Today on Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Learn how you can reflect the identity of your Heavenly Father for all to see.
If you can begin to live like Jesus and begin to imitate Jesus and what he did and how he walked and how he talked, then you can begin to live like God, imitators of God. And if you're going to really live like children of God, then there's a few things you need to understand and a few things you need to change.
And welcome to Bold Steps with pastor Mark Jobe. Mark is senior pastor of New Life Community Church and president of Moody Bible Institute here in Chicago. I'm Wayne Shepherd. Well, we've come to Ephesians chapter five now in our series, and Paul gives us a seemingly difficult command. He doesn't go easy on us here, does he, Mark, be imitators of God? Now, what does that mean?
Yeah, that feels very elusive. How do I imitate God? But then he goes on to explain. Be imitators of God and walk in love just as Christ loved us. And I think that's the key. It's hard to get Ahold of. How do how can I be like God? But when I look at Jesus, I know how God is. So be imitators of Christ.
Well, let's get into this study now. Once again, we're in Ephesians chapter five. And here's Mark.
Ephesians chapter five, verse one. Be imitators of God. Go ahead. You can read it. First phrase Ephesians chapter five, verse one. Be imitators of God. I don't know what goes through your mind when you think of imitating God. But it's a hard image to grasp, isn't it? Because you think, well, how can I imitate God? I mean, God is God. I mean, I don't even know how to start on that. I mean, he's so far up. I'm so far down. How can I even begin to imitate God? The word
in the Greek is mimic. Uh, it comes from where we get our English word to mimic, to be like, to take on the pattern of something. Now, if we were just to stop there, it would seem like it would be too hard, too confusing, too big to grasp. But he clarifies it a little bit when he says, be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children. Ah ah. Okay, maybe now you can grasp the concept a little bit more.
Just as a child would seek to grow up and be like their father or mother, so we as children of God imitate God because he is our father. I have three children of my own. I have an 18 year old daughter. She's in her first year of college. I have my my son, who's a junior in high school. Then I have my 11 year old. He's in sixth grade. And as they've grown up, I've realized that children tend to imitate their parents in certain ways. Uh, whether you like it or not, they imitate the good. Hey, and
they imitate the bad. And I'll never forget my daughter. When she was about two years old, she was sitting on a couch. Her legs wouldn't even hang over because, you know, she's small, her legs are sticking straight out. And she had a big catalog on her lap that she got somewhere. And she's looking through the pages of the catalog. And here's what she was doing. She was imitating her mom. She had seen her mom do it, so she was licking her finger. And with the other hand,
she was turning the page. You know, she kind of had the idea, right? But it wasn't quite working for her. But, you know, she had seen it done. So she was imitating what she had seen done. And so it is with children. They begin to talk like their parents and use expressions that their parents have. And some people tell me that my daughter, they've seen my daughter walk and they said, she walks like you. And I'm not sure that's good or bad, but but she walks like now.
I never told my daughter, hey, honey, here's how you walk. I want you to walk like dad, you know, throw your leg out this way. That. No, no, no, I never explained that just by being around. Just by her biology, just by being a part of the family, there are certain things that she just takes on because. Because she's imitating, because she's around. It's by it's by relationship that she
begins to take on the characteristics of her father. My brother and I are about 22 months apart, and when I call up my mother now, he's an artist, independent filmmaker. So he's got if you've ever he's been here a few times, he's got like spiky hair and a couple earrings and so forth. He's he's the artist side of the family, but we sound a lot alike. And so when I call up my mother, who lives in Spain, she always asks the first question she asks, is this Bob,
or is this Mark? Because our voices sound a lot alike. Why? We grew up in the same household. We use the same expressions. Um, we've been around each other a lot. We have the same father and mother, so therefore we develop those characteristics. This is what God is saying because you're a child of God and have been born again of God. Now live like a child of God. If he is your father, now start living like he's your father. Start imitating him in what he does and how he
acts and his values and his characteristics. And if you say, well, it's too hard for me to imagine imitating God because I just don't know what that means, then it makes a lot more sense. If you can understand that Jesus is God, the manifestation of God. And so therefore he says, be imitators of God, therefore as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering
and sacrifice. You see, if you want to know how God would live here on earth, then all you have to look is at Jesus. Because Jesus is God made man, manifest in the flesh, living his life here on earth. That's where we get our little bracelets. Many of you have seen those bracelets that say w w JD, what would Jesus do? And it's a little bit that idea that if you can begin to live like Jesus and begin to imitate Jesus and what he did and how he walked and how he talked, then you can begin
to live like God, imitators of God. And Paul says, be imitators of God, because your children of God, and live a life where you show concern for other people just like Jesus did, and who offered the ultimate sacrifice that raised up to God as a fragrant aroma. And then he goes on to describe to us, if you're going to be imitators of God, and if you're going to really live like children of God, then there's a few things you need to understand and a few things
you need to change. And so we jump into this passage. I'm going to begin reading in verse three. If you're taking notes this morning, write this down. The first thing that helps us reflect God has to do with identity. Identity. Remember that your desires and speech should reflect your new identity and be consistent with your calling, your desires, and the way you talk. Your speech should be consistent with
the new you. Some of us have a new have a new us in God, but we still have a little bit of the old way we talk and a little bit of the old desires. And what God is saying is you have a new you, so let the old leave the old behind and take on the new you who you are. Look what he says in verse three, but among you there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity or greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Verse four.
Nor should there be obscenity. Foolish talk, coarse, just joking, which are out of place, but rather giving thanks. So he says, hey, if you're going to be imitators of God, there's two things that you need to start working on in the beginning. One is your desires, and secondly is your speech. So let's talk first about our desires. He said, among you there must be no, not even a hint of sexual immorality. Let's talk about this for a second. What is sexual immorality? Well, first of all, let me
clarify this. He's not talking about just sex. He's talking about sexual immorality. How many of you know there's a difference between sex and sexual immorality? Some people grow up in a setting where all they've heard is no, no. Know about sex. Bad, bad, bad about sex. Don't don't, don't about sex. And you kind of grow up thinking that it's a bad thing or that it's a dirty thing, or that it's something that shouldn't, shouldn't, shouldn't be celebrated
or expressed. Let me just go on record here. I've told you this before. If you've been around for a while, you know that sex is a good thing. We are pro sex here at New Life Community Church. Absolutely. 100% made by God, engineered by God, designed by God to be celebrated and to be often engaged in. Here at New Life Community Church in the right setting. Okay, so I just want you to know that we're pro sex.
Sex is not dirty. Sex is not bad. Sex is a great thing, a good thing, as long as it's in the boundaries of how God engineered it to happen and basically how God engineered it to work is that when a man and a woman commit themselves to one another for a lifetime and we call it marriage, engage in the act of marriage and say, I am committed to you. You are committed to me. We are in a monogamous, loving relationship until death do it part. Then let the party begin. Enjoy it often. Enjoy it as
much as you can. Celebrate it. I know some husbands that say, I'm going to get that tape. I never get a tape. Where do I buy that CD? Now I'm going to get that one. I'm going to get that one. Um, seriously, I really believe that if if that that sexual intimacy is something that God engineered and God knows how it works. And actually, contrary to common myth, some people. Now, if you look at any TV sitcom, anytime it portrays a married couple, it's usually they're bored
out of their minds with each other. They're they're unhappy, it's dysfunctional. And it seems like the people that are really enjoying their sexual life are the single 20 something that are out there clubbing, having one night stands and that's where the action is really happening. But married couples, it's boring. Nothing's happening. It's, you know, everybody's always got a headache and, you know, it's always that kind of thing.
But contrary to public opinion, the truth is that in surveys done among 20 something singles that are living a party life, sleeping with whoever they want to sleep with, and monogamous married people that have been married for some time. They have done surveys, secular and Christian surveys that indicate that married people that have been married for some time are actually much more satisfied and enjoying their sexuality than those that are out there partying and clubbing and going
from place to place. Aha! I bet you never see that on sitcoms, huh?
This is Bold Steps with pastor Mark Jobe. We're pausing our message to thank our bold partners right now. Mark, these are these are friends of this ministry who are making a sacrificial gift to see this ministry continue.
Yeah. Bold partners. If you don't know what that is, those are our partners that give monthly to support this ministry. And, uh, it may be $5 a month. It may be 30, 40, $50 a month. Whatever it is, we are very grateful for your monthly donations.
And in return for becoming a bold partner, we want to offer you some things. First of all, you receive a bi monthly communication from Mark and exclusive greeting from Mark, actually. And then there's Mark's book, unstuck. Now let me say this about the book, Mark, because I read this comment recently from a friend, and I just want to share
what he shared with us. He said, I just wanted to reach out to Mark and his ministry, and thank him so much for his faithfulness in writing this book, unstuck. He's really helped me realize how stuck I am. I received this book at a pastor's conference three years ago, and I kept it because I thought one day I'd find someone stuck. Little did I know that as I picked it up, I have been the one stuck struggling
with depression and anxiety. This book has helped me realize some great areas to start to surrender to the Lord, and how to start moving out of my cave. An amazing book, one used by God in my life. Thanks so much! Joshua wrote that to us from California. So this is the book that we're going to send to our bold partners.
Yeah. Thank you, Joshua, for sharing your heart. And so many people can relate with that being stuck. And we'd love to give you a book unstuck for all of our monthly partners. It's automatic. You don't even have to request it. We will give you an unstuck book for every monthly partner. Thank you.
Sign up to be a bold partner at Bird-stamps.org. Alright, now we can return to Mark's message on bold steps.
I want to make sure that we understand what we're talking about. God is he engineered sex. He created Sex. The fact that a young man is attracted to a young woman. Normal. Natural. The fact that a man desires to see the naked body of a woman. Normal. Natural. May it be his wife that he desires. That's. That's normally that's just engineered by God. When God created Adam, he created Eve. They saw each other and said the equivalent to wow, you know, great God. God. It was
part of God's design. Now, outside of the parameters of marriage, when a single is engaging with sexual activity with another single, it's called fornication. When a married person is engaged with sexual activity outside of marriage, it's called adultery. And then there's all kinds of other things in between. The word here where it says, May there not be even a hint of immorality, sexual immorality. The word used in the Greek is the word porneia, which is where we get
the word pornography Nography from so in other. In other words, what it's saying is there should be not even a hint of sexual activity outside of the confines of marriage when it's in marriage. Great. Enjoy it. Don't feel guilty. Listen, if you're in, if you're in a married relationship right now and you're not enjoying sexual intimacy and and you're not having sex together, and that's not happening in your marriage, you need to get help. Seriously? Because there's something that's
broken down there. There's something that has happened. You've allowed something wall to break up. You've allowed something to to, uh, take away from what God engineered it to be. So get counseling. Figure out what are the barriers that need to be broken down. But but that's that's part of God's plan for your marriage. Seriously. It is. It's part of God's plan for your healthy marriage. However, it needs to happen within the confines of marriage. Anything outside of
that is strictly forbidden by Scripture. Now, I know that when I say this, I am going absolutely 100% counterculture to what exists in our society today, where we live in a society that by and large accepts the the
culture of friends with benefits more and more. If you go to a college campus today, if you go down to UIC, if you go down to northwestern, every college campus pretty much here in the US, and you talk to a college kid that's 22 years old, 21 years old, and you ask, what is the culture that exists in the campus? Pretty much the culture is this we can hook up sexually, even though we may. We're not dating, you know, I can I can give sexual favors to
an individual. Doesn't mean I like them. Doesn't mean we're boyfriend girlfriend. doesn't mean we're dating. We can give each other sexual favors. Why? Because it feels good. And then we can walk away. Don't expect a letter. Don't expect that we're together. Don't expect that we're somehow involved each other. And I can do that for this person. I can
do that for another person. It's pretty much the one night stands, the sexual favors pretty much accepted practice ingrained into the mainstream of our culture at a college level, at a high school level. And unfortunately, now more and more at a junior high level. It's the culture. It's accepted. It's not like our society is much different than the society that Paul was talking to. Paul was talking to the Ephesians in Ephesus. There was a big temple to Diana,
the god of fertility. Part of the practice of the god of fertility is that there were priestesses in the temple of Diana. And in order to go and engage in a sexual experience in the temple of Diana, people would get drunk and basically have orgies with the priestesses of the Temple of Diana. And so sexual immorality and sexual playing around was rampant in the society that Paul
was talking about as well. So it was counter the culture for Paul to say, now that you are children of God, there shouldn't even be a hint of sexual immorality among you or of any kind of impurity. Impurity has to do with anything. It's related to sexuality, but it could have to do with pornography. It could have to do with fantasizing. It could have to be with X-rated movies. It could have to be with it could have to do with, uh, the latest, uh, Sports Illustrated
Swimsuit edition. It could have to do with a lot of issues out there that have to do with sexuality out there. So not even a hint of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity. And he says, or greed, you say, well, what does greed have to do with it? Well, greed is it's the word covetousness. Covetousness means I desire something that doesn't belong to me, that I can't have. But I still want it, even though it's not legitimate for me to have it. So you could be greedy
towards money or towards things. You could see someone driving a car that's nicer than your car and say, man, why does he get to have that car? I want that car. I should have that car. And I'm kind of frustrated that he's got it and I don't. But it could also have to do with, um, it could have to do with sexuality. It could have to do with desiring another man's wife or desiring someone that's illegitimate for you to have. But you desire and covet something
that is illegitimate for you to possess. And so basically what Paul says is, I know you live in a culture that is a sex saturated culture. We live in that kind of society. And the fact that people live together, the fact that people hook up together, the fact that people have multiple partners when they're in their 20s or 30s, it's pretty much just accepted by society. It's just the way it is. It's just kind of normal, right? Well, God says it may be normal for the world out there,
but hey, you are the people of God. And it may be normal for society at large, but because you are children of God, it's not normal for you because you live by different standards.
Well, if you had to give an assessment, how different are your values from the world around you? That's the takeaway today from a message titled Choosing to Walk in the light from Mark Jobe, and you're listening to Bold Steps. Well, we have a special bold step gift available for our listeners a book titled envy A Big Problem You Didn't Know You Had written by our guest, Mark. His name is pastor Mike Fabares.
Yeah. And by the way, many of you are familiar with pastor Mike because he's on the radio. He's written several books. He's a graduate from Moody Bible Institute and actually on the board of directors as well. And so love pastor Mike and his ministry. I was thinking about this topic of envy and how oftentimes we we just don't consider ourselves envious. Pastor Mike, if you were to help someone self-diagnose whether they have envy, what would you point to? What should they be looking for?
Well, I would start by saying, are there any people in your everyday world that you just find yourself erring on the side of being critical when you really shouldn't be and you think, well, why am I not happy applauding their success, right? This is hard, but we need to look at the people that we are critical of.
And if you look hard enough, you often find it's because I'm really envious of what they get that I don't have what they've accomplished, that I haven't been able to accomplish, that they make so much money, so much more money than I make. There's a lot of reasons that we, um, just spring into gossip and criticism and just talking behind people's back in a negative way. And usually we can start to realize what's happened is something
really between me and God. It's really not between me and them.
Pastor Mike, are envy and jealousy interchangeable?
Not really. There's a kind of jealousy that's appropriate in the Bible, right? God says he's a jealous God in Exodus 34. There's a time for you right to rightly in your marriage. Be jealous if there's something threatening that relationship. But envy is always seen as something wrong in Scripture, and we're never to envy anyone. And what envy is, is taking a jealous feeling when I'd have no right
to feel jealous. And now I start to have a a bitterness toward that person for accomplishing or achieving or securing something that I haven't been able to. And Jesus tells parables about this. You've got to be careful in your own heart to guard your heart against this kind of envy, because it is different than jealousy, because sometimes jealousy can be appropriate.
That's great. So there you have it, pastor Mike Fabares. We would love to get this book into your hand. It's called a Big problem. You didn't know you had envy. Thank you, pastor Mike.
We'll send you a copy when you make a donation of any amount to support bold steps, just call us at (800) 800-3566 639 or a couple of other options you can give online at bird-stamps.org or send your financial gift in the mail. Write to us at bold steps. 820
North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. Again, 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten and then don't forget, you can hear Mark's bold and passionate teaching anywhere you go when you download the app to your favorite smart device. Just look for the Bold Steps app in your app store and learn more by visiting Bold Steps. While you're online, let me remind you to sign up for Mark's weekly
email devotional. It's called The Bold Stepper Weekly. It's a free dose of inspiration and insight, delivered right to your inbox every Monday morning, and you won't want to miss it. Once again, you can sign up at Bold Steps org. Well, thanks for joining us today. I'm Wayne Shepherd, inviting you to come back again tomorrow. Mark will continue this message from our study of the book of Ephesians. Our message is titled Choosing to Walk in the light. So be listening.
Wednesday for more bold steps with Mark Jobe. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.