Today’s passage: Ephesians 5:11-14

Helpful thoughts:

• It’s harder to take part in unfruitful sin when you are busy being fruitful.
• The method of confronting sin is found in Matthew 18:15-20.
  • The purpose is to win your brother, not to shame him.
  • Other people are only added to the conversation when necessary and in order to win them.
• It is not necessary to be explicit in content when exposing sin.  Wisdom and discretion are loving toward the sinner and toward any others who might have to hear about the sin.

Questions to consider:

1. How can our aversion to hurting people’s feelings prevent us from lovingly fighting sin?  How devastating is sin?  How important is it to work together toward victory in repentance?
2. How does holding up all actions against the light of the Word of God prevent us from being judgmental or “Holier than thou”?  How do you know you’re not just being personally offended before you rebuke someone (Meaning, they broke one of your laws…not God’s)?
3. Why is Matthew 7:1-5 so important in this area of obedience in the Christian life?  How do you do when others have confronted you about your sin? How can you be thankful for the love others have shown you in shedding light on your sin?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 5:3-10

Helpful thoughts:

• In comparison with the context of Ephesians 4:17, since Christians are changed and changing, it wouldn’t make sense for a person who is living like an unbeliever to be accepted as a member of the church.
  • A sinful lifestyle should not be characteristic of the members of the church.
  • A person who has no inheritance in the kingdom of God should not be falsely recognized as a child of God in the church.  That kind of acceptance would require “empty words”.
  • That kind of acceptance would result in automatic disunity.
    • The believers in the church would be seeking what is pleasing to the Lord.
    • The unbelievers who are accepted in the “roles” would be seeking what is pleasing to themselves (Verse 19, “Greedy”).

Questions to consider:

1. Why is thanksgiving mentioned as the opposite of all sin listed in this passage?  What are we to be thankful for?  Who are we to thank?  How does thanksgiving help us in our fight for purity and righteousness?
2. How do we learn what is pleasing to the Lord?  Where has He shared His values and will with us?  Why do we want to please Him?
3. How does this passage reaffirm the need for church membership and the blessing of accountability?  Why is it MORE loving to tell someone they are not in the church when/if they are unrepentant and rejecting the lordship of Jesus Christ?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 5:1-2

Helpful thoughts:

• The Father loves His children.  Christ loved us.  We are to love one another.
• Christ’s love for us is depicted by His crucifixion.
• Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. (Romans 5:8)

Questions to consider:

1. Why is it so important to remember that love is not an emotion or feeling?
2. How would you explain the idea of “walking” in love?  What would the difference be between walking in love and an act of love?
3. How is our love pleasing to God?  What made Christ’s sacrifice a “fragrant offering”?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 4:25-32

Helpful thoughts:

• This paragraph consists of the results of the renewed mind in verse 23.  These are examples of what gets “Put off” and then what gets “Put on”:
  • Lying -> Honesty
  • Growing bitter -> Resolving conflict
  • Stealing -> Giving from the fruits of honest work
  • Cutting words -> Building words
  • Etc.
• Our model for forgiveness is the forgiveness God has granted us.

Questions to consider:

1. What do I have to believe in order to feel justified or exonerated for lying, bitterness, stealing, using cutting words, etc.?  What kinds of things do I have to be thinking in order to excuse my sin?
2. If there is a sin struggle going on in your heart even now, how does your thinking about the situation compare with what God’s Word says?  How will your faith in His Word have to overrule how you might think or feel about it?
3. How would thinking about God’s forgiveness of my sin help me to be ready to forgive others?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 4:17-24

Helpful thoughts:

• Christians’ lives will progressively look different than the lives of those who do not follow Christ.
• Putting off the “old man”and putting on the “new man” results from changing our thinking (From “darkened understanding” and “ignorance” to being “taught” and “learning”).
  • We do what we do because we want what we want.
  • We want what we want because we think how we think.

Questions to consider:

1. What humble conclusion must I come to about myself before I can start learning and growing?
2. What humble conclusion must I come to about the Bible before I can start learning and growing?
3. What is the bottom-line obstacle for the unbeliever in gaining understanding?  (Verse 18)  How should this change the way we would try to “convince” someone to become a Christian?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 4:11-16

Helpful thoughts:

• Apostles and prophets were given for service to lay the foundation of the church (Ephesians 2:20)
• Evangelists, shepherds and teachers are still serving today!
• A united church is a church with maturing Christians who are growing in:
  • Knowledge of the truth of God’s Word and…
  • Service in the work of the ministry.

Questions to consider:

1. Who is the one who is to benefit from a believer speaking the truth in love?  Who is the one who desires to benefit when speaking craftiness in deceitful schemes?
2. Which type of church leadership is necessary for a church to truly be united, maturing…and therefore biblical?  Why would an “elder rule” model be dangerous? Who is the “head” of the church?
3. Who builds up the church?   (End of verse 16)  How should this passage instruct us, First Baptist Church, as we consider our “growth” (First spiritually because this passage is primarily about spiritual growth, then numerically)?

Today’s passage: Ephesians 4:1-10

Helpful thoughts:

• The “Therefore” in 4:1 could really be related to all of chapters 1-3.  We have moved from learning doctrinal truth to the application of truth.
• Walking in a manner worthy of the Gospel includes:
  • Humility
  • Gentleness
  • Patience
  • Forbearing love (Sacrificially loving others within the church even when they might make it tough to do so)
  • Eagerly maintaining unity
    • Our unity comes through the fact that we have all been saved the same way by the same Lord for the same ultimate purpose.
• We were held captive by our sin.  Now we are captive to Christ.

Questions to consider:

1. Why is it so important that we remain Gospel-Centered as a church?  How does the Gospel keep us all humbled and focused on the right things?
2. Are you always bearing with others or are there ways that you know others have had to bear with you in love as well?  Why do we tend towards forgetting that we need the love of God and the love of others as well?
3. How does your blessed captivity to Christ give you a blessed purpose?  Why is your captivity to Christ better than self-willed freedom? (And, why might we struggle with that last question?)

Today’s passage: Ephesians 3:20-21

Helpful thoughts:

• God is able to do more than we are able to think.
  • This isn’t a “name it and claim it” prosperity gospel verse.  Those are things we think about and they are selfish.  They aren’t the riches and love of Christ.
  • This is a reminder of where our power comes from.  Our effectiveness in ministry/service comes from the one who gave us the Spirit, caused Christ to dwell in our hearts, and filled us with the fullness of God.  He is the power source, not my imagination.
• When we do God’s work, God’s way, God will get the glory and the results will last forever.
  • When we do man’s work, man’s way, man will get temporary praise and the results will last…a little while?

Questions to consider:

1. How could these verses help you to be encouraged to witness to that person you are sure would never get saved?
2. How do these verses encourage us to pray?  (Where does the power come from?)
3. Why is it so important that our church would seek to glorify God not just in what we are doing but also how we are doing it?  Whenever we see success in our church (Or our personal spiritual growth), who deserves the glory?