Battle Ready: "Imitated Love" Ephesians 5:1-2 with Pastor Daniel Reese

We're back in Ephesians 5 this morning.

If you want to go ahead and pull that up on your Bible,

if you don't have one, there's one in front of you.

I want us to try something new this morning together.

And then moving forward, I would like us to create this habit.

Okay?

And so back in December, I was doing my Bible study

and I was reading through the book of Nehemiah.

In Nehemiah chapter 8, Ezra brings the law of Moses into the church service.

Nehemiah 8 · chapter mention

Okay?

So he's with all these people and he's bringing the law of Moses.

He's bringing the Word of God into the place.

And it says in verse 5 of chapter 8, it reads,

And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people,

for he was above all the people, because he was on the stage.

And as he opened it all, the people stood.

And so I'm going to read our passage this morning.

And if you're able to, I'd like for you to stand as we do that.

Because this book is the Word of God.

And we should have no less respect for it than they did in Nehemiah's day.

And so I don't want to do this because this is formal.

I want us to do this because this is a sign of honor to the words that are written.

So I'm going to read Ephesians chapter 5, the first two verses this morning.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

Paul writes, Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children,

And walk in love as Christ loved us, and gave himself up for us,

a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Let's pray.

Father, we are so grateful.

So grateful for your Word that is life.

And Father, as we read it and as we try to understand it,

I pray God that you will be in our midst this morning.

I pray that your spirit will fill us.

I pray that your voice will be heard louder than mine.

And so God, as we study your Word this morning,

I pray that it will be a fragrant offering to you.

What's your name? You pray.

Amen.

Thank you all.

Now, no one has ever asked me for fashion advice, ever.

I don't know what colors are in right now.

I don't know what style of jeans are the best option.

I just wear what is comfortable for me, and I just go with it.

I wouldn't say, I'm not talking about fashion,

I'm talking about the way my future is like.

I would say, I can replace – and I'm just OK about it,

but I get in that situation reallyrologically,

but I still have to row and rupture –

going to don't浉

I have to do the same thing about angles,

don't slow down,

I would say, I couldn't hide my feelings,

I would say, It's OK, it's OK, I know –

I sit down on at觀,

I would Mathew – by the swan

and we would certainly worry.

The same is true for Lord of the Rings.

This, calm down.

The same is true for Harry Potter and any of that.

I think that's one of the main reasons why I'm not a Dallas Cowboys fan.

I have nothing against them.

It's just that when you grow up in Texas, there's this expectation that you root for the Cowboys.

I'm looking forward to rooting for them today.

Too soon? Too soon?

However, when I was in middle school, I jumped on a bandwagon.

And it is one of my greatest regrets to this day.

I don't know if the trend made it up here to Iowa, but when I was growing up in El Paso,

for about a year, the popular jeans that everybody was wearing to school were called Jinko.

Think bell bottoms, but so much worse.

They covered my shoes.

They dragged on the ground.

They had these massive pockets on it where the bottom of the pocket would be like my calf.

When you get time later, look those things up.

I thought I was cool, right?

I thought I was cool.

I thought I was cool.

I didn't want to feel left out. Everybody else was wearing that.

Saying that after you look up those jeans, please, please, please don't think any less of me.

We like to imitate those around us, don't we?

When I was growing up, the popular thing was now jean bottles, right?

And you would have a carabiner hook and you would attach it to your backpack.

Now it's what? Stanley cups.

Those fads, those are fads that just come and go.

As the seasons change, when I pick up my kids from school, every teenage boy looks the same.

Same hairstyle, same clothes, same look of boredom on their face.

They all look the same.

They're imitating one another.

And I'm not saying that's always a bad thing either.

We just read Paul encouraging us to be imitators, but not with things that are going to change,

but to be imitated.

Now that's a pretty tall order when you think about it.

Paul says that as dearly loved children of God, we are to imitate our heavenly Father.

Now the word imitate is the word from which we get our English word mimic, okay?

Or mime.

So the picture that Paul gives us here is that we are to mimic or to imitate God in the same way that a child mimics their Father.

Now all of us who are parents can relate to that idea.

We have watched often in horror as our children mimic us, don't we?

Now it's a tall order.

God is holy, right?

We are not, and we prove that daily.

Because he is God and we are not, there is a lot about God.

That we could never come close to imitating.

His omniscience, his omnipotence, his omnipresence, right?

They're just the beginning of that list.

But in this passage, Paul challenges us to imitate just one characteristic of God.

Just one, how he loves us.

We are to live a life of love.

And that love is to be based on God's demonstration of God's love.

And that love is to be based on God's demonstration of his love for us in his son Jesus.

We are to love others in the same way that Jesus loves us and gave himself up for us.

Now we obviously won't be able to cover everything about God's love this morning,

but I want to give us a few points to consider.

The first being, if you truly want to be an imitator of God, love is going to cost you something.

Now we know that God's love cost something, Jesus died on the cross.

But have you ever considered what else it cost him?

Philippians 2 says that our attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus.

He emptied himself of his glory and took on the nature of his servants.

Now I want you to imagine for a second, the best vacation that you've ever been on.

Maybe he was sitting on a beach, maybe he was going for a hike in the mountains.

The place doesn't necessarily matter, but I want you to think about your mindset when you're on vacation.

No pressure, no stress, you aren't thinking about work, you're just on vacation and you're enjoying life.

Budgets don't matter, you know, kids are taken care of, you're just enjoying life.

But think about that Sunday before you go back to work.

Or think about that Monday when you walk into the office.

It's a different feeling, isn't it?

Wouldn't you much rather be on a vacation instead of dealing with the stress of making money?

Or dealing with coworkers you don't like.

Now I'm not comparing vacation to heaven, that's not what I'm saying,

but it cost Jesus something to come down to this earth to serve us.

Knowing the whole time what the end was going to be.

Knowing the whole time that he was going to die a horrific death.

Do you think he was sweating drops of blood as he sits on his throne next to his father?

Do you think the angels that surrounded him and were constantly giving him praise ever wanted to kill him?

He gave that up for us.

It cost Jesus physical pain.

Isaiah says that he was pierced for our transgressions.

But think of more than that, we're not just talking about dying on the cross.

The guy was a carpenter.

I would love to know what came out of Jesus' mouth when he hit his thumb with a hammer.

Probably not the same words that come out of my mouth when that happens.

He walked everywhere.

Have you ever tried to walk a couple miles with blisters on your feet?

These are things that he gave up to serve us.

True love has to cost something.

Is your love for others costing you something?

Far more times than I'd like to admit I've failed to love others

because I was unwilling to give up some of my time.

Maybe it was just not convenient at the time, or even more likely I was just selfish with my time

and there was something else that I wanted to do.

More than whatever I could have done to love someone else.

There have been times when I've failed to love others because I was unwilling

to part with some of the financial resources that God has blessed me with.

Now some of those times I meant really well, but there was no follow-through.

But I'm sure other times I was just being selfish with the money that God has given me.

And what about the times I don't love someone else?

Because I was worried about what others might think of me.

I was worried more about the fact that loving the unlovable might cost me my reputation

more so than I was worried about loving the other person.

I was more concerned about myself.

If I want to imitate the love of God, then I need to love others even when it costs me greatly.

And let's be honest, loving people is hard, isn't it?

It's going to cost us our pride at times.

It's going to cost us our ability to defend ourselves.

How ironic is it that I would be willing to lay down my life for my family in a heartbeat?

I wouldn't think twice about it.

But I'm unwilling at times to let them have the last word.

You can have my life on one hand, right?

If there's any sort of danger, you can have my life.

But on the other hand, you're not winning this argument.

Isn't that ironic?

Loving people is going to cost you something.

We also learned from Jesus that we are able to love others even when they don't deserve it.

The best verse in my opinion to illustrate this point is Romans 5a.

But God shows his love for us, and while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We very clearly see that Jesus did not love us because we were deserving of his love.

There was nothing in our lives worth dying for, but Jesus did it anyway because he loves us.

Not only that, but as we observe the life of Jesus while he was here on this earth,

we find that Jesus always loved those who others considered unlovable.

The poor, the distressed, the diseased, the tax collectors, the social outcasts.

It's pretty easy to love those who love us and treat us well.

But the real test of our love is how we treat those who mistreat us or those who are different from us.

But if we're going to imitate the love of God, then we have to learn to love those who are hard to love

and those who don't deserve our love.

As Jesus made it quite clear, anyone can love those that love us in Matthew 5.

Anyone can love those that love us.

That's so simple that even the tax collector can do it.

It's easy to love those who love us.

That's so simple that even nonbelievers can do that.

In some respects, I struggle with this principle more when dealing with people in the church

rather than people outside the body.

When I think about loving people outside the body, it's easy to justify in my mind,

well, they just don't know better.

They're not followers of Jesus yet.

Of course they're going to act that way.

I can love them. That makes sense to me.

But I guess within the church, I have this expectation that people should know better.

So it's really pretty easy for me to love the people in the body who are always encouraging me

and others who are always willing to pitch in and do whatever it takes to help out.

It's easy to love those who are faithful to minister here week after week.

In other words, it's easy to love those that live up to my expectations of how a believer should act.

But it's harder to love those who are always criticizing, right?

It's harder to love those who are always complaining without ever offering to be a part of the solution.

It's really difficult to love those who work behind the scenes to undermine our church leadership.

It's far easier to think that those who don't measure up to my expectations

of how they ought to act within the body of Christ are really worthy of my love.

But the fact of the matter is, no matter how much I'd like to think differently,

I'm a pretty hard person to love too.

But God loves me anyway.

Even though I don't deserve it.

So if I want to imitate His love, then I must love everyone, especially those who don't deserve it.

Now I believe we know this, intellectually we know this,

that we are supposed to love those who don't deserve it, but do we practice it?

One of the hardest things for me to do is to pray for someone who is wronged me.

Jesus tells us to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute you.

I don't think that means that everyone who is your enemy is going to persecute you.

In my experience in the church, a lot of times those that persecute you are fellow believers.

At our last church in La Mesa, there were all these rumors about me and about our church.

We were at cult. We didn't preach the Bible.

My favorite one still to this day is that we did a naked streaking through this park once a year.

I love that one.

I tried to get people on board with that, didn't work out.

I heard from fellow pastors that they couldn't believe that I allowed such and such to attend our church.

Most of those rumors came from other churches.

Why? I don't know.

But in James chapter 4, he writes, do not speak evil against one another brothers.

James 4 · chapter mention

The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law.

But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.

There is only one law giver and judge.

He who is able to save and to destroy.

But who are you to judge your neighbor?

That gets me right there.

How many times have I spoken ill of another believer?

John tells us that no one has ever seen God.

But if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

It is not a good testimony to nonbelievers when the church people can't get along, is it?

We need to love even when others don't deserve it.

The next way to imitate the love of Jesus is with action.

God could have just told us how much he loves us, but throughout the scriptures, God has not only declared his love for us.

He has demonstrated it through his actions.

We see this all throughout the scripture.

God rescued his people from slavery in Egypt.

He provided for them in the wilderness.

And in spite of their rebellion, brought them into the promised land.

He sent them prophets to bring them his word and to warn them of the consequences of their behavior.

It wasn't just words, it was accompanied by actions.

Now I am much better at this, at showing actions than I am with my words.

Now I tell my family all the time, every single day, multiple times a day, how much I love them.

But if you want me to write a poem describing my love for them, you're going to be disappointed.

I tried to show my love through my actions with them.

Sometimes it's doing the dishes.

Sometimes it's picking them up from school or the other dozen activities that they are a part of.

The other day we were at the performance for Charlotte's Web at the high school.

The spider dancers are my favorite in case you were wondering.

But during the intermission, Asher and I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and use the restroom.

Now we could have easily just gone in there and done our thing and left,

but I felt it was an appropriate time for me to show him how much I love him.

So when he was done with his tinkle, tinkle, shaky shake,

we were both standing at the sink washing our hands.

And I thought to myself, you know what, I can show Asher that I love him

by throwing a handful of water on him.

So I did.

I did that because I know him. I know how he would take that.

I wouldn't do that to River. If I did that to River, he'd be upset at me.

But I know him well enough and I love him enough to know this would lighten the mood a little bit.

So Asher walks out of the bathroom covered in water and we have a good old time about it.

John writes in 1 John 3 18, dear children,

let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

One of my favorite books is Mere Christianity.

If you've never read it, I highly encourage you to do it by C.S. Lewis.

In it, he wrote this,

the rule for all of us is perfectly simple.

Do not waste time bothering whether you love your neighbor.

Act as if you did.

As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets.

When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.

True Christian love is more than just emotion.

It's a choice that we make to put the well-being of the other person ahead of our own.

And that takes more than just words. It requires action on our part.

If I want to imitate God's love, then I must be willing to take whatever action is required to meet the needs of others.

Regardless of my feelings about the other person.

This is why we live out our faith.

James tells us that without actions, our faith is dead.

So you could come here every single week and consume knowledge and worship and pray.

But if you aren't loving others, if you aren't serving others,

if you're not caring for others, then that is a dead faith.

Jesus tells us that people will know that you are my disciples by how you love one another.

I love getting asked the question, why are you doing this for me?

Has anybody ever been asked that question? Why are you doing this for me?

It gives us the perfect opportunity to share our faith.

As a believer in Jesus, we should love people with our actions.

So much that they become suspicious. Or sus, as my kids call it today.

Are you loving people well enough that they think you are up to something?

I saw a story the other day about a guy who had some Mormons come visit him.

He was outside in his front yard in his driveway working on his car.

He had a flat tire, so he was about to go change that.

As he was about to jack it up, these two Mormons ride up on their bikes.

We've all been there. We all know what's about to happen.

They're wanting to speak with him. He declines.

A little busy right now, but they are persistent.

He tells them that if they will change his tire, he will listen to what he has to say.

So they did.

Now he was messing with them because he had no intention whatsoever of converting to Mormonism.

But at least he got his tire changed, right?

If you are having a hard time having gospel conversations with people,

I want to challenge you to begin to love them with your actions.

Take them a meal. Go to their kids' sports games.

Shovel their snow. Whatever it takes.

So that you will get the opportunity to share why you are doing what you are doing.

Finally, the last way we are to imitate the love of Jesus is by understanding that love must be given freely.

It has to be given freely.

This is not a situation where I will love you if you do something for me.

I will love you if you change your behavior.

I will love you if you will just come to terms and agree with what I have to say.

In a sense, this is the essence of God's love for us in Christ.

That's why Paul writes that Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Now that is very clearly a reference to the Old Testament sacrifice system.

It is described primarily in Leviticus.

God prescribed five different types of sacrifices that his people were to make to him.

Three of these sacrifices, the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fellowship, or the peace offering,

were made as a voluntary act of worship to God.

The other two sacrifices, the sin offering and the guilt offering, were offerings that were required when people had sinned.

Except for a single exception in Leviticus 4.31, the voluntary offerings are always described as an aroma pleasing to the Lord.

And the required offerings are never described in that same way.

The fact that the voluntary sacrifices were described in that way makes sense since they were voluntary sacrifices which denoted Thanksgiving

or they denoted devotion to God and God would have been pleased with that, right?

On the other hand, the required sacrifices came about as a result of sin or disobedience.

And therefore God would not have been pleased with those because of the reasons for the sacrifices.

So when Paul describes the death of Jesus as a fragrant offering, as a sacrifice to God,

he is reinforcing this idea that Jesus voluntarily gave up his life for us.

Voluntarily.

This shouldn't surprise all of us since Jesus made the same point in John chapter 10, verse 17, he says,

John 10:17

For this reason the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again.

This charge I have received from my Father.

The greatest act of love in the history of the world was not coerced or forced.

Even though the Jewish leaders, the Roman authorities condemned Jesus and nailed him to the cross

at the behest of the mobs of the people who shouted crucify him, Jesus willingly laid his life down for us.

As he prayed in the garden shortly before those events were consummated, Jesus made it quite clear

that he had the power to stop what was about to happen.

Now although we've seen that love, the love that imitates God is much more than just words or an emotion,

that doesn't mean that our attitude is not important in this situation.

When it comes to loving others the same way that God loves us, our attitude matters.

I can do, you can do all the right things out of a sense of obligation or because that's what I'm expected to do,

but that doesn't seem to be the kind of love that God has for us.

In spite of the tremendous cost he knew he would pay, Jesus freely gave his life for us.

So if you are going to imitate the love of God, we need to love others in the same way.

Because God is God, I'm certainly not capable of imitating who he is, but I can and I must imitate the way that he loves me

in the way that I love others.

The way you love others can change somebody's wife.

It can change somebody's day.

It can change somebody's trajectory.

We need to love people well.

Love your enemies.

Love the non-believer.

Pray for those who persecute you.

And we don't do it out of obligation, we do it as a voluntary sacrifice.

Sometimes we have to swallow our pride.

Sometimes we have to keep our mouths shut.

And so however the Lord is speaking to you this morning,

my prayer is that you will walk in obedience to that.

That when people view cornerstone, when people think about cornerstone,

they won't think of our building, they won't think of the activities that we do,

they will think about how much they are loved.

That's my challenge to you.

That's prayer.

Father God, I pray right now that as we think about the love that you have for us,

I pray Father that you will overwhelm us, overwhelm us with your goodness and grace.

Help us remember, help us be aware of what it cost you to serve us,

what it cost you to love us, what it cost you to lay down your life.

And Father I pray that you empower us through the power of your Holy Spirit

to love others the same way.

And so Father where we have failed in those ways,

I pray that you will forgive us.

Where we have not been imitators of your love,

I pray Father that you will forgive us.

And I pray Father that you give us opportunities.

Today, this week, going forward to show others how much they are loved by you.

And I pray Father for Kingdom Impact.

As we worship and as we offer this offering to you, as we worship freely in this place,

I pray God that it will be a fragrant offering to you.

I pray that nobody in this room will worship out of obligation,

but will voluntarily give you praise because of how good you are.

We ask all these things in your name. Amen.