Scripture reading for this afternoon is from Ephesians chapter 5 verses 7 through 14. You can find this in your bulletins or you can use your Bibles as we will see a couple of passages later. Ephesians 5 verses 7 through 14. Do not become partners with them, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Let us pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful that as your church, we can open this word which has been revealed by you, knowing, Lord, that you are the one who is speaking here. And we are thankful that you have given us your spirit that give us understanding of your word. So we humble ourselves before you, recognizing that There is only one way we can read this, understand it, and believe it, and this is through your power. And we pray, Lord, that you send the Holy Spirit to us that give us understanding of your word and apply your word in our hearts. And we pray for those that still don't know you that they will also hear the good news, that they will also come to faith and join us to worship you as our Lord and King. We pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen. There is nothing more unifying than the word of God and the gospel. You can see that in how there is only one thing that can bring people from all countries and all generations and backgrounds and socioeconomic status together to be one family, to call each other brothers and sisters, to see each other with love. That is what the gospel and the word of God can do. There is no organization in the world that could do that, maybe they could try, but they will not succeed because what happened with the body of Christ is a miracle, is something that is a transformation in the heart of the believer, and that is only done by God and his power. But there is nothing more divisive in the world than the gospel and the word of God. It divides the whole human race into two groups. It doesn't matter if you are a member of the same family. It doesn't matter if it's your brother, blood brother, and you have the same father and the same mother, you grew up in the same neighborhood, going to the same high school, going to the same college, working in the same company, whatever. The gospel divides humanity into two groups. These are what Paul call in these verses that we read today, the children of light, And he also called the sons of disobedience, or you could say the children of darkness. And there is no way around this. There is no neutral point where you could say, I am not either a child of light or a child of darkness. You are either one thing or the other, and that is what the gospel and the word of God does. And therefore, as Christians, we should not be afraid of that, because this is God's will for the world. So the Bible brings people together, but the gospel also can divide humanity into two, and we are looking at that today. This metaphor that Paul is introducing in these verses, the metaphor of light and darkness. In previous verses, Paul has been talking and using a different metaphor. He was talking about garments. And Christians are called to remove their old garments and put on their new garments. And Paul here used another metaphor. He uses the metaphor of light and darkness. But both things are connected with they are both talking about the the individual who is a Christian, a believer. But they talk about two different aspects of the Christian life. The metaphor of garments deals with an internal issue. Because when you remove your old garments and you put on your new garments, even though this might look like it is something external, all these things that we went through these past weeks are things that happen at the heart of the believer. You remove all practices first from your heart, and as a result of that, they are expressed in what you do externally. But now when Paul uses this new metaphor, the metaphor of light and darkness, he's dealing with this other challenge that we Christians have. So we have the internal challenge, which is our sinful nature and being called to remove these old garments and put on the new garments. But we have also an external challenge, which is that as we live in this world, we are in constant connection with the sons of darkness and the works of darkness that are outside us. So as Paul gave some practical examples clear instructions of what are the things that we need to remove from our hearts, these old garments from our hearts. Paul is giving us, at least I can see, three main themes or three main actions that we as Christians have to take in terms of how we deal with the world and how we deal with the works of darkness and the children of darkness around us. So the first one that I could see from these verses is, do not become partners with the children of darkness. Do not become partners with the children of darkness. So Paul says, therefore, in verse seven, do not become partners with them. Of course, if you read that without reading what happened before, you might wonder, who are them? Who are them? Therefore, I encourage you to look at in your Bibles in verses 5 through 6, because Paul there is explaining who are them. He says, for you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or covetous that is an idolater has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. The them that we are called not to be partner of are those that are the everyone who are sexually immoral, impure, and covetous. These are the same ones that Paul called, at the end of verse six, as the sons of disobedience. Paul is calling us not to be partner with them. Now, when Paul says the immoral or the sexually immoral, the impure, and the covetous, he's not talking about simply somebody who Let's say even a Christian who fall into one of these things, but when he says, sexually, moral, impure, and covetous are those who are unrepentant of these things, and this is their style of life. In other words, this will be the non-believers, those who do not believe in the gospel and do not see the need of repentance. They are called the sons of disobedience. So what is the exhortation? Do not be partnered with them. And I think that our ESV versions do a good job translating the word somaticoi, which you have there as partner. Other versions translate that word as association. They will say do not become or do not have association with them. And that creates a problem because then it contradicts other things that Paul says in other parts of the Bible. For example, I'd like to invite you to go with me to a passage that gives a lot of light to this verse. This is 1 Corinthians chapter five, verses nine through 13. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters, since then you will need to go out of the world. But now I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, swindler, not even to eat with such one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge. God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you. So first of all, remember that the context of this passage right now is that Paul is addressing sexual immorality within the body of Christ, a man that was living with his stepmother, and the church was not doing anything about it, meaning was not applying church discipline. Then Paul says that he's speaking to the believers saying that they should not associate with sexual immoral people. But then he clarifies that he's not talking about sexual immoral in the world. But he's talking about the sexual immoral within the body of Christ. Meaning somebody who call himself a believer and is practicing sexual immorality. In fact, Paul says here that you should not even eat with them. Now what is the purpose of that? The purpose of that is that that sinner will realize of his sin and therefore repent and be restored. Because if you are associating with them, it's the Paul's point here, if you are associating with them, you are eating with them, you might be deceiving them to think that what they are doing is okay before God. But Paul is not saying this, as I said, you see here that he says, no at all, meaning the sexual immoral of this world, or the sexual immoral of this world of the really, because you will need to go out of the world. The point is that you can get from this passage is that Paul is telling you, do not associate with believers who are practicing sin, but you will need to associate with non-believers in this world. Otherwise, you will need to get out of the world. Now, on the one hand, in Paul, in that verse that we're reading today, he's saying, do not become partner with them. Now, you see what is important? The translation of this word, correctly as partner, Because on the other hand, he's saying that it's okay to have association, which is connection with those around the world, or those who are non-believers. It is clear that then partnership means more than just association. Partnership means to engage and practice the same things that those who are the sons of disobedience are practicing. But God want us not to create a bubble of believers where we only have friendship or connection with believers because otherwise who will be going out to bring the gospel to those that still don't know you. Now he forbids the association with the believer who is a sinner just because he has a purpose with that which is that the sinner will repent of his sins and come back to the church. So do not become partnered with the songs of disobedience. Do not engage in practicing the same things that those who do not believe Jesus are practicing. Now here Paul in verse eight tell us a few things that are very important that if you read the verse so fast you might miss them. or you might miss them just at the first reading. He says, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the world, light in the Lord. Well, so it is true that those who are Christians, we walk in light. because we see the truth. Our eyes has been opened and we walk in light. And those who are non-believers, they walk in darkness. They cannot see the truth. In fact, they suppress the truth. But this is not what Paul is saying here. He's saying something more than Christians walking in light and non-believers walking in darkness. He says, at one time, You were darkness, but now you are light. So it is not just walking, but it's your whole identity. You have become light. You were darkness because what you were producing, what was coming out of you, were works and actions that were darkness. And those actions were influencing the world with darkness, but now, You are light. And if you are light, it's not, as I said, just that you are walking in light, but your actions influence the world with your light. Now the other important thing is that that light does not come from you. Paul says, but you are light in the Lord. And I think that by now you could see that Paul is referring to your union with Christ. Because we are united to Christ, because we are in Christ, through faith, therefore the light of Christ has become a light in the world. Then you could maybe add a therefore in between light in the Lord to what he says afterwards. He says, walk as children of life. So you are light, therefore walk as children of light. And this is, as we have seen in previous parts of Paul's Efficient Letter and other letters, is the emphasis of Paul. He's reminding us what we are, but he's also telling us what we are to be. This is what you are, you are light, because you are united to Christ, not because it comes from you, it's because what Christ has done in your place, Therefore, go and walk as a child of light. Now, second, the second thing that you could see that you should do from these verses is discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Verse nine says, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good, right, and true. That seems to be something obvious. It's like, Paul, why do you have to tell me that that's the fruit of life, something that is good, right, and true? We all know that. But the reality is that sometimes we do not test our own works, the things that we do, based on this standard that is here. When Paul says, and try to discern, this word discerns comes from the word dokimatsu. That means more than just discerning. It actually means three things. It means to test, to discern, and to approve. To test, to discern, and to approve. Therefore, as you walk as a children or as a child of light, you are called to test, to discern, and to approve that everything that you are doing is good, right, and true. Now, the world will tell you that many of the things that we do or that they do are good, right, and true, but they are not necessarily according to the word of God. So when we are called to test, discern, and approve what is good, right, and true, it's based on what the word of God says. Now the world will say, and some even Christians feel tempted to say, we need to update the word of God. We need to adapt to the changes of society. But the reality is that the word of God is the same 300, 500, 600, 1,000 years ago to what is gonna be 1,000 years afterwards. So as people of God, as children of light, we are called to discern, to test, and to approve the works of darkness performed by those who are outside the church. Therefore, we do not become partners with them. in doing the same things. Now the third thing that is very important for us is that we need to expose the works of darkness. Look what he says in verse 11. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. This sounds very similar to what he says in verse seven. Do not become partners with them. In fact, They are connected. You take part of the work of darkness when you become partners with those who are doing the works of darkness. But you can be also doing the works of darkness without being influenced by somebody or by doing partnership with somebody who is doing the works of darkness. But just by you yourself participating on the things that are no good, right, and true. But Paul's exhortation here is not just passive. There is an active action here. The passive part is do not do this. Do not do what they are doing. But Paul says, but instead, you don't do this, then what you are called to do is you are called to expose them. Expose them. We are called to bring these works of darkness to light. And I'd like to at least share three possible examples of works of darkness in our world. And I will say from now that you should know that these are not the only ones, that there are many others. many others works of darkness that are around us. But these are just three examples that I think that I find very relevant, especially in our society. One of them is abortion. It's a work of darkness led by, we could say, the devil who has used people around the world, but even here, even organizations, doing massive killing of infants, unborn infants. Now we are called to expose these works of darkness and you may wonder how do we do that as believers? I think that ways in which we do that is by preaching against these sinful actions. by proclaiming that these sinful actions are wrong and that are part of the works of darkness. Also, we do that by, as church, mobilizing ourselves towards helping people who are victims or face these kind of things. And we see examples in our church of Alpha Care, which was a ministry that is started in our church. But members of our congregation continue to support these kind of efforts because they expose the works of darkness. Weeks ago I got an email from one of the young adults in our ministries here in our church who was sharing with me a testimony about being outside of one of these abortion clinics and waiting for people that were going in and going and reaching out to them and sharing the gospel with them. He and his friends were able to meet with a couple that was coming in and they shared the gospel with this couple. It happened that this couple changed their mind and that he was actually celebrating with me that this couple was sending to him a picture of the little baby that was born. Why were they there? They were there to expose the works of darkness. By exposing the works of darkness, they were doing the work of God's kingdom. Another example that we could see is racism. And this is not something new in our society. It might sound something new in our society, but it has been part of the history of the world. One thing that our denomination did was that when they got together, they wrote a document where they were expressing that they were against, or us, as a denomination, are against the scene of racism. Another work of darkness that we can see very pressing in the world is those works that are related to sexual immorality. And you see them all over the place, especially where we navigate these days all the time, which is internet. And there are all kind of manifestations, pornography, child abuse, and different kind of manifestations that are there present. As Christians, we are called to expose these works of darkness as well. How do we do that? By preaching against these sinful actions. By reminding the body of Christ. what we have been reading from Paul in these verses. But also we have, there are ways in which we can mobilize towards that and we see an example of another ministry which if I am not wrong started here in our church which is Harvest USA. That is focused in helping people who struggle with sexual immorality and also that exposes the works of darkness. But look, brothers and sisters, there is one important thing that happens as a result, and we saw the example with this child that was born as a result of some of our young adults going and preaching the gospel, is that our action of exposing the works of darkness result in fruit. Verses 13 and 14 says like this, but when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. First, it was hidden. it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light. It turns into light. And we see that in both examples, the discipline in the body of Christ, for example, when we think about Matthew 18, when we apply Matthew 18 in the church, the purpose is to make the sinner realize of his sin, so the sin becomes visible and If the process continue and the sinner is unrepented, the sin actually become visible to the body of Christ. But what is the prayer and the hope of those participating in church discipline to see the sinner restored? To see the sinner repenting and coming back to the Lord. But the same thing as we see happens when we expose the words of darkness in the world. If the church stay quiet, if the church simply As it has happened, which is sad, many times when I pass by a church with a rainbow flat and trying to embrace everybody without proclaiming or speaking against sexual immorality, the church has stopped being prophetic in the world. And the church has stopped exposing the works of darkness in the world. This is our call. Then Paul concludes this section with quoting. Some people have the opinion that Paul Hill is quoting Isaiah 61 verse 11 when he says, I wake of a sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Others think that this is a strut of a baptismal hymn that express how the believer is brought to life from death when he was in his own sins. Brothers and sisters, I think that our Lord Jesus Christ, in his wisdom, pray an important prayer for all of us. I would like you to go with me to John 17, and we're gonna read verses one through 19 where Jesus prayed for his disciples, and this prayer is for us as well. John 17. verses one through 19. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you. Since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life that they know you. the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorify you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they are, and you gave them to me. and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you, for I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you. And they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine is yours, and yours are mine. And I am glorifying them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world. And I am coming to you, Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them. No one of them has been lost, except the sum of destruction that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I'm coming to you in these things, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joyful feeling themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask you that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrated myself that they also may be sanctified in truth. I think it is interesting that our Lord Jesus Christ does not pray that us, his disciples, his followers will be taken out of the world. Imagine, I mean, it would be for good, it would be wonderful. Imagine that somebody shares the gospel with you and then all of a sudden you just are transported into heaven. What a wonderful thing is that after we become Christians, we will be with the Lord Jesus right away. But no, if that will be the case, who will be out sharing the gospel with those who have not heard the gospel? So God has that as he is here. it is his will and Jesus has left us here and Lord Jesus pray that he that God protect us from the world know that he will take us out of the world this is why when we think about do not become partners of the world but yes have association have friends in the world share the gospel with them but pray that you discern which is test discern and approve what is right good and true and remember that the call is not just to be passive, but to be active, exposing the works of darkness. Because when light comes into the world, light transforms the world. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have called people like us who are still in great need of your grace to be instruments of your grace. We thank you that Your love and mercy, you use us daily as we are the aroma of Christ in the world. Help us to be that aroma, that is aroma of life to life and aroma of death to death. Help us, Lord, to discern what is right, what is good, and what is true. Help us to be able to befriend those who still don't know you without becoming partners with them. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.