 Ephesians chapter 5, some of you men, probably your Bible fell right open there because you refer to one of the verses quite often, the one about wives submitting to their husbands. And I felt like I would just preach on that in this crowd. I think I'm safe to talk, no, I'm not going to talk about that. Ephesians chapter 5, and I want to draw your attention, beginning in verse 1, if you would look down and follow along with me. Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us an offering, and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any 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, therefore do not be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, walk as children of light, where the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them, for it is shameful, even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret, but all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light, therefore he says, Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. See then, that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Up to this point, in studying through the book of Ephesians, we have considered together all that we have been given as believers in Jesus Christ. Throughout the first three chapters, we have analyzed the wealth of the believer. Moving now into chapters four and five, we begin to consider the walk of the believer, and then in chapter six, we will consider the warfare of the believer. But in looking at the wealth of the believer, we look at the fact that we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, that we've been chosen, predestined, accepted, redeemed, forgiven, granted a glorious inheritance, which is an amazing thing to consider, especially when we read earlier in the Epistle that what we were like before we came to Christ, that we were dead in trespasses and sins, that we were walking on a road that led to destruction and separation from God, and we were in bondage to our lusts and given over to the passions of our flesh. We were waiting for the wrath of God. Yet God within His mercy, He made us alive, who were formerly dead, and the blood of Jesus brought us near, and the wall of separation was broken down, and we are now at peace with God, having been reconciled to Him through the work of Jesus Christ upon the cross. And now, now that we know all of these things have been given unto us, the question then becomes, how am I supposed to live? Should my life look differently than it did before I got saved? Should there be a change in me, or do I simply go on living as I have always lived? The answer to that question is everything changes when you come to Jesus Christ, because you go from blindness to sight. You go from light to darkness. You go from death to life. The old things, as we have read, are passed away. All things have become new. You are now a new creation in Christ Jesus, and therefore, in chapter five, the apostle Paul gives now at least three exhortations that describe how the Christian is to live within this world. And then before we consider these, I want to share something with you. In the book of James, James refers to the Scriptures as a mirror that a person can look into. And when you look into the mirror of the Word of God, it gives you a reflection of what you truly are and where you need to change. And as I read over this chapter repeatedly, I believe that Paul desires us to see what we're called to be and how we are to live. And he draws a stark comparison and contrast. And by doing so, it reveals where we are. You're either today walking with Jesus and going forward, or you are compromising and going backwards. And man, I feel strongly that there are things that we are going to see about ourselves in the light of God's Word that call simply not for just an acknowledgement of the need to change, but rather obedience and repentance that brings about a genuine change. And so Paul begins in verse one by saying, be imitators of God as dear children. The word for imitator here is a word that describes a person who seeks to mimic the characteristics of another person, seeks to follow another person's example, seeks to be like them. If we are part of the family of God and we are, and the Lord is our heavenly Father, then it follows that as his children, we should be seeking to be like him. Paul is calling believers to a way of life where we seek to be like Jesus, that we take on the characteristics of him, the new man as it were. What to God that when people looked at us that they saw more of Jesus and less of us? Like the apostles when they stood before the Sanhedrin being tried for proclaiming the truth of the gospel message. They knew that they were uneducated men. They knew that they were untrained, but they made note of this one thing. These were men that had been with Jesus. And prayerfully when you go home from this conference today, your wife's going to say, there's something different about you and you could say, here's what it is, honey. I've been with Jesus today and people at your workplace, amen. That's what we want. And if we're looking for an example to follow in being a man of God, we don't need to look any further than Jesus Christ. As we seek to imitate the actions of the Lord, it will be manifested in the way that we live. And so Paul tells us, number one, if we're going to follow the example, we're going to walk in love. It says in verse two, walk in love just as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice and a sweet smelling aroma. When Paul uses the word walk, he is using it to mean the way that you live your life, the conduct of your life. How do you walk? How do you live? And one of the characteristics that is clearly seen in our Heavenly Father and clearly portrayed in the person of Jesus is that of love. Bible tells us in 1 John chapter four, verse seven and eight, beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God for God is love in his character, in his nature. He is love. Therefore, if I am to seek to be like him, I am also going to walk in love. Jesus said to his disciples, by this all men will know that you are my disciples by the love that you have for one another. It should be the characteristic above everything else that marks the child of God. The love of God should be seen in his nature, in his character. God is love. The word is agape, the highest form of love used in the Scriptures. It is supernaturally produced in the heart of a man that yields to the work of the Holy Spirit in his life. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love. Therefore if we are imitating, following the example, seeking to be like him, then we will walk in love. And if we're not walking in love, it begs the question, are we truly, really walking with the Lord at all? Because if we are, this is something that's going to come forth from our life. A Christian that has a lot of intellectual knowledge in their head, but no love with their life, I wonder, are they really walking that closely with the Lord? Because if you really know him, if you really experienced his love personally, then that love is going to flow right through your life and minister to other people. I don't care how much you know until I know how much you care. That's really important. Paul said, you can have all the gifts you want. You can have all the spiritual gifts that are available, listed there in 1 Corinthians, but he said, if you do not have love, it profits you nothing. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. You can serve at the church and you can do this and go home and treat your wife like dirt. Listen, it's not going to profit you. It's got to be love. Love has got to be the motivation. It's the love of Christ that's got to constrain us, the Bible says, and compel us to live the way that we live. The question we ask ourselves is, are we walking in love? Someone might say, well, what does that look like? Paul gives us an example of the greatest example of love ever given in the person of Jesus. He says, walk in love as Christ also has loved us and gave himself for us. Man, this is our example. It's Jesus. He said, how can I love my wife? What am I supposed to do? Follow Jesus. How can I love my kids and raise them in the Lord? Fall in love with Jesus. Follow after him. Jesus demonstrated his love clearly. In fact, he said greater love has no man than this, than he laid down his life for his friends. The Bible says in Romans chapter five, but God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's love. The love of God is sacrificial. It means it's willing to be poured out without holding anything back. That's what Jesus did. That's the kind of love that he demonstrated. He said to his disciples, I've given you a new commandment. You love one another as I have loved you. That's how we're to walk in love, the same kind of love that we have been shown. Here, Paul says, when Jesus sacrificed himself walking in love, demonstrating love, it was like an Old Testament sacrifice. You remember when the priests would go and they would take the burnt offering and they would offer it up and as it would burn there on the barbecue, on the altar, it would go up and the smell would ascend to heaven and it was called a sweet smelling aroma in the presence of the Lord. He was pleased with the sacrificial offering that was given and guys listen, when we live our lives sacrificially, when we walk in love, it pleases the Father because it looks like the Son. Does that make sense? Do you understand what I'm saying? Walking in love, following the example of Jesus sacrificially, it blesses the heart of the Father and the only way that this love can be produced within our lives is by yielding to the work of the Holy Spirit. If we yield to the work of the Holy Spirit, then we will be able to walk in this kind of love. If we resist, if we grieve the Holy Spirit, we quench the work of love that could be done in and through us. Well, Jesus is not the only example that is out there as it relates to love. In fact, there is another example. It is a perverted example found within the world, a blatant contrast to sacrificial love. It is a selfish love of the world. Look at what it says in verse 3, but fornication, all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for the saints. In Ephesus, sexual immorality was prevalent. There in the city of Ephesus, they had a temple, one of the seven known wonders of the world dedicated to the goddess Diana, and men would come from every direction to worship at this temple with temple prostitutes. This way of life, sexual immorality was culturally acceptable. These practices weren't considered immoral, they were considered natural. And because of this attitude, culturally speaking, there was a great indifference to immorality. It's just a way of life. Everybody's involved with this. Everybody visits the temple. It's not a big deal. This is how we live. It's sexual immorality is the antithesis of the love of God. It's the exact opposite. It is selfish. It is perverse. It is deceptive. It is fueled by our fleshly desires that ultimately lead to our destruction and the destruction of the person that we're with. The word for fornication here is that Greek word pornea. We get the English word pornography. Originally the word was used to describe the practice of consorting with prostitutes and eventually to mean it meant consistent immorality. It implies sexual intimate relationships outside of marriage. And this again, this is Satan's counterfeit and many men have fallen prey to this. And I'm not just talking about guys that are out in the world practicing this. I'm talking about in the church. This is making its way into the church and the church is looking more like the world and in the world. Why would the world want to become a part of the church if the church looks just like the world? This is not right. It's consistent with the man of God. And so in the culture that we live, sexual immorality is applauded. It's accepted. It's encouraged. It's embraced. And within our world that claims desire and longs for love and wants love and talks of making love and songs are sung about it and novels are written about it and television series and films advocating lustful desires as being real genuine love, films glamorizing it. People live together outside of a marital relationship. They engage in sexual immorality. And yet in this misguided quest, people, it leads to divorce. It leads to fatherless homes, unwanted pregnancies, abortions, and the list goes on. And listen carefully, men, Paul is writing this letter to God's people. He's saying to God's people, to those in the church, when the world carries on in these practices, it doesn't surprise us. But when the church begins to live just like the world and you have men living with women that are not their wives, or you have men who are sleeping with as many women as they can or trying to fulfill the emptiness in their lives, and they're really in bondage to their own lusts, and all the while they're showing up at church and lifting up their hands and surrender to God, it's nothing but an outward show. It's a mere show that you go through, a routine. It isn't real. You're actually deceived if you're in that place. God doesn't want, listen, God doesn't want our outward worship. He wants a broken heart over sin. He wants repentance. He wants a change of direction. That's what God really desires, a repentant man, a surrendered man, a crucified man to his flesh and his passions, and that's when you really begin to live. Listen, guys, as I was reading through this, if you're here this afternoon and you are presently living with your girlfriend for financial reasons, that's one I've heard quite a bit, oh, it's financial. We can't really, you know, we just, I sleep on the couch. Really? Really? Do you? Are you really a man? I mean, come on. We have bunk beds. No, you don't. Don't lie. If you're engaging in sexual immorality, this is how you're carrying on and you're showing up here and you're serving in church, are you doing these things? And all of that is a part of your life and you're going on like business as usual. On the authority of the Bible, listen carefully, you are not walking with the Lord. You're not. And I say that to you because I could have said that to myself years ago. I could sit right here in a conference like this in the back row or in the middle row wherever you're sitting. And I could hear the words, I could, man, I could get cut to the heart by what was said that would convict me. That hurts. That stings. Man, that was intense. And then I walk out of there like I didn't hear a word that was said and it's possible to have truckloads of sermons poured out on you week after week and to allow your heart to become hardened. You're deceived. You're backslidden. You have to repent. You're hindering your relationship with God and you're hindering the relationship about women with God and you're going to reap eventually what you sow. And if you're cheating on your wife or your girlfriend or you're not walking in love, you're walking according to your own lust. This is what it means to not walk in love. This is the exact opposite. He says neither filthiness verse four nor foolish talking or course justing which are not fitting but rather giving of thanks. When we walk in love, it affects our conversation. There are certain things that I don't talk about any longer. I didn't get saved and start telling dirty jokes. I got saved and stopped doing those kinds of things. I didn't get saved and decided to go and hang out in a bar. I didn't get saved and then decided to go, you know, play around. When I got saved, that's when those things are done. That's not a part of my life anymore. That's not what I'm involved with anymore. Those things go away. And so if you have let those things go at one time and now you're picking them back up, listen, you're going right back to where you used to be. You're committing the same sin that the nation of Israel did. They brought judgment upon them. They kept repeating the cycle over and over again, but God has better things for us, man. It says that there's not to be filthiness which speaks of general obscenity, foolish talking. It speaks of those things that are intellectually deficient and usually the tone is obscene in the gestures and things that are said or course justing. And course justing is those kinds of jokes and conversation where things, you know, someone's taken something and they spin it in a vile way. There's an innuendo attached to it. That kind of stuff shouldn't be a part of the life of the man of God. That's part of the old life. There are a lot of things that this world finds humorous, that this world finds appalled, that they find that they applaud. And the Bible says that God finds it appalling, that God finds it as an abomination. He's not into it. He's not laughing. He's weeping over the fact that that's going to bring judgment upon that person. It breaks the heart of God. And when believers start laughing at it and believers start renting it and believers start downloading it and believers start, what difference is there? There's got to be a purity that makes its way through the church of Jesus Christ if we're ever going to see revival. And it's going to start with us, men like us, on our face before God, saying, God, we repent of our sin. We know what the world's doing, but let's talk about us for a second. Lord, we need to get right with you. We need to let you examine our life from top to bottom, search our hearts, try us, God, see if there's something wicked in us and lead us in the way everlasting. But Lord, if there's going to be a genuine outpouring of the spirit of God in the last days, it's got to start with men of God getting on their face and repenting and saying, God, change us. Lord, forgive us. We want to see you move. And I wonder if we're desperate for that yet. I wonder if we've come to that place where we're saying, yeah, that's not just something I like to talk about and read about God doing in history past. But I wonder if we're genuinely desperate for something like that to happen. What else needs to take place? Paul says that shouldn't be a part of your life anymore. Course-gesting, profane speech, all of these types of things are part of the old life. And that is something that needs to be removed if we're going to walk in love. Why is this so critical? Why is Paul stressing this repeatedly? Well, if you look at verse 5, it says, For this you know, no fornicator, unclean person, covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of God. Now, that is very sobering to read. Paul says, listen, you know this. No fornicator, no unclean person, no covetous man has any inheritance in the kingdom of God. Now, listen, Paul's not talking about the man that's battling sin and is concerned about it and fighting against it. He's talking about the man that has no concern about it. He's just going on like there's not even a problem. And if anybody calls him on it, he's the man saying, don't judge me. That's the man he's talking to right there. He's talking about the man that just continues to live like he's always lived in a state of fornication, sexual immorality, without repentance, not turning from it. He isn't fighting against it. He's a captive of it. And that man, that man who lives in that consistent disobedient of habitual sin here, it says, will not inherit the kingdom of God. That's serious. That's a serious thing. Guys, these aren't the days. This isn't the time in light of when we're living and where we're living and things happening before the return of Jesus that men need to be caught up in carousing and sexual immorality because if Jesus comes and you're living in a deliberate continued state without repentance, do you really think on the authority of the Bible that we're gonna, this is what it says, has no inheritance in the kingdom of God and Jesus died so that we could have that inheritance in the kingdom of God. And so Paul's calling him out saying, this is not consistent with who God's made you to be. And then he adds this, and I love this because this is really important in verse six, let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. In other words, Paul says, don't let anybody, don't let anybody tell you otherwise. Don't let the culture squeeze you into its mold. Don't present your members as instruments of unrighteousness. Don't let some, listen, don't let some carnal Christian who speaks contrary to the word of God tell you, it's cool, bro. God's love, man. You guys love each other. He understands. You know, don't worry about it. It's fine. It's totally fine. Don't even worry about it. It's cool. That's fine. Don't listen to that. That's a lie. That's not the Lord. Listen, if they're speaking contrary to what God says, I'm gonna take God on the authority of his word rather than some carnal person who's compromised in their own life. And I wonder, are they inheriting the kingdom of God? I'm not gonna listen to that. Don't listen to that. Don't give into that. And people today in the church are just, they're just soaking that up and they're just accepting what the culture's just shoving down our throats and just embracing it. And yeah, but it's just, you know, it's how it is. We don't wanna, you know, when did that happen? It ought not to be like that. These are the days when men need to be men of God. And again, we're not standing militantly and saying, you know, we're just standing in love and walking in love. And we're being what we're called to be. We're not pretending. Now, I know what it is to pretend to be something you're not. It's the most miserable place in the world because you know better. And in those moments when you're by yourself and nobody else is around, you know that it's true. And you sit there, maybe you're sitting here today and you're saying, I really want a change. I don't know how to get out of this. I don't know how to deal with this. I love her. Actually, to be more honest, you'd have to say you love yourself more than you love her and more than you love God because you're hindering her relationship with God and you're hindering your fellowship with God. So let's be honest. That's the first place to start. Brian mentioned that, the very first study. That's where it starts. Pastor David mentioned it, it's been mentioned repeatedly. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. That is a demonstration of our love men when we seek to follow after Jesus. Paul said, don't let anybody deceive you. And here's why. The wrath of God, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. That's not a very popular message today. Not too many churches today say, hey, come to our churches next six weeks we're gonna talk about the wrath of God. Bring your friends, it's gonna be awesome. You're gonna get blessed. Not too many people preaching that, you know? But it's in the Bible. That's, it's in the Bible. We need to tell people the other side of this coin, the other, the double edged sword. Man, it cuts this way, it cuts that way. God is absolutely, totally, completely loving, wanting none to perish, all to come to repentance. That's why Jesus died and rose again. There is another side to this truth. And the truth is if you reject what it is that God's provided in his love, in his grace for you, the other side of that is the wrath of God. The world will one day experience the wrath of God being poured out on a Christ-rejecting world. It is coming. And again, it's not popular, it's not something that people necessarily get excited about. It's difficult for preachers to preach it, but it's the truth of God's word and people need to know that. So men, because we know this, because of all the wealth we have been given in the first three chapters, because of what God's done and we're a new man in Christ, we have all of this knowledge, we understand that these things are coming, how in the world can we get caught up in those things that are gonna bring about the wrath of God that we've been delivered from? We can't, we can't afford to do that. And so Paul says, walk in love. If you're walking in love, it's supernatural, it's sacrificial, it's the love of Jesus, shed a broad in our hearts. By the power of the Holy Spirit. Men, but he doesn't stop there. He says, not only are we to walk in love, that is the first thing, the second thing, make a note of it, walk in light. In verse seven, therefore do not be partakers with them, for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. The Bible tells us that God is light. And in him, there is no darkness at all. And again, because he is light, we seek to follow that example, imitating him and walking in light. When the Bible refers to light and darkness, it is a reference to good and evil, a reference to sin versus righteousness. And before you are a Christian, you are in darkness. Jesus put it this way. He said in John chapter three, verse 19, this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world. And men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who practices evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. Listen, when you're unsaved, you don't wanna come to the light, lest your deeds be exposed. You hide in the shadows. You live in spiritual darkness. But when Jesus comes into your life and shines the light of the gospel upon your darkened soul and you respond in faith and salvation, you now come out of darkness and you are brought into light. Paul wrote this to the Colossians. He said in chapter one, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love. In first Peter, Peter said, we were called out of darkness into a marvelous light. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians and he said, we are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night. We are not of darkness any longer. And when you walk in light, here are some of the things that will be seen in your life. Verse nine seems to indicate that there will be the fruit of the spirit. For the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness, righteousness and truth. When you're walking with Jesus and the Holy Spirit is working in your life, fruit of the Holy Spirit grows best in the light. That's where it grows. It's not in darkness. In verse 10, it says you will know what's acceptable to God, finding out what's acceptable to God. When you walk in light, light exposes things that need to be exposed. And when the light shines on an area that isn't acceptable to God, you'll be able to see it. You are putting things to the test, those things in your life that you will discover. God, is this what you have for me? Shine your light right here, this area. And is this what you want from me? Because if this isn't what you want from me, then Lord, I don't want it. If this is some darkened area, this is something that I'm overlooking or I'm just blindsided by. Lord, show me, shine your light in that area. What is acceptable to you? When you're formally in darkness, you don't care, it's what's acceptable to you. But when you walk in the light, as he is in the light, you have fellowship with one another. The blood of Jesus Christ is cleansing you from all sin. It's exposing those things that need to be exposed and showing you what is acceptable. And listen, if we take the light of God's word and we shine it upon our hearts and our lives and our actions, it'll reveal. It will reveal what's acceptable to God and what isn't acceptable to God. That's where I find out what's acceptable. Not from what the world says is acceptable, what God says is acceptable. And more men need to live according to what God says is acceptable, rather than what the world is saying is acceptable. And you're gonna find they are completely opposite of one another. It also says in verse 11, notice this, when you walk in light, you'll have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but expose them because it's shameful to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light. When you walk in the light, as Jesus is in the light, you'll no longer be in fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, no longer participating in those things. Listen, if you're here today and you are saying that you're a Christian and yet you are still involved with unfruitful works of darkness that are taking you back into more darkness, you're not walking in light. You're walking in darkness. That's just what the Bible says. I see this all the time when you've been brought out of darkness, a person comes out of darkness, delivered, and then they've been in the light for a while, and then they start to think, you know, I'm stronger than I really think I am. And so I can kind of dabble in darkness once again. I mean, I'm not gonna go all the way back in, but I think I'm mature enough now. I've been a Christian a while. I've read through portions of scripture. I think I can handle this. And so you start dabbling into it again, but here's something I think the devil has been using. I believe that the devil, if I may say, uses a dimmer switch on a lot of believers today. Oh, you know what a dimmer switch is, don't you? Sets the mood. You wanna just lower the light incrementally. It's going. You know, you start lowering it, lowering it, lowering it. And if you sit there long enough as the dimmer's being taken down, your eyes just begin to adjust naturally to darkness as it's slowly dimming the light to before, you know, you can totally see, but you're in darkness. Your eyes just adjusted to the continual dim that was being done by the devil. And that's what happens to believers. You know, listen, Jesus didn't conquer darkness so we could come to the light and go back to darkness. He conquered darkness so we never have to go back to darkness so that we could be in the light. And if you're living that way and you're just kind of suddenly just kind of going back to the dimmer and just kind of, well, you know, that's not a big deal anymore. You know, that's not a big deal anymore. And there's a lot of Christians doing that today. Just going back to the old way of doing things and you hear it and you see it and you observe it in social media and things. You think, what in the world? How in the world is that glorifying God? How in the world can you say the name Jesus and praise the Lord and still be doing that? I mean, you're hindering the work of the gospel because the non-believer looks on and says, I'm a Christian too. I live in darkness. And so, we're called out of darkness. He also says, when we walk in light, we end up exposing things that are in darkness. Listen, when you walk onto your campus, if you're a student, or you walk onto your job, or you're in your home and you're just letting the light of Jesus shine through you. Jesus said you're the light of the world. It exposes things without even trying to expose them. I mean, you walk into the office and you're just carrying your Bible. You didn't even say nothing. You just go sit down and suddenly it's like light shining off your desk. Boo! And everybody's like, ah, turn it off! Turn it off! Turn the light off! What are you talking about? Why are you so offended? It happens. When you walk in the light, it reflects off. You're reflecting the light of the Lord and that shines into a dark world and that can be painful. Another thing I find that when you walk in light and we're almost through, Paul says in verse 14, awake you who sleep and arise from the dead and Christ will give you light. It's a lot easier to fall asleep in darkness than it is in the light. This world is in darkness and many are asleep and some, even in the church today, have fallen asleep. And I believe that the Lord desires to awaken us. That God is wanting to awaken us and when you walk in light, you are aware of your surroundings. You are wide awake. You can see the signs of the times. You're watching for the return of Jesus. You're living for Him when you're in the light as He is in the light. Men, let's ask ourselves the question as we conclude today. Listen, am I walking in love? If I am, it's gonna be sacrificial. I'm gonna die to myself and I'm gonna be willing to be poured out for somebody else. And maybe that's a word for you in your home. A word for me as a dad, as a husband. I need to live sacrificially. Are we walking in the light? Or have we begun to go back into unfruitful works of darkness rather than exposing them? Finally, He will say walk thoughtfully or walk carefully, circumspectly, redeeming the time, not as fools because the days are evil. We walk in love, we walk in light and we walk in wisdom because the days are evil. Men, we need to buy the time back. The time is going by so quickly. So as we look into the mirror of God's word today and God reveals to your heart, to mine, this is where you need to change. This is what you've been unwilling to yield to me. This is what you've been unwilling to surrender. But you're ready. And you say I want that to change. There are going to, listen, there are going to have to be decisions made today before you leave this place if you truly want to walk in love and walk. You've got to make that decision. Somebody made that decision today in walking in salvation. Praise the Lord. But I'm talking about guys today that are living a double life. I'm talking about men today that are showing up at church and going right back into the world and nobody would ever know you were in church or that you serve Jesus because of the way you live. That's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about us being what we're called to be and letting the Holy Spirit search us and deal with us and make us into the men that we want to be and that the Holy Spirit can make us into. And if that's you today, guys, listen, do not leave this place without making a firm commitment and stand and say, Lord, this is it. No more, no more playing games. No more messing around. No more just going through the motions. I really want to be that man. And is it going to cost you something? Yeah, it will. That's what Jesus said. There's a cost involved, but listen, it is so worth it. I wouldn't take all the money in the world to go back to that dark, pitiful existence, hypocritical lifestyle in the pit for anything, for anything. Just to have Jesus is enough. And then,