You’re Wanting That?: Ephesians 5:1-14

Now, I want you to imagine that you have been saving up for months, making little sacrifices along the way. You've been planning. You've been researching and it is finally time. You're going to take your family down to Disney World. You cross the Florida line and everybody needs kind of a little break. And so you pull over at one of their Piggly Wigglies and you go inside, maybe get a drink, maybe get some snacks, whatever.

And on your way out, there is one of those Flidian girls on one of those old quarter horse rides on the sidewalk outside the Piggly Wiggle. Now, I don't know, my family would never do this, but imagine that one of the kids in your group begins to throw a tantrum because they want to ride that little quarter horse ride.

I want you to think about how frustrating that moment would be. the feelings that would no doubt bubble up inside of you. Why? Because you are hours away from the most magical place on earth. And your three-year-old just can't see past a 30se second ride. They've just got to have that little quarter horse ride when you've got reservations with Mickey Mouse.

Right? That frustration as you imagine that that frustration in the bottom of your gut is the feeling of Ephesians chapter 5. You see last week Paul asked us are you really you're going to wear that? God has made you from death to life. He you're no longer living like that. You don't you don't have to live like that anymore.

You don't you don't have to wear the clothes of the grave anymore. You don't have to tell lies. You don't have to steal. You don't have to sin in your anger. Instead, you can you can put on love. You can put on truth. You can put on working hard so that you have something to share with those in need. You're really going to wear that? And now Paul turns and asks a very similar question.

Do you really want that? Like you're sure that's what you want? Now, before we get in this passage, I got to warn you. Uh I think it was Thursday. I was volunteering at TE's school and I had my iPad. I was working on my sermon in the breaks while I was volunteering and somebody one of the teachers asked me what what are you working on? And I said, "Well, I'm working on my sermon for Sunday and they said, "Oh yeah, what what's what's it about?" And I said, "Well, the first third of it is on sexual immorality.

" And they said, "Why would you want to preach on that?" And I said, "I don't uh especially since the fact that a good portion of the room is about the age of my parents. If we were going to take you out to lunch, I would never bring this topic up. I don't particularly love talking about your sex life, but Jesus does.

I mean, that's just it's in here in the text. See, this is the problem. When you go through books of the Bible, you you have to get into some stuff that like otherwise I would just never bring up, right? And so now we get to it and for some reason in his wisdom, God wants us to talk about this and in his plan, he wants us to talk about it today.

So here we are. Look at what he says. He says, "Sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you. It's not even proper for the holy ones." That's what the word saints means. Again, there are some things that we've got to take off. He doesn't use that language, but it's the same idea.

There are some things that we no longer wear this sexual immorality. But here's the weird thing, and I I kind of mentioned this, gave a little teaser Wednesday night. If you come to prayer meeting on Wednesday night, I I'll usually tease some stuff about the upcoming sermon. And I tease this. This passage is odd, right? And here's why it's odd.

Because Paul says that there's sexual immorality and impurity. We'll talk about that in a second, what the difference is, but sexual morality and impurity and covetousness, right? When you envy things and you want stuff of other people. But what's odd is it's odd that he pairs those three things together, right? wanting stuff and sexual morality.

But it's really odd that he says, if we're going to use last week's language, that if we take off that stuff, that what we would put on is not purity, but thankfulness. Thankfulness. Like I don't I don't know about you, but like if if I were going to counsel say a young man who is addicted to pornography, I don't think my words to him would be, "You're just not grateful enough.

" Right? I don't think that in that conversation I would say your problem is is that you're not thankful. I don't think I would probably tell the person who is having an affair, listen what you need to do is you need to get more thankful. But God does, which means that I'm wrong and he's right. And the answer to our immorality, our sexual immorality is thankfulness.

Let me let me show you what I mean by that. And I think it's highlighted by verse five. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Now, most of you are are good Bible scholars. And so, in your brain, you hear no one who has inheritance in the kingdom of God.

And you just say, "Oh, he's talking about lost people." And he is talking about lost people who have not received Christ and are not living in him, have not admitted that they're sinners and believed that Jesus rose from the dead and confessed him as Lord. That that is who he's talking about. But Paul could have used that.

He could have used the language of any different of the analogies for lost people. They're living in darkness. They're dead. Right? I mean, he's got more analogies that he could use, but he specifically chose to describe these lost people as people who have no inheritance in the kingdom of God. Why? Well, because that's the real issue here.

The real issue is what do they have? What do they have? You see, at the at the root of it is this. Again, I'm going to say this again. The root of sexual immorality or sexual impurity is a heart that wants a gift that Jesus has not given you. It's wanting a gift that Jesus has not given you. Maybe that comes through an affair. And that's pretty simple, right? I mean, like when you say it like that, it's like, okay, I can connect those dots.

Affairs happen because you're wanting a gift that God has not given you. Sexual impurity, looking at your things on your phone, on the TV, being addicted to pornography, it happens. Why? Because you are wanting a gift that Jesus has not given you. At its heart, whatever it may come, it's coming from a place of wanting a gift that God has not given us.

Now, one of the problems of the purity culture, if you know what I'm talking about, of the the 90s and 2000s where we have true love weights and those kinds of things, was that it often made sex not a gift that God hasn't given us yet. It made us something dirty and nasty that you just shouldn't want at all.

But rightly thinking about sex is to do this. It's to say, I want God's gift when he gives it and with whom he gives it. Right? It's saying that's the heart of it all of wanting God's gift. Now, he even uh pumps in this impurity. And then in verse four, let no filthiness or foolish talk or crude joking which are out of place. Paul's saying, listen, and don't you dare say, well, I would never actually do it.

I just talk like that. That's just locker room talk. I talk bigger than I actually do. I don't sin like that. I just talk about it. Right? And Paul says, "No, no, no. listen. And and apparently the the Greeks were known for this. Their their poets would say that they were very uh conservative. They were very modest, but then their poems and their writings were not.

And they said, "It's okay. You can say whatever you want. Just don't actually act on it." You see, there's something going on in our culture right now as we're having to fight for a refight, really for a freedom of speech that sometimes arguing for freedom of speech tends to sound like it's actually good to just say things that shouldn't be said.

And so, we should be people, right, who can say both that our government should not impose sanctions on speech, but also there are just some things you just ought not to say. Just because you can say it doesn't mean you should say it. Just because the government shouldn't penalize you for it doesn't mean it should come out of your mouth, right? That there's just some impure talk that shouldn't even be named among us.

And so when we understand that the heart of sexual immorality in all of its different forms comes from a lack of thankfulness, it makes so much sense that Paul says and lumps it in with covetousness. Because sometimes what the heart wants is not sexual in nature. Sometimes it is literal things. Maybe it's another digit in our bank account.

Maybe it's a nicer car or nicer computer or bigger boat. I don't I mean just what I don't know what it is for you. But it's easy to begin to look around and to say, "Man, I wish I had that." And whatever it is, Paul says it's idolatry. You saw that in verse five when when Brian was reading, right? Or who is covetous, that is an idoltor.

Coveting is idolatry. Did you know that? That's what the Bible says. But and here's why. It's it's not complicated. Here's why coveting is idolatry. Because coveting says this, I won't be satisfied. I won't be fulfilled, God, unless I have that. You see, my life is great as long as I get Jesus and that, right? And man, our our we'll get to this in a second, but our world is good at convincing us of that lie.

That you need Jesus and that sexual immorality is that's the lure of it, too, isn't it? That you would be happier outside of the marriage, right? You'd be happier with him or her. You would be happier if you look at that thing on your phone. You'd be happier doing this or doing that. the the promise is is that you'll be happier, that you'll be more satisfied, that you deserve this, and it's all a lie, friends.

It's all I He's going to get into that. So, I'm trying to I'm trying not to steal from myself. And so Paul is outside of the piggly wiggly begging us to understand, do y'all really want that? Y'all really want this? the little girl on that rinky dink ride is is calling to us saying it's so much fun. But Paul says, but but you understand, right? That little girl on the ride, in my analogy, she doesn't have an inheritance in the kingdom of God.

You do. You're looking at what she has. You're looking at what she gets to enjoy, but you're forgetting about what what you have. They're the ones who are missing out. They're the ones whose hands are empty. You're the one who has all the satisfaction. as he said in verse one, you're the ones who are beloved children of God.

Beloved children, you see the the rinky dink rulers of this world who are going to tell you that you need a little bit more. You need to go outside your marriage. You need to preempt marriage, right? Meaning doing things before you are married. You need the lust of the phone. you need more stuff. They're good at telling us that.

And he says, "No, no, no. What you need to do is instead be thankful." And I don't think Paul means in some silly kind of cliche like, "Let's go around the table and say what we're thankful for and somebody says, you know, a good meal and somebody says health and somebody says we've got a roof over our heads.

" I think because all those things could be gone in a year. I think Paul is speaking about what he's been talking about in chapter one where he said he reminded us that those who were in Christ are chosen and redeemed and adopted and sealed with the Holy Spirit. In in chapter two, he reminded us, listen, y'all going to know all this by the time I get done with this series because I'm saying it every sermon.

In chapter two, he reminds us that we were dead and now we've been made alive. That we were foreigners. We were on the outside of God promises and now we're on the inside. And then in chapter three, he reminds us that we are part of the mission of God and we get a purpose in this life. I I don't think Paul is saying you need to be more thankful for the gifts that you have.

I think he's really saying you need to be more thankful for the giver that you have. You have a father who loves giving you good things. Now, let me just pause over right here and say this because I am and in just a couple weeks I'm going to have to preach a sermon on marriage, which is I'm going to be very hesitant to do because there is one family in our church who has been married less than me.

Right? So, like I'm very slow to give marriage advice to people who've been married five, six times longer than I have. But let me just give you a two sentence piece of marriage advice based on this passage. Fight to be thankful for your spouse. I mean, I mean, really, work hard. Work hard at being thankful and grateful for the gift of the spouse that you have.

They're imperfect, right? They they make mistakes. Certainly, I do, right? I mean, certainly I'm at the top of that list. Fight to be thankful for the gift that you have. This passage says if you will fight to be thankful for the gift of your spouse then it will ward off a lot of luring for sexual immorality.

The simply being thankful for the gift that you really have. Maybe if we realized how great our blessings are, the trinkets of this world and the quarter horses outside the piggly wiggly wouldn't stand a chance in luring us away because we remember how satisfied we are. But as I said, this world is going to try to lure us away.

It's going to try to tell us that we need more. Just last night, I was watching college football. There was a Target ad that came on and that Target ad trying to sell me like, I don't know, hairspray and dog food used a song that the only words I tried to listen I watched it three different times and the only words I could hear in the song were, "But joy comes in the morning.

" They're using a song that is scripture pointing us to the hope of heaven to try to sell me hairspray. Are you kidding me? I mean, like that. That's how this is. And what are they doing? They're trying to say, "Listen, you would be so much happier." I mean, at the heart of it, I was a marketing miner.

I know what they're doing. They're trying to tell you your heart would be so much happier if your hair looked as good as this girl's, right? If your dog was as healthy as this Labrador, right? Your your life would be better. They're trying to sell you on what only Jesus can offer you. And they're doing it by using literally biblical language that joy comes in the morning when you do that target pickup.

Like guys, see through there empty words. That's literally what Paul says. What? Man, I didn't even plan for that segue. What a great segue. Let no one deceive you with empty words. He's basically talking about the commercial break. Let no one deceive you with empty words. Why? Because you don't belong to them anymore. No, sorry. I skipped ahead.

Because of those things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. You don't need to to listen to them because you remember, no, no. People who long for sex outside of the marriage, people who long for more stuff and bigger stuff and better stuff, what they've got coming to them, who think that that's the satisfaction, who thinks that that's the greatest thing in the world.

That's how people who are lost have to live. longing for more, waiting for more, working for more. That's how the darkness has to live. And those people, Paul says, have wrath coming to them in chapter 2. They are the children of wrath. You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now still at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh.

But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive with Christ. You don't have to live like that anymore. You don't have to want that stuff anymore. You can simply rest in the gratitude and thankfulness of all God has done for you, of who you are in him, and of the story that he has written for you because you know what's coming for them.

So when they recruit you with that siren song, isn't that a great picture by the way from Homer? Homer tells the story of these sirens out in the water who sing this song that's so beautiful that sailors would begin to to turn the ship's wheel just to hear it a little more and then a little more and a little more.

And before they knew it, they had shipwrecked their whole lives on the rocks trying to get a better listen of the siren song. Homer didn't know it, but he's describing our world. That is our world. a siren song that is just begging us to steer our lives into shipwreck. Don't listen to them. You don't have to listen to them anymore. Paul says, "Don't partner with them.

Don't join in with them because you don't belong to them. You don't belong to them anymore. You don't have to want the things that they want because you don't belong to them anymore. For you were darkness." He says, "Not you acted in darkness, not you did dark things. No, at one time you were darkness. But now you are the light in the Lord.

You are the light. What an interesting moment that Paul does. You remember in the gospels Jesus says, "I am the light of the world." And now Paul says, "If you are in Christ, that means you are the light." Right? Now listen, there's a politician out there who has falsely said that Jesus never said he was the light.

That he said that we are the light. Well, he's wrong and right in one way, right? Jesus did say he was the light. He literally said, "I am the light of the world." But then Paul does take it to the next step to say that if you were in Christ, then you too are the light in the world because of Christ. Right? Now, not everybody is light.

I hate to break that to it. Not everybody's light. In fact, Paul says some people are darkness. But those who are in Christ are the light in this world. And so, we no longer need to live like the darkness. He's going to give us a a few ways to kind of focus on this. He says, first of all, the fruit of the light is found in what is good and right and true.

Let's think quickly about those three words, good, right, true. Good. Think about creation story in Genesis 1. God saw all that he had made. Day 1, day two, day three, day four, day five, day six. He saw all that he had made and it was what? It was good. That Hebrew word is to. It's actually Simeon's middle name.

It doesn't mean like good like almost great. Good in the Hebrew. Good. Now in Ephesians 5 means that which pleases God. That's only that's why we named him Simeon Tove because we're praying that Simeon would grow up not just to be a good man, but to be a man who pleases the Lord.

That's what it means to focus on what is good. Focus on what is right. That is that is what is righteous. To put in the old cliche in the 2000s, what would Jesus do? How would Jesus live? Is this what Jesus would say? Is this how Jesus would act? Is this what Jesus would love? Is this what Jesus would hate? That is what is righteous.

We used to have to guess what was righteous. Now we just look to Jesus and the story of him to see what actually it looks like to be a righteous man and to focus on what is true. I think that's the easiest of the three words. Not not lies, but truth. That which is good and that which is right and that which is true.

Paul closes out by saying and trying to discern what pleases the Lord or what the will of the Lord is. Listen, don't complicate that. So many people in this world are are so anxious, especially young people, about finding God's plan for their life, right? And they think you got to get the right degree and you got to get at the right school and then you got to find the right spouse and then you got have the right number of kids.

You got to get the right job in the right city and all this stuff. And then it's like, well, like where does that end? Do you have to pick out the right pair of pants in the morning and cook the right dinner meal at night? And and like the will of God, what God's plan for your life is is to focus on what is good and what is right and what is true.

It is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. And if you spend your days focusing on good, right, true, loving God, loving my neighbor, God is pleased. Like it doesn't matter if you're doing that at, you know, Carol EMC or Central Elementary or wherever.

If you're doing it in Boise or Brooklyn or Carolton, he's looking for love that you love your neighbor as yourself. That you love him with all of your heart, with all of your soul. I got to tell you, a couple months ago, I got in the habit. I found myself starting my days like when I would like start working, kids were dropped off and stuff.

I would start my days with what do I need to do today? And somewhere along the way, like I just started hating that sentence. What do I need to do today? And I realized, no, what I need to do is I need to start my day asking, God, what do you want me to do today? Now, listen, he's never been like, you know, write your sermon or whatever else.

Unfortunately, that would be very helpful. But what I found is is that rather than getting an like an actual verbatim answer, it's helped my heart to remember that that's what I'm supposed to be doing today. Not a checklist, not a calendar. What I need to be looking for today is what does God want? What is good? What is right? What is true? How can I love him with all my heart, my soul, my mind, and my strength? How can I love my neighbor as myself? Then this closing with this verse 11, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose

them. 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. For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." You see, one of Satan's best tricks is that sin is best left in the dark. Don't pull that out.

If we bring our sin out, meaning this, if we tell other people about our sin and where we're struggling, if people know that that, you know, honestly, like our anger has been getting the best of us lately, that we haven't really been sharing very well, we haven't really been loving with our words and building people up.

If other people knew that, it would bring everything down. It would make it feel much so much more dark. Paul says, actually, no. Actually, in reality, when we bring our sin out into the light, things get better. Stuff, bad stuff grows in the dark, doesn't it? Right? Cockroaches, snakes, rats, they all love the darkness. You bring them out into the light, though, and they scurry.

Paul says, "Do that with your sin. Bring it out into the light. Expose it." But he's he's actually not even talking about our own sin here. He's largely talking about the sin around us. Can I just tell you a quick way you can do this this season? And listen, I don't ever get into like who to vote for because it's so complicated so often.

Sometimes it's very easy, simple, but often it's so complicated. But let me tell say this, everybody has believed a lie in our country that who you vote for like you have to be in lock step with them as if it's your football team and you have to defend them at every turn. You can do this as a biblical person.

vote for who you think is biblically the best candidate. And then when they do things that aren't good, you can admit it. You can say, "I voted for them, but that's not good. They don't need to do that. God would not be pleased with that." When they lie, you can admit that. Even if it's just to yourself, that that's a lie.

They should not have ran a campaign ad that was so deceptive. That's okay. You can still believe that and vote for them. I don't know if y'all knew that or not. People act like you either vote for them and you agree with everything they say or you don't vote for them. But you can agree with people I mean disagree with people and still vote for them, right? And expose their sin for the way it really is because they're not perfect people. They're not.

If they were, they'd be Jesus. And if Jesus won a ballot, it would be very easy. But he's not, right? So just because your candidate that you're going to vote for says something that is bad or a lie or doesn't please the Lord, you can admit that. It's okay to admit that your own hearts. You don't have to be in lock step with them and think everything they do is is right and good.

You can do that with people also that you're witnessing to. That's I think really what Paul is getting at here. That as we share the gospel, we show them their sin. You see how this sin is ruining your life, right? You you see how it's taking you down this path that you would have never gone down otherwise, right? You see how it's ruining who you are and it's taking you further than you ever wanted to go.

Why would you do this? You show the sin for the darkness that it really is because as he ends, "Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." We think this is probably like a hymn that the Ephesian church would sing or or maybe it was like just a part of a hymn.

Arise, oh sleeper, and wake from the dead. That's what Jesus has done in our lives, isn't it? He called us out of darkness and and made us alive just like we were sleeping like he did with that little girl up in the room. But Jesus says not only that, but Christ shines on us. We walk as children of the light because we are children of the light. Listen this morning.

This morning it's very simple. Be careful about what you want. Whether it's sexual in nature, whether it's material in nature, because if you are in Christ, you don't have to want that stuff anymore. You have the inheritance of all of the kingdom of heaven on your side. You are on your way to something even better than Disneyland.

You do not have to fall prey to the allure, the empty words, the deception of wanting to get to a 30-minute ride on a quarter horse outside of Piggly Wiggly. But that's the best this world has to offer. Unless you're not in Christ. And if you're not in Christ this morning, if you've never admitted that you were a sinner and believed that Jesus really did die for your sins and rose again, you've never confessed him as Lord, then if that's where you are, you need to spend today figuring that out, don't you? And I pray that you will. But for

everybody, the question just comes back to this. What do you want? What do you want? Let's pray. Father, would you help us this morning to want the right things, to remember all that we have in you because of what you have done for us by your son dying for us on the cross and rising again. Would you help us to remember, Father, that we are the children of a God who loves us very much and he has given us all the promises of heaven.

Help us father to live in light of that to not be pulled away by the empty words of the enemy in Jesus name. Amen.

This transcript was created by AI from the Livestream feed.