THE FRUIT OF LIGHT (Ephesians 5:8-10)

TWELVE 5 CHURCH

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Welcome on this cold cloudy day. I'm glad you're here. I know we've got a lot of sickness going around all over the community

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We have a few families that are actually out with it. So But we're glad that you're not sick and we're glad you're here.

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I just want to say Welcome to all of our covenant members to the Lord's Day Gathering And as I do every single week,

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I just want to thank you for Bringing your gifts what God has uniquely given to you for the benefit of this body and And as a reminder you are loved, right?

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You are loved all of you as our covenant members at this church. You are loved by the

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Father The Father who chose you before the foundation of the world not because you were lovable because of his good grace

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You were loved by the Son Who who set out to redeem you and purchase you by blood ransom?

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You are loved by the Holy Spirit who now seals you for the day of glory

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You are greatly loved Do not forget it. And this is a great time to come together and be reminded of it

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But I also want to say thank you to our guests for being here We're so grateful that you've chosen to join us today.

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We we pray that you're encouraged today. We pray that God Grows you in the fear and knowledge of him and if you are a guest today

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I would like to ask you if if possible if you've got one of these and if you don't we can get you one

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This is a connect card at the bottom of it. It says how can we pray for you?

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And I know something about you without even meeting you You need prayer, don't you?

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I know that because I need prayer. We all need prayer There's a great opportunity for that and then there's some check boxes on here on Some questions maybe that you might have about the church and and you can let us know those things

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We would love the chance to get to know you And if you could just drop that connect card into the offering plate when it comes by here in a moment our people

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Give from a heart of worship towards kingdom purposes and that would be your Contribution so that we may get a chance to get you get to know you

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And if you're interested in learning more about what it means to be a part of a covenant

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Community like this. We're actually going to be offering as we do every quarter a four -week new member class

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It's really just an informational class It's starting in February to be every Wednesday in February starting on February the 7th that's a

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Wednesday night at 630 right here in the building and And we'll just every

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Wednesday consecutively for four weeks in a row and you can find out where we come from You find out where we're planning on heading, right?

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We make our plans God directs our steps But you can also find out what we believe And and how we function as a people together in covenant as just a great opportunity

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Even if you're not interested you say pastor, I'm not I'm not looking to join anything at the moment I totally understand that this is really a first step

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Towards that process, but mostly it's just informational for you to grow and understand what it means to be a part of a church

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Well some more announcements here before we get started for members if you missed past Sunday's Family meeting you missed a very exciting news

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The exciting news that we have announced a elder candidate another pastor for this church a third

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Pastor to come alongside pastor Jeremiah and myself and that is our brother Keith Hennick back there.

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We are yes That's very exciting time So we are we are holding an ordination

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Commissioning service to officially bring him in as an elder here at 12 -5 on Saturday March 2nd

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And that's going to be at 6 o 'clock here Saturday March 2nd put that on your calendars right here at the building

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Please plan on being here guest if you want to come see what that's about, please come visit but members plan on being here

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This is a momentous time You are gaining another pastor to come alongside and shepherd this flock

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Well with the exciting news doesn't in there more exciting news is a reminder that next week is our grand opening service

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And I know you're like well, we've already been in here pastor. We've had a few weeks in this building And yes, we had to work the kinks out

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We didn't even know how we were gonna set up the chairs if we're being honest with you We didn't know how all of this was gonna flow with this space

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And so we need to get our bearings and then we just start letting the community know that we're here

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And so this is a great opportunity for you to maybe invite that family member the neighbor that friend that co -worker that That you've really not had an opportunity to you know

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Maybe a foot in the door to open up and and invite them to church But this is a great opportunity because of a having a grand opening service so please plan on being here if at all possible and Finally, I would like to encourage our families with young children

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You know, we are a family integrated congregation We are family integrated meaning that on the

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Lord's Day We do not offer things like nursery or children's ministry, and I know some people

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Have the question they're like well, man pastor, you know, my young child just doesn't understand

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They don't know what you're preaching about. They don't know the songs we're singing. They don't understand and I'm I know they don't

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But here's what we believe we believe that they know that you do They know you believe it and they're watching you and we want them to watch you worship

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God together on the Lord's Day, so we don't offer that but even though we are family integrated

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We we also know the nature of children, right? Any of us parents that have had children young children

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We understand don't we so we offer a nursing room right back here in the back. The door can close we've got the the feed coming in so you can hear the sermon and the music if you need to as children get restless and Fussy and we totally understand but we also don't want to be a distraction to our brothers and sisters

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Do we because it can be it can be a bad distraction and it can it can be used to keep people from hearing

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The truth that is being proclaimed specifically during the preaching So we don't want to be a distraction so we ask that when necessary to take advantage of that space back there

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Like I said, we've got a TV back there But we also want to make sure we don't want any of our parents to spend the whole of the service

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I want to be careful Because there can be a propensity young mothers or even grandparents to just like immediately go back there

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Just in case the child is gonna be upset We would like to challenge you to try and get them to set through the service.

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Otherwise, they'd never learn But you need to use discernment discretion and how and when to use that opportunity fair enough

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All right. I think I think that's a that's good for the announcements So let's let's stop and pray for another local congregation this morning as we do before we officially start off our service

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Today we are going to be praying for First Baptist Church of Walnut Ridge that is fairly local

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Walnut Ridge just right up the road and First Baptist Church is a church that we want to lift up to the

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Lord this morning and pray that God would would move in Their midst and in their people and they would flourish

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Let's pray dear Heavenly Father Lord, we thank you for all all of our brothers and sisters

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Not just those that are here in this room God that we have Covenanted with God, but but those all over the world

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That today on the Lord's Day are preparing together or already gathering

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Yeah, we ask for brothers and sisters at First Baptist Church of Walnut Ridge We ask that you would work in their hearts and minds

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As you mold them Christ you said that you will build your church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it

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We trust that you will do the work that you set out to do in their hearts

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Be with their pastors Father I pray you give them wisdom and boldness and clarity.

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I pray that they would proclaim the full counsel of your word with boldness and without hesitation even at the even at their own peril

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Father I pray for their people that you would Mold them into the people that they should be a gracious people loving people people that longs after Kingdom purpose in your glory above all other things in this world

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We thank you for what you are doing and what you are going to continue to do And we pray that they would understand and experience and know the great love from their brothers and sisters here

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In Christ's name amen Amen, let's stand for our call to worship as we officially start our day

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And worship to the triune God our our call to worship comes from the first seven verses of Psalm 147 for the psalmist he heals the brokenhearted praise the

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Lord For it is good to sing praises to our God And a song of praise

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Hold on just say it go back to that go back to that slide For it is pleasant and a song of praise is fitting

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I'm not I'm not a rubber man. And yeah, I know you just woke up. You just walked in here guys But we're not starting off worship like that.

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Are we we're not starting worship off like that. Let's start over. How about that? Right for it is good to sing praises to our

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God Oh the

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Lord builds up Jerusalem He heals the brokenhearted he determines the number of the stars

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Great is the Lord and abundant in power The Lord lifts up the humble

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Sing to the Lord with Thanksgiving Before we make melody with the harp,

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I mean, I guess the guitar in our Circumstance, right? Let's go to that great

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God and a prayer of adoration And I want you to bow your heads with me and in this moment.

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I I want you to set aside the distractions

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Set aside the this whole idea of trying to get your bearings and your seat and in your room and in your in the

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Surroundings and I want you to I want you to think about the goodness and greatness of our

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God And I want this prayer to be a true prayer of adoration To our

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God the one that is worthy of our praise this morning. So let's pray. Oh dear Heavenly Father You are far above Our thoughts

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You are far above our Imaginations you are far above our our lofty understandings

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God you You have given us

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All that we need to know you and your word But we are so finite that we can only comprehend

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Just a small little glimpse of who you are

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And we can't even comprehend it. We can't even understand it Because you are altogether separate from us

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You are sovereign you hold all things in your hands you

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Orchestrate every molecule of this universe to your will and you uphold us with your mighty hand

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Father we ask this morning that we would sing to you with Thanksgiving in our hearts

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Father our worship that the greatest Possible part of worship that we have to offer you this morning falls so short of your magnificent Majestic holiness

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And it is if we are infants infants just mumbling almost nonsense and ability to comprehend just how

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Overwhelmingly great you are so forgive us as we fall short and Thank you for knowing that we your children are small

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Forgetful Short -sighted and That you hold us

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And that the righteousness of your son Jesus Christ has been given to us

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So that we may stand righteous and holy before you as we worship in spirit of truth

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Be honored in our worship we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen Hey, man, it's good to be in the house of the

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Lord this morning. Amen. Hey, man, I want to do that again It's good to be in the house of the Lord this morning. Amen. Amen.

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All right, let's sing out Let's lift our voices. We're singing to an awesome Savior this morning. Amen the love of the

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Father Lift up your praise joy

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Faithfulness See the victory the hope of the world the

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Savior has risen The spirit has come to bring us in Oh we are

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Oh Lifted from darkness and into the light the sons and the daughters

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That a price our God has made Oh This is the song of the redeemed

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The ransomed and the free Given life at such a price

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This is love This is love and when the

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Father calls us home Amen And we see him on the throne

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Sing it out And hear the voices sing as one Come on Oh this is love

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This is love Oh we are The people of God With the freedom

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Hope in our hearts How great is The love of the

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Father Sing it again Oh we are

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The people of God With the freedom Of hope in our hearts

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How great is The love of the Father One more time

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Oh we are The people of God With the freedom

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Of hope in our hearts How great is The love of the

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Father Amen Thank you

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Jesus Who else commands all the hosts of heaven?

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Who else can make every king bow down? Who else can whisper in darkness' trembles?

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Only a holy God What other beauty demands such praises?

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What other splendor outshines the sun? What other majesty rules with justice?

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Only a holy God Come and behold

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Him The one and the only

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Choir sing holy Forever a holy

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God Come and worship the holy

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God Sing it, sing it.

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What does the glory consist of? Sing it out. What does the glory consist of?

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Yes. What other power can raise a dead?

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What other name remains undefiled? Only our holy

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God. Come and behold

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Him, the Lord and the only.

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Cry out, sing holy, forever the holy

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God, and worship the holy God.

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Who else could rescue me from my failure?

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Who else would offer His only Son? Who else invites me to call

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Him Father? Only our holy

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God. Come and behold

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Him, the Lord and the only.

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Cry out, sing holy, forever the holy

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God, and worship the holy God.

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One more time. Come and behold Him, the one and the only.

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Cry out, sing holy, forever a holy

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God. Come and worship the holy

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God. One more time, I want to sing that one more time. I want to hear everyone sing it out.

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Sing it with all you've got. We worship a holy God this morning, amen. He consumes like fire,

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He invites us to call Him Father. Amen. He sent His only Son to be crucified for you and me.

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Amen. He deserves all of our praise this morning. I promise you, He deserves everything you've got in you.

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So let's sing out as loud as you can. Come and behold

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Him, the only.

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Cry out, sing holy, forever a holy

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God like you. Come and worship the holy

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God. Amen. Keep the

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Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure.

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That He would give His only Son to make a wretch

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His treasure. How great the pain of searing loss the

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Father turns His face away as wounds which bar the chosen heart bring many sons to glory.

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Yes, thank you, Jesus. Behold the man upon the cross, upon His shoulders.

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Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out upon the scoffer.

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It was my sin that held Him there until it was accomplished.

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His dying breath has brought me life. I know that it is finished.

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I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom.

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Here it is. But I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection.

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Why should I gain from His reward?

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I cannot give an answer. But this

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I know with all my heart. In His words,

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I thank God and song. Why should

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I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer.

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But this I know with all my heart.

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His wounds have paid my ransom. Yes, this

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I know with all my heart. His wounds have paid my ransom.

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Thank you, Jesus, so much, Father. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Father. We're going to take up our offering this time.

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Dear Father, Lord, it hurts me to say,

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Lord, that I hear my mocking voice, that it was my sins that put you on the cross, and you became sin.

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For me, it's so sad. The Father had to turn

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His face away. But I'm so grateful, so grateful that you chose, you chose me, a lost, dying, dead to sin, sinner that didn't deserve, didn't deserve the breath that's in my lungs.

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I praise you for saving me. Thank you so much. Thank you.

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Lord, I pray that you would bless this offering this morning, Lord. Lord, be with the rest of this worship service.

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Lord, I love you. Thank you for loving me. It's in Jesus' name, amen.

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So our scripture reading this morning, and y 'all may be seated. Our scripture reading this morning comes from Romans 6, verses 23, 23.

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I want you to listen carefully to the words of this passage. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

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But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?

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For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification.

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And its end, its end is eternal life, amen.

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For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our

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Lord. I'm gonna say it again. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God, the free gift of God is eternal life in our

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Lord Jesus Christ, amen? Amen. If that doesn't light your fire, your fire's out, it's wet, amen?

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That should make you just wanna jump out of your chair. Eternal life, and it's a free gift, amen?

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Amen. Stand with me, we got one last song.

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Jesus paid it all. I hear the

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Savior say, Thy strength indeed is small.

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Child of weakness, watch and pray, find in me thine all in all.

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Jesus paid it all, yes, and all to Him I owe.

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Sin had left the crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

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For now, indeed, I find that Thy power and power can change the leper's guts and melt his heart of stone.

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Jesus paid it all, and all to Him I owe.

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Sin had left the crimson stain, but He washed it white as snow.

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And when before the throne I stand incomplete,

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Jesus died my soul to save, my debt shall still repay.

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Jesus paid it all, and all to Him I owe.

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Sin had left the crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

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Sin had left the crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

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He washed it white as snow, yes, He washed it white as snow.

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Praise the one who paid my debt and raised

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His life up from the dead. Praise the one who paid my debt and raised

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His life up from the dead. Praise the one who paid my debt and raised

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His life up from the dead. Praise the one who paid my debt and raised

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His life up from the dead. Jesus paid it all, and all to Him I owe.

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Sin had left the crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

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Sin had left the crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

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Sin had left the crimson stain,

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He washed it white as snow. Amen, you may be seated.

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What a stain it was, wasn't it? Words cannot comprehend that stain.

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But also words fall short of comprehending the purity and the righteousness that comes after because of the great righteousness of Christ.

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I hope your hearts are ready to hear the Word this morning. Are they? All right.

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Well, go ahead and open your copy of God's Word to Ephesians chapter five.

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Ephesians chapter five, as we jump back into our study through this great epistle that the

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Apostle Paul had written to the church in Ephesus and to the surrounding cities and churches and consequently to us today, for these words have been recorded for us.

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These words are just as meaningful and they carry just as much truth in them for us believers today as they did to them roughly 2 ,000 years ago.

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So let's read God's Word. We are primarily going to start looking in verse eight, but I want us to start reading in verse one so that we can be reminded of the context here in Ephesians five.

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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.

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But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints.

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Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

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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.

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Oh, let no one deceive you with empty words. Because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

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Therefore, do not become partners with them. For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the

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Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.

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And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

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For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible.

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For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

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This is the reading of God's word. Let's go to him once again, and let's ask the

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Holy Spirit to help us comprehend and understand this truth. Guard us,

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Lord. Guard me that my lips would not speak wrongly.

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Guard my brothers and sisters that their ears would perk up when they hear something that is not accurate according to your word.

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Give them wisdom and discernment. Holy Spirit, help us to see these truths.

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We thank you for your word. Be honored in the proclamation of it.

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In Christ's name, amen. Well, last week, the ELCA, it's the

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Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, held its annual youth leader event called

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Extravaganza. At this event, a woman who claims to be a pastor, the story's already off to a bad start, isn't it, right?

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You know the trajectory's here because that's obviously not accurate, but she claims to be.

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This woman was speaking about her 11 -year -old daughter. She goes on to say that her daughter was actually born a biological male.

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And as he was growing up, he preferred the color pink, dressing up, typical girly type of things.

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Then she invited this young boy onto the stage to the cheer of the massive audience of youth leaders within that denomination, dressed and acting like a girl.

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And this young boy, speaking very proudly and honestly, eloquently, as I watched this video, again, the crowd is cheering him on, stated, and I quote, being transgender means just being myself.

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It means being who God made me to be. It's not about how

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I act or what I wear. It's about who I am.

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And as I listened to those words, my heart broke for this young boy.

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My heart broke for this 11 -year -old boy because he does not know how right he is.

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This is about who he is. He is darkness.

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And that darkness has led him to believe that God actually made him this way. Mind you, this event isn't a political convention.

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It's not being hosted by a secular university. It was being paraded by people who claim the name of Christ.

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And I believe this is why Paul had told us in verse 6 of what we just read. What did he say? He said, let no one deceive you.

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Hey, Christian, don't let them pull the wool over your eyes. Don't be deceived. Let no one deceive you with their empty words.

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For because of these things, because of this sexual impurity, because of any impurity, because of covetousness and sin, because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

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Don't be deceived. And he says there in verse 7, therefore, do not become partners with them.

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Do not have fellowship with them. And again, we talked about that very text three weeks ago, and we looked at it, and we saw that this obviously can apply to not being partners, not being in fellowship with those out in the world, those that are in obvious darkness.

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However, the context of what Paul is aiming at here is this very thing. He's saying don't be deceived by those who claim

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Christ, yet deny him with their lives. Why?

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Verse 8 tells us, for at one time you were darkness.

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Every time we get to this text, I keep bringing it up. I want you to pay attention. It doesn't say you were in darkness, does it?

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It doesn't say you were consumed by darkness, does it? It says you yourself at your very core were darkness, just like that poor boy and his mother.

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He says, but now, now there's a contrast here, right? You were darkness, but now there's a contrast.

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You are light in the Lord. We have darkness and we have light.

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And Paul had told us over in 2 Corinthians 6, you can jot this passage down if you're not familiar with it in verse 14, but he had told us there not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, didn't he?

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Do not be connected, do not be in fellowship, do not be partners with those that are unbelievers.

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And he says, for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

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There is a contrast here. He says, you were darkness, but now you're light in the

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Lord. And now he gives us a command. He tells us, he says, hey, Christian, don't be deceived.

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Don't be deceived by empty words, right? The judgment is upon that. No, you are not darkness anymore.

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You are light. Now walk as children of light. That's what he says there in the passage, isn't it?

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And in verse eight he says, walk as children of light. Well, if you've been with us through the study or you've studied

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Ephesians, you may remember Paul switches gears in this letter, doesn't he? Starting in chapter four. Remember chapters one, two, and three, they're just doctrine.

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They're just information about how we've been brought into union with Christ. And then he switches gears and look at what he said.

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Just flip over in your Bibles to chapter four. What did he say in verse one? What did he do?

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What does he urge us to? He urges us to walk. There's that word again, right?

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To walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

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And then he continues on to proceed. He proceeds to hash that out, showing us what that looks like.

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And by the time he gets to Ephesians chapter five, in verse two, he continues this type of language.

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He says, walk in a manner worthy of this calling. And then in five, two, he says, now walk in love.

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I'm explaining to you, what does it mean to walk in a manner worthy of our calling? Well, he says, walk in love.

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Walk in the love of God. And now here in verse 80, he tells us to walk in the light.

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To walk as children of light. This is a lifestyle that is the byproduct of a life change.

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It is a lifestyle that is the byproduct of a life change. Your walking in light does not produce the change.

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The change is already there. You're simply walking in the change. It's the byproduct of it.

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If you've been brought from death to life, if you've been brought from darkness into light, your walk will show evidence of that.

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It will be present in your life. And before Paul finishes his thought there, in verse eight, as he tells us to walk as children of light, he squeezes in a parenthesis here, if you notice it.

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I think this helps us define what he means. Look at verse nine. You can see in your Bibles, you're going to have a little parenthesis around the outside of this phrase.

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It's kind of squeezed into the middle as an explanation. He says, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.

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The fruit of light. He tells us, you were darkness, but now you're light, because you are in Christ, the light of the world.

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You are light in the Lord, is what he says. Now walk as children of light, because you've been adopted, right?

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You've been brought in as a child. You've been brought into this kingdom. You've been transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of light.

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You are children and citizens of that kingdom. And oh, by the way, here's the evidence.

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Here's the fruit of that light. This is what it looks like. This is evidence.

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It's the product of something, isn't it? What is fruit in Scripture? It's the evidence of something.

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It's the byproduct. We see evidence of whatever is true, whatever is right.

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You plant an apple tree, you don't get an orange. Right? I hope not.

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And light in Scripture is obviously a metaphor for righteousness, for godliness, for whatever is good and pure and holy, because God is light.

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And we obviously aren't walking around as Christians with beams of physical light shining out of our eyeballs and through our fingertips.

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That would probably scare most people away, and it would be quite annoying. Obviously, that's not what

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Scripture is speaking of. And so our walk, the way that we live, the things that we say, the things that we do, our perspectives, our insight, our very countenance, is that light.

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It's fruit of that light in our lives. And there are those who, through their empty words, claim to be walking in that light.

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They claim the light. So how do we distinguish? How do we distinguish between those truly walking as children of light and darkness masquerading as light?

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What are we looking for? How do we distinguish? How do we look and evaluate?

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It's the same way we look for the fruit of physical light. It's the exact same thing. You walk into a dark room and the power has shut off because we have another ice storm, right?

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You walk into a dark room and you flip the switch and it doesn't come on, what happens?

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Do you just walk in the room completely unaware that the light never came on? It doesn't work like that, is it?

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It's a good way to stub your toe, or if you have kids, step on a Lego and that will truly test your faith, won't it?

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No, there's evidence. When you flip the switch, when there's no power, there's no light. And if there's no light, there's no visibility.

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It's very obvious, isn't it? It becomes very obvious very quickly that that switch didn't work.

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There was no fruit of light. The spiritual light of goodness and righteousness is just as obvious.

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It may not seem like it is, but it is. It's just as obvious.

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Look at what Paul says in verse 13. But when anything is exposed by the light, it what?

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What happens to it? It becomes visible. When anything is exposed to the light, it becomes visible.

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It's obvious because it's shining into utter darkness where there is nothing good, where there is nothing right, where there is nothing true.

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And this is what Paul is telling us here as he tells us to walk in the light. He says, hey, the fruit of light, hey, it's found in all that is good and right and true.

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Paul gives us three things here as examples of fruit. I think I've got the points up on the screen that we can walk through.

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And if these are the fruit of light, of righteousness, then they contradict the fruit of darkness.

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We have the fruit of light and we have the fruit of darkness. This is what Paul is showing us here. The first one that he mentions there in verse 9 is that good in contrast to bad.

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Good in contrast to bad. Over in Romans chapter 3,

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Paul begins to quote some of the Psalms. And in Romans 3 .12,

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I think he quotes Psalm 53 here, I believe, when he says, All have turned aside, together they have become worthless.

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No one does good, not even one. You know what this means, don't you?

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It means that there is absolutely no good outside of Christ.

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Nothing good. No good fruit. You remember what

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Jesus said to the rich young ruler? When the rich young ruler comes to him and calls him good teacher, right?

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He says, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

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God alone. Of course, Jesus wasn't denying that he's good.

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He himself is God. He's simply questioning this young man's intention.

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Jesus knows his intention, he's just revealing it to the young man. Because God is good.

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That's why the psalmist declares, O taste and see that the Lord is good. Because it's

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God and God alone that is good. If this is true, then the only thing that represents goodness is what

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God declares good. Right? If he's the only good, everything else is bad, then whatever he declares good is the only thing that is good.

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If you want to know if that fruit is truly good, does God say it's good?

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Does God say it? Because if God says it's evil, then no matter how you package it, no matter how benevolent and kind you may seem, no matter how sincere, no matter how you slice it or dice it, that fruit is bad.

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You know, we have pear trees in our backyard. I'm not a big pear fan, but these are some of the, they're excellent.

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You pick them right off the tree, they're so good. But let me tell you something. There's a certain time in the season when they start to fall off the tree and land on the ground and rot.

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And that is a stench you don't soon forget. We kind of avoid the backyard during that particular season and wait for the deer to come eat them all off the ground because somehow they like them.

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But it is bad. So you can go out and you can scoop some of those pears up off the ground all rotten and stinking.

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You can put them on fancy china. You can put them on a fancy plate. You can create a five -star restaurant presentation with it.

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With all of the fixings and everything around it in order to serve it to me. But it doesn't change the fact that fruit is bad.

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You see, God's words are clear on what he deems good and what he deems bad. He has given us everything we need for life and godliness, right?

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He's not left anything out for us to be able to discern what is good and what is bad.

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It's all there. And the fruit of light is always good.

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So anyone who claims to be a child of light and produces bad fruit is nothing but a liar.

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You realize that, right? They're nothing but a liar. In Matthew 7,

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Jesus said, a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit. Nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

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Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Pretty cut and dry, isn't it?

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And this good fruit can only come forth from a changed heart. That's it.

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If God is the only one that's good and no one else is good, I can't produce anything good.

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I can't bring to the table any goodness whatsoever, even though I try and do it externally.

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I am incapable of it. And we actually see this in the word that Paul uses here for good.

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Because this word in the Greek is referring to the achievement of moral excellence, yes.

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Right? That's what we've been talking about, right? God is moral excellence. And so the achievement of moral excellence.

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However, this word also is combined with a generous spirit.

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You see the difference between being able to just do good things.

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You see it all the time, don't you? We have political parties of unbelievers who they will stand for things that are seemingly good, aren't they?

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They will stand against abortion. They'll stand against things that God has declared in his word as bad.

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However, if they are not in Christ, they are not producing actual fruit as Paul is pointing to here.

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Because it's a matter of a genuine spirit combined with the achievement of moral excellence.

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The affirmation of what is good. Meaning, the intent of the heart is at the core of this fruit.

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Right? We can't just look at the outside. We can't just look at the appearance.

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It has to be at the heart. That's why we see people who seem to produce good outward fruit all the time and later prove that their heart was never really changed.

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Don't we? We've seen people apostate who seem to be producing a tremendous amount of good fruit and you seem to see light in their lives.

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And then at some point, they reject it all and turn from the faith. Did they lose that salvation?

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Well, no. You can't. Jesus said, I've not lost one of them. You can't strip yourself from the hand of Christ.

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What happened? It's because of what Paul is saying here. It's not just the outward acknowledgement of what's good.

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It's the outward acknowledgement of what's good from a heart of worship. Gratitude to God.

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That only a believer can accomplish. Sometimes only they knew that their outward expression of what seemed to be good fruit was never truly from a genuine heart.

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And from a generous heart. A heart that desired to do all to the glory of God.

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You see that distinction? Sometimes we want to do the right thing for the wrong reasons.

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And that's not the fruit of life. That's not the fruit of life. That's just being a

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Pharisee. But when the heart is truly changed and desire is good for the glory of God, for the goodness and what

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God deems right and good, the fruit is ongoing. It perseveres. This is good in contrast to bad.

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I want us to look at the second thing that Paul points out. And it is right in contrast to wrong.

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Right in contrast to wrong. And no, Paul is not talking about right and left -wing politics here.

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That's not what Paul is referring to, obviously. Paul is referring to a righteous rightness.

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A righteous rightness. That is in contrast to an unjust, unrighteous wrong.

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An unjust, unrighteous wrong. Just as we see

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God defining what's good, we see God defining what's right and what's just.

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In Proverbs chapter 11, in verse 1, he writes a false balance.

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An unjust balance is an abomination to the Lord. But a just weight is his delight.

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What is he saying here? He's speaking of, he's using the analogy of a system of weighing out, let's say it's grain.

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And so someone comes and they've picked X amount of grain and they set it on to be counterbalanced so they know how much grain they've brought and then they pay that person accordingly.

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It was not uncommon to have fake weight, like an imbalanced weight.

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And so what is Proverbs telling us? Unjust, false balance, oh, that's an abomination to the

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Lord. That's not just. A just weight is his delight. And not only that, a just weight, a true, heart -changed justice only comes from God.

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Because in Proverbs 16, 11, he says, a just balance and scales are the

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Lord's. All the weight in the bag are his work. So anything that is just, anything that is good, anything that is true, coming from a genuine heart, a generous heart, is only from God directly.

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It's nothing you do. It's nothing I do. It's purely a work of him and him alone.

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All that he does is fair. All that he does is just. All that he does is right. He cheats no one.

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It's not in his nature. That's an abomination to him. God cheats no one.

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Everything that he does is just and right. I tell you what, that's really bad news for those health, wealth, prosperity churches, isn't it?

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With their unjust scales and weights. Give and receive a blessing.

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Do this, believe that, and you will receive. God hates those evildoers.

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He despises them. That's an abomination to him.

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They're bearing fruit of unrighteousness. In Micah chapter six, verse eight, he has told you, oh man, what is good.

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God has told you what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your

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God? We are to carry out our lives doing the right thing.

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The righteous thing, the just thing. This is fruit of walking as children of light.

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If you cheat your taxes, if you cheat your neighbor, if you don't do what you are supposed to for your employer, thinking you're getting away with it, that is not fruit of light.

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Because God hates that injustice. If you are not caring for the broken, if you're not caring for the widow and the orphan, that is unjust.

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The fruit of light is right. And righteousness leads to justice.

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Because that's what God has called us to do. And here's the problem.

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It's just like with the other one of goodness, having to come from a heart of benevolence, a heart of worship, doing all of the goodness that you can to the glory of God, then all of your goodness is just filthy rags, right?

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It's the same with doing right. The lost world that is in darkness can feed the widow and the orphan, can't they?

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They can do the right thing in a business dealing. They can treat their neighbor with respect and care.

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They can do all of the right things, but that's not what

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Paul is talking about. He's talking about the right things coming from a right motive, which is to the glory of God.

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All those other right things may be to the glory of self. They may be to the glory of man.

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They may be to the glory of the nation. They may be to the glory of you name it, fill in the blank.

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But if it is not the right thing done from the glory of God, it's not fruit of light.

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I get this all the time. There's groups out there that claim the name of Christ and they do probably far more good deeds than any of us.

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And people say, well, see, there's fruit. That's not what Paul's talking about.

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There's a deeper heart issue. It's where is that coming from?

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A heart to glorify God. And how do we know when it's a heart to glorify

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God? It's always coming from those who are seeking to be obedient.

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You can't have someone completely and thoroughly sinning in the face of God but doing other outwardly good things and outwardly righteous and just things and say, well, that's outward fruit.

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They must be a person or a people who is obedient to God.

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And what God says is good and what God says is right. So right in contrast to wrong.

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Let's move on here. Thirdly and lastly, truth in contrast to lies. The word

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Paul uses here implies integrity. Because God defines what is good and what is right.

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He's the only source of truth. That's it. You want to know what truth is?

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He's it. His word's it. And if anything in this universe doesn't align with it, it ain't true.

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Period. The world's under the sway of the wicked one, right? And who is he?

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The father of lies, right? The master manipulator. What makes a good liar?

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If he is the king of liars, what makes a good liar? One who mixes the truth.

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A lot of truth. A little bit of lie. I was talking to somebody this week and we were talking about Roman Catholicism.

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Have you ever wondered why for so long Roman Catholicism is so prominent throughout the world?

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Why is it so prominent? Through scandal after scandal, through contradiction after contradiction, through the centuries, time and time again, why is it still so predominant in our world?

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Who's this world under the sway of? It's because Satan knows the closer that he gets to the truth.

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Think about this for a second. They're Trinitarian, right? They believe

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Jesus is God. Good. He's the only way to the

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Father. Okay. Then they tack on this little addendum.

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Works. Subtle, isn't it?

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And that one little lie leaves the hole in total darkness. That's what the evil one knows, isn't it?

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Works. You add to your righteousness.

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You're doing this and doing that. But the fruit of light is true.

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You want to know if someone is walking as a child of light? It's seen in truth.

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It's seen in truth. When someone contradicts God's words, they are either misinformed children or darkness altogether.

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I'm going to say that again. When someone contradicts or misspeaks about God's word, they are either misinformed children of God or darkness altogether.

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Those are your only two options. So how do we judge that? How do we say?

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You may be looking at me. You may be going, Pastor, man, you've just thrown a bunch of people. You've thrown the health, wealth, prosperity under the bus this morning.

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You've thrown Roman Catholicism under the bus. You think you're the only Christian? No. Thank goodness.

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We just prayed for some more Christians this morning. They're all over the globe. Faith alone and Christ alone, right? Praise God.

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But how do we judge? You say, well, Jesus told us not to judge.

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No, he didn't. He told us to use right judgment. And Paul said that we are to judge those who proclaim

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Christ. He says, you don't judge the world. All the pagans out there that go, oh, yeah, we don't have anything to do with Jesus.

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Don't judge them. They're already condemned. We have nothing to do with them. The heathen's going to heath, right? But Paul said,

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I don't know. You are to judge those within. If they claim to be a part of this, you judge them, period. And you judge them based upon truth.

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Well, look. Look at verse 10. He says, he told us to walk as children of light.

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He gives us that parentheses of defining the light. And then in verse 10 he says, and try to discern what is pleasing to the

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Lord. This verb, discern, in the original language has to do, actually, with testing metals.

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This is a word in the Greek that was used for testing metals. It's a word that they would use for examining and evaluating precious metals, any kind of metal, such as for weapons, jewelry, tools.

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And this testing would approve of this particular metal and its use.

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Is it going to be used for a tool? Is it going to be used for jewelry? Is it going to be used for a sword? Or is it just no good at all?

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We have to test it. We have to use a process to evaluate it. And this is the word that Paul uses.

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And he actually uses the same word in talking about the examination of deacons over in 1

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Timothy 3. He says in verse 10, he says, and let them also be, and here's the same word, tested.

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Translated tested in the English, but it's the exact same Greek word. He said, let them be tested first.

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Then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. There's a testing.

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There's an approving. There's a discerning. What is Paul telling us here in both these passages?

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To examine, to verify, to approve. To approve what? What do we need to approve?

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When 1 Timothy approved deacons, that's the context. But here in Ephesians, it's to discern or to approve what is pleasing to the

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Lord. What is pleasing to the Lord. A moment ago,

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I said when someone contradicts God's words, they are either misinformed children or darkness altogether. And I asked the question, so how do we judge that?

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Are they seeking to discern what is pleasing to the Lord? Pretty simple, right? Are they seeking to discern what is pleasing to the

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Lord? Many will say they are.

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I don't know too many people that aren't, that if they claim Christ. However, their refusal to submit to that word and their continual distortion of that word is fruit of their darkness.

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Period. You must discern.

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You must approve of what is pleasing to the Lord. Whereas a misinformed child of light, when shown the truth, when that evaluation of God's word takes place in their lives, and I've seen it work in almost all of your lives at different times, as we've talked, you've seen it work in my life, right?

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In that when the word of God is approved and looked at and we see what does God say about it, they seek to conform to it and walk in it.

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That's the difference. That's how we judge. So when you see the

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Evangelical Lutheran Church of America or any group, any group professing

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Christ, yet celebrating what God has called bad, promoting what

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God has deemed wrong, and speaking lies, that is nothing more than rotten fruit being served up on fine china.

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It is darkness. It is not approved by God. It is not good.

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And I want to take a moment here before we wrap this up. Before you get into a frenzy and tear into the red meat of that obvious wickedness, before claiming moral victory and superiority and climbing onto our throne of self -righteousness and pretending as though we are better than them, you better take a second.

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Most saints remember that apart from Christ, there go

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I. Apart from Christ, there go

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I. I was once darkness, stumbling through the mire of Satan's lies and enslaved to it.

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And you were too. We hated what

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God called good. We perverted what God called right. And we spat upon truth.

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We must remember, saint, we are no better than they. We do not have the moral high ground.

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God does. We do not. And when you really stop to think about it, you do know better.

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You know the truth. You know that truth, that in secret your flesh is still prone to chase after what is not good, what is not right, and what is not true.

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Oh, you know it. In the secret heart sometimes. In the mind of the flesh.

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That's why

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Paul urges us to continually walk as children of light. Prone to wonder.

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Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Can't put on the holy mask all of a sudden here.

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We're getting real here, aren't we? It's easy to look and see a stage where child abuse is going on, and they're letting a little boy believe he's a little girl to ruin his entire life.

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It's easy to rail against that, but then it's also easy to turn a blind eye to the secret sin that none of us know of and approve of what is not good, what is not right, and what is not true in our own life.

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How do we walk as children of light? How do we overcome this?

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The answer is simple. Simply said, not as simply done.

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Keep your eyes on the light of life. Light came into the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.

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Look to the light, our Savior, Jesus Christ. He's our righteousness.

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And when we are continually looking to him, when we are resting in him, when we are trusting in him, not a righteousness of our own, not anything good for me, not anything right for me, not anything true for me, but his righteousness, his glorious, perfect, holy righteousness, then and only then are you able to walk as a child of light.

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That's it. That's all we got. And it's enough. It's more than enough.

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Let me tell you something. When we're walking in that light, and you see those in darkness, you want to know if you're walking in light, and you see those that are in deep darkness, if you truly are walking in the light and not being self -righteous, it's because when you see those in darkness, you don't respond in hatred.

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The church today tends to love vitriol, don't we? I could get up here and smash the pulpit and yell at you about how bad the

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Democrats are. Right? Why? What good is that?

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Right? Because if I'm looking at darkness, if I'm looking at darkness, but I'm walking in light,

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I respond in love. Paul had already told us that at the beginning of chapter five, didn't he walk in love?

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He preceded walk in light with walk in love. We walk in love, and we boldly speak truth, but it's always in love.

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We will discern what is good and what is right. We will approve of what is right and what is good when we're walking in the light, but we will not respond in hatred.

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Look to Christ. Rest in Christ, the one that is gentle and lowly and loving.

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For you were once darkness, and for you to condemn those that are already in darkness, that's not your job.

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For you to be angry at darkness is like being angry at a dog because it eats meat.

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It's absurd. In light of that, what are we going to do now?

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We're going to go to the table and we're going to see the gospel presented before us.

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Just as Paul had told the church in Corinth, don't come in an unworthy manner.

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I think now is a good time because of what we're discussing is saying if you're walking in light, if you're walking in light, you can boldly come to this table.