you

know, then you can repeat after me.

Guys, I had a mountain of evidence

to support the fact that God had in fact

created a disposable human being. But

that is not true.

And I know that in this room

either some of us or someone you know

may not have invited Jesus to come in to

their hearts and receive that love that

man, I'll tell you, I have a hard time

receiving some love. I bet a lot of you

know that. But I know that if we ask him

to, he is coming. So, what we're going

to do now is I'm going to say the same

prayer that I said with this man um when

he asked Jesus to come into his heart.

I'll tell you what happened next. He

went home to his family. He had a cousin

that was willing to take a shot on him

and we did get him home with his family

much like a prodal. What will happen

from here is between them and the Lord.

But now I would like to go to a place

with you that I went with him and uh

pray the the prayer of salvation.

Dear Jesus, I believe that you made me

and I know that you love me and that you

gave your life for me.

I have messed up in ways that are seen,

in ways that are not seen. But I am

asking you to come into my heart and my

life. And I trust that you will in Jesus

name. Amen.

>> Amen.

>> Thank you.

>> Thanks, Chris.

>> You can take it. Just take it and turn

it off.

Before I close, I want to encourage you

as we celebrate St. Patrick's Day on

Tuesday. We celebrate St. Patrick's Day

because Patrick was an evangelist who

loved so much that he was willing to

give his life for his captives who had

enslaved him, being willing to go to

Ireland and share the gospel with those

who he thought would probably kill him.

But God went with him and they became

believers and Christians. As you have

the opportunity, as anyone brings up

thanks St. Patrick's Day with you this

week, take the opportunity to share what

made St. Patrick so famous and

celebratory. That is that he went to

Ireland and shared the love of Jesus.

And you can just ask, do you know the

love of Jesus?

And take it away just like Christy did.

Very simple. So let's close in prayer.

Father, help us to share your love. Help

us to see people as you do. Those

created and made in your image and

likeness. Those for whom Christ died.

Those to whom you are extending your

arms in love that they would be with you

forever in paradise. Holy Spirit, what

you command in your word, come and

strengthen and enable us to receive your

love and to love as we have been loved

in word and deed. Amen.