The book of Ephesians does show us “How to Follow Jesus in Trying Times”: 
Hymn 623 – I Will Follow Thee, My Saviour so that our actions will always speak louder than our words.

Work For The Night Is Coming – Hymn 375 portrays what is in our Memory Text this week: “making the best use of the time”.

There are a lot of hymns to help us with understanding thanksgiving, and here are two that enhance our Sunday study time: 
Hymn 559 – Now Thank We All Our God and 
Hymn 566 – Father, We Thank You.

To be “Walking as Children of Light” (Monday), it is wise to know that 
Christ Is The World’s Light – Hymn 234, 
Christ Is The World’s True Light – Hymn 345, 
The Lord Is My Light – Hymn 515 and then we will be able to state 
This Little Light Of Mine – Hymn 580.

We are aroused from our sleep and slumber on Tuesday: 
Hymn 576 – Awake, Awake To Love And Work, 
Hymn 611 – Awake, My Soul and 
Hymn 210 – Awake, Awake For Night Is Flying.

Our “Spirit-Filled Worship” is enhanced on Thursday in 
Hymn 262 – Sweet, Sweet Spirit and 
Hymn 584 – There’s A Spirit In The Air.

So, dear people, be encouraged to go forward and “
Lift up the trumpet and loud let it ring, Jesus IS coming again” – Hymn 213.

To learn unknown hymns, you will find the accompaniment music for each one at: https://sdahymnals.com/Hymnal/

Another great resource is for when there is a hymn you wish to sing but can’t find it in your hymnal. Go to https://www.sdahymnal.org/Search and in the search bar type a special word in that is in the hymn. I am sure you will be amazed at the help you will be given.

 2 Timothy 2:15 KJV – “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Amen!(0)

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Key Thought In Ephesians 5, Paul contrasts what pagans and believers value. Believers need to forget about partying and focus on all that is good, right, and true.
August 26, 2023

1. Have a volunteer read Ephesians 5:1-10.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. In what sense does Paul intend believers to be imitators of God?
3. Personal Application: In what ways are Paul’s words about successful behavior applicable to your culture, wherever you live? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “Why does Paul say we are not to become partners or partakers with sinners? Aren’t we supposed to be in the woirld but not of the world? How can we influence people if we don’t spend time with them and do things with them?” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Ephesians 5:11-14.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What powerful warning is Paul giving here, and how does it apply to our present situation?
3. Personal Application: How do you live the kind of lifestyle that can expose words of darkness for what they are? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “What does it mean to awake from sleep and arise from the dead? What light is Paul speaking about giving us?.” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Ephesians 5:15-17.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What is the difference between walking not as fools but as wise?
3. Personal Application: Confronted today with a viral culture that pushes its values through media 24/7, how can believers adopt Paul’s high standards? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “What does it mean when Paul says we are to redeem the time?” How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read Ephesians 5:18-20.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What does Paul imagine Christians gathering to do in worship?
3. Personal Application: How can we use music to enhance our own worship experience? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared.”Ministry of Healing, p. 148).

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Read Ephesians 5:11-14. What powerful warning is Paul giving here, and how does this apply to our present situation?

To understand Ephesians 5:11-14, it is helpful to observe that Paul repeatedly offers two exhortations, alternating between them: (1) live a God-honoring lifestyle as “children of light” (Ephesians 5:8; see also Ephesians 5:1-2, Ephesians 5:4, Ephesians 5:9-10, Ephesians 5:11, Ephesians 5:13-14); (2) don’t live a sexually immoral, God-opposing lifestyle, exhibiting the “unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11; see also Ephesians 5:3-8, Ephesians 5:12).

Image © Review & Herald Publishing at Goodsalt.com

We may mine the parallel exhortations in Ephesians 5:8-10 in order to understand Ephesians 5:11. Believers are to live before unbelievers as “light in the Lord” and “children of light” (Ephesians 5:8). The whole point of doing so is to be seen, to make clear that “the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true” (Ephesians 5:9, ESV). Paul, then, is advocating a strategy of showing forth God’s goodness. Believers are to expose the unfruitful works of darkness by exhibiting the righteous alternative for all to see.

Meanwhile, we may take the challenging, poetic language of verses 13-14 as Paul’s daring assertion that believers, by exhibiting “the fruit of the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:9), may win worldlings to faith in Christ. The Spirit is like light and reveals hidden things: “But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light” (Ephesians 5:13-14, ESV). When decadent living is exposed by the light, worldlings may see their behavior for what it is (“it becomes visible”), futureless and wrath-bound (Ephesians 5:5-6), and experience a darkness-to-light transformation (“for anything that becomes visible is light,” ESV), the very transformation that Paul’s Ephesian readers have experienced as believers themselves (Ephesians 5:8).

What are we to make of the poem or hymn in Ephesians 5:14, which uses language associated with the resurrection of the dead at the end of time (compare Ephesians 2:1, Ephesians 2:5) to issue a clarion call to awaken from spiritual slumber and experience the transforming presence of Christ? Since Isaiah 60:1-3, which Paul seems to reflect, is directed to God’s people Israel, we may view the hymn/poem of Ephesians 5:14 as a powerful appeal to Christian believers to awaken to their role as missionaries, refractors of the light of Christ in a darkened world (compare Philippians 2:14-16, Matthew 5:16).

<–Monday Wednesday–>

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