Happy 4th of July! What a great day to spend time in the presence of a God who gives freedom! On a day when we celebrate our country’s freedom and those who have defended that freedom over the years, how fitting that the next section we have come to in the book of Ephesians is the armor of God and how to stand firm against the attempts of the enemy to block God’s plan for our lives.

A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:10-12).

Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Eph.6:13-17).

There is no doubt about it – we have an enemy! We could potentially fight some kind of spiritual battle every day but there is no need to panic, no need to fear, for God is on our side and the battle has already been won. When the enemy tries to discourage us, we can remind Him of the Sovereignty of God; when he tries to block the path ahead of us, all we have to do is speak the name of Jesus and he has to flee.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7b).

This week Scott and I are speaking at the Northwestern Illinois Children’s camp and we are having a wonderful time. The temperatures have stayed close to 100 degrees but the kids are having fun and God is moving in our midst. I can tell you right now that the enemy does not like Kids Camp! He has tried to discourage me and speak lies into my heart. I have had to make a very conscious effort to put on the armor of God and speak the name of Jesus, reminding myself that the devil is full of lies and wants nothing more than to block God’s plan for this week in the hearts of these kids.

The best advice I can find in my morning coffee to prepare me for the battle ahead is found in the next verse of Ephesians 6: PRAY in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere (v.18).

The next best thing I can do to prepare for the battle ahead comes next in the Scripture – I can ask you to pray for me. There is power in prayer and when we unite in prayer, the enemy has no chance.

And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God’s mysterious plan that the Good News is for Jews and Gentiles alike. I am in chains now, still preaching this message as God’s ambassador. So pray that I will keep on speaking boldly for him, as I should (v.19-20).

Just as Paul had instructions for the relationship between children and parents, he also gave instruction for the relationship between slaves and masters, which we can apply to our relationships on the job or the ministry teams we work on.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free.

Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Don’t threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites (Eph. 6:1-9).

Serve them sincerely…with all your heart…as though you were working for the Lord. We looked at very similar instruction from Paul to the Church at Colosse when we studied Colossians earlier this year.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has not favorites.

Masters, be just and fair to your slaves. Remember that you also have a Master – in heaven (Col. 3:22-4:1).

Serve them sincerely…as though you were working for the Lord…the Master you are serving is Christ.

God calls us to have a servanthood attitude in everything we do and in every relationship – whether we are the child or the parent, whether we are the leader or being led. It all comes down to the fact that we all have the same Master – God.

Scott and I are working at Kids Camp on NWIL District this week and there are examples of Christ-like servant attitudes all around us. There are incredible people here who have taken a week’s vacation to be with a cabin of 8 kids 24 hours a day in 100 degree temperatures. There are more who are here working as Directors. They have spent months preparing for this week so that the kids will have a good time and grow in their relationship with God. They will sleep very little this week. They are serving sincerely…with all their heart…as though they are working for the Lord.

Whatever God has called you to do today, wherever He has placed you – serve God today with your whole heart. Consider every task ahead of you as if you are doing it for the Lord. Remember that the Master you are serving is Christ.

Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. “Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise: If you honor your father and mother, “things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on earth” (Eph. 6:1-3).

Paul is repeating a familiar commandment to the Church, the 5th commandment of the 10 found in Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5. This is the first commandment where God is promising blessings on anyone who will obey – which shows us how important this is to God.

But the phrase that sticks out the most to me in these first three verses is “because you belong to the Lord.” We are God’s children – we belong to Him! Notice He gave no exceptions to this command. It doesn’t say, “If your parents are good to you…” or “If your parents deserve honor…” God’s instructions are for us to show honor to our earthly parents because He is our Heavenly Father.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord (Eph. 6:4).

God has a purpose in parenthood that goes far beyond supplying the physical needs of our children. It is in the parent-child relationship that God wants us to learn about the relationship He wants with us. When we discipline our children as God teaches us to, they begin to understand God’s love for us and why He disciplines us. Because we belong to the Lord, we teach our children that they, too, belong to the Lord.

Hebrews 12:6-11 explains this further: “For the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes each one He accepts as His child.” As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children…For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in His holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening – it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

Oh, there are the blessings again – the blessings of a peaceful harvest of right living!

This passage is coming right after the familiar FAITH chapter in Hebrews 11, which is followed by Paul’s instruction at the beginning of chapter 12 to throw off anything that is hindering us – whether it is sin or not – keep our eyes focused on Jesus and run the race marked out for us. He continues this analogy of running the race in verses 12 & 13, referring to the discipline we receive from our earthly Father: So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.

We have a legacy to carry on to our children. Just as we learned from the discipline we received from our parents, that God at times disciplines us with this same kind of love, so we need to help our children understand the love of their Heavenly Father. In doing this, we are impacting generation after generation to follow.

But perhaps the discipline you received from your earthly parents is not a good reflection of the loving discipline God carries out. Our earthly parents are not perfect like our Heavenly Father is and they sometimes miss out on God’s plan for how a parent should discipline their child. But this does not change God’s instructions to you. Perhaps you are the one who will make a difference for the coming generations by following God’s commandment – by honoring your parents and by training your children in the ways of God.

Because you belong to the Lord, teach your children and grandchildren that they, too, belong to the Lord. Now here’s the challenging part – REMEMBER that your children belong to the Lord. God gives us the privilege and task of raising HIS children. We are never to hold tighter to them then we do to the Lord who gave them to us, for they are His. The older my girls get, the more God is teaching me that they are His – that He has a plan for their life and I can trust Him with that plan…because they belong to the Lord.

And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (Eph.5:21). The next passages of Scripture can easily be connected with what God had for us in yesterday’s Morning Coffee by looking at this one verse. We have choices to make in our relationships with others – we can put ourselves first or INSTEAD submit to one another out of our love and respect for Jesus Christ.

Before I can go any farther I need to decide if I love Jesus enough to do this for Him – if I respect Him enough to submit to His authority and live as He has asked me to live. We cannot take that for granted because sometimes that is what is keeping us from doing what He has asked us to do. What He asks of us is not always easy but there is a secret to making any of these relationships work as God designed and it goes back to yesterday – to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

First, Paul instructs us regarding the marriage relationship:
For wives, this means submit to your husbands, as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands.

As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband (Eph. 5:22-33).

I do not think we can do what God is asking here, or at least maintain it for a significant amount of time, without an infilling of the Holy Spirit. It is not always easy to submit in love and respect to our spouse. In the same way, we as the Church have difficulty submitting to God’s authority over us as the body of Christ. This kind of love and respect is also made possible with that key ingredient – the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

To truly love each other the way Christ loves the church, let’s consider again Ephesians 5:2, “Live a life of love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.” Sacrificial love – This is what God is calling us to in our marriages and in our relationships with others. He is calling us to love to the point of sacrifice, putting others before ourselves as a reflection of our relationship with Christ.

It goes back to yesterday’s flavorful ingredient in our morning coffee – to make the most of every opportunity. Today we will be given opportunities to love sacrificially. Starting our day off in God’s presence, allowing Him to fill us fresh and new with His Spirit, will empower us to love and respect each other the way God calls us to – whether it is to our spouse or our family or the Church or anyone God puts in our path today. Today, let us once again set out determined to make the most of every opportunity.

As we discussed yesterday, Paul gives us many comparisons in his letter to the Church at Ephesus. We have a choice to be filled with one thing or to be filled with another – to be filled with what the world has to offer or to be filled with what God has to offer. We cannot choose both. We either choose one or INSTEAD choose the other:
– Filled with the sin nature or instead filled with God so that we can grow each day to be more like Him
– Filled with ourselves or instead filled with love following the example of Christ’s sacrificial love for us
– Filled with immorality, impurity and greed or instead filled with thankfulness to God
– Filled with the darkness of the world or instead filled with the light from the Lord which produces what is good and right and true
– Filled with the what pleases you or instead fill your life with what pleases the Lord

In the next section of Scripture, Paul gives us another “instead” that continues with the thought that we have a choice to fill ourselves with what the world offers or fill ourselves with what God offers.

So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. INSTEAD, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph.5:15-20).

Paul warns us to be careful how we live. God has a plan for our lives and He wants us to be available to Him every moment of every day. His plan is for us to make the most of EVERY opportunity. We have all heard that verse before but have we considered the context that verse is coming from. It’s another either / or decision – filled with wine or filled with the Spirit; living like fools or like those who are wise.

There are some things we can fill our lives with that alter our ability to make the most of every opportunity. Paul uses the example of wine here. There are inherent dangers in the consumption of wine that set it apart from most other things we can consume. Paul warns here that it can ruin your life. Alcohol has the potential to alter our ability to make a good decision. It does not just quench our thirst but it influences us – it changes personalities, it breaks down inhibitions, it leaves you craving more.

But God says – crave Me! Don’t go looking for what the world has to offer or how the things of the world can bring you pleasure but let me be the One to bring you pleasure – to alter you into the person I want you to be. Be filled with My Spirit and spend your time giving praise to Me, giving thanks to Me. Understand what I want you to do! Beware of things like wine that will ruin the life that I have planned for you.

Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should. Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone (Col. 4:2-6).

Be alert. Pray for many opportunities. Proclaim God’s message clearly. Live wisely. Make the most of every opportunity. This entire year God has focused my attention on His plan for my life. He created each of us for a purpose. He died on a cross so that we could serve Him, so that He could work through us to bring others to Christ.

God has a plan for our lives and He wants us to be available to Him every moment of every day. His plan is for us to make the most of EVERY opportunity. Let’s guard our hearts and our minds from ANYTHING that might take away our ability to do just that.

Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church (Eph. 4:15). Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God – truly righteous and holy (Eph. 4:24). “Instead” – that is a powerful word. Paul continues in Chapter 5 with the comparison of following our old sin nature or instead growing each day to become more and more like the God we were created to be like – truly righteous and holy.

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God (Eph. 5:1-2).

Just as children follow the example their parents set for them, whether good or bad, we are to imitate our Heavenly Father in everything we do – but the primary way to imitate God is by living a life filled with love. We are to LIVE LOVE – but not just any kind of love, the example of sacrificial love that Christ Jesus set for us. When we live a life of sacrificial love, the aroma of our life is pleasing to God. When we live for ourselves, let’s face it, we stink!

Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes – these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world (Eph. 5:3-5).

Oh how the things of this world pull for our attention every day! We are surrounded by the stink of sexual immorality and, I have to admit, the smell often clings to us as well. The choices we make in the television shows we watch or the movies that entertain us or the jokes we laugh at – we come out smelling a little more like the world every time. But Paul pulls out another “instead” for us. Instead of choosing to fill our minds and our mouths with what the world thinks is funny, we can fill our hearts with love so that thankfulness is what spills over. The aroma of thankfulness is pleasing to the Lord.

Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. Don’t participate in the things these people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true (Eph. 5:6-9).

I love that last sentence! It holds the secret of how to imitate God or how to follow the example of Christ. It is the light within you that produces what is good and right and true. Christ living in us – the Holy Spirit filling us each day – that is what changes our aroma. It’s not about human effort to be something I cannot be no matter how hard I try. Imitating God by my own strength is like spraying perfume on to mask body odor instead of simply taking a shower and washing the smell away.

Human effort comes into play when we are faced with choices each day. But, even in the moment of decision, God has equipped us with the light in our life to make the right choices. He can grow us to be what He created us to be but in the moment we have a choice between listening to the prompting of the Spirit or participating in the things those around us are doing – Christians and non-Christians alike.

Paul has another “instead” for us in verses 10-14: Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

Christ provides the light for us to walk in. God does not simply command us to be like Him without equipping us with what we need to obtain holiness. God gives us love so that our life can be filled with the same kind of sacrificial love Christ displayed on the cross. God does incredible things in our life so that it is not difficult to let thankfulness flow from our conversations. Jesus gives us the light within us so that our life can produce what is good and right and true.

But we are still faced with choices each day. We can choose to take part in what the world has to offer or instead we can rise from the dead and allow Christ to give us light. Look for those “instead” moments today. Recognize the choices before you and determine what scent your life will be today.

Life is full of changes and each change has a purpose in our life. God uses each new situation to draw us closer to Him and to form us into the person He created us to be. His plan is not for us to continue in the old way of sin but to live a holy life.

With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.

But that isn’t what you learned from Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God – truly righteous and holy (Eph.4:17-24).

Paul then goes on to compare the old person with the new person, the old sinful nature with the life renewed by the Spirit. He shows the change that occurs in our life when we stop living for our own purposes and start following his good and pleasing and perfect will for our life.

The first time I read these differences, I read quickly for this passage was very familiar to me. Then I went back and slowly took stock of every change. Praise God for the change He has made in my life. I thank Him for making me a new person yet I admit I sometimes allow myself to fall into some of the old and familiar patterns of this world – forgive me, Lord! Let your Spirit do a work in my heart, continuing to renew me and transform me into a new person for the sake of Your plan for my life.

Let’s look at the comparison of the old sinful nature and the new life where our thoughts and attitudes are renewed by the Spirit (Eph. 4:25-32):

Old – Telling lies.
New – Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.

Old – We sin by letting anger control us.
New – Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.

Old – Stealing.
New – Use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need.
(When you look at the new it puts a new definition on the old – don’t think of stealing the same but consider the possibility that we are stealing from God when we choose to not live generously with our time and money when there are those in need around us).

Old – The use of foul and abusive language.
New – Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.

Old – Bringing sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live.
New – Remember, He has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.

Old – A life where there are even moments of bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.
New – Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:2).