Ephesians 5:1-2 - Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
We have talked about who you are, what you have, and what God offers when you mess up. This
week we looked at what all of that means for us. In other words in light of all of that, in light of the fact that I am a child of God and have great power, how am I supposed to respond? How am I supposed to live?
Following God doesn’t mean making him your top priority; it means making him ALL of your priorities. In this lesson we explored how following God should cost us more that just our leftovers. We looked how living like Jesus means we must be willing to sacrifice. We also looked at the joy that comes when we sacrifice.
On face value, Ephesians 5:1-2 may seem like it isn’t that difficult of a passage to live by. I mean, sure we will never be just like God, but we can act like Him in much the same way that a child will act like his
father. But it is the next part that makes things hard.
Read verse 2 again.
Did you catch the hard part there? We are to live a life of love as Christ did, and then Paul points out what we should already know, that Jesus gave himself up to be a sacrifice to God. So in order to be imitators of God we must also sacrifice.
Following Jesus means following Him in all things. Jesus was willing to sacrifice everything, even up to His own life. We must also be willing to sacrifice what we have for God and for others. But that is a hard thing to do. It is hard for us to stop being the center of our own world and start putting other’s needs before our
own. It is hard for us to come to God with anything more than just our leftovers. For a visual, we had some Tupperware containers stacked on the floor to represent our leftovers.
Next we read a story called Michael's Gift. Michael’s gift was special, not because of what it was, but because of what it cost him to give it. All of the rest of the children were giving gifts their parents had bought. It didn’t cost them anything. Michael was willing to pay the price and because of that he brought joy to someone else, as well as to himself.
Many Christians in churches today are giving gifts that cost them nothing. If you really added up all of their church going and youth group attending and working in children's church, you would find that it didn’t really cost them much. Just maybe some free time, a party now and then, and a couple of extra hours sleep on Sunday morning. It isn’t that they don’t like God, actually they think they are impressing Him, but they are giving the leftovers of their day instead of their first fruits.
What about you? Is God just getting your leftovers? Are you doing all that you can for you, and then at the end of the week or on Wednesday night, if there is time left, you offer that to God? God isn’t asking for your leftovers. He wants all of you. We have to stop offering a couple of Sundays and Wednesdays a month and feeling like we are really doing something for God. God doesn’t need you, but He wants you—for your sake.
There are four things following God may cost you:
1) Your Money: Honoring God with your money goes way beyond just giving a tithe. Letting God be in control of your money means that everything you buy is an act of worship. How you spend your money will reflect your priorities. We should glorify God with all of our spending. What is the last thing you saved and used your money to buy?
2) Your time: What time? From ball games to piano practice to school to church stuff to a million other things. We are busier than we have ever been before. We give God the leftovers of our time because we have scheduled every minute of our day. When you look at your schedule does it honor God? Now I'm not talking about the things you have to do, like school. But maybe look at what you do after school, besides homework. How much TV do you watch at night? Do you play video games? Read for pleasure? Draw?
Maybe you need to do less somewhere else so that you can spend more time reading your Bible, talking to your parents, building better relationships with your siblings, in prayer. We must all stop running around trying to be like everyone else and include God in our decisions on how we spend our time.
3) Your comfort: This one is big, but it is true. When you stop giving God your leftovers and start sacrificing all of who you are for Him it will cost you your comfort. It is much easier to keep doing things the way you have been doing, but I promise you the best things in life come when we are willing to get a little
uncomfortable. Start by telling a friend at school that's not a Christian that you are praying for them. Maybe they have a sick relative or are struggling with a subject at school. Try telling the lady who rings your mom or dad out at the grocery store, "God bless you". We talked about how some of us felt out of our comfort zones on the missions trip, but how in doing so, we blessed others.
4) Your whole heart: God wants all of who you are. God wants to be not just your top priority, but all of your priorities. God wants your whole heart. This isn’t saying that you have to sacrifice to get God to love you. He already loves you. This doesn’t mean that this sacrifice will save you. You are already saved. It means that when you offer to God an offering that comes from you—one that cost you something, you won’t be able to measure the return that you get. Because, you see, you will never be able to out give God. When
you come to God with your whole heart you will find joy that can face any hardship, you will find life that is more free than you could ever imagine. When you give God more than just your leftovers, you can be a part of something greater. When you give God all of who you are, He can take you and use you to change
the world.
You have the opportunity today to offer God not gifts that you have lying around, but a gift that cost you something. He has already given you the greatest gift in the world when He gave His life for you. You can choose to keep giving gifts that don’t cost anything, or you can jump into the joy that comes from giving all
you have to God. If you begin to give to God all of who you are, you will be able to walk into life like Michael, with your head held high, smiling for all the world to see.
We ended with a movie clip from the end of Saving Private Ryan. (Yes parents, I know this movie is Rated R. I promise I only showed a clip from the end of the movie. I could not find the clip I needed on YouTube, but the library had the movie.) The realistic film follows the journey of an American platoon of World War II soldiers as they march across war-torn Europe in search of Private Ryan, the only living son of four brothers who have been killed in the war.
It’s a unique plot; usually, the platoon of brave soldiers puts their lives on the line for a mission. In this case, the mission is the life of one man. But since the United States government wants Private Ryan pulled from active combat duty before he is sent home in a body bag like all his brothers, Capt. Miller and his band of brothers set out to find and save him. The movie ends with most of the men in the platoon losing their lives trying to save Private Ryan. It’s a story of sacrifice, from beginning to end.
In the clip, we saw the personal sacrifice that Capt. Miller made for Private Ryan, and we also heard his dying words spoken to the young private. He simply said, “Earn this.” This scene showed the sacrifice one person was willing to make for another, and how that person took the sacrifice seriously enough to live every single day of his life accordingly. Jesus has made an even greater sacrifice for you and me than Capt. Miller made for Private Ryan, so we must live our lives in a way that shows God we take the sacrifice of His perfect and holy Son, seriously.
In a very powerful and graphic way, this clip shows us what Jesus has done for us. When Private Ryan needed to be saved, along came Capt. Miller. Private Ryan could not save himself; his enemy was too powerful for him. But, with Capt. Miller’s help and sacrifice, not only did Private Ryan survive, but the enemy was overcome. Private Ryan knew that he had been given new life because of Capt. Miller’s sacrifice, so he lived the rest of his long life trying to “live up to” the sacrifice Capt. Miller and his men made for him. Living a life worthy of his “calling” consumed this young man throughout his long life.
You and I should also live a life that is worthy of the sacrifice Christ made for us. Paul gives us a short list of really important habits and practices to focus on in our lives. If we commit to living a life that follows these commands, we will live a life that is worthy of our calling. We will bring honor to Jesus and show Him that we took His awesome sacrifice seriously. We will show Jesus that because He was willing to live and die for us, we are willing to live for Him.
AMEN!
