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Sermon by Brad Ellgen from Ephesians 5:15-16.
Good morning. It is delightful to be with you this morning. I speak in various churches. This is the first time I have spoken in a hundred years that didn't have a big screen and a video projector and smoke and lights.
It's really nice for me to be in a church that has pews, and it's just delightful to be with my friend Bart whom I have not seen for a while but have known for a good deal of time. Let me tell you a little bit about how I came to be here today.
The story really begins when I was back in high school. Don't worry, it's going to go fast. I grew up in a very non-Christian home and came to know the Lord at the end of my sophomore year in high school.
I began going to church where there were a lot of pretty girls which I liked a lot. My first year in college there was a particularly pretty girl that I was dating and really liked her a lot. And then after a date about February, she says to me, what would you say if I said I was going to Central America this summer on a missions trip?
And I said, and leave me alone without a girlfriend? You can't do that. I'll join the Navy. I knew nothing about the Navy but that that would keep her from going on this missions trip. It did not. She said, well, I'm going.
So the next day I went down and joined the United States Navy. I went to boot camp in San Diego and then she was done with her missions trip but I had another couple of years of obligations with the Navy.
My math was not very good. And so I went to school in Mississippi for nine weeks. At the end of that, they gave me orders to Japan and assured me it would be shore duty. So I went home on 19 days of leave and proposed marriage to my girlfriend, told her we'd go to Japan on honeymoon for two years.
She said yes. We were engaged for 10 days. We had a large formal wedding with 300 people, attendance, cake, flowers, all of it. We did it in 10 days. Just so that you know, it was amazing. I left for Japan and when I left, I found out that it wasn't going to be shore duty but they were going to put me on a boat and send me to sea.
She came to Japan anyway two months later and I had found a very small paper house, an apartment, a Japanese apartment that was made completely out of paper that we could rent. But it was a long way away from the base.
In order for her to get to the base, she had to walk a half a mile, take a bus, take a train, and take two more buses. And twice a week she would load up or once a week she would take a red wagon on that journey and go to the commissary and load it with groceries and then pull the wagon home.
And then the next day she would fill it with laundry and go to the laundromat and pull it home. We had no phone, no TV, no car. She did not talk to her parents for two years while we were there. We were very, very poor and it's impossible to describe to you how difficult that time in our lives was.
The first year we were married, I only saw her for 62 days. I spent the rest of it floating on a ship out in the Pacific Ocean. And it was during that time that we discovered Cadence International, the mission we served with.
They had a Christian serviceman center there in Yokosuka and we wandered into this place. They offered home-cooked meals, Bible studies, trips, and that place saved our lives. That is not an understatement.
We met friends and Christians and people who would help us and it became very, very dear to us. And largely because of that ministry in our lives, we ended up going to Bible school. After that in 1982, we joined Cadence International and we went to Germany for 18 years, opening up our home to military people, doing home-cooked meals, Bible studies.
For the last eight years, we've done it with airmen in Cheyenne, Wyoming. But we have spent our 40 years of our life opening up our home to young men and women who are in the military, who are away from home.
And about a year and a half ago, the Lord laid it on our hearts that perhaps we should visit of those that we were still in touch with. There are 260 people we're still in touch with from our time of ministry.
So we bought a travel trailer and we've been pulling it around the country, visiting all the men and women that we've led to the Lord, that we have discipled, people who were 19 when we met them, whom we loved with all of our hearts, and now they're 30, 40, 50, even 60 years old.
And so we have hung out with them. Some of them are pastors. Many of them are leaders in their church. And some of them have fallen away from the Lord. They don't go to church anymore. They don't believe in Jesus anymore.
They just aren't interested in any of it. And as we have visited with those people, it becomes clear to me that the devil is after them and he's after you. He is after me. First Peter chapter 5, verse 8 says, be self-control and alert your enemy.
The devil is after you like a hungry lion looking for someone to devour. And he does not care how long you've gone to church or whether you've gone to seminary or Bible school. He doesn't care whether you're five years old or 105.
The devil wants to destroy your life. He wants to destroy my life. And that's what I've been thinking about as we've traveled the country, how the devil is after us and how many people he has worked on destroying.
For our text this morning, I want us to think about two verses from the book of Ephesians chapter 5, verse 15 and 16. It says, be very careful then how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.
Let's pray and we'll dive in. God, thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. Thank you for your word. God, may your spirit open our minds and our hearts. God, I pray that we would see your truth, that we would hear your voice.
And God, give us courage to be obedient to what we see and what we hear this morning. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. The first phrase, be very careful then. Careful about what? I'm going to suggest we're to be careful about our hearts.
Proverbs chapter 4 says, above all else guard your heart, for from it flows your entire life. Guard your heart. Now by heart, what we mean is that is the deepest part of you, the things that you think, things that you do, the things that you can go your whole life without thinking about because it's down deep somewhere.
The Bible says, be careful, guard your heart. Now if you really look in your heart, you will find things down there that are very disturbing. You will find things like anger, envy, lust. It's all in there.
And if you pay attention, you'll see it. You will repent of it. But if you don't pay attention, you don't even know it's there. I want to say very clearly that the Bible teaches this is true of all of us.
It's true of you. It's true of me. If I look into my heart, I'm going to see things that are awful. And I'm a pastor. I've studied Greek. I am brilliant. And yet my heart, there are things in there that are wicked.
So on this trip, we started in California and we spent an extra day in San Diego because the wind was blowing and I didn't want it to blow my trailer over. Debbie and I watched 20 seconds of YouTube video of trailers falling over and that was enough.
I figured if we watched any more, we'd never do it. And if we watched less, we wouldn't be careful enough. So we're stuck in San Diego. So on a wonderful sunny afternoon, we go out to the Hotel Del Coronado.
This is a wonderful hotel that was built in the 1920s. It is spectacular. Presidents have been there. Movie stars have been there. They've shot movies there. If we were in a church with a screen, I'd show you a picture of it.
It's amazing. And we went out there and we walked through the lobby and we looked at the old pictures and had a grand ceiling and chandeliers. And then we walked out on a long pier out onto where the beach was and they had a restaurant out there.
And we walked out there. We got some coffee and a cake and we started chatting with our server, David, who was just delightful. And we watched the surfers and the people on the beach and it was just lovely.
And at the end of it, they bring our check and inside this envelope, they bring us a pen to sign the check, which is not unusual. What was unusual was how neat the pen was. This feels like an expensive pen.
It feels like a cross pen. And you twist it and it says Hotel Del Coronado on it. And it's so cool. I said to myself, I'm going to take this pen. Now, this is ridiculous on a number of levels. One, I have enough pens to last two lifetimes.
I don't need it. And two, if I really wanted it, I could buy it in the gift shop. But the devil is there. He says, just take it. Nobody will see it. And because at that moment I'm paying attention, I rebuke the devil.
And I repent. I go, what's wrong with me, God? And I put it back. And then as we're walking out, we said goodbye to our server, David. And I said, I really like the pen. That was special. And he says, really, would you like one?
Here, keep it. Oh, and here's a couple more. Have a great day. What do I see? If I behave righteously, God will honor that. If I say no to the temptations of the devil, God will bless me. When you're in school, you're tempted to cheat.
I'm sure none of you in here are ever tempted to cheat while you're in school. I was all the time. You don't need to cheat. God will bless you. If you're in a lifetime commitment to someone else and you are a lifetime commitment with a partner and you see someone who's very attractive to you, repent of that.
God wants you to take something that's not yours. Repent of that. Guard your heart for your whole life flows from it. You got to think. And if you think, you'll find it down there. Now, there are two things that keep us from being careful.
One is you can't be careful if you're in a hurry and you can't be careful if you're distracted. If you're in a hurry, you will not see what's going on in your heart. And some of you are probably always late for something.
How many of you are late? Don't. Well, some of you raise your hand. Thank you. I appreciate that. When you're late, you want to hurry. You're late for school. You're late for work. You're late for coffee.
And you're rushing. And some of you perhaps have lives where your whole life is doing nothing but rushing from one thing to another to another. You're so busy and you're in such a hurry. And when you're in a hurry, you can't see what's going on in your heart.
You have to slow down. When we were in New Orleans, we were camped outside of the town and we were meeting someone down in the center of New Orleans. I had not been to New Orleans before and I figured because it's an old historic place, parking would be difficult.
So I Googled on my phone where to park in downtown New Orleans and it suggested I download an app that would give me parking directions and it would be cheaper. And I thought that's a good idea. So I downloaded the app and then things really went south on me.
They wanted my license number. They wanted my credit card. They wanted all kinds of information. Some of you have seen this. And so I just keep patting and whatever. It's a next. A next. And I couldn't get to the end of it.
And time is ticking by. And I'm getting really frustrated. And then I finally click on I want the parking space and it was $49. And I thought that's an awful lot for one night. But I'm that far into it.
So I take it. We get in the truck and now we're late because I spent so much time messing around with the app. Have any of you ever done anything like that? I'm late. So I'm in a hurry. So I get down.
I follow my GPS. I park the truck. We get out. We have a lovely time with our friends. And when I come back to the truck, it's got two boots on it. And one of my questions, why did they need two boots?
Wouldn't one have been sufficient? And I call and I say, I paid for this. And they said, when the guy shows up, take it up with him. So the guy shows up and I said, look, I paid. And he says, oh, that's for the lot next door.
We have the same address. You should have been more careful. Why wasn't I careful? I was in a hurry. I'll share with you. I paid $150 to park one night in downtown New Orleans. Why? Because I was in a hurry.
Now, $150 is a small price to pay when you think the devil's after you. Some people ruin their whole lives because they're in a hurry and do things that they regret the rest of their lives because they're in a hurry.
The other thing that will keep us from being careful with our heart is if we're distracted. And you guys just know we live in a world of distractions. Cell phone, TV, movies, work, bills. If you're going to really guard your heart, you have to spend time where you're quiet and you're alone and you really ask yourself, what is going on inside of my heart?
And a great time to ask that is when you're in conflict. When you're mad at your wife, when you're mad at your husband, when you're mad at your boss, when you're mad at your teachers, to look inside and say, what is going on inside of me?
Now, if you don't do that, you're going to say, you're going to notice what's wrong with them. But the issue is never what's wrong with them. This is what's wrong with me. I've done a little bit of marriage counseling in my life.
And every marriage counseling starts out the same way. The husband looks at his wife and says, fix her. And the wife looks at the husband and says, fix him. I see Bart nodding. He's been there before.
The only person you can ever fix is yourself. If you're mad at your spouse, it's not what's wrong with the spouse. It's what's wrong with you. You're mad at your boss. The issue isn't the boss. The issue is you.
But if you're distracted, you never look at yourself. You always look at them. Be very careful how you live, because the devil's after you. And if you're not careful, he's going to destroy your whole life.
And then it says, not as unwise, but as wise. Wisdom is not anything you are born with. It's something you acquire as you go through life. It's a skill for living. And we live in a world where wisdom is more available to us than ever before, and it's being ignored by almost everyone.
And it's just sad. You know, there was a time when the Bible wasn't translated into English. You guys know that? If people translated into English, they were killed and burned. And then they finally got to where they could translate it, but because you copied it out by hand, there weren't many Bibles around.
And then Johannes Gutenberg invents movable type, and now they start printing the Bible. You can actually have one yourself. And now we live in a world where they're all over. You can get them for free.
And yet people read the Bible less than ever before. People memorize the Bible less than ever before. Our mission, Cadence International, actually started in 1941. There's a guy by the name of Jesse Miller who is stationed in Clark Air Base in the Philippines, and he gets involved with these radical Christians, and they start memorizing Bible verses.
So he starts memorizing Bible verses as a young 19-year-old soldier in the Army Air Corps. And by December 8th of 1941, he has memorized 108 Bible verses word perfect. That's in less than a year, he had memorized 108 Bible verses perfectly.
And what happened on December 8th, 1941 in the Philippines? Anybody know? That was the day the Japanese attacked. And as he's walking out of the dining hall, a bomb falls on the dining hall just as he walks out and blows it up.
And then they destroy all the airplanes, and they destroy their runways. It happened the same time as Pearl Harbor, but it didn't get the press. He barely survived that, is driven down into Bataan where they fight the Japanese until April, and then he's part of the surrender.
And he spends the entire war in a Japanese prison camp. He's part of the Bataan death march, two other death marches after that. He has malaria, yellow jaundice, and beriberi all at the same time. He stood before a Japanese firing squad and survived it.
And at the end of the war, when he's finally liberated, he's on a boat back to the United States, and he's asking himself the question, how in the world did I survive that? And he says, it was the 108 Bible verses that I memorized before the war started.
It was the Bible that wasn't in his hand, it was the Bible that was in his heart. Psalm 119, 9 and 11 says, wherewithal shall a young man keep his ways pure by taking heed thereto according to thine word.
Thine word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against thee. One of the great tragedies is we teach Bible memorization to the kids, and by the time we're adults, it has fled from us. You want to be wise?
Get to know your Bible. Not just read of it, meditate on it, study it, memorize it. I was talking to my friend Bart the other day, and I am just so discouraged that Christians spend more time memorizing theology than they do their Bibles.
No offense, Bart. I got a stack of 300 cards I memorize all of the time. And why do I do that? Because the devil is after me. Because if I don't acquire wisdom, I'm going to get trampled by the devil.
And it's not just me he's after, he's after you too. I want to encourage all of you to think seriously about how you might begin a memorization program of the Bible. And at this point, I am not talking to the children that are here.
Go to the topical memory system put out by NAVPRESS, 60 of the most important verses. Put them in your hearts. You know the problem right now? Some of you, I'm going to guess, have the Holy Spirit now convicting you.
And you're thinking, man, I should do that. If that's true, do it. The book of James that we read warns about the person who sees himself in the mirror and then turns away and does nothing about it. If you hear the voice of God, do something.
And I'll just say this because this is free. And Bart told me I could talk all morning long. It's true, isn't it, Bart? There is wisdom beyond the scriptures. Now, start with the Bible. But they know so much today about people and how they behave and what motivates us.
And yet it's being ignored by people, and they're ruining their lives because it's being ignored. It's not a secret how to live well, but it's certainly being ignored by people. One of the things that Debbie and I have enjoyed on this trip is listening to books as we drive.
And we've been challenged to think about God and what he's doing in our life and what he needs to be doing because we are reading and thinking about our lives. We live in a world where we're amusing ourselves to death.
TV, movies, YouTube, and I'm not against TV, movies, or YouTube. But we're so distracted by that stuff, we forget to acquire the wisdom that we need to live well. Be very careful. Live not as unwise but as wise.
And then it says make most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Now, what's interesting is the days are evil in the first century. They're evil today. They were evil in the 60s. They were evil in the 50s.
They were evil in the 40s. What does that mean? The days are always evil. This is no special time. Don't throw me out here for saying this. This is no special time. As Christians, we live in an evil world because it's broken.
Don't think you're so special. So make the most of every opportunity. Opportunity to do what? This is where you participate. Somebody guessed. You won't be wrong. Opportunity to do what? Who said that?
Well, God bless you. I was hoping somebody would get into this. Yes. To do good unto others. Who are the others that are around that we could do good to? Where are they? Give me some examples. Where are they?
What's that? All right. Let's get a little more local. Your neighbors. The people who live next to you and behind you. What does it mean to do good to them? Debbie and I asked ourselves that question, and we said, we'll have happy hour during the summer.
And so we invite them over to our home. Hamburgers, hot dogs, soft drinks, kids games. Every other week, we had them over. And every time they came over, I said the name of Jesus. Clearly. Now, just so that you know, I lived in a normal neighborhood.
It's okay if I stand down here. The people behind us, one's an environmental scientist, one's an attorney, and they're as far left as you can go. The people on my right across the street have a machine gun on a tripod to defend his home, and he is on the far right.
And yet, when we get together, none of it matters. Because we are people trying to live well. And yet, we live in a country that's so divided, we won't talk to each other. I guarantee you, if you reach out to your neighbors, invite them over for food and drink, you'll make friends.
These people were lonely, now they're all connected. Do good to your neighbors. Watch their house, take care of their dog. Check on them. During the pandemic, Debbie and I went up and down the street with rolls of toilet paper, asking if they needed any toilet paper.
And I want to tell you, that felt bizarre. It was not comfortable to ring a doorbell and say, do you need any toilet paper? But we began to make friends and we met people. Reaching out to your neighbors is not always comfortable, because you don't know what's going to happen.
But it's exciting. Do good to your neighbors. Who else lives, who else locally can you be good to besides just your neighbors? What's that? Your co-workers. Your co-workers. I won't ask how many of you have a job you don't like.
Some of you have jobs you don't like, is that right? I guarantee you, your co-workers have a job they don't like either. What would it be like for you to be the happiest person in your workplace? To bring donuts, to bring coffee, to be the first one to smile and say good morning?
For the last couple years, I have worked as a substitute teacher in Cheyenne, in the high schools. And when I walk up and down the halls, I am always the first one to smile and say good morning. It doesn't have to be a big deal.
Just greet people. Be nice to the people you work with. They hate it too. Your co-workers. Your neighbors. Who else? Yes. What's that? Friends and family. Kids, be nice to your parents. And adults, be nice to your parents.
No, seriously. It's hard to be nice to people when they're old and decrepit. I know it really is hard for our kids to be nice to us. We're annoying. Parents are annoying. Can I get an amen from the kids?
Thank you. Be nice to your parents. Be nice to your family. Be nice to the cashier when you're at the grocery store. Put your phone down. Look at them and say thank you. When you're at the airport and you're going through TSA, thank the people that are there who have a thankless job.
These people often are doing the very best they can, and nobody says thank you to them. When Debbie and I fly, we always buy Lindor chocolate, and we put it in really nice gift bags, and when we get on the airplane, we give the gift bag to the flight attendants, and we say thank you for being with us and keeping us safe today.
Now, I have no idea whether flight attendants really keep us safe or not, but do you know that almost nobody ever really says thank you in any kind of a genuine way to a flight attendant. These people that God wants us to be nice to are all around us, and we miss them because we're busy.
We're distracted. Take every opportunity. Your neighbors, your family, the checkout person, the guest preacher who showed up on Sunday morning. Go out of your way to do good to others. Take every opportunity, and I think we can also take every opportunity that we have to worship the Lord, not just on Sunday morning but every single day.
The eclipse happened a couple days ago. Debbie and I were in Jonesboro, Arkansas, where there was a total eclipse. People came from all over to watch it. It was amazing. How many of you saw the eclipse?
Yeah, it happened here. Yeah, it was amazing, wasn't it? Let me ask you a question. Is the sun shining out today any less amazing than the eclipse was? The trees, the bud, the leaves that come out, are they any less amazing?
The sunset that you'll see tonight, is it any less amazing than the eclipse of? I was subbing in an English class, and I was teaching a poem by Emerson, and he wrote that if the stars came out once every thousand years, people would come out and just marvel at them, but because they come out every night, we don't even see them.
Do you know how many opportunities you get every day to worship? And we miss it. I just heard this recently, and it just struck me as true. People watch cat videos and dog videos, but they don't know where their own cat is.
One of the things that I have enjoyed the last couple days, I have a dog who's very energetic, who loves to play fetch. He'll play it till he drops over dead, I think, and for the last two days, as I've gone out and thrown the ball, my little buddy Bo has been out there, and Bo just delights in watching him run for that ball.
He watches him run for it, and jump for it, and he giggles with joy, and he says, look at that, and that's worship. Look at that, it's amazing, and yet we get busy, we get distracted, and we miss it, and that's when the devil gets you.
He gets you when you quit worshiping. He gets you when you quit doing good to others. He gets you when you neglect wisdom. He gets you when you're not careful. The devil is after us, and he wants to destroy us.
This is from Faust. I ran across this the other day. I thought it was great. He says, the real journey of discovery is not in going to new lands. It is having new eyes. The real joy of discovery is not in going to new lands.
It's in having new eyes. You don't need to go anywhere. You just need to look. You just need to look. It's all around you. Well, it's been delightful being with you this morning. I hope it's been fun or funny.
If anybody would like to know more about Cadence International, Cadence International subsists only on the generous donations of people. If you'd like to get involved financially, we can help you do that.
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I would ask you not to steal it. If you have to do it, do what you have to do. Please, if you'd like to be on our newsletter list, if you'd like to talk to us and know more, we would be delighted to chat with you.
It's been great being with you. Can I pray now? I know there's a benediction, but I'm going to just pray just because I would like to. God, thank you for your word. Thank you for your clarity, Father, to our hearts.
Help us, God, to be careful. Help us to be wise and to make the most of every opportunity. God, we know the devil is after us. God, give us courage, Father, to do our part that he might not get a hold of our lives.
For we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.