Anna, thank you so much. Morning, everyone. Hello. Wow, Loads in this passage. I’d love to start by sharing with you the fact that I love, like, genuinely love the decluttering TV show Sort yout Life Out. I know it’s dangerous to say these things at the front, isn’t it? I also love the Six Nations. Come talk to me about that afterwards if you like. But the decluttering TV show Sort yout Life out, if you’ve never seen it, BBC iPlayer. Well worth a watch. And what you’ll see is a pretty typical ordinary family. Normally they’ve had something happen in their life that means that they’ve maybe got extra family members moved in with them, or there’s been something in the past that means they particularly keep hold of their possessions and the team go in and they walk around the house and every room is full with bits and pieces, some precious, some broken, just all kinds of stuff everywhere. And my favourite bit of the show, my absolute favourite moment, what they do is they take literally everything out of their house, every pot and pan, every item, and they lay it in this massive warehouse or aircraft hangar, literally. They colour code everything, lay it out in categories, and there it is, their whole life on display for them to see. Well, I feel like the bits that we’re reading last week and this week in Ephesians lay out not the practical stuff of our lives, the possessions, but the spiritual life that we all want to have or could have in Christ. Paul lays out so much stuff. We’re going to pick up a few bits this morning, but it’s a rich passage worth digging back into as the week goes on, if you can. We must remember at this point, though, we’re thinking about living as a Christian. This is not how you become a Christian. Chapters one to three, they laid out for us faith alone in Jesus, alone through the work and power of the Holy Spirit. That’s how you become a believer in Christ, not because of what we did. We were dead in our sins. He made us alive in Christ. But Paul now moves to these ordinary people, Christians just like you and me, seeking to live for the Lord. And he lays out in massive detail a warehouse moment. What’s it going to look like when your life is on display? What changes your life when you’re a Christian? Well, firstly, look down if you’ve still got it open page 1176 or on a phone. Ephesians 1. Firstly, he encourages these ordinary Christians to follow and copy God’s love. Verse 1. Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly Loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. Very simply, he says, a Christian’s life is following and walking that path of love. What kind of love, self sacrificing love that Jesus shows us day by day. That’s the kind of life we want to be living. And so that’s the first little like standard that we see, a very high standard to love like Jesus in each and every situation, to lay down our lives for others. And he goes on, you’ll have heard it, as Anna helpfully read for us, so strong verse three among you, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity or greed because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking which are out of place sometimes in that warehouse, if you’ve seen the show or not, there they are, all their possessions and they start going through them and they say, we’re just going to take you over to this section over here and show you all these broken toys. All these toys that are broken, that are beyond repair, they’re broken. And let me take you to this section over here which is all of the out of date food. Hundreds of packets of out of date food that have been in your cupboards. And what do people say in that moment? They say it can all go, I don’t need to keep the broken toys, I don’t need to keep the out of date food. That was my old life. And I’m realising that I’m trying to build a new life. They say, so the broken stuff can go. The stuff that’s out of date, it doesn’t belong in my new life. Paul’s saying a little bit of something similar here. You’re walking and following God’s love. When you spot in your life something that’s belonging to the old life, that’s out of place. You say it’s for the bin. I almost brought a bin up this morning, you know, like a prop or two. Almost had a big bin here and thought I’d dump stuff into it. But you can imagine it. And yet we say to ourselves, don’t we? If you’re anything like me, we say, oh, I struggle a little bit with, it’s just a little of this or that. We want the bar to be really low. Paul says the bar is super, super high. Not even a hint, not a hint of greed. You’re there at the dinner table, there’s a little bit of pudding left there’s one more piece. Oh, I want it. Or you’re scrolling through your bank balance and you’re thinking, I wish I just had a little bit more. Oh, I resent that. I’ve got this. Or I’m giving this away. Greed, lust, wrong talking. He says, note it when you see it and realise that is for the bin. It does not belong in the new life. Get rid of it. Of course, we can’t just do that by ourselves. We need the spirit, we need Jesus. So how do we get rid of it? Well, we begin to pray about it when we spot it. We take it seriously as a problem in our life, not just something to kind of belittle away. Maybe you’ve got a good friend. I really encourage you. I guess if I could wave a magic wand and give us a gift to all saints, it would be for each of us to have a friend that we can just message and they would understand that we’re just an ordinary Christian and they’re just an ordinary Christian and we message them and we say, look, I’ve made this mistake, or I’m struggling with this and they totally get it. Maybe they don’t struggle with exactly the same thing, but they say, my heart is just as broken as yours. Let’s pray about it together. Let’s walk through it together. Church full of those one to ones, it’s full of small groups, says it doesn’t belong. And we try and do this kind of balancing act. Ages ago, I remember a friend telling me a funny storey, at least from his perspective of his mum getting on board a boat one day. You know, they’re at the pond or the park or wherever and she was very reluctant to get on this boat. And he said, she’s the kind of person that would not find this storey funny. But he thought it was hilarious because she stepped one foot onto the boat very reluctantly and then kind of half backed out because it started to move as it does, you know, little boat kind of start to move. And so she had one foot on the land, one foot on the boat and the boat started to move and she couldn’t choose. Ends in disaster, doesn’t it? Into the water she goes, there he is laughing when he probably shouldn’t laugh. That’s a funny moment, but it’s not a funny life. Have a look down at verse six. Paul’s saying, look, you can be easily deceived. Verse six. Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore, don’t be partners with them. That could be our own heart and mind just saying, don’t worry, it’s just a little bit of the old life, just a little bit. Not really a problem. It could be a friend, it could be a church that is saying, oh, it doesn’t really matter how you live. No, we have it here, plain and simple. In God’s words, how we live matters. We want to live a life that copies God’s love. That was the first thing this morning. Copy and follow God’s love. Secondly, embrace living in the light, because it’s so much better. Embrace living in the light. When they go into that warehouse, there’s a kind of moment, the shutters are down, they can’t see their life. They know it’s messy, they know it’s been bad in their home, but then the doors lift and they’re on display is all of their stuff. It’s quite overwhelming, of course, to see your life like that, to have it exposed, your light kind of shining on it. But of course, that’s the start of the process for them of moving to a new life. Paul says for Christians, it starts somewhere differently. Verse 8. You once were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Whole identity changed. We’ve seen that in chapters one to three. You were living in darkness, held over by the power of this world, but now, radical identity change. Once darkness, now light. And in this section, he’s saying, look, the light is better. It’s exposing, yes, but it’s better, it’s richer, it’s wonderful. Verse 8. Again, live as children of the light. Why? For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth. And find out what pleases the Lord. The kind of life that we really want deep down is by embracing the light. You know, sometimes it is the case, isn’t it? You may have seen on the medical dramas, they rush them into the hospital theatre and they say, can we get some light here, please? And the surgeon pours light on the situation. They want to see what’s going on, expose it, so they can deal with the problem, get rid of the darkness and live in the light. And Paul’s saying that’s already happened in the life of the ordinary Christian. The moment you started trusting Jesus and putting your hand in his, you were following his way of love, you were embracing the light. And he’s encouraging us, do it more and more, live out that identity. Remember, this isn’t how you become a Christian. It’s not what you’re going to be judged on as to whether you get into the kingdom. But once you’re inside the kingdom of God, will you live out this identity, He says, have nothing to do with fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It’s shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by light becomes visible and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. He knows it’s better to embrace the light, to walk in that way. But verse 14, well, it’s quite strong in a kind of a quirky way. It seems like it’s taken from a kind of childhood poem or a song that might have been around. This is why it Wake up, sleepy head, Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead Christ will shine on you. A kind of little children’s poem that you might have kind of heard them singing around the time in Ephesus. Wake up sleeper, rise from the dead Christ will shine on you. But actually it has real potency. Paul includes it here to this ordinary church because he knows some in that small church, probably a much smaller congregation I guess, than we’ve got gathered here. Some are sleepwalking in to the church gathering and he says, you need an alarm. You need to wake up. You need a friend to stir you. You need God’s light to blast in and expose you. It’s easy for us to walk into church to do the things that look like we’re walking in light, but inside we know we’re not embracing the light. We’re putting on an external show and I’ve got no idea. Maybe the people you sat with don’t know. But you know inside actually you’re longing to slip back into the world of darkness. Actually, maybe that is better. And he’s saying, wake up, wake up. Realise you can easily go back there. Don’t be partners with them, don’t go back in that direction. It’s not better. In fact, it leads to all kinds of things that we’re ashamed of and are secret about that we hide away. Don’t do that double minded thing. Don’t have one foot in the light and one foot in the dark. It will lead to disaster. Follow God’s example and copy his love. Embrace living in the light. It really is better. This passage is full of the kind of carrot and stick carrot. Have the life that you really want. When you go to bed at night and you think, what do I want tomorrow to look like? I really want it to be full of goodness and righteousness and truth, that would be better. I know deep down. And when I look at Jesus, I realise people are drawn to him because that’s like he is. He’s full of righteousness and goodness and truth. This really is better. That’s the kind of carrot, look at what you’re going to get. But he also knows that some respond better to the warning. Listen out. You can slip back into darkness. You can hear things that lead you back in that direction. You. And he says, wake up, smell the coffee. Realise where you are. Pick, choose to be in the light. Follow and copy God’s love. Embrace living in the light. Thirdly, and finally, he talks about enjoying, enjoying spirit filled living. Go back to the show if you’ve never seen it. The process is literally the same every time. I don’t know why I love it so much. You can watch one and you know exactly what’s going to happen, but it’s great. It genuinely makes their life better. They go into this warehouse, probably like day three, they spend a week with them, go in day three and they’re sorting through all the stuff and it’s incredibly stressful. It’s bringing up all kinds of things that they’re having to deal with. But the people running the show, they know the end result. They know because they’ve done it many, many times and I’ve watched them all, they’ve done it many, many times. They get the new life that they really want at the end. They get the home that is tidy and clean, they get the space back, they get to enjoy the blessings of family life as it should be. And they know that’s coming. They know it’s coming. And so they can say to them, keep going. In this process, bringing up all this kind of stuff, keep going, because it’s going to be a great end result. And the question I think I literally ask myself every time is, well, will the external fix really solve everything? You know, these people that have had years of living this one way and you know BBC producers, they know it’s dangerous. So what they do is they go back one month later, not like four years later, which would be really good, one month. They don’t trust that they’ll be able to do it. But with us we can trust that Christ isn’t just dealing with the external stuff, he’s dealing with the stuff that matters inside, stuff that you and I find really hard to change, internal change. He gives two examples here. I think it’s just, it just is sparking off. He could have written loads. At verse 15, he talks about wisdom. Be very careful then verse 15, how you live not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity. Verse 17, he says you can understand what God’s will is. Have you ever been in a situation, you’ve had two choices and you just don’t know. Like, one of them is not like super evil. They’re both just good choices, but they’re wisdom, they have complexity in them. You don’t know anything. I don’t know. Should I speak in this situation or should I stay quiet? Should I go in this direction right now or should I not? A friend wants you to respond to something. Should I go with them or should I? I don’t know. And he’s saying, look, if you’ve got the spirit inside of you, if you’re living and embracing the light, increasingly you’ll know God’s will. Through that, you’ll find yourself living a wise and rich life, the kind of life that you really want to live. He says, it’s there, it’s possible, because you’re no longer in darkness, you’re living in light. He gives another example. Verse 18. Don’t get drunk on wine, he says, instead, be filled with the spirit. We use that phrase, don’t we? Under the influence of. Under the influence of alcohol or under the influence of drugs. Someone under the influence of drugs. Or you might say, I’m under the influence of my past, it so haunts me. Me. Or I’m under the influence of my failure and I can’t get past it. Paul says, you as a Christian, ordinary people in Ephesus, you and me today, we can be under the influence of Christ’s spirit, the spirit that brings truth and righteousness and forgiveness and goodness. The truth that makes you rejoice in your heart. Even though life is hard and messy and complex, you can be influenced by that spirit, that Jesus inside you, guiding you, helping you, growing you. His spirit. That sounds better to me. Like, as I meet with friends and I’ve got friends that I’ve known for many, many years, and they see their life and I think, is it really better? I mean, in some ways they’re looking like they’re having a great time, but actually, no, it’s full of darkness, full of sadness, full of hardship. Some of us would be well placed, I think, to dwell on these things. If you’re like me again, you might have found yourself scrolling through the news about Iran and all that’s going on there. And I wonder how much time you’ve been picking up the news, picking up your phone, opening the Internet to read about it. And of course it is going to have some impact in our life. It is. But the trickle effect for most of us is quite a long way down the line. But actually if we dwelt on these things, if we took even 10% of the time that we spend doing that and we thought, oh, right, okay, I’m going to get to grips with greed in my life. It is a problem. I’m a greedy person. I’m going to get to grips with that. I’m going to try and expose it by letting the light shine into that. I’m going to pray about it in a way that makes me think, lord, please grow in me wisdom, change my heart around these things. Instead of being greedy, let me be thankful for what I have to dwell on those things that’s going to be of so much more profit than stressing about whether this thing or that thing is going to happen in the world. So Paul says this. Follow and copy God’s love. Embrace actively living in the light. And what you get, you get to enjoy not a new shiny house for a few months, but a spirit filled life. Have a look again at verse 19. You get to speak truth to one another as you sing, as you sing songs from the spirit, even inside your heart, you’re able to please and make music to the Lord. And your attitude changes. You give thanks for everything because you know it’s Jesus who’s done it in you. So he says, wake up. Be alert this morning. Wake up and live. Let’s pray. Lord, we know it’s hard when our life is exposed and on display. But we know with you we’re in safe hands. We’re with a God who loves us and with a Lord who died for us to bring us into this hope and freedom and new life. Please help us embrace it all the more today. In your name we pray. Amen.