Your Identity Was Settled the Day You Chose Jesus | Ephesians 5:3-14

We're going to have an impact, and that impact is not about our brand. Branding is not unimportant, because branding is all about your personality as a church and saying who you are. That's great, but it's not about our brand. It's about being the light of the world. It's about taking that light out. And that's what we're talking about this morning. But before we get there, we're got to read some heavy stuff. So will you bear with me as we look at chapter 5 of Ephesians from verse 4? And as much as we want to be the light, we've got to tackle some stuff first. Is that okay? Is that okay if we go down that road where, you know, we're just gonna. We're just gonna deal with some stuff first. So I hope you can bear with me through this. From verse four of chapter five, it says, let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place. But instead, let there be thanksgiving, verse 5. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually impure or his covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Verse 6. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Verse 7. Therefore, do not become partners with them. Verse 8. And this is where it turns. Verse 8. For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And try to discern what's pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful work of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. We talked about that the other week, about. We gave that story of Floyd McClung in Amsterdam and how God said to him, you think things are bad. You don't see what I see behind closed doors. And so Paul says, but it's shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. Verse 13. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and. And Christ will shine on you. Amen. Well, we got to deal with the first things first. And here's the thing. When we tackle these verses, most of the time, people will go for culture war. They'll start to talk about Uncleanness immorality and things like that. Paul's saying, come out of those things. But it's not primarily what the passage is about. And so it would be very easy to go down that rabbit hole and start pointing the finger and saying, you know, those people over there who are doing those things and those people over there who are doing those things. But actually, when we read this passage, rightly, the preacher is not pointing out there, but he's pointing in here. And the point of the passage is not to examine so closely the dark and the immoral and the impure, but to realize what we are supposed to be. We have an identity that Paul wants to explore. And he's saying that these things are not part of your inheritance. These things are not part of who you are now. You are something completely different. You have a new identity. And your identity is not settled by what you feel or what you experience. But your identity has been settled by God the day that you came to Christ. And so he says all this other stuff. You've got to get rid of this filthiness, foolish talk, crude joking, which are out of place, and sexual immorality. And then he talks about covetousness. How is it that Paul puts covetousness and immorality in the same sentence? What do they have in common? What is it that they have in common? Well, they have in common this. That they are all about these things that we crave. They are things for which we find we have an appetite. If you've ever opened a packet of biscuits. I don't buy packets of biscuits. Do you know why? We have a really nice biscuit barrel. So we can put the biscuits in the barrel. The problem is they don't make it to the barrel. Because once you know that phrase, once you pop, you can't stop. But you see, we all know what cravings are. But some cravings are more serious, more damaging than others. And Paul is wanting to have people that don't have an appetite for these things. You see, we can find ourselves in the midst of company. How often have you been in a place where you know you're amongst people who are making rude jokes and they're talking crudely, and you just find yourself getting pulled in to that kind of conversation. Why? Because there's still a part of you that is drawn into that. What man in the room hasn't experienced some kind of pool or some kind of temptation, some kind of craving, that your body is shouting at you? But Paul's not saying this because he wants to lay down a lot of rules about do and don't. But he's saying it because he is saying you are denying yourself your inheritance and your identity in Christ when you do these things. How, how many of us know that there are things that you can do and there are things that you can indulge in or things that you can say. And then when you get in the prayer room, you just can't pray. You just coming to God with confidence is hard because something has happened, because you realize that you're coming before Him. But the things that you have been allowing in your life are not things that belong to a child of God. And so Paul is not trying to be some kind of killjoy. You know, when you say, oh, we're going to have some fun, not allowed, not permit it, you know, you've got to be very serious if you want to be a Christian. Anyone know Christians like that? We've got to be so serious and holy. You know, smiling is not very holy. You have to be very serious. Paul's not saying that. In fact, Jesus is the prime example of that. They accused him of being a party animal, isn't that right? They said he's a glutton and a drunkard. Now, I don't believe he was a drunkard, but I believe that he knew how to have such a good time. You saw them at Pentecost. Same thing happened. They said, these people are drunkards. Look at the way they're behaving. No, no, no. They just knew how to have a good time filled with the Holy Spirit. They were full of the joy of the Lord and they knew how to party in a good way, in a holy way, in a clean way. So Paul's not saying that, but he's saying there are things that are not befitting of your identity. And then he says something really powerful. He says about inheritance. He talks about inheritance and he says that anyone who is like this, people who are indulging in things that are impure, people that are covetous, have no inheritance in the Lord. It's like this, you know, there are people in this world that are estranged from rich parents. There are people in this world that go around in rags and they've got millions of pounds in the bank. We were talking yesterday, there's a there about a certain type of people that they're always making money, but they never spend it. They're always making money, but they never spend it because, you know, you make money but you're afraid to spend it. You just hoard money. And there's nothing you can do with money. There's been a lot of talk, hasn't there, about war, you know, maybe later we can just withdraw all that cash from the bank, get a box of matches and use it to keep warm. Because money by itself is worthless. It's useless. And there are people that have an amazing amount of capital and resources in order to live a good life, but they won't spend it. And that's what Paul is saying. I think in some measure here. It's not just about whether you have an inheritance in eternity. It's about whether you're enjoying your inheritance now. It's about the fact that sometimes we can go out there and live our best life. And we try to. We're trying to figure out, how does children, church fit into that. We can't seem to get the vibe that we want out of our Christianity. And it's because we are living out of our old ways and we're not living out of the inheritance that God has given us. And so we're not seeing the fruit of it. And Paul says that the works of darkness are fruitless. He says the fruit of the light, the fruit of the light consists in everything that is good and right and true. But he describes the works of darkness as unfruitful. And so you find somebody who has everything, everything and nothing. They have everything and nothing. There's this richness to their life, there's this resources in their life, there's this property in their life, there's gold and silver in their life. And yet they're lining up for therapists. When I was growing up, it was only Americans that had therapists. Now, now we all have therapists. And if you have a therapist, please don't get me wrong, but I'm saying that those that have so much don't seem to be happy in proportion to their wealth. And that's what Paul's saying, is that there's fruit elsewhere. He says the fruit of spirit. Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. He says if you are expressing these things, you're not living out of your inheritance. But there's a lie that we have been bought that if I am highly rich and highly sexed and highly admired, that I will be happy. And I want to tell you that nobody is. And when you see someone that is, they're probably under 40 and they're just waiting for midlife to hit and they're going to get a reality check, because that's when you begin to realize that this life you're Living has an expiry date. And no, it's not your funeral, it's before them. Your ability to party, your ability to keep up with all of that lifestyle. It has an expiry date. But Paul says there is an inheritance that we have. And that's when we get to the turning point in chapter eight, sorry, verse eight, where he says, for at one time you were darkness. Do you see that? He's talking to a people that are a mixed bunch. You know, you get a mixed bunch in church. I want to tell you, in church today, in every church, including our church, there are people that know Jesus and there are people that don't know Jesus, and there are people that think they know Jesus but don't know Jesus. There's a mixed bunch. And it was the same in Paul's day. And that's why he's addressing it to them, because he's addressing two types of people. He's addressing a people who don't know Jesus. He calls them the sons of disobedience. I don't know whether you find that harsh as a saying, but he's addressing the sons of disobedience and he's addressing the. The children of light. And he's telling the children of light don't become partners with the sons of disobedience. Don't get into what they are doing. Because you see, you can be a child of the light and you can be caught up in that stuff, even though you are a child of the light. You know that you've been in a room, you've been joking with people. You walk out of the room and you think, oh, what have I said? What have I done? You found yourself tempted or drawn to something that you wouldn't want to be tempted or drawn to, but you were. It's possible as a child of light, to be influenced by people around you and things around you that are not. It doesn't mean you're not a child of the light, but it's possible to compromise. And Paul is warning them about that. But he's also telling them that there are people amongst them that are sons of disobedience. Because what was happening is in that very cosmopolitan society, all sorts of people were coming into the church at Ephesus for various different reasons, and not all of them were there because they'd really found Jesus. And I believe that's the same for us today. And that's why we can learn something from this passage. Not all of them were believers. Some of them were sons of disobedience. And how can you tell? Well, a son of disobedience is characterized by. By these things. A child of the light is characterized. The trajectory of their life is towards going after God. So this morning, if you find that there's a hunger in you for God, there's a hunger in you to know more about him. You might go astray. You might make mistakes, you might do the wrong thing from time to time. But the course of your life, the trajectory of your life is, oh, God, I want to know you. Help me to be better, help me to be stronger. You've got a heart, like David. David was saying, oh, God, you know, he said time and again in the Psalms, didn't he? He said, oh, to take sin far away from me. Said in Psalm 103, as far as the east is from the west, he wanted God. He said, oh, God. In verse 14 of that sin Psalm, he says something like, oh, God, you remember that we're dust. I thank God, don't you? That he remembers that we're dust, that God is able to. You think God doesn't compromise? Why is he your friend then? If God is not uncompromising? Why, of course God compromises. He remembers that you are dust. And David had that. That passion in God takes sin away from me. He wanted to change. He was constantly aware when he went wrong. But you can see in the Psalms, the hunger, the trajectory, the change, the transformation, that he was a child of the light. Not perfect, but a child of the light. Because you could see the trajectory of his life. But it is possible. And I want to give hope to some people today. If you're here and you're hearing me and you're thinking, you know what? Actually, my life is just. I'm just dancing that dance. I'm just living that life. My life. Listen, church, you know. You know, each one of us knows, right? We can ask ourselves this question. Is my life. What is your life defined by? Is your life defined by a desire to know God more? Is that why you're here this morning? Is that the defining thing of your life? You might be a great. A great. I don't know, a great tailor, a great baker, a great surgeon, a great doctor, a great nurse, a great carpenter, a great. Whatever. But in the midst of all that, what defines you is a desire to know God and to serve him in everything that you do. Is that what defines you? You're looking to get things, the things out that stand between you and God. You mess up, but you're ashamed when you do. You really want to change. Is that what defines your life? Or is your life defined by other things? And occasionally you feel guilty and pop into a church, or occasionally, you know, you feel you have to tick the church box because there's some cultural or moral imperative in your life that good people go to church, and that's about it. What defines you? Are you a child of the light? Or are you a child or a son of disobedience? We can all answer that question right now by just asking ourselves, what defines me? What defines the trajectory of my life? And the reason I want to encourage you, if that's you, if you find that the answer is, I'm not defined by those things, well, listen, you can change that. God made this amazing promise to us that he would give us a new spirit and a new heart. And on the cross he opened up his arms to everyone, you included, to say, come, Come, all you who were weary and heavy laden. I will give you rest. Come and make me the defining principle of your life. And you can come today. You can make that decision today. You don't need me to have an altar call or to call you up the front here. You just have to say, jesus, I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm not going to be this person anymore. I want to be the person that you created me to be. And here Paul, looking at the whole area of identity, says, you are the light if you are a believer, if you are a child of God, if you really have that as the defining principle of your life. That I have chosen Jesus not as a good luck charm, not as an occasional person to come to with prayer, not as a charm that I wear around my neck so that I can avoid evil, But as a person that I love and I belong to. And I have said, I will follow you with my whole heart because I am done with sin. I am done with the ways of the world. I am done with perpetual disappointment. I am done with realizing that no matter how much I do, I can't find the joy that I seek. I'm done with all of that. I'm going to walk with him and be a child of light. John talks about it in John 3. You know, the famous verse of God so loved the world that he sent his only son, that all who believe in him should not perish but have eternal life. And later it says, said that he was the light of the world, that he was the light that shines in the darkness. But no one wants to come into the light because their deeds are evil. And no one wants to be exposed. But Paul says, if you'll come to him, you are the light. And here's the thing. It's not words alone, it's our actions. He says, you are the light. He doesn't say, speak the light, preach the light. He says, you are the light. When we get a hold of Jesus and we make him the defining principle, we begin to live. I mean, first of all, we begin to think differently. And when we begin to think differently, we begin to live differently, we begin to speak differently, we begin to act differently. And when we do, we become light. And Paul says that light, when something is lighted upon, he says this strange thing in verse 13, he says, but anything that is exposed by the light becomes light. In other words, right now, there's lights here pointing down at me. If you turn them off, you'll see I'm a lot more silhouetted and dark. But when the light hits me, I become light. Light is dispelled, just. Our darkness is dispelled just by the presence of light. What's Paul saying when he says, you are light? That light being present means that darkness is not. When I turn the light on, I don't have to wait for a series of negotiations between the light and the darkness, where one is saying, you go, and the other is saying, no, you go. I'm not going anywhere. We don't have to wait for a series of negotiations, no. As soon as light is present, darkness is not. And Paul says, you are the light. If we are the light in Essex. If we are the light in Essex. I used to say this to my church in Mombasa. I used to say, I just read the statistics. It says that this nation is 85% Christian, but it's 95% corrupt. Those two things don't match up here in Essex. I wonder if we did the same statistics, what we would find. Because where there is light, darkness is no longer present. Simple as that. The moment it's there, that's what we're supposed to be. Where we are, there's no darkness. Where we are, darkness flees. And so as we talk about vision and multiplication, we can get excited about the numbers. And I'm excited. I love numbers. And I don't mind saying it if you have an issue with that, let's debate afterwards. But I want a church of 1,000, 2,000, 3,000. I want numbers. But the question behind that as well is what are we multiplying? You see, if we're multiplying light, then we are dispelling darkness in Essex. If we go out to Braintree and Clacton and Harwich and we spread out and we multiply our numbers, I have a problem as a pastor. If my congregation is darkness, if my congregation is full of that mentality of the world, why? Because if that's what we are when we begin to multiply, we have a problem. That is why when you have healthy growth, we can see children here and we see them grow and we say, my, you're getting tall this morning, aren't you? Getting big. Wow. You know, you're almost as tall as me now. I said that to one kid this. I said, you're going to be as tall as me. Soon we celebrate that growth. But as soon as you hear the word malignant, you're no longer celebrating growth. Numbers are not the problem. Multiplication is not the problem. The problem is what are we multiplying? But church, if we will be the children of light, if we will be what God has made us to be, and how exciting that God has made you to be light, called you to be light. How exciting. As we look around and as we hear the rhetoric, I open opened up the news again this morning and I heard again, war. They're telling us to stock up on water and tin foods. If anyone is looking for a business, there's some indications there it's time to get into the water business and the tinned food business. But they're telling us to stock up because darkness is coming. Let me tell you, church, sometimes the world is wiser than the children of God. What if we start stocking up on prayers? What if we start stocking up our prayer closet? What if we start stocking up our Bible verses and knowing the word of God? What if we start stocking up on intercession? What if we start stocking up on lifestyle change and being the person that God called us to be? What if we start stocking up on evangelism and reaching the lost? What if we start stocking up those things that spread the light and make the gospel known? What if we start stocking up on that people are stocking up for war. Let's stock up for victory. Let's stock up for breakthrough. Let's stock up for a new generation that is defined and marked by the spirit of God? Let's start stocking up church. The world is stocking up for war. We're going to stock up for victory. We're going to start multiplying our prayers. We're going to start being the light. We're going to start preparing Ourselves, we're going to start getting ready because God has called you. God has called you to be light in the darkness. Are you ready to be light in the darkness? Are you ready to make a change? Are you ready to speak? Stop living down here and start living up here. Are you ready to leave the valley and start living on the mountaintop? Are you ready to start exposing yourself to the light and seeing darkness gone from your life? So that we can take this city, so that we can take Colchester, so we can take Braintree, so we can take Harwich, so we can take Clacton. And the name of Jesus will be all over. I tell you, I really want to take Clacton, Church. I really want to take Clacton. There are things happening in Clacton that are darkness. I really want to take Clacton for the glory of God. Let's start stocking up on our prayers. Let's get the breakthrough. Let's do what needs to be done. Hallelujah. And Paul says, put away these things. All you have to do is put away these things and embrace who God has created you to be. Not sons of disobedience, but children of light. I tell you, I'm so bursting for what we can do. If we will take a hold of that, if we will take a hold of that, are we ready to. We're just gonna. We're. We're just going to pray because otherwise I'm going to be in 2027 vision and I need to stay out of 2020 vision. So can we stand up and let's make a decision? Church to be children of light. Don't just take this as the triumphal moment of the Sunday sermon, but let's make some decisions about being children of light, about being those that make a difference. Let's pray. If you've got a. If you're able to pray in the spirit or pray in your mother tongue or pray in English, let's pray together. And let's pray that God will make us the light in Colchester, that we're going to shake Northeast Essex with the gospel of Jesus Christ, not just by our words, but by being what God has called us to be. Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, we pray that, Father, you will visit each one of us, that each one of us will know what it is to be in the light as he is in the light. That each one of us will know what it is to walk out of darkness and walk in the light of God. Father, in the name of Jesus, we want to be the Light to our community. We want to be the light to Northeast Essex. We want to be a light to all those around us in our workplace, in places of education, in the shops, in the streets, wherever we are. Father, I pray in Jesus name that each one of us will take this to heart and say, God, God, I lay these things down. God, I lay these things down. That I might be a child of the light. That I might be a child of the light. Somebody do business with God right now. I believe with all of my heart that some of us in this room, you've been dabbling with darkness. You've had one foot in the world, one foot in the darkness, one foot, foot in your faith. And it's time now to make a decision. Because this is a season of decisions. This is a decision of deciding where you stand. Because no change will happen, no transformation will happen when we have one foot in the darkness and one foot in the light. Will you come into the light? I'm appealing to some people in this room and I believe you know, know who you are. Come out of darkness. Come out of darkness. Come out of darkness. Come out of the darkness. I beg you, I pray in the name of Jesus. Come out of darkness, come into the light and begin to walk with him with your whole heart. Not with just half your heart, but with your whole heart, O God, in Jesus name, Lord, will you seal this into the hearts of people and will you bring them their whole body, their whole mind, their whole spirit in the name of Jesus, bring them into the light, O God, and let us be a church that walks in the light, lives in the light and is the light in Jesus name.