(Ephesians) Walking in Love — Brian Brodersen

Lord, we do praise you tonight. There is truly no God like you. The God who bled, the God who wore our sins on his head. Oh, Lord, how we thank you that you're our God and we are your people tonight. Lord, we're here to hear from you now, so we pray that you would bless as we share from your word in Jesus name.

Amen. All right. Well, before we actually get into our Bible study tonight, we're going to have one of our missionaries share with us for a few moments. He is ministering in Poland and has been for quite a few years.

Kurt and Kendall are there together with their family. And Kurt was here years ago, went to the school of ministry and was on staff here and used to run the bookstore and God's got him planting churches in Poland.

So he's going to tell us a little bit about what's going on tonight. So, Kurt, come on up. Hi there. Wow. Brian Broderson's Bible. This is great. I want this. Well, as Brian told you, my wife and I are working in Poland.

We've been there for about eight years. And I guess going back about eight years, I was on lunch break. I used to work at the chapel store and we were praying for different countries. And actually, a friend of mine were in the library at lunchtime praying for Russia when Carl Westerlin walked into the school of ministry library and asked us if we would consider going to Poland.

And I got really excited about the idea, but my friend was not very excited about it. Well, two months after Carl asked that question, I was in Poland. I remember one day I was I was just working in the bookstore and a guy came up.

He invited me to his house to share about what I was going to be doing in Poland, which I had no idea what I was going to be doing in Poland. But I went to the Bible study. This is the man I didn't even know.

And after the study, he just walked up to me and wrote me a check for my entire airfare to go to Poland. And so literally in two months I was there. And since that time, God has been so faithful to provide for all of our needs, spiritual, physical and in every way.

And his mercy endures forever. It is good to serve the Lord. And Poland is a is an interesting country. It has a very brutal history. There were times in Poland's history when it didn't even exist as a country.

It had been at one point in history completely swallowed up by the the Austrian Empire, the Prussians and the Russians. The only thing they left was a little plot of land around the area of Warsaw. And of course, now, if you travel through Poland, one of the things that catches your eye in the landscape are Nazi concentration death camps that fill the land.

The city that I went to eight years ago, a town called Lublin, housed one of the biggest death camps that were ever built and would have been the largest had the war not ended. And so this is what Poles wake up to and look at every day, continual reminders of oppression.

But, you know, their oppressors really are not the Germans or the Russians back under communism, but it's really the devil. It's the devil who seeks to steal, kill and destroy. It's the devil who steals life from us and rips us off.

And as I as I work in Poland and as my wife, Kendall, and I work there, we realize that people have been ripped off by the devil. No longer are their conquerors people, but it's religion. It's a religion that that has swallowed them and caused them to believe that they can do something to go to heaven other than believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in his grace and his free gift.

And so we're there because God's called us to be there. And we planted a church in Lublin, turned it over to a Polish guy. He's now pastoring. Then we moved on to another town called Radom. Radom is a city of about 250 ,000 people.

It's a town of about 30 percent unemployment, lots of crime, car thefts every day. I've even seen a few, watched them happening. People are very down and now drugs have come into the country. So in eight years, I've literally seen the country change before my very eyes.

I've seen kids, high school age kids from every background begin trying drugs. Probably nothing has changed Eastern Europe more than probably MTV. When MTV came into the country about eight or nine, ten years ago, you see the way it has affected the mentality of the youth and changed the people.

The Famine of the Word of God in Poland

But what I notice about being there the most is in Poland, people are very familiar with Jesus. There's a Bible on every in every home. Practically, you have no problem talking to people about Jesus there.

But there is a famine of the word of God. And if if any of you have read Hosea, you've read about how he said there would be a famine, not of water, drinking water, eating bread, but there would be a famine of the word of God.

And I can't think of anything worse than not having water or food or bread to eat, than not having the word of God. I would much rather have the word of God than my necessary food. But that's exactly what they don't have.

And that's why we're there. We're there to teach the Bible, to preach the gospel and to plant another church and to see Jesus's name lifted up in our midst. Won't you pray for us while we're there? You know, Brian was sharing in the announcements about these these missions, opportunities that are coming up this summer.

And you mentioned what Croatia and some of these other places, Russia. I would really encourage you to ask the Lord, Lord, would you have me to do something like that? Would you have me to take my vacation time and to just go and see how you might use me?

Because I guarantee you, not only will people there be blessed to have what you have, but God will change your life forever. He'll change your life forever. So pray, ask the Lord. Maybe he would have you to go.

One of the great things for my wife and I in being here at Costa Mesa the last seven weeks is just is just the richness that's here. Here it's just the opposite. There's not a famine. There's a there's a flood, just a river of God's word and truth rushing through this place, especially Calvary Chapel.

And and we've been so blessed to be here. As I look around the room, I see people I know and people that have been faithful to pray for us and to join us in the work there. And the Lord bless you and keep you.

But I've been so not only enriched by what we've just heard, the worship and what we're going to hear, the teaching, but by your lives, your obedience to the Lord and your faithfulness to serve the Lord with all of your heart.

The Lord, the Lord's blessings are on this church. The Lord's blessings are upon this place. And my job is just to encourage you to stir you up, to get you to open up your eyes and see that there's a world out there that needs what you have.

And I'm on my heart tonight as a strong encouragement to encourage you to just ask the Lord, would you have me to go? And I'll bet you the answer for many of you is yes. If you have the courage to ask, well, Brian's got to teach.

I got to sit down. So the Lord bless you and keep you. We ask you to pray for Rod on Poland and the work of the Lord that we're doing there and planning Calvary Chapel Church. God bless you. Well, we're going to pray for them.

I'm going to do that right now. Actually, I just remembered this as Kurt was talking. I think our high school fellowship is going to take an outreach to Rodham this summer. Kurt shared with the high school ministry the other day and they really felt connected.

So but let's pray. Let's pray that God will just pour out his blessing upon that place. Father, we pray for Rodham. We pray for Kurt and Kendall and those who are ministering there with them. And Lord, we know that your word, Lord, is powerful.

We know that you spoke the world into existence. And Lord, we pray that you would speak to that city and we pray that you'd save many. Lord, as we hear about the young people and the influence of drugs and MTV and all of that, Lord, we pray that you would rescue many from the snare of the devil.

We pray that you would take them, transform their lives, give them, Lord, the gifts of the spirit and turn around and use them to touch their fellow countrymen. Lord, we think of so many places outside of where we're at, where that is the case, the famine, not for bread or water, but for your word.

And we pray that you'd have mercy and that you'd send laborers out into these great harvest fields, Lord. So we just pray that you would work, that you would bless and particularly there with them, that you would do great things when they return, that they would, Lord, be so encouraged by what they see you doing, Lord, that you would bless them for their labor in Jesus name.

Amen. All right. Let's turn now to Ephesians once again. As we pick up in our study this evening, picking up in the fifth chapter, beginning the fifth chapter tonight, but going back to verse thirty two, because once again, here's one of those places where those who broke our Bible up into chapters and verses just missed it by a few verses here in this particular section.

From Doctrine to Walking in Love

They should it should have carried it out a little further, but they didn't. So we'll pick up in verse thirty two and then follow through verse two of chapter five. But you remember the apostle here is into the real practical aspect of this letter to the Ephesians.

He started off by spending a lot of time on doctrinal issues and really seeking to ground the saints in all of the glory of what God had done for them. And then he finally gets to that place where he says basically, OK, now that you know all that God's done for you and you're basking in that, it's time to put it all into practice and to really begin to live for the Lord.

And what we've been looking at in the past couple of weeks have been the exhortations to do that. And so in verse thirty two, he said, and be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children. You see how it just continues on so perfectly there. Unfortunate chapter break. It shouldn't have happened right here because he is speaking about the tender heartedness and the and the forgiveness, even as God in Christ forgave us.

Then he appeals and he says, now be imitators of God. Do what God does in relation to those who have offended you, to those who have hurt you in some way, to those who have bothered you. Imitate God, forgive them.

That's what he's saying. Now, the word imitate is the Greek word from which we get our English word to mimic. So to mimic someone, you know, you have to study them to a certain extent. You know, there are people that have that ability to listen to somebody and to pick up their tone of voice and the inflections in their voice and they can mimic another person.

I admire that ability. I found that to be quite humorous many times, people who can do that sort of thing or maybe singing. You know, you'll listen to somebody and you'll try to really get down there, uh, how they sing.

You're mimicking them. But in order to mimic somebody, you've got to really study them. You've got to analyze them. You've got to watch them closely. You've got to listen intently so that you can pick up on those things.

Now, Paul says, be imitators of God. If we are going to be imitators of God, we've got to see God. We've got to study him, not in an academic sort of a way, but we've got to study him in the sense that we observe him, that we watch him, that we listen closely to what he's saying and see how he acts and responds and all of that.

And, you know, the best way possible to do that is to be studying the scriptures. In the Gospels, particularly, but all through the Bible, back in the Old Testament, we have plenty of pictures for us.

Studying Christ in the Gospels

But in the Gospels, the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, there we have a portrait of God, a living portrait of God. Jesus Christ comes into the world as God in the flesh, and he shows us what God is like.

John tells us in his Gospel chapter one, verse 18, that the only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father, he has revealed the father. He's brought him out into plain sight. And so as Paul says, the imitators of God, we can only do that if we are observing God, if we're watching him, if we're studying who he is, if we're intently gazing upon him, focusing upon him.

John, when he wrote his first epistle in reference to the word who was made flesh, he said he said our eyes looked upon him. We gazed upon him and he talks about that intense analyzing of the Lord, just watching him, observing him.

And so that's what we need to do if we want to fulfill the admonition here to be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love. As Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma.

So it's all part of the same exhortation. Imitate God. God forgives. Walk in love as Christ loved us. He left us the example of love. Love is the supreme thing. It's the supreme thing. You know, love.

Occurs in the Bible 360 times, just the word love itself. Faith. Faith. Which, of course, has a very high billing in the scripture only occurs 245 times in comparison to love. The Bible is full of. The concept of love, the admonition to love the declaration of God's love for us, really the supreme message of the Bible is love, the love of God for man and the call of God to man to love God in return and to love his fellow man, to love his neighbor as himself.

But yet, even though the scriptures put the highest priority on love, we seem to miss that so often and we seem to have so many other things in that supreme place, you know, rather than love. This past week, I was attending a pastor's conference and one of the pastors was sharing on the subject of love, and he did just a tremendous job.

Both of the sessions I heard him, it was really profound stuff. But one of the things that he was saying was how he as a servant of God been now serving the Lord for over 30 years, how for most of his ministry, he never really saw love as the vital thing, the essential thing.

But he was saying now that he's, you know, coming maybe closer to the end of his ministry. Well, at least he's, you know, quite a ways through it after 30 years in the ministry. He said now he's beginning to realize that the things that he used to think were so vitally important aren't really that important.

But he finds himself now realizing. How vital love really is to the whole thing. And, you know, as he was saying this, I was listening intently and I was identifying with him. I was thinking, you know, isn't it true?

And he gave the illustration of just, you know, starting off each day in prayer and the things you sort of pray for before you go out the door. And his point was, I don't really recollect praying. God help me to love everybody today.

That wasn't the first thing on his mind. Lord, help me to be so full of love that I just go about loving everyone. He said, no, quite often it was something quite different, and I could really identify with that before I leave in the morning.

I'm praying, God, fill me with power to be your witness and Lord, help me to know your word better. And, you know, all of these things are good things, but they're not the supreme thing. They're not the main thing.

The main thing is love. And yet so often we overlook it. And the analogy that he gave that really brought it home to me was he talked about he used a sports analogy and he talked about the one word that a young, talented athlete does not want to hear.

The one word he does not want to hear is the word teamwork, because he doesn't care about the rest of the team. That's not the point. He is the guy with the talent. And what he really cares about is, you know, being the star of the particular thing that he's involved in.

And, you know, it's so true. It's true. And in that athletic realm, so often you think of somebody like Michael Jordan, the great probably the greatest basketball player of all time, but in the early stages of his career, Michael was a one man show and his team didn't really gain prominence until he learned to play as a team player until he realized that it wasn't only about Michael Jordan and his ability on the basketball court.

It was about the other four guys out there with him or the you know, the guy sitting on the bench that we're going to come in or whatever he needed to learn to work together with people. And so likewise, we think of all of the different facets of the Christian life and all of the different aspects of the ministry and all the things that we want to do in serving God.

And, you know, I want the gifts of the spirit. I want the power of the spirit. I want to know the word. I want to be able to articulate it. You know, all of these things are good things. But the thing that brings them all together and makes them really work is love, the thing that we so often overlook.

But the point being this, the scriptures themselves place love at the supreme place. Jesus said in John 13, 35, he said, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you love one another. That is to be the chief characteristic of the Christian.

Love as the Christian’s Chief Witness

Having love for each other. Paul, the apostle, wrote and he said the purpose of the commandment, the intention of God giving commandments, the goal of the whole list of commandments that God gave is love from a pure heart.

And genuine faith. But love comes first. That's the whole purpose of the commandment, he said. And then, of course, going back to Jesus, you remember when the lawyer came to me, he said he's a teacher.

What is the great commandment in the law now with the Jews? Of course, you know, we often think of the commandments as 10 in number. We do have the 10 commandments, but the Jews being so meticulous, they they divided the commandments up and they concluded that there were 613 commandments.

The rabbis didn't have anything else to do, so they spent their time doing that kind of thing. So a lawyer comes and out of the 613, he says to Jesus, he says, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?

And Jesus said, this is it. You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. That's the first and the great commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

And so over and over and over again, 360 times in the Bible, 214 times in the New Testament, the word love appears. And of course, primarily it's in the form of an admonition to love one another or speaking of God's love for us or our need to love God.

Now, Jesus, when he was about to. Go to the cross and then, of course, subsequently he would rise from the dead and then he would ascend back into heaven as he's instructing the disciples. He says to them a new commandment, I give you.

That you love one another. Now. The commandment to love was as old as Moses, at least. But yet Jesus said a new commandment, I give you that you love one another. But then he added something that made it new.

And this is was this is what the new element was. He says a new commandment. I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you. You see, there was confusion about what does it mean practically to love my neighbor?

And you remember that there would be occasions when people would come to Jesus and they would ask questions that sort of indicated the confusion that existed when Jesus said the great commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.

Somebody responded and said, well, who's my neighbor then? And then Jesus went on to tell what we know as the parable of the Good Samaritan, showing that anybody who's in trouble is actually your neighbor and showing what love really was to really reach out and minister.

But Jesus says. This is the new commandment that you love one another as I loved you, and then he went on to say, greater love has no man than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. And so Paul here in Ephesians five to he's admonishing us to walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us.

First Corinthians 13 and the Definition of Agape

So a demonstration of love. Would be in giving of oneself for others. Now, I thought it would be really good to get a just once again, a fresh reminder of what this love is that's being spoken of here.

And in First Corinthians 13, we have the inspired definition. Now, the Greek word for love, as many of you know already, love that's commonly used in the New Testament is. Agape or agape. There's another word, Phileo, and those are the two words that are used most frequently in the scriptures for love.

And there's a lot of debate over just what the origin of these words are particular, particularly agape and the distinction between the two words. Some say, well, there wasn't really much of a distinction at all, and sometimes they're used interchangeably.

Others say, oh, no, there was a definite distinction. The word agape, which is used very frequently in the New Testament, wasn't that popular of a word in Greek, although it was a Greek word, of course, it wasn't used all that often.

Phileo was used much more often and then a few other words. And it would seem that what happened is that the spirit of God prompted. The biblical writers and the early Christians to take this word that wasn't really used so frequently among the Greeks and to sort of adopt it and to bring it into God's own terminology and then to give definition to it.

And here in First Corinthians 13, what Paul does is he takes this word, this Greek word, and he gives a definition for it. You would not find this definition given if you looked up the word agape in an ancient Greek dictionary.

This is not the definition that would have been given. But the implication behind the word is that it's a love that gives. It's a giving love contrasted with the other some of the other loves that focus more on getting.

The word Eros is a word that is sometimes translated love, but yet it speaks of love because I get something out of the object that I love. I derive some sort of pleasure from it or some sort of satisfaction, but therefore I love it.

I love it for what it does for me. Now, that's not the kind of love that we're talking about here. That's not the kind of love that God demonstrated toward the world. John 316. God, soul of the world is the Greek word agape.

But it wasn't that in God loving the world, it was giving God any pleasure. God's loving a world that's in rebellion to him. And so it's not a love that that gives because it gets. It's a love that gives because it simply desires to give.

Out of its own reasons. And so here in the 13th chapter of First Corinthians. The Apostle Paul gives us, as I said, the definition of this word, and I just like to read it. I know you're probably familiar with it, but sometimes just reading something over again can really just itself speak volumes to us.

So he says, well. Actually, in the context, he's talking to Christians, the Corinthian Christians who. They've got all kinds of activity going on in their midst, but they're missing out on the most important thing.

And, you know, they were kind of divided up. They're in the community between different Christian teachers, and they had sort of split up into factions, and there were those that were they were staunch disciples of Paul, and there were others who were saying, no way, man, I'm not into Paul.

I'm into a policy. He's brilliant. He is. Oh, he's so articulate. He's like a Greek philosopher. He's he's unreal. Paul, you know, he's he's not all that great. And others were no. No way, man. I'm into Peter.

Peter was Peter was with Jesus. Peter was one of the first apostles. That's who I'm into. Forget Paul and Apollos. And others were like, hey, forget all three of them, man. I'm into Jesus. You know, that's where they were.

Paul talks about it in the early part of the first Corinthians. And, you know, so they were going through this and then they had all of this immorality going on in the church. There was somebody living with his stepmother, presumably having relations with her.

And Paul says, you guys are doing things that even the Gentiles are sickened by. And then they were bickering with one another. They were fighting each other. They were suing each other. They were taking each other to court.

They were coming together for a love feast, the Lord's Supper, and some people were poor and they didn't really have much and they were refusing to give them anything at the meal. They were getting drunk and all kinds of really pathetic things were going on there.

And then when it came to the gifts of the spirit, they were all excited about the gifts of the spirit. That's what they wanted. They wanted the gifts of the spirit. They wanted to prophesy. They wanted to speak in tongues and all of these things.

And they really thought those more demonstrative gifts were they were, you know, the most important. So tongues, they emphasize tongues. So as we come to the end of Chapter 12. Paul says. But earnestly desire the best gifts, gifts are good.

But yet I show you a more excellent way. So the more excellent way is what he's going to describe now and listen to what he says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love.

I've become a sounding brass or a clanging symbol. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

You see, these are the things these are the things that so often we think, oh, if I could just, you know, speak, I could speak with the tongues of men and of angels. Oh, how great that would be. Oh, God, empower me to do that.

Well, that's good. But if I have not love, I'm just a sounding brass or clanging symbol. Oh, that I could prophesy. Oh, that I knew all the mysteries of the scripture. And I could stand in. Articulate the mysteries of God in a profound way and impact people.

Oh, that's what I want. Well, that's good. But if you don't have love, it doesn't matter. Oh, Lord, that I could have more faith that I could say to this mountain, be cast into the sea. That'd be great.

But if I have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned. But have not love that profits me nothing. And now we come to Paul's definition.

Love, Agape, listen, suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up. Love does not behave rudely, does not seek its own. Is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail. Whether there are tongues, they will cease. Whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.

But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am also known and now abide faith, hope and love these three.

But the greatest of these is love. Amazing. Faith. I mean, what a faith, incredible, awesome thing. You've got to have faith to be saved. But Paul says here, faith is glorious and is important and is vital and everything else as it is.

I don't want to take away from that. He says, but love is greater than these things. And so this is the supreme thing. This is the thing that God is wanting to see worked in our lives. Now, where do we begin to manifest this?

Well, Jesus said, remember, if you love one another, it starts right in our midst as God's people. This is where we have to really put this stuff into practice. Now, you would think that would be easy, wouldn't you?

I mean, after all, we're all Christians. We're all nice, sweet, loving people. What's the problem? We should have no problem with this. Well, the problem is simply we don't always walk the way we ought to walk, do we?

And because we don't always walk as we ought to walk as Christians, we really do need to love one another. Now, it's easy. And I have no problem loving lovely people. I don't have the least problem at all.

I don't even need the admonition to do it. It just comes natural. It's the unlovely people that I really need the prodding from the Lord to be loving to. But you see, Jesus said this is what would distinguish us from the rest of the world.

You remember he was talking about love and he said, now, what big deal is it if you love those who love you? The unbelievers do that. Anybody can do that. Or what's the big deal if you reach out to those that you like?

Unbelievers do that, too. And greeting those that, you know, unbelievers do that. He says, no, you need to be different. You need to go further. And it was in that context that he gave the exhortation, go the extra mile.

Forgiveness as the Practice of Christian Love

But here among the people of God. This is where we ought to have an atmosphere of love. Unbelievers ought to be able to walk in here and just be melted. By the very presence of love that they could just sense love among us now, that's the atmosphere that God wants to create among us.

But in order for that atmosphere to exist, we've got to get those things out of the way that often hinder us from loving. And that's where we go back into the context there. Remember, the imitators of God is dear children forgive one another, let go of things.

You know, I. I hate to spoil it for some of you that are maybe new to the church or maybe you're a new believer, but, you know, there's far too much animosity among Christians, there's far too much division and dislike and those kinds of things.

Now, if you haven't experienced that yet, thank God. And let's just hope and pray that you don't have to. But, you know, it's a sad, sad thing that that we do experience that it shouldn't be that way.

There should be an atmosphere of love. We we need to be loving one another. And we've got to really be on our guard against those things that will come in and try to rob us of that love for each other.

You know, we all have our ups and our downs, we all have our good days and our bad days, we all have good moods and bad moods. That's why we have to walk in love toward each other. Because there's always going to be someone who's not in the spirit.

And when they're not in the spirit, if we get out of the spirit and want to act like them, then we've got a problem that develops. So we've got to do our best to be walking in the spirit. And when we find those times when we're not walking in the spirit, when we're in the flesh, as we say, we're having a bad day, we're in a bad mood, we're saying mean things.

I never do any of that, but you guys probably do. Well, at least since Monday, I haven't done it. It's always when I'm getting ready to come and teach, you know, and then I'll say something that I shouldn't have said, and then I'm you know, I'm having to repent all the way to the pulpit and call Cheryl when I get here and say, oh, please.

But, you know, we have those things. I like to chalk it up to my blood sugar levels. You know, I I didn't need something and that's why I'm the way I am. But I don't know what it is. I guess it's it's just the flesh.

And when I am in a place like that, I've got to repent and part of love is to be able to admit that I'm wrong and to come and to say, please forgive me. I'm sorry. This behavior is unacceptable. Those things I said I should not have said.

And please forgive me. And I'm going to ask God to help me not to do that again. You see, we've got to do that. And then, of course, when we do that kind of a confession, then we need to. On the other end, we need to forgive, we need to say, I accept that.

That's fine. Now we say, but wait a second. I've already forgiven you a few times this week. And what do you mean you want me to forgive you again? Well, remember, Jesus said that you had to do it four hundred and ninety times.