Gratitude, Not Gratification

In one paragraph

This message came from Ephesians 5:3-16, part of a years-long study of the New Testament that First Baptist Jackson has been working through together. The passage lands in the middle of a longer section on how the gospel should change the way Christians actually live. The sermon is direct and at times uncomfortable, which is exactly the point. Pastor Carl opened by placing the passage in its...

Read together

1. Ephesians 4:1-16 described as covering how the church should operate, framing the broader section of study
2. Ephesians 4:17-6:20 identified as the section on how holiness should make a practical difference in the believer's life
3. Ephesians 4:22-24 quoted on putting off the old self corrupted by deceitful desires and putting on the new self created in true righteousness and holiness
4. Ephesians 5:1-2 quoted as the command to be imitators of God and walk in love as Christ loved us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice
5. Ephesians 5:3-16 the main passage for the sermon, covering sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talk, crude joking, and the call to walk as children of light
6. Romans 1:24-27 quoted to define impurity, including God giving people over to dishonoring their bodies and the exchange of natural relations
7. Matthew 15:19 quoted as Jesus listing evil thoughts, murder, adultery, and sexual immorality as things that defile a person, coming from the heart
8. John 8:41 quoted as the Pharisees saying they were not born of sexual immorality, understood as an ad hominem attack on Jesus regarding Mary
9. Ephesians 2:1-5 quoted on being dead in trespasses, following the prince of the power of the air, and God making believers alive together with Christ by grace
10. Colossians 4:5 briefly referenced in connection with redeeming the time because the days are evil

Talk about it

1. The pastor opened by connecting the hymn 'There Shall Be Showers of Blessing' to the hurricanes happening at the time, and later in the sermon he talked about how the current of society can carry us along without us noticing. Where in your own life have you found yourself simply drifting with a current rather than swimming against it?
2. The pastor said Christianity is not a list of do's and don'ts, and then acknowledged that this particular passage is exactly that. How do you hold those two things together in your own understanding of what it means to follow Christ?
3. The one 'do' in the passage is Thanksgiving, and the pastor suggested that gratitude is the antidote to the entire list of six don'ts. Why do you think Paul chose gratitude rather than simply commanding the opposite of each sin, such as purity instead of immorality or contentment instead of covetousness?
4. The pastor described the addictive cycle of wanting, getting, temporary satisfaction, and then wanting again, and said it applies to far more than sexual sin. Where do you see that cycle operating in your own life, and what does it feel like when gratitude interrupts it?
5. The poem at the end of the sermon has God saying, 'It is not falling that is the worst, but staying on the ground.' How does that line sit with you, and what does getting up actually look like in practice for someone dealing with one of the sins named in this passage?