Be Imitators of God LIVE w_ Pastor Christine

Hello everybody It's such a beautiful day today The sun is shining. It's a fall day got my latte I don't recommend getting almond milk in the future. But Anyway, I just wanted to share a few things that I had in my heart with you today I was spending some time with the lord and just meditating in the word and One of the things that he impressed upon me today was this scripture from ephesians chapter 5 in verse 1 It says 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 And I just kept thinking about those words be imitators of god You know every time we face something in life. We need to ask ourselves. How would god react to this? What would god do in this situation? That would eliminate all selfishness in life You know because god's not going to do anything that's going to prefer himself over somebody else And it's interesting that it's linked together with that next verse that says walk in love And uh this whole chapter really Uh paul, I believe wrote ephesians He talks about later on about the things that you shouldn't have in your life And he talks about fornication uncleanness covetousness Let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor coarse gesturing But these are not fitting but rather giving of thanks So we see from the word that there's a distinction Between something that's righteous and something that's evil and we all know we're living in the last days and it's just been so strong in my heart lately to talk about this topic because The church, you know people that at least show up to church people that are endeavoring to live for god Are facing things that they've never had to face before Really in history. Uh, we are inundated every day by television social media voices voices voices and images everywhere you look there are wicked and ungodly images and people behaving in wicked and ungodly manners and So many of the people in the world are doing this and they don't even think there's anything wrong with it anymore And so one thing brother hagan used to say Is the spirit of the world will always try to get into the church and that does not just mean In the actual facility of the church, but it means the saints the people that are actually living for god Our greatest enemy is satan and worldliness And uh, he is going to attempt every day because it's his strategy To entice you and pull you away from being an imitator of god And I just wanted to exhort you today to always keep in mind When you're about to do something and take an action react to something a certain way make a decision Ask yourself. How am I being an imitator of god? And then really later on in the chapter paul goes on to say Understand what the will of the lord is don't be unwise But understand what the will of the lord is and he goes on to say The will of the lord is being filled with the spirit And so the way that we can be imitators of god successfully Is we have to live filled with the spirit and that requires time every day in the presence of god And I just want to encourage you start each day in his presence start each day meditating in the word of god and Start each day thanking and worshiping him and then Pray in the spirit allow his spirit to fill you to overflowing so that You are just without even much effort at all Repelling the spirit of the world off of you And this is something that has to be done every day because his mercies are new every morning so I encourage you if you have time today get out on this beautiful day Enjoy the sunshine and spend some time magnifying god and allowing his presence To purge you of the spirit of the world and you will be so much better off if you do God bless you. We love you