Just take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter 5 for our scripture reading this morning. It goes with our message. Ephesians 5, and we'll read verses 1 through 7. Focus on that text today. Follow along in your copy of scripture as we read beginning in verse 1. Paul writes to this local church in Ephesus and he says, But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not once be named among you as becometh saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. For this you 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. So our Father and our God, I pray that we would be challenged today by our partnership on this journey of the Christian life, as well as challenged by whom we're following. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. When his book Backpacking with the Saints, the author Belden Lane, he recounts one of his hiking failures. It was when he was in college, and he and his college roommate wanted to hike. They'd done some hiking before, but never a hike of this magnitude. They wanted to hike to the summit of Mount Whitney. Now, Mount Whitney is the tallest peak in the continental United States, the lower 48. Stands about 14,000, a little over 500 feet high. never been on a mountain that high before in their lives and so they ventured out and uh... it's quite a challenging uh... challenging thing in fact uh... the author talks about the challenges of potential dehydration and uh... altitude sickness and precarious footing and so on and so forth quite a quite a lot of danger along the way well they got at one point along the way and uh... he uh... lane had almost He had stumbled and almost fell, caught himself, and had he not caught himself, he believes he would have plummeted over quite a cliff, probably lost his life. Needless to say, that scared him. And the rest of his hike was filled with fear until he got to a particular spot. It was about 1,700 feet from the summit. and the mountain had become enshrouded with fog, and he couldn't even see, hardly see his feet in front of him, beneath him. And there was a section where they had to cross, had to walk across a very narrow pass, and if he fell, I mean again it was the end, and he just panicked. He just froze in paralyzing fear. He could not go on. So he didn't. His roommate went on and summited, but he did not. And later that evening, after they got back to their base camp, he was feeling pretty bummed about the failure. And a group of Boy Scouts came back, had come down off the mountain. And they came walking in. And so Belden Lane asked them, so how far did you get? Figuring, you know, Boy Scouts, they certainly didn't sum it. And they said, well, we made it all the way to the top. All of you? He said, yeah, all of us. And included in that group was a 12-year-old boy. Lane Surly felt pretty bad about his own failure. Now there may have been a lot of reasons why the Boy Scout Troop made it to the summit and Lane did not, but I think there are probably two very obvious reasons that stand out. One of them is that the Boy Scout Troop was being led by a very experienced leader who had done plenty of hiking and summiting of the mountain before, knew exactly what he was doing, and therefore could tell these young men what to do every step along the way. The other factor certainly was that those Boy Scouts were all partners together in this effort of reaching the summit. Lane and his college roommate, they didn't have the experience to be partners in this venture, and neither could lead the other along the way. Well, if you're a follower of the Lord Jesus, One thing we've discovered in the book of Ephesians is that you are walking on a journey. One of the songwriters talks about it as pressing on the upward way, hopefully gaining new heights every day. So this metaphor of a walk is a well-known and well-understood metaphor. It's the most commonly used metaphor that the Apostle Paul uses for our journey in the Christian life. We're on a long upward trek, long walk. We saw in Ephesians 4 verse 1 that Paul tells us we need to walk worthy of this calling to which we have called. And now in today's text in verse 2, Paul, in verses 1 and 2 particularly, Paul challenges us to engage in this journey with the right partners, following the right leader, and avoiding those who are going to drag us down. Now notice who these partners are here in verse 1. Paul uses a plural, you, when he says, but you, speaking of all of those who comprise this local church, you, therefore, be followers of God. So he's speaking to the congregants, the members of this local church in Ephesus, as the necessary partners who are walking together on this particular journey. So the whole congregation is included. It is the same group that he speaks to back in chapter 4 verse 1 who need to walk worthy together. In fact, the bulk of chapter 4 is about that subject of the church, those who comprise the church, walking worthy together In the first section there, verses 1 to 6 of chapter 4, walking together and maintaining the unity of the local church. And then in verses 7 to 16, appreciating the diversity of gifts within that church and functioning as a body. And we're to do this together, walking worthy together. And in verses 17 and following of chapter four, this is the same group of people who need to walk together as we learned of Christ. So notice verse 17, he says this, I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you from here on out, walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, Why? Because he says in verse 20, you have not so learned Christ. So he says, you who are Christ, you who are followers of Christ that make up this local church, he says you're to walk together with those who have also learned Christ as you learned Christ. These are to be the partners on this journey, fellow believers that comprise the membership of a local church. Now, in our text this morning, in verse 7, Paul further clarifies and says that your partners must not be those who would be described as unbelievers. So notice verse 7, he says, be not therefore partakers with them. That word in the King James translated partakers could just as legitimately and rightly be translated partners. Don't be partners with them. Well, with whom? Now look back in the previous verse. Don't be partners with those who are the children of disobedience. Those whom you're not to partner with are those who would be characterized as being disobedient to God. disobedient to his commandments, to be sure, but disobedience to his charge to trust Christ, to follow Christ. These are children of disobedience. They're not to be your partners along the way. And furthermore, they're not to be your partners because, as verse six also tells us, they are destined for the wrath of God. I mean, it's just common sense, isn't it? If these who are disobedient to God are destined for the wrath of God, and you are wanting to be, and if you're a follower of Christ, it would be the want of your heart, you're wanting to be obedient to God, and you're destined for the delight of God, not the wrath of God, but life in God, then why would you partner with those? No, these are not to be your partners along the way. You need the right kind of partners. Now, back in verse 1, with these partners together, notice how we need to follow the same leader. Follow the same leader. Paul says, be ye therefore followers of God. Be followers of God. Now, There are all kinds of followers who follow a leader. There are all kinds of leaders who have followers. Right? We get that. Think with me here for a minute. We're not called upon to follow God as, say for example, gang members follow the pack leader. You know, people get into gangs for a variety of reasons, usually to feel accepted and so forth. But generally speaking, along the way, they find that they have to follow that leader or else there will be some kind of really unpleasant circumstances to the gang member if he doesn't follow what the leader demands of him. Or think of a mafia boss, for example. Those in the mafia, they may get into it for whatever reasons, but they soon realize that they better follow what the boss, the mafia boss, tells them to do, or else they're going to suffer some pretty unpleasant circumstances. So gang members, mafia members, they follow the leader out of fear. We're not talking about that kind of following. We're also not talking about the kind of following that, say, a pop icon has. As you know, pop icons come and go, right? And their fan base, it grows and shrinks, and it can grow and shrink overnight depending on what that icon, that pop star, does or doesn't do. A pop star can be easily replaced with the next pop star. That's not how we're to follow God. And we're also not to follow him as like a political zealot would follow a candidate who seems to espouse our values and seems to promote what we want promoted. Now, at least, he does. I remember as an avid political zealot, 10-year-old boy, campaigning for, as a 10-year-old boy might campaign, for Richard Nixon in 1968. Some of you would remember that. Some of you would remember that era. You remember Richard Nixon. Some of you don't remember Richard Nixon for anything good. You only remember Richard Nixon as being the president who resigned to avoid prosecution, to avoid being impeached and maybe going to jail. But when he was running for office in 1968, oh boy, I was a, I was a zealot of this guy because he was promising to get us out of the war. And he was, and he was espousing values that we conservative Christians seem to appreciate. I didn't see too many followers shouting and proclaiming the accolades of Richard Nixon on August 9th of 1974. He resigned on August 8th. No. No, this is not the kind of following that we need to be. Notice how Paul describes our following of God here. He says, be followers of God as beloved children, as beloved children. We're to follow God as we who are followers of Christ. We follow God as we understand our privileged, unworthy position that we enjoy in this family. children of God. And remember how we became children of God. Paul talked about that. He laid the foundation for this exhortation here in chapter 5, verse 1. He says, follow God as beloved children. He laid the foundation for that all the way back in chapter 1, verse 4. when he is praising God and he is worshiping God as he opens up this letter and he says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as, and here's where the whole thing about being a child of his comes into play, according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. that we should be holy and without blame before Him. In love, He predestinated us unto the adoption of children. So when it sinks in and we finally understand that we are children of God because of God's grace, that in eternity past, He looked into the future of His creation and all of those whom He creates. And he looked down into the 21st century and he saw you and he saw me. And he says, that one, that one, that one will be one of my adopted children. He will be my child. We come to understand our position as children and that we have that position by the privilege and grace, unmerited favor of God, then we'll follow. We want to follow. But it's more than just being children. We're to follow Him not simply as being children. Boy, children will follow parents in some really bizarre ways and times and experiences. Parents can be awful to their children, terrible to their children, and their children will still follow them and love them. But that's not how God is described here, and that's not how you and I, who are the children of God, are described. Paul says, follow, follow God as beloved children, as beloved children. And now we not only understand our privileged, unworthy position as children, but we come to appreciate our Father's disposition toward us as well. We are beloved children. And here's a fascinating thing. That's exactly the same word that God the Father used of God the Son in two significant places when Christ was on earth. at his baptism, when the heavens opened up and he said, this is my beloved son. And on the Mount of Transfiguration, when he was transfigured before those disciples and the father spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved son, listen to him. Listen to him my beloved son so so this same term is used of Jesus God the Father speaks of Jesus and says he is my beloved son and listen listen get this God the Father speaks of you who are Christ's and says you are my beloved children and you are beloved children because you are in Christ the beloved son and therefore therefore As Paul says here in verse 1, we are to follow Him. And that word follow doesn't mean just simply walk behind. It means to imitate, to imitate Him. So as beloved children, we imitate our God's demeanor toward us. We imitate Him. When I meditated on this and thought about this imagery that Paul is evoking here. I reflected back on my mentor in that first hike that I took up that Camel's Hump Mountain in Vermont. I knew nothing about hiking. I just figured hiking was a matter of putting one foot in front of another and then getting to a destination. But as I was following behind this experienced hiker, who by the way himself had summited Mount Whitney, He heard me huffing and puffing behind him. He heard me gasping for breath. And he saw me many times grabbing my water bottle and sucking on the water bottle, getting a drink. And he said to me, at one point he said to me, he said, Brian, he said, or he said, Pastor, he said, listen, if you will try to breathe through your nose, like I'm doing, just breathe through your nose, then your mouth won't get so dry and you won't feel like you need to drink so much. OK, I'll try. I'll try. And then he said, when you're walking along, and this is a very rocky path, he said, when you're walking along, he said, don't step on the rocks in front of you and step up on them and then step. He said, step over the rocks. And they were the size you could do that. You could just step over the rock. And he explained, he said, because the more stepping up that you do, the more energy it drains from your legs. So just follow how I walk. And that's what I did all the way up to the summit of Camel Sump. I walked, I watched, here's the point, watch, listen. I watched where he planted his foot, and that's where I planted my foot. And I tried to somehow match his cadence of step and his cadence of breathing. I was imitating him. That's the idea here. We are to be imitators of God as beloved children. And as partners together on this journey, following along, imitating our Heavenly Father as beloved children, what we are to imitate, what we are to imitate is some godly attitudes that God displayed for us to imitate. Notice how this verse, verse one, is sandwiched between what comes before and what comes after. And that idea of imitating God as beloved children refers in both directions. So look back at chapter four. As you remember, the chapter divisions all came later to help us more easily read the Bible and follow along and keep our place in the Bible and so forth. But so chapter 4, verse 32, just naturally follows into chapter 5, verse 1. Let's read it that way. Look at chapter 4, verse 32. Well, we go back to 31, it says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Now look, watch, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you, be ye therefore imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us. So what is it that we are to imitate? I would say there's two big things that Paul points out here. We are, first of all, to imitate this God-like, the way I phrased it last week was God-like profligate grace. Profligate grace? What do we mean by that? We're talking about an abundance of grace, an overabundance of grace that is poured out of us As God abundantly has poured out His grace on those who are Christ's, we are to mimic that, we are to imitate that. How so? Verse 32, by being kind, regardless of the merit of the one to whom we're kind. We're being kind to one another. We are to be compassionate, regardless of the perceived virtue of the need on our part. We're compassionate toward that person. Be tenderhearted, he says. And we are to be ready to forgive, regardless of the hurt that has been inflicted upon us, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us. You think about and see, reflect upon in your own life the experience and the experience of God's profligate grace toward you, the outpouring of his kindness and his compassion and his forgiveness toward you. Paul says, imitate God. Imitate God in this. But then in verse two, looking forward in our text, we're not only to imitate this God-like profligate grace, we're also to imitate Christ-like love. Christ-like love. Walk in love. Here we are, we're on this journey, the Christian walk, and we're to walk worthy of our calling on this journey. What does that look like? What's involved in that walk? It involves walking in love, even as Christ also hath loved us. So we're to imitate this Christ-like love. It begs a question, doesn't it? What question comes to your mind here? We're to walk in love as Christ loved us. Did the question come to your mind right then? Well, how has Christ loved us? How has Christ loved us? Well, we have some answers here in our text, and we have answers as we meditate on it, and we can reflect on another passage of scripture. Right here in our text, it tells us that he has given himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. How has Christ loved you? He has loved you intentionally. Intentionally. You see this here, right? He hath given himself for us. He has loved us. There is an intentionality in Christ's love. It's not just a willy-nilly thing that's just thrown out there. This is something that you, who are Christ, you can look at, and you can see, and you can say, Christ has loved me. There is an intentionality on Christ's part to love me. to give himself for me. Intentionally Christ is loved. He's also loved sacrificially. Our text tells us he gave himself as an offering and a sacrifice to God for us. Sacrificially. Jesus spoke of this in the Gospel of John in chapter 15 verse 13. Remember he's spoken of his own speaking about himself and what he was going to do. And he said, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Now the thing of it is, the disciples to whom Jesus was speaking, he says to them, you are my friends." Jesus loved his friends sacrificially. He loved us sacrificially. In John chapter 10 verse 11, how can we expand that to us? Because of what John chapter 10 tells us. In John 10 verse 11, Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. And later on in this passage, he says, other sheep I have which are not of this fold, That is right here in front of me that are not of this fold them Also, I must bring and they shall hear my voice and they shall be one fold and one shepherd and you are part of that fold You are part of those sheep whom Jesus was looking forward to and saying those sheep I must bring into my fold and it is for those sheep that I the shepherd am also laying down my life and As an offering, as our text speaks of Jesus who gave himself an offering for us, as an offering, Jesus gave himself voluntarily. Voluntarily. In John chapter 10 verse 18, Jesus says this, He says, no man takes my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. You know what Jesus is saying here? You know, in just a few minutes, we're going to reflect and look at a little wafer and a cup of juice. And we're going to emphasize that that wafer is an emblem. It's a symbol of the body of Christ. And the juice is symbolic of the blood of Christ. And we're going to reflect on the death of Christ on the cross. And what Jesus says here in John 10 verse 18 is that all of this that's coming that is going to culminate in that horrific death on the cross is not an accident. It's not the result of a series of events that have created a martyr. It's going to take place because Jesus gives his life voluntarily for you, for you as an offering As an offering, it emphasizes the voluntary nature of Christ's giving. But our text in Ephesians 5 also speaks of Christ's love as being expressed in this sacrifice, giving himself as a sacrifice for us. As a sacrifice, the emphasis is on the completeness of his giving. He gave himself completely. Charles Hodge helps us get the distinction between these two ideas as they appear in the same verse. He says this. He says, anything presented to God is an offering. I mean, a little while ago, we passed some plates, and some of you, as God has prospered you, you put some money in the offering plate. It was an offering unto the Lord. At the end of the communion service, the men will wait on us for a benevolence offering. And you may have a few extra dollars to throw in the offering plate to help somebody in need, out of compassion and kindness toward needy people. And you will give an offering that is a benevolence offering. But I guarantee that there is nobody here today, whoever has or ever will, on Friday before the bank closes, withdraw every dime out of your bank account and you will cash in all of your IRA funds and your pension funds and all the rest of that stuff, put it all in a bag and take the deed to your house and your car title and you'll sign all those over to Faith Baptist Church and put it all in a bag and bring it to church on Sunday morning and lay it down at the front of the auditorium. You're not going to do that. You will give an offering. but it will not be a sacrifice in the sense of Christ's sacrifice. When these two words are put together like this, as Hodge helps us understand, anything that we present to God is an offering, but a sacrifice is total. A sacrifice dies in the presentation. It dies. Christ's sacrifice was a complete one. How did he love us? He loved us intentionally. He loved us sacrificially. He also loved us specifically. Again, in John 10, verse 14, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep and am known of mine. In verse 27, he says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them. I know them. And they follow me. He loved us specifically. And he loved us faithfully. In John 13, we're told that Jesus, having loved his own, he loved them. He loved them to the very end. He loved faithfully. And in John 17, John chapter 17, we're asking the question, how has Jesus loved us? We're to walk in love as Christ has loved us. How has Jesus loved us? He loved you. He loved me intentionally, sacrificially, specifically, faithfully, and He also loves you. He loves you protectively. John 17 verse 12, Jesus, in that prayer to the Father for his own, he says this, while I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I have kept. And none is lost except the son of perdition, Judas. He kept, he loved protectively, keeping his own. And he loves generously, generously. The next verse in John 17, verse 13 and 14 says this. He says to the Father, and now I come to thee, and these things I speak in the world that they, they, my disciples, my followers, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word. He gives generously, he loves generously. And in verse 24, Jesus says, Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, they be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, loves his own generously. Now look, how has Christ loved you? Intentionally? sacrificially, specifically, faithfully, protectively, generously. Be imitators of God and walk in love as Christ has loved us. So ought we to love one another. We walk expressing these godly attitudes toward each other, this God-like profligate grace and this Christ-like, faithful, generous love. Now in the rest of our text, As we partner together on this journey imitating God and the Lord Jesus Christ along the journey, we furthermore avoid debilitating self-indulgence that will hamper and hinder the walk on the journey. In verses 3 through 6, we see what these debilitating self-indulgences look like. We need to avoid, first of all in verse 3, that which destroys our identity as saints. Look at that verse. He says, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not once be named among you as becometh saints. These self-indulgent behaviors that Paul talks about here at the beginning of verse three are behaviors that will mar your identity. Sexual relations outside of a monogamous marriage will mar your identity. Uncleanness is any kind of immorality, any kind of immorality at all will mar your uncleanness. Covetousness, this consuming greed that Paul talks of in verse five as being a form of idolatry, that will mar, that will mar your identity. What is your identity? Then the verse two, verse three says, You're a saint. So there is a manner of walking, there's a conduct along this journey that is consistent with, it's appropriate to this identity of being a saint. A set apart one. One that belongs to God, whom we're to imitate. One who belongs to Christ, whom we're to imitate. There are behaviors, there are manners of life along this journey that are appropriate, that are fitting to being a saint, but fornication and uncleanness and covetousness are not those in that category. They're to be avoided. expressions of self-indulgence that will mar your identity. And then in verse four, we're also to avoid what defiles your role as a worshiper. Avoid what defiles your role as a worshiper. Let me explain. Verse four is talking about talk, what comes out of your mouth. Right? He says, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting. What are these things? This filthiness that is, this filthiness that will corrupt my worship. It is that shameful, indecent speech that corrupts your worship. Things like dirty, off-color jokes. The casual, flippant use of derogatory sexual terms. where, I mean, the kinds of things that are being spoken of in the public discourse today that even 10, 15, 20 years ago, you would have been rebuked if you said them. You would have raised your eyebrows if you heard them spoken in public. And now they fall off the lips, the tongues of people without any thought. Music, songs that would have been censored when, I mean, I remember as a teenager in the 70s in the rock and roll era, I didn't know it at the time, but I found out later that there were songs that before they were being allowed to be played on the radio, some of the lyrics had to be changed because of what they implied or what they suggested. Well now, you can have rappers use the most derogatory sexual terminology for women and behavior between men and women, and use it, employ it in the songs, and it's, quote, art. But this is not to be in your mouth. Not such shameful, indecent speech. Not such filthiness. And then foolish talking. This would be the foolish, stupid talk of a moron. A moron? Where'd you come up with that? Actually, this word that is translated foolish talking, the Greek word is a compound word, and the last half of the word is moron. It's the talk of a moron. Of a fool. The speech of a fool. And then the last term is this term, jesting. This isn't saying you can't be a person of good humor. Because, I mean, after all, what would you do when the ice cream guy came around? You know, the good humor truck. No, jesting is not talking about having no sense of humor. It's an interesting word that's difficult to translate. The word itself has the idea of a clever turning, a clever turning. And you can see where that would be applied in a joke, right? Because if you hear comedians talk about how they write their jokes, they'll be talking about something that everybody can relate to, and then there's a turn, there's a little twist that creates a humorous response or a laugh out of you by that twist. So it can be applied to humor, but I think in the context, it's more likely to be the kind of speech where, and this has probably happened to you in your innocence and your communication with somebody at work or whatever, you said something, you used a word, and all of a sudden, people go, what? And they twisted that thing that you said, that phrase, that word that you said, and twisted it into something sexual or suggestive. That's the idea here. It's the turning of something innocent and harmless into something degrading and shameful and sexual of nature. Perversion. Sly, perverting talk. All right, so Paul says, look, in verse four, he says this filthy talk, this foolish talking, this jesting, this twisting of things to pervert what is said, these things are not to be on your lips. They're not to be part of your lips. Why? Because your lips, your lips, fellow partners along the journey, following Christ, imitating God, imitating Christ, your lips are to be marked by praise. This is none of these things, but rather at the end of verse 4, giving of thanks, giving of thanks. Could translate that simply offering grace, expressing praise. William Hendrickson, in his commentary on this, he summarizes this verse in this way. He says, clarion praise should be substituted for the clever phrase. Clarion praise should be substituted for the clever phrase. The clever phrase. No, you need to avoid what defiles your role as a worshiper. And then in verses five and six, you need to avoid what undermines your destiny in the kingdom. So you notice in verse five, Paul speaks of three kinds of people, three types of people. He speaks of the whoremonger, the unclean person, and the covetous person who is also an idolater. And notice the parallel, the connection between those types of persons and the behaviors of verse three. The whoremonger, the fornicator. The unclean person, the one who is all about uncleanness in verse three. The covetous man who practices covetousness, which is a form of idolatry. These are people, these are people living like this who are not to be your partners. And they're not to be your partners because they're not headed where you are headed. Look at the verse. It says, know this, that no whoremonger or unclean person or covetous man who's an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. But, here's the deal, you do. You do have an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. That is your destiny. That is where you are headed on this journey, to the receiving of the fullness of your inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. That's your destiny. But these who are like this, who are behaving like this, they're not headed where you are headed. You don't go there. Don't follow them. Avoid that which undermines your destiny. These are people who face God's wrath. Again, this is what the verse tells us, isn't it? Verse 6, let no man deceive you with vain empty words. There's all kinds of people who will tell us, using vain, empty words, there's not going to be any kind of divine judgment. Come on, there's no wrath of God. I mean, everything, as we saw last week in the Genesis video, everything's just continuing as it's always continued. There's no wrath of God coming. Well, you have to completely deny your Bible if that's what you're going to accept, because the scripture says, because of these things does come the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. People who live like this face God's wrath. Therefore, now listen, therefore, don't think for a minute that this kind of self-indulgent living It won't hamper you on the journey because it will, because it does avoid what undermines your destiny in the kingdom. So everyone in this room or everyone hearing this message today is on a journey of some sort. You're headed to one destination or another. You're headed to the destination of God's wrath, or you're headed to the destination of Christ's kingdom. You're on the path of life in Christ Jesus, following him, imitating him along the way. Now, if you are a follower of Christ, if you are a follower of Christ, Do your partnerships on this journey reflect that? Are you walking together in Christ-like love? Are you avoiding these debilitating expressions of self-indulgence? How are you walking on the journey? Our Father and our God, I pray this morning that you would remind us as our Father. And we, as your beloved children, have the wonderful privilege of imitating our God and our Savior. And in so doing, in such an imitating walk and life, There's so much that we can avoid. And Father, there's so much that we must avoid. At the same time, there is so much joy and privilege that can be ours. as we walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us. Oh, challenge us with this today, we pray, if there is one who is still on the path that's leading to destruction. Oh, may today they see that Christ, in his great love for sinners, gave himself on a cross died in their place, and if they will but call upon Him, turning from their sin, repenting from that sin, calling upon Him to save, He is gracious to save. Oh, may they turn today. May we who are followers of Christ, may we be intent in this imitating of You, our God, of Christ, our Savior. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.