Article 10 (Ephesians 4 17 - 5 2)

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Ephesians 4:17-5:2

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So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

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They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that isin them due to the hardening of their hearts.

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Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensualityso as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

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That, however, is not the way of life you learned

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when you heard about Christ and were taught in him inaccordance with the truth that is in Jesus.

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You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your oldself, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;

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to be made new in the attitude of your minds;

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and to put onthe new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

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Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

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"In your anger do not sin”

: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,

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and do not give the devil afoothold.

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Those who have been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their ownhands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

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Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others upaccording to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

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And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whomyou were sealed for the day of redemption.

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Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along withevery form of malice.

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Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgaveyou.

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Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children

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and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved usand gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ,The first photos of the new baby are in. Nathalie had an ultrasoundthis week and everything looks good…and we got to see some of the photos.And these are some good ones. I mean we’ve been through this afew times now and we have some pictures of what is allegedly anarm here and what’s supposed to be a leg there…and somethingthat’s big and round and might be a head or it might not – it couldhave been a gall stone – but this time there was a really good one.A picture of a head where you can see the eyes, nose and mouth all pretty clearly defined. You can see this is a baby. A little tinyhuman being.And just so nobody’s shocked – it looks just like the other ones.Same eyes…same nose…pretty close to Grace, Zoë and Rose.Even when the baby is that big you can tell that it – he or she – isgoing to look like the rest of them.That’s great. I mean there’s a little bit of Nathalie and a little bit of me in each of them…our children follow in our image – it’s part of what connects us to them.

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And that image stays throughout life. I mean when you grow up – of course you’re an individual – and you have your own identity… but even now – when I look in a mirror and then I look back at pictures of my parents and my grandparents I can see little bits of them…and I’m sure that you can too… Now I bring this up because as we continue with the ContemporaryTestimony we’re going to talk tonight about the image of God.The book of Genesis tells us that we were created in the image of God. He is described as a parent to his children – and that in thatstory of everything being made – he took dirt and put it together and took a rib and fashioned from it – and this Adam and Eve – they were made to look like God.So we begin this evening thinking about that image – that God has passed on to us through these generations – and one of theconsequences of that reality is that if we bear the image of Godthen to some extent –

I. When we look in the mirror – we can see God.

Now, of course, we’re going to have to be very careful with thisstatement. I don’t mean to say that when you look in a literalmirror you can match eyes and noses and ears with the divinecreator of everything.That’s not it – we’re not talking about a physical sense…the faceof God isn’t a human face – we don’t really know what God lookslike...and we’re not supposed to picture it anyways…When we say we’re made in the image of God we’re talking in anontological sense. Now that’s a big word – ontological – it has to

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do with the study of being – of nature – the primary characteristicsof what you are at the core of your existence…An example is existence itself: an ontological category is whether or not something exists. Anselm – an old, old Roman Catholic philosopher from before the Reformation argued for the existenceof God like this – he said that one of the ontological definitions of God is existence – it is impossible to conceive of the being Godwithout existence – God without existence isn’t God – thereforeGod must exist.That’s the sort of thing that God has passed on to us – as image bearers – when you look in the mirror one thing that you can see isthat you exist, I exist, we exist just like God does.And there are other things that we can see though the ontologicalmirror. We have free will – the ability to make decisions – moraldecisions – and not just react to the environment.We are creative – we have the ability to make things and toimagine new possibilities.We have within us the ability to do good. To love. To experience joy. To bless. To seek justice. To love mercy.To use theological terms here – we have received thecommunicable attributes of God. These are the things that Godmade us with. They’re wired right into us.And when we describe God some of the things that we do whichare like this – what we’re doing is noticing this image of God inthe mirror. Now the argument that comes next is an important one: Whatabout sin? I mean – we understand that God made Adam and Eve –

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