Class Lesson January 22, 2012

Hey Gang,

This week we look at the fact that we live in a divided world. All people in all groups were created by one God and have the same basic needs. Human sin, however, has nurtured prejudice and strife between different groups.

A Time to Kill

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 When you look at me, you don't see a man, you see a black man!

Carl Lee would not have received a fair trial in Mississippi if his attorney had not broken down the barriers of judicial prejudice of the jury. Is justice blind? Why is it suppose to be?



We say we aren’t prejudiced, but many of us have prejudged images of others. If we just glance at people without seeing them as God does and keep driving blindly through life, we could tragically miss God’s destination for our lives and theirs. This lesson challenges Christian boomers to identify blind spots – prejudices we may not even be aware of – and intentionally look for ways to overcome them. 

What are blind spots in a vehicle, and why are they dangerous? What blind spots might boomers have when it comes to people? Why are those blind spots dangerous?

Identify your prejudices and intentionally look for ways to overcome them.

Biblical Context

Acts 10 is a major dividing point, not just in the Book of Acts but in the world order. There was no way a Jew could eat with a Gentile and not break a dietary law. Therefore Jews did not associate with Gentiles at all. But in Acts 10, God revealed to Peter what He’d been saying all along in the Old Testament. His eternal purposes were to reach and save people from every nation and culture; and He intended all believers, Jew and Gentile, to interact as one united family. Acts 10 might recount the conversion of a Roman Gentile, but even more it describes the transformation of a prejudiced Jewish Christian. 


The Talmud: "Jews can thank God they are not dogs or Gentiles." This was the barrier in Peter's day between the Jews and the Gentiles.

Unclean

This word was used in biblical passages in two ways – ceremonial and moral. In Acts 10:14, 28 both Peter and God used it in the ceremonial way. The Old Testament contains ceremonial laws about that which is clean and unclean. For instance, there were clean and unclean animals. Eating the meat of an unclean animal rendered a person ceremonially unclean in the sense of not being able to worship in the tabernacle or temple (Lev. 11). In Peter’s day the term was used of anyone who ate unclean food, and even of those who had close contact with those who ate unclean food. Thus Gentiles were automatically considered “unclean” because they did not follow the laws of the Jews. The New Testament shows how God shifted the meaning of the word to refer to moral uncleanness (Eph. 5:5). Peter’s witness to Cornelius is a key passage in this change.

Summary

After Peter’s vision in which God told him that all things are clean, he went with other Jewish men into the house of Cornelius, a Gentile. Peter acknowledged that God had taught him not to call any person common or unclean. Peter preached to Cornelius and to his relatives and friends. Peter spoke of God’s impartial love for all who seek Him. His sermon focused on Jesus Christ. Peter’s hearers believed the gospel message, and as a sign the Holy Spirit came on them in a way that convinced the Jewish believers with Peter that there was no reason to hinder anyone from hearing the good news.

 God doesn't show favoritism and neither should we.

I. CHALLENGE YOUR ASSUMPTIONS – ACTS 10:9-15

9 The next day, as they were traveling and nearing the city, Peter went up to pray on the housetop about noon. 10 Then he became hungry and wanted to eat, but while they were preparing something, he went into a visionary state. 11 He saw heaven opened and an object that resembled a large sheet coming down, being lowered by its four corners to the earth. 12 In it were all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, and the birds of the sky. 13 Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat!” 14 “No, Lord!” Peter said. “For I have never eaten anything common and ritually unclean!” 15 Again, a second time, a voice said to him, “What God has made clean, you must not call common.”



What was Peter’s blind spot? How can we recognize ingrained prejudices?



Peter had been raised in a Hebrew household in which each member was thoroughly taught God’s commands, down to the finest details. But when God began to move in the heart of a Gentile named Cornelius, Peter’s understanding of obedience according to the law would be shaken forever. While Peter stayed in Joppa with a tanner named Simon, God prepared Peter for a new stage in his missionary career that would shake him at his core beliefs and prepare for the entry of Gentiles into the church.



Consider a time in your own life when what you thought to be a standard behavior was challenged or questioned.



Cornelius, a Gentile (non-Jew), had been told in a vision to send for Peter. At the time his men were approaching the house where Peter was staying, Peter went to the rooftop to pray. Hunger pains that hit him hard enough to request some food were straight from God to open Peter’s heart and mind to hear a new message: There was a new standard for foods that are clean and unclean.



When was the last time the Holy Spirit showed you that your assumptions about following God were not actually correct?


God had been very specific to the Jews in His instructions of what to eat and what not to eat and actually considered obedience to these standards as part of what made them set apart. (Lev. 11:44)



What must people do or not do in order to be accepted into our congregation? On what do we base that standard?



It is for this very reason that Peter was appalled at the thought of consuming these unclean animals: God had forbidden it. What Peter didn’t understand, though, was that the law had been fulfilled through the death of Christ, and the standards for holiness had changed from following a list of command to salvation that comes from faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection. As Christians who are not expressly prohibited from consuming certain foods, we are often tempted to belittle or disregard the dietary restrictions of other beliefs. However, this topic can often open a door of conversation between a believer and someone who does not know Christ. If led, use this passage to show why Christians do not adhere to eating restrictions.



How can we discern whether God is challenging our assumptions or Satan is testing our convictions?




Points:
1. Man-made barriers stand between people in different groups.

2. These barriers often stand between one group sharing Christ with the other group.

3. Prejudice is inconsistent for Christians.

II. CHANGE YOUR BEHAVIOR – ACTS 10:22-23, 28-29a
22 They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who has a good reputation with the whole Jewish nation, was divinely directed by a holy angel to call you to his house and to hear a message from you.” 23 Peter then invited them in and gave them lodging. The next day he got up and set out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went with him.

…………………………………………………………………

28 Peter said to them, “You know it’s forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or visit a foreigner. But God has shown me that I must not call any person common or unclean. 29 That’s why I came without any objection when I was sent for. So I ask: Why did you send for me?”



Cornelius’ men found Peter and told him God had instructed the Roman to send for Peter and hear his message. Surely Cornelius thought that Peter would enlighten him on the truths of Christ. But little did Cornelius know that God’s life-changing message was not for Cornelius alone but also for Peter and every other Jewish Christian. Peter gave them rest for the night and set out with them the next day. Somewhere along the journey to Cornelius’ house, the more pressing – and even more difficult – interpretation of God’s vision became clear to Peter. God was not talking about food alone; He was talking about people!



Whom do you consider to be unclean? Does God consider them to be unclean as well?



Through this new insight, Peter’s entire way of relating to and behaving around others was about to change. Though the idea of removing God’s standards for eating only clean foods would have shaken Peter’s belief system, it may have almost crumbled when he realized that God wanted Peter to treat other people – all other people – with the respect and compassion he would have previously given only to a Jew.



In what ways do you treat your brothers and sisters in Christ differently from those you don’t know or don’t respect?


Peter and the other men likely could not have imagined the effect their decision to embrace God’s new standard would have on Jewish believers and the spread of Christianity. We cannot know God’s standards for how we are to respond to people, situations, and struggles unless we are committed to and actively pursuing His will through His Word.



Do you think it was harder for Peter to host the Gentiles or to accept Cornelius’ hospitality?



What might be our attitude and actions if we view our nation’s immigration challenges only as a political issue? What will be our attitude and actions if we view those challenges as ministry opportunities? How can we build relationships with people of other nationalities and races?




Points:

1. Because the gospel is for all people, Christians must boldly cross barriers to tell the good news.

 

 

III. CLARIFY THAT JESUS IS LORD OF ALL – ACTS 10:34-36

34 Then Peter began to speak: “Now I really understand that God doesn’t show favoritism, 35 but in every nation the person who fears Him and does righteousness is acceptable to Him. 36 He sent the message to the Israelites, proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all.


In two separate visions, Cornelius had been told to send for Peter and Peter had been instructed to adjust his understanding of clean and unclean. A crowd had gathered and the meeting had begun. All eyes were on Peter as he began speaking the words for which Cornelius and his friends had been waiting expectantly.



If you found yourself as the speaker in this situation, what would be the first thing out of your mouth? How would your first statement demonstrate the importance of your words?



First, Peter admitted his understanding that God does not show favoritism. We cannot begin to imagine the difficulty of this truth for Peter, primarily because the Jews had always been God’s favorite nation and Peter himself was a Jew and part of Jesus’ inner circle. Simply, Peter was giving up the significance he felt in God outside of Christ.



What attributes make us feel that we are God’s favorites? Where did we develop those attitudes?



Peter next explained what makes a person acceptable to God: fearing Him and doing righteousness. Notice that a person is not merely declared righteous but they must have a life characterized by being right before God. And though the message of righteousness came through the Jews, Peter gave full credit to the One who fulfilled that righteousness: Jesus Christ.



Can you succinctly explain – in everyday words – what it takes to be made right before God?



Peter was willing to give up his preferred status in order to draw others to Christ. By admitting that Jesus is Lord of all, he was demonstrating that no longer did the Jews have the monopoly on God’s favor and love; Jesus had made it available to every nation. God sent Peter out of his comfort zone. Peter had to leave behind the house in which he was staying, his understanding of how a righteous person should eat, and his unbelief’s of how God viewed people in order to spread the truth of Christ. We too must regularly leave our comfort zones in a variety of ways in order to live for Him. Listen to the Holy Spirit’s leading as He directs you to go physically, emotionally, or socially into the world.



Why does God challenge our assumptions and call us to change our behavior? What is our challenge if Jesus is Lord of all? How can we proclaim His message of peace in a divided culture?




We live in a divided world. All people in all groups were created by one God and have the same basic needs. Human sin, however, has nurtured prejudice and strife between different groups. Acts 10 is a powerful story with its background of the tension between Romans and Jews in the first century. Their prejudice and strife are examples of the divisive spirit that pervades many groups, yet they found in Christ common ground for treating one another as God intended.



What steps do you take to overcome blind spots in your car? What steps can we take to overcome blind spots toward others?






In light of the lesson Peter learned from this event, how prejudiced are you?



How can Christians practice love in a divided world?

Prayer of Commitment

Lord, help me be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Amen.

Well, we are certainly covering all the ills of society - Drinking, Immorality, Sanctity of Human Life, and now Prejudice! Next week we will close this series on GREED. These are always good lessons to develop personal convictions about each topic as you feel led by the Holy Spirit. Be in prayer this week as we discuss the prejudices we all face - today!

See you on Sunday!

In His Love,

David & Susan

Class Lesson January 15, 2012

Hey Gang,

Our lesson this week says that we live in a culture that actually sees some people as disposable, having no real value. Can you believe that? As Christians we are called to oppose what is wrong and support what is right. People that are considered expendable, end up on the trash heap of history and many of them need to be cared for; their plights are physical and spiritual. In the case of some, it is a matter of life and death, because they are powerless to defend themselves. The hand of God should guide our care of each of these precious lives.  

God values life and so should we. Let’s show respect for others by treating them as God sees them and values them.

Yes, it's Sanctity of Human Life Sunday and most of the time this lesson deals with the subject of abortion. Not to minimize the importance of this topic, but many times other sanctity of human life issues go unnoticed - can you name them?

SUNDAY

 Disposable

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Define expendable. Who are the expendable in our society?

• Expendable = For use or consumption; not worth preserving; not really necessary; can be sacrificed for the sake of an objective.

• Prevalence of abortion, human trafficking, euthanasia, and elder, spouse, and child abuse reveals this culture’s view that anything or anyone that doesn’t benefit me can be tossed.

• Most of us are not uncaring, but it may be difficult to naturally show care for the vulnerable and unlovely.

Psalm 139

Our study of Psalm 139 will show us just how God views people. God not only knew the psalmist intimately, He knew everything about him. God knew his words and deeds, his thoughts and intentions. God’s knowledge grew out of the fact that He had created him and formed him in his mother’s womb. David, as all human beings, was fearfully and wonderfully made. David’s psalm illustrates God’s love for all people. And because God loves all people, He values all people, and because He values them, He has a plan for them. The challenge we face as we study this psalm is to evaluate our own actions (or inaction's) that either devalue people or usurp the plans God has for them. Three important truths from Psalm 139 this week: God values us, God has a plan for us, and God is with us.

I. GOD VALUES US – PSALM 139:1-6

1 LORD, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I stand up; You understand my thoughts from far away. 3 You observe my travels and my rest; You are aware of all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, LORD. 5 You have encircled me; You have placed Your hand on me. 6 This extraordinary knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to reach it. 

King David authored many of the psalms; this is one of his. David's focus was one thing: God knew him intimately. Who knows you better than anyone else? What is the benefit of knowing someone? Does this give you more reason to value them?



If you knew everything about a person – all his or her secrets – what might be your attitude about the person? What is God’s attitude, evidenced by His actions, about you? 

 What if I knew more?

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Does it frighten you or comfort you to be so completely known by God?

• God knows each believer.
• God knows everything about each one.
• Some people view this as stifling control.
• Others see it as His awesome protection.

If I were to crumple up and trample a $20 bill, would it still be valuable? What does this say about people our culture considers expendable?

• No matter what people have been through, even brought on themselves, they still matter.
• Everyone is valuable, even those who have abortion in their past. God’s grace restores all who repent and seek His forgiveness.

How can the elderly HOLD their value?



How would seeing yourself as valuable help you regard others as valuable? Would this also help you treat them so? Does God's value of you give you reason to value others?

II. GOD HAS A PLAN FOR US – PSALM 139:13-16

13 For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well. 15 My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.

This passage is sometimes used to encourage and uplift those who feel confused or listless. However, it is one of the most profound and faith-altering passages in all of scripture: God has loved us since before we took our first breath. What an amazing truth. What an amazing God. This should change our lives not only in our big-picture planning but also in our day-to-day activities.
 

How can we tell what’s God’s plan and what’s not God’s plan? Why does God’s plan sometimes take time?  Are our elder years part of God's plan? Is our pre-birth time also part of God's plan?






Do you think medical advancements have added to or taken away from the majesty and mystery of birth? What is the contrast to the cultural and biblical view of conception? Why is life valuable, period?

• God is involved in conception and in the development of life within the womb. These things are not purely biological in nature.
• The unborn child is a human being.
• God creates each person in the womb and endows each with the same image of God given to the first pair.
• God has a purpose for people before they are born.
• None of the differences between an unborn child and a new-born baby is significant enough to consider the unborn child to be less than human.
• Since the unborn child is a human being, that life is to be nurtured and protected, not threatened or taken.

Think about things you are intimately involved in creating. Do you make those things just to forget about them or for a purpose? Why does God create each person? How do these verses affirm the valuable purpose of not just the unborn but the homebound, handicapped, and terminally ill? 

• Believers need to speak up not only to affirm each life is wonderful but to defend each person’s, born and unborn, right to life.
• We don’t have to justify anyone’s existence.
• Every person, even those severely handicapped, is more like us than unlike us. One way to show love is to find a commonality and to build a friendship on it.

 

III. GOD IS WITH US – PSALM 139:17-18

17 God, how difficult Your thoughts are for me to comprehend; how vast their sum is! 18 If I counted them, they would outnumber the grains of sand; when I wake up, I am still with You. 

What was the psalmist finding difficult to comprehend about God? Can you relate to his overwhelmed state?
 


God is so amazing that we can't begin to take it in. It simply indescribable that He cares so much. And though we feel loved and comforted at the thought of God actively loving us; we sometimes live our adult lives wondering if He's still really involved or interested at all.

What circumstances have caused you to doubt God's presence or love?

Who are the expendable in society? What is our responsibility to them? How can we as a class work together to value and defend life? How can we individually value life on a daily basis? 



Below is an article I read this week. Read it and tell me what you think?

Our Disposable Society

  By: Michelle and Charles Wise 

Our nation is caught up in the problems of today. If you ask the people of America, "Is our society broken?" many would respond with an overwhelming "Yes!" We are worried about the economy, environment, stock market, and losing our homes. Many of us feel broken by the stress of every day life and how we are going to pay the rent or the bills. But the real judge of how broken our society has become is the state of our elderly.


The President has recently thrown our seniors a bone and is giving them each $250 for the stimulus. Is that a joke? Most seniors need a lot more than that token gesture. We have forgotten that many of them had invested their retirement in the stock market and trusted individuals to make sound decisions for them. They have taken a hard hit to their means of survival and some will be forced from their homes. I have heard several even debating that they might need to get back into the work force to make ends meet. But with a society that doesn't think that older is necessarily wiser, could they really get a job? How could we be so busy and self absorbed to forget about those who have come before us? Our tunnel vision is just that, we are focused on our problems. Who has time to be focused on Mom or Dad, when we have kids to support and lives to live? We are forgetting that many of them have had to bail us out time and time again when we needed them. We are trying to solve our problems, but what about theirs?


When we think back on our seniors it should be with reverence. Have they not paved our proverbial road? They made our country what it is today with blood, sweat and tears. Are they to be forgotten? What about their legacy and stories, those that go back generations? Do we listen as tentatively as we should? Do we care?


I am a Home Health Nurse and when I think about many of my patients, many of them are facing a crisis of "Should I buy food or get my medications this month"? "Do I need to sell my home or file bankruptcy?" Many of them are facing large looming medical bills that they thought Medicare would cover. If they don't have supplemental health insurance it is now too late to purchase it or it is too expensive. Many "nice" retirement homes or assisted livings charge an exorbitant amount monthly. Seniors have to spend all of their savings and then when they run through that hope they can transition to a Medicaid bed. This is an equivalent of a housing project, where they get to look forward to their monthly Social Security check being signed over to the nursing home for their care.


All I can say to the "Baby Boomers" is you better be prepared. The system is a mess and you are about to jump off into the deep end. Start planning and hope that you have been nice to your children. Because most of them have seen you make excuses for not wanting your Mom or Dad to move into your home; because they are too much trouble; have medical problems that would be better suited for medical professionals; have Alzheimer's and they would be too hard to supervise; or better yet you are just too busy. These are the examples that are being set.

What it really has come down to is that the family unit does not look like it once did. In the past generations of America, and presently in most other countries around the world, the elderly are revered and treated with respect. They are brought into the family home, to live as a "family." To have dinners, share stories of the past, and celebrate their last days. We need to get back to these traditions before it is too late.


It should not be an option that Gramma will go to the nursing home. It should be a last resort! Grandmother or Grandfather is brought "home", no questions asked. Our elderly should be treasured, not placed out on the curb for recycling or put out to pasture in some slum nursing home. They fought wars, built our cities, and gave us life. Are we really too busy, or just too blind to see all that we owe?


I can't tell you how many sad, depressed, lonely seniors I see on a daily basis. It breaks my heart because many of them don't have a voice or a family to care or hear it. Many are waiting to go off to heaven and a life beyond because their families have left them to die. Or else they feel that they are a burden and that they have nothing left to contribute. How sad it is when they have given everything and the only thing they have to look forward to is spending their last days worthless and alone.


What I want to know is this - what were the 60's and 70's about, was it a revolt from the stifling ways of your parents? Was it is about free choice and no responsibilities? Doing what feels good and about instant gratification? This mentality has made us so used to the fast food world of it all. We have made computers, televisions, and radios that are so cheap we just replace them. We have become a disposable society. Now our parents are in that same boat. Is this what we really wanted? When the "Baby Boomers" raised their children this way, was this the example they really wanted to set? In my house it was. "Do what feels good and right at the time--we will pay for the consequences later." When I look at our youth, it's apparent that the time has come to pay the bill. Children these days have all sorts of problems and it is a direct reflection on our society. What is empathy? What is selflessness? What is doing good for others without getting anything in return?


Many families live in other states far away from Gramma and Grandpa on purpose, and like it that way. That way it is harder to be bothered, and besides that, someone else can take care of their folks. What's even worse, there are others who live in the same towns, but don't make them the priority.


The common thread seems to be this, that "The Golden Years" are not too golden. Now that I'm out on the front lines, I can say with assurance that there isn't much to look forward to. In fact, most of my seniors, the ones who have the luxury to be in their own homes and perhaps still with a spouse, tell me to have fun while you can. Don't wait until you retire to start living your life, because there's nothing to look forward to once you get old.


Not everything was meant to be recycled. I want those who have elderly people in their lives to stop and take a minute with this article. I want you to ask yourself, "Am I doing all that I can to make my parent(s) comfortable and happy?" "Am I failing the ones who paved our road?" The next question you might ask yourself is this: "Will this be me in ten or fifteen years?" The decision is yours. Will you be trash or treasure?
 

End of article.

Prayer of Commitment

Lord, help me live with reverence for this sanctity of human life, and help me make my stand clear. Amen

 
Please be in prayer this week for this lesson as it speaks to so many issues we are facing right now. Have a blessed rest of the week as we continue in God's unchanging truths for a radically changing world.

See you on Sunday! 


In His Love,

David & Susan



 

Class Lesson January 8, 2012

Hey Gang,

Our lesson series says that Americans live in a culture that has drifted off course. Many adults base their thinking and lifestyles on what the popular culture endorses. The good news is that believers can stand for Christ and what is right in the midst of a culture that no longer understands truth. This week we look at the impact SEX in our culture has on our daily walk. 

Love & Sex

FLAME - Rob Bell
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Hebrew and Greek words for Love: Raya (Phileo), Dod (Eros), Ahava (Agape).

What messages does our culture send about sensuality? How often? What’s the problem with buying into these messages?

• A vast majority of the estimated 3,000 advertisements that reach consumers daily use sensuality to sell their product. Selfish insistence on physical pleasure has torn apart families, churches, and nations. 

• Television, movies, and music promote sexual immorality as the norm and ridicule the notion of reserving sexual intimacy for marriage.

• Distracts me from my spouse; takes advantage of others; leads to more sin; rejects love.

• Our culture is against purity.

Our lesson says that we should identify how we have been influenced by sensual messages and choose to walk a life of purity in love, light and wisdom.

• Have we separated the flames?
• 2nd Half of Marriage

 Ephesians 5:1-16

Most of the time when people think of Ephesians chapter 5, they go straight to verse 22, where it says wives submit to your husbands. And verses 22 - 33 do take into account wives and husbands relational roles, but it's important to understand verses 1 - 21 leading up to this infamous section of scripture because it sets the very tone of the remaining verses. Verses 1 - 21 are a Wake-Up call to believers that are submitting to the Wrong things. The culture's way is not the way you are to submit to and verse 21 sets the right tone for the following verses: "Submit to one another out of reverence to Christ." 

True Ahava is submission to one another in Christ!

America and the Greco-Roman World

The city of Ephesus – to whom Paul wrote this letter to – likely, reflected a society similar to 21st Century America. Ephesus was the capital of the Roman province of Asia. Ephesus’s greatest claim to fame was her responsibility as the official “temple keeper” of Artemis, a fertility/mother goddess. Scholars are divided on whether fertility rites (sexual orgies), were part of the worship of this idol. However, all agree that sexual immorality was rampant in Ephesus. Extramarital affairs, prostitution, promiscuity, homosexuality, and bisexuality were common. It was just as difficult for the Ephesian believers in 61 A.D. to seek purity as for Christians in 2012. Yet Paul told every believer there must not be even a hint of impurity in their lives. Christians cannot use the moral degeneration of their culture as an excuse to relax the moral standards God has clearly laid out in His Word.

 

I. WALK IN LOVE – EPHESIANS 5:1-5

1 Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children. 2 And walk in love, as the Messiah also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. 3 But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you, as is proper for saints. 4 Coarse and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks. 5 For know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God.


How does the sexual overload in society invade our view of self, our view of home, or our view of relationships?

• We tend to imitate where we spend our time.

• Paul opens in the first two verses with the standard for love – imitate Jesus. This means walking in love and behaving in a way that God will be pleased to see what you do and say. If we understand the “how” of living in purity then it will help us recognize the “how not” in life. Kindness, sharing, and respect help us understand the rules.

Has anyone ever demonstrated this kind of love behavior to you? How did it affect you?


The next three verses lay out a list of intolerable behaviors. You may practice them for a time, but in the end these behaviors will steal rather than deliver. They are counterfeits. We should avoid and be intolerant of such behaviors in ourselves and from others – these behaviors are sexual impurity and greed. Each is a form of idolatry because each worships self and pleasures.


Sexual immorality and any impurity covered every kind of illicit sexual activity – all sexual intercourse outside its God-ordained context in a loving marriage between a man and a woman. Moral life in Paul’s day had sunk so low that people who engaged in sexual immorality met no opposition. Impurity, a more general term, referred to a full range of unclean thoughts, ideas, fantasies, and any other form of sexual corruption.



Now, a good question would be, how do we show a lack of tolerance without a lack of love? How do we engage in such conversations without condescension with anyone? How do we help in ways besides talking? What gives someone the courage to stop or to refuse greed and sexual sins? 

• Believers are to imitate God in His love and forgiveness.

• To walk in love as Christ did, we must learn to imitate Him. How did Jesus show the value of people?

How would you respond to the following?

1. I’m in a social gathering and someone says something offensive or dishonoring to the Lord - everybody laughs what should I do?  
2. An adult family member decides to move in and live with someone they intend to marry – what should I say or do?

Why isn’t sexual immorality love? 

• Sensuality sees people as sexual objects. When we walk in Christ’s love, we see people as having great physical and spiritual value and consequently seek to give them what they need rather than what we can get out of them.

• Sex is a spiritual thing.

Why did Paul make a big deal out of our speech anyway? Why is thanksgiving an effective antidote to vulgarity’s poison? 

• Language is a gateway to behavior. When we make light of sexual sin with joking and innuendos, it’s easy to assume people are there for our pleasure and to move toward using them.

• Thanksgiving focuses attention on God. Rude and crude talk focuses attention on self.

How do you interpret verse 5? 

• This verse does not mean that a believer may lose salvation due to a sexual sin but that someone participating in these actions is not living and acting as a child of God.

• No one who persists in such sins is part of God’s kingdom.

Points:

1. Sexual sins are especially serious.

2. Such sins may be committed by what we think, what we say, or what we do.

3. Such sins are totally inappropriate for Christians.

4. Christians should avoid relationships that are potentially compromising.


II. WALK IN LIGHT – EPHESIANS 5:8-12

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light— 9 for the fruit of the light results in all goodness, righteousness, and truth— 10 discerning what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what is done by them in secret.


Oil and water, sand and sea, light and dark – these cannot coexist. Paul used light and darkness to contrast our lives before and after our saving faith in Christ. As we learn to trust and obey Jesus, then our lives will become a delightful journey of goodness, righteousness, truth, and fruitfulness.



What does light accomplish? How does living as light result in those accomplishments? Why use darkness as a metaphor for sexual impurity? Why use light to describe believers?

• Impurity contradicts love.

• Light produces fruit. Light helps you see where to go. It shows the good stuff.

Why are the works of darkness fruitless? How does participation in this sensual culture dim our light? 

• Sexual misbehavior, whether committed in body or mind, cannot produce anything that benefits you or others.

Why are some topics better left unmentioned? How can we expose shameful deeds if we’re not to mention them? How can we leave our light on?

• We don’t necessarily have to speak up to expose sexual immorality and if we do it needs to be in love. Explore what works and doesn’t work.
• We expose the darkness of immorality by shinning the light of a consistently pure lifestyle.
• Turn off the dark. Replace any form of impurity, including speaking and viewing habits, with good activities. Expose sexual immorality; don’t excuse or rationalize it. Show genuine care.

Paul says in verse 8 that not only should we be different but we must also walk differently.




Are sexual, crude, or coarse jokes harmless?

• We cannot consider sensual talk harmless. We cannot assume crude jokes are funny or coarse talk is hilarious. Verse 12 takes an even harsher stand against those acts of darkness: We are not to even mention them.

We won’t defeat the darkness, so we must focus on deliberately conducting ourselves in Christ’s light.


Points:

1. When people turn to Christ, they are changed from darkness to light.

2. Christians should live as children of light.

3. Christians should rebuke the works of darkness.

III. WALK IN WISDOM – EPHESIANS 5:15-16

15 Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise— 16 making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

The Internet is full of videos that have captured people tripping. Hilarious, right? Certainly – unless you’re the one who fell. Falling is even worse if it’s a relationship fall, a work fall, or a character fall.



In what ways are you wise in how you walk in relationships, work, character, or other areas? When are you tempted to dabble in darkness?



By heeding Christ’s wisdom, we can truly walk with loving actions. Most of us can recall when one careless step – tripping over a toy, sliding on ice, stubbing a toe – led to suffering because we were not paying attention. How much deeper the pain is when we’ve mistreated a person or made a foolish choice.



The unwise will always walk differently from the wise, simply because the goals and focus of the two stand in stark contrast to one another. Fools despise wisdom and resist discipline. They want what they want when they want it. Therefore, if our walk – the way we conduct our actions and relationships – cannot be differentiated from those who do not know God, we don’t walk in wisdom. We must daily analyze our words, actions, and thoughts to be sure they imitate Christ. We discern what pleases the Lord to choose goodness, righteousness, and truth. These are just a few indicators that God guides our steps.



How regularly should we as believers confess our sins and invite Christ to expose our weaknesses? How can the evil of society propel us to walk more closely to Christ, not pull away from Him?



Describe a believer living wisely in our sensual culture. Why can even a believer lose focus? Why is seeking pleasure an unwise way to spend life?

• Wise believers purposefully seek purity, or sin will snag them. Our default mode gravitates to self-indulgence and doing what feels good. Even though Christ has changed our default mode from darkness to light, we need to keep the light on.

• We live both in the light of Christ and in a dark world. Satan will put people and events in our lives to trip us up. We must stay on our guard. Never arrogantly think, I’d never do that.

Why would using our time wisely keep us from getting tripped up by impurity? Some think the best use of time is to work until they collapse. How might that result in impurity? What activities and attitudes make the most of time?

• Our use of time is not neutral.

• Watching a clean TV show or reading a book that doesn’t compromise God’s moral standards may be a wise use of time if it recharges our batteries and helps us refocus.

• Investing in people who make you wiser.

Points:

1. God gives wisdom to those who seek it in Him.

2. Those who receive wisdom should walk in it.



Our culture evidences many of the sins of the culture of the first-century Greco-Roman world. Theirs was a sexually immoral society, so is ours. Sensuality was its leading sin, but other sins were involved also. These included drunkenness and selfishness. Paul delivered God’s message about being pure in a sensual society. He called Christians to walk in love, to walk in light, and to walk in wisdom.



Will we seek purity in this sensual culture by default or by choices? What conscious choices must we make to enjoy purity? 

• God’s pure plan for intimacy provides security, satisfaction, love, and safety.

Prayer of Commitment

Lord, help me to be faithful to You in the midst of our sensual culture. Amen

This may not be the easiest topic to discuss, but no one can ignore that it is an important issue that Christians face everyday. Put this lesson in prayer this week as we come together this Sunday to discuss.

See you on Sunday!

In His Love,

David & Susan