The Many Forms of Disobedience-Part 4A

The Many Forms of Disobedience – Part 4 (A)

Praise the Lord, everybody.  We are continuing with the series on disobedience.  Please turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

This is a scripture that is not very popular, because it has a lot of directives from the Lord that has been taken out of context, and quite honestly has caused a lot of debates, both in the world, as well as in the church.  But the word of God is always true, and has stood the test of time, regardless of what anyone thinks about the subject matter.

With that being said, the Lord calls us to walk in love.  Let me stay here for a moment, because this seems to be a lost art in these days.  This is the most misunderstood four letter word in the dictionary, as well as in the bible.  People don’t seem to understand what it means to walk in love.  Let me step on some toes, because folks don’t want to do that.

Whether you are a believer or not, I love you.  It doesn’t really matter whether you have a relationship with me or not.  You may have hurt me, my family or friends, but I am still mandated by God to love you.  If you don’t look like me, I still have to love you.  Even if you don’t love me, I still love you.

Now please understand that just because I have to love you doesn’t mean that I have to put up with behavior from you that abuses me.  If I have to let you know that in order for us to walk in love, the issues between us need to be resolved, or it has to stop, then it means just that.  If we agree to disagree, or if we have to part ways, then we can do that, but it doesn’t or shouldn’t stop the love.

I know that I’m going to get some push back on this, because here’s where scripture is misquoted or incorrectly taught with regards to relationships, especially marriages.  I’m getting ready to go down that street in a few minutes, so stay with me.

The bible says that fornication, uncleanness (and I will add seen and unseen), covetousness, which means wanting something or someone that another person has, which is close to jealousy, should not be named among the saints.  We are also told that we should not have any filthiness, foolish talking, or jesting, which means unclean joking around, but to give thanks continually.

To continue, we are warned that no whoremonger, unclean person, someone who covets, which is also an idolator, has any place in the kingdom of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I will break this down for you, but suffice it to say that all of these aforementioned things stems at the root from disobedience.  Fornication means that you are having sex outside of marriage.  The world glamorizes it.  It’s all over the television as well as the movies.  God is against it, and we are to get our hormones in check.  Unless you are a child or a virgin, it’s likely that we are guilty of doing it.

Uncleanness doesn’t just mean that you’re not taking care of the outside of your body, meaning taking showers or baths, and brushing your teeth and all of the other hygienic things that you need to do to be fresh and clean, but the inside as well.  You can look like a million bucks on the outside, but have plots, plans and schemes to do other people in, to steal, kill and destroy your enemies, like Satan tries to do to us.

If you aren’t grateful and satisfied with what you possess, you are coveting by looking at your neighbor’s house, car, spouse, pets or anything else that you don’t have, but you want it, and are willing to do anything to get it or them.  Keeping up with the Jones’ comes to mind.  How about this thought?  Remember the Lord’s prayer?  There’s a part of it that says, “…give us this day, our daily bread…”  I’m just trying to help somebody.

The world comes up with new and improved ways of displaying filth, through acts, words and deeds.  If you listen to the current playlist of songs on some radio stations, 98 percent of it talks about sex and violence.  Some young men think that all women are b**ches, h**s, and are thirsty.  If you aren’t familiar with those terms, let me educate you on the real meaning of these words, and how they are wrongfully used to describe females, which may be you, your daughters, granddaughters, aunts, nieces and cousins.

A b**ch is a female dog, who may or may not be in heat.  A h** is a gardening tool, and to be thirsty means that you may be dehydrated.  Do you see how the enemy takes wordplay and wreaks havoc?  The sad part is that the media displays these young women on music videos, wearing almost nothing, and they think that this is real life.

And it doesn’t stop there.  Most rap music has gone way beyond the fun artistry of ordinary life when it came out in the 70’s and 80’s, and now only talks about how to have sex, graphically, I might add, as well as how to get high on that chronic, and how many bottles of Alize or champagne you can drink in one night at the club, and making it rain.  This is what the enemy is doing to set our young men up for illusionment, a life of crime and ultimate death.

To move on, a whoremonger is not only a person who agrees with the solicitation of sex for payment, but who actually participates in it, either by going to bed with the individual, or pimping them out for solicitation.  These are the many ways that people get caught up in idolatry, and the enemy takes advantage of our wicked desires by dangling a carrot in front of us.

If we will count the cost before plunging headfirst into sin, then we can avoid being disobedient, and crucifying the Savior all over again because we just have to have what we want.  Lord, help us to steer away from these things, so that we can be completely and totally in your will, in Jesus name, Amen.  May the Lord bless you, and we will pick this up tomorrow.