A Theology Of Time - [Ephesians 5:15-21]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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April 25, 2004

00:00: I know you're not supposed to have a favorite grandma, but in my days I did have a favorite grandma. Her name was
00:05: Nona. And Nona had a lot of interesting things about her. And one of the things that I loved about Nona is she found money all the time.
00:15: We would go to the carnival, she'd find money. And she'd always give me the money. Every place we would go, she would find money.
00:23: And then one day I asked my mom, how does Nona find so much money? I mean, she has the sights that are bent on finding money.
00:31: And she said, well, my grandma's older and she has to look down where she walks so she doesn't fall.
00:39: I'm okay, now I get it. I still love Nona, but she has to walk circumspectly like Ecclesiastes chapter 12.
00:45: The terrors of the road, you might fall. You need to be careful how you walk. Two years ago,
00:51: I went on one of those ropes courses. And so you go up 70 feet up in the Redwoods of Northern California.
00:56: And there's about eight different obstacle courses. And you have to walk through each course from Redwood to Redwood.
01:04: There might be a log between two. There might be a shaky kind of a board in between two, just a rope.
01:12: And you know, you're tied on. So if you fall, you're going to be safe. But I've never walked so carefully.
01:18: I've never took so many steps slowly and circumspectly making sure that I didn't want to fall.
01:24: I had to be careful how I walked. And if you'll turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter five this morning, the whole passage we'll look at this morning is how to walk carefully as a
01:33: Christian, how to walk carefully, how to live your life carefully as a child of God.
01:40: Now, some of you are new to the church and some of you who have been here for a while might need to catch up or speed up to Ephesians.
01:48: And so we'll just take a few moments to do that. We're going verse by verse through the book of Ephesians that Paul wrote, inspired by the spirit of God.
01:56: And Ephesians is all about praise. Ephesians is one big eulogy. Ephesians is
02:02: Paul's story 25 years later after he got saved on the road to Damascus.
02:07: And he still can't get it out of the system. He is doing almost exactly what Psalm 145 talked about in scripture reading today.
02:14: I will extol thee my God, O King. That's the whole book. Extolling God, saying,
02:19: God, you're so great. And really it's summarized in chapter one, verse three, if you'll look at it with me.
02:27: Chapter one, verse three, this great statement of homage that's very
02:34: Jewish in its nature, as they would say, blessed be God very customarily. And he says in chapter one, verse three, blessed be the
02:42: God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
02:51: That's the whole book right there. That's the key is this praise of God, speaking well of God for his power, his greatness and who he is.
03:00: Just praising God and everything flows right out of that. If you look at verses three through 14, your
03:07: Bible might have some periods in it, but it's one big sentence. It's 202 words of just praise of God.
03:14: And really it's summarized by these three statements. We're going to praise God because A, he has a plan.
03:20: You can see that in this first chapter. He's got a plan. He's predestined us. He's elect us.
03:26: He's chosen us. God's got a plan. God works out that plan through Christ. If you look at all the passages in verses three through 14, in him, in Christ, in him, everything that God does is through Christ.
03:40: And finally, if you look at just three verses, take a look at verse six of chapter one. Why does he do it?
03:46: To the praise of the glory of his grace. Why does he do it? Verse 12 of chapter one, to the praise of his glory.
03:54: Why does he do this? At the end of verse 14, to the praise of his glory. That's the theme of this whole book.
04:01: God's got a plan. He works out that plan through Christ and he does it to the praise of his glory.
04:06: And Paul modeling as it were, says, I want you all Christians to praise me. I mean, not praise me.
04:12: Paul wouldn't say that. Paul would say, get up. Don't praise me. To praise God. He says in chapter one, two, and three, how great he is.
04:23: And then in chapter four, let's flip over to there. It becomes very practical. It becomes very practical that if you know something, you should change the way you live.
04:31: It should change you. And so instead of saying, do something first and then we'll teach you why,
04:37: Paul tells us why chapter one, two, and three. And now he says, here's how you should live.
04:43: And I want you to see the words walk because they're in this book a lot. And this is all review chapter four, verse one.
04:51: I, therefore, based on all this doctrine of praising God in chapters one, two, and three, the prisoner of the Lord and treat you to walk in a manner worthy.
05:00: And that's not walking like I was walking through those redwoods. This is lifestyle. This is conduct.
05:05: This is what the King James called conversation. This is just living. Look down at verse 17 of chapter four as well.
05:13: Therefore, I say, affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer as the
05:18: Gentiles walk like you used to as an unbeliever in the futility of your mind. Look at chapter five, verse two, there's another walk.
05:26: Since we know all this about God, since God has redeemed us and saved us, well, we should have a lifestyle that's commensurate with that.
05:35: Chapter five, verse two, and walk in what? Love, the lifestyle should be a life of love. Chapter five, verse eight, there it is again.
05:43: You were formerly darkness, but now you're light in the Lord. What? Walk as children of light.
05:49: And now we come to the final walk, which is today, a walk of wisdom. Look at verse 15. We'll look at verses 15 and 16 today specifically, but we'll see the larger context.
06:00: Therefore, be careful how you walk. Not as unwise men, but as wise.
06:07: And that's what Paul's going to say. This is the next wave of exhortation. Paul says in chapter four, there's a lot of things
06:13: I want you to do and who you are in Christ. Now he says, this is going to come down to wisdom. He says,
06:19: I want you to live a wise life. Chapter five, verse 15, for the scholars out there, and even if you're not a scholar, you need to understand it.
06:32: It's a little tough to translate. Look at verse 15. It says, therefore, be careful how you walk.
06:38: Literally, it says, therefore, see to it that you walk wisely. King James is a little bit better here.
06:45: See to it that you walk wisely. And what is the contrast? Not as fools, but as wise.
06:54: Not as fools, but as wise. And there's a lot in the Bible about this contrast between wisdom and folly.
07:01: The fool builds his house on the what? Sand. The fool has said in his heart, there is what?
07:08: No God. There's all these comparisons between wisdom and foolishness. And now it just makes sense that Paul is going to say,
07:16: I want you as Christians to walk wisely. Be careful. See to it.
07:22: And so let me give you, for our outline today, five or six ways that you can be careful to live a wise lifestyle.
07:31: Five or six ways that you can see to it, that you can follow this command. It's a command form in the Greek. Be careful to walk wisely.
07:39: Make sure your lifestyle is a wise lifestyle. Number one, for you to be wise, you must see your lifestyle as an opportunity to serve
07:49: God. Better way to say it, you must see your life as an opportunity to serve the Lord. Your whole life is an opportunity to serve
07:57: God. That's why you're here. That's why we don't hold you under when we baptize you and you go straight to heaven, right?
08:03: We learned that last week. You are here to live a wise life. And take a look at the passage that says in verse 16, making the most of your time.
08:12: So he says, see to it that you live carefully, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil.
08:21: Who has a different translation? Redeeming the time. That's literally what it says.
08:27: To buy it up. To buy up the time because the days are evil. If you go to Filene's basement and you see a great opportunity for these dresses or suits and you say,
08:38: I just can't pass that up. I need to buy all those. One time I went to Walmart and they had protein bars, kind that had not hardly any carbs in it at all.
08:47: And they were normally $2 and they were 40 cents. So I bought $20 worth. And then
08:53: I came home and I thought, you know, that was such a good deal. I went back and I bought 20 more dollars worth because I want to just buy those things up.
09:02: After you eat $40 worth of protein bars for 40 cents a shot, I don't want any more of those kind.
09:14: The idea here is make the most of your time. But what he's technically saying is redeem the time.
09:22: Buy up the time. Typically the word redeem is used of Christ when he redeems us, when he buys us out of the slave pit of sin at a price, his death, his blood.
09:31: And so he redeems us in something that was enslaved to sin. Now it's free. Now he says time is actually in a sense, bound up with evil.
09:41: Now make the most of your time in life. Make the most of it. I want you to see another word before I explain this further.
09:48: Look at the word time. Now, when I see the word time, I tend to think of hours and minutes and seconds.
09:55: Don't you? That's the way I think of time. There's two words in Greek for time. Chronology, chronos, time, minutes, seconds, nanoseconds, years.
10:06: And another word for time that means a season of time. Paul went to the great leader,
10:11: Felix, I believe. And he said, yeah, it sounds pretty good, but I'll call you back at a better time.
10:17: Not a better clock time, but a more convenient time. That's this word here in Ephesians chapter five.
10:23: It means an opportunity. It doesn't mean, you know, straight up at six o 'clock. It means opportunity, to buy up the opportunity.
10:33: This means a season or an age. And really what he's saying is if God has saved you as a
10:38: Christian, use your life that God has given you for this great opportunity for the king, for the
10:45: Lord. First Peter 1 .17, I'll just read it. It says, and if you address as father, the one who impartially judges according to each man's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth.
11:02: And so you can imagine if you were an unbeliever, you just live your life, not really buying up the opportunities.
11:07: It's no big deal. It's selfishness. It's whatever pleases me. I'm gonna just live for myself.
11:13: No big deal. And now we get saved. And Paul says, you've got this time. I'm 43.
11:19: I don't know how long I'll live, but the rest of my life should be an opportunity to serve this great God who saved me.
11:25: Jeff Packer said the opposite of wisdom is folly, meaning the short -term self -indulgence, which marks out a person who doesn't think about long -term priorities and goals, but lives on day -to -day basis, asking, what is the most fun thing to do now?
11:41: End quote. That's not for the Christian. The Christian is, of course we can have fun, but our lives should be seen.
11:47: You should see your life as an opportunity to serve God. Why are you on earth? You're here as a great representative to serve the
11:55: Lord. And the clock is almost striking 12. Now is the opportunity. Flip over to Colossians chapter four for a moment.
12:05: I wanna let you see how this word is used elsewhere. Paul uses it to the church of Colossae.
12:12: And here he gives kind of the same opportunity because we've got evangelism to deal with.
12:23: He says, Colossians 4, 5, "'Conduct yourselves with wisdom "'towards outsiders, unbelievers.'
12:31: "'Making what?' "'The most of the time, or in this case, "'not chronology, but opportunity.'"
12:39: Make the most of your opportunities. When you're around unbelievers, make the most of it. So back to Ephesians chapter five.
12:52: How are you wise? The first way to be wise is to see your life as an opportunity to serve God. Secondly, this is interesting, verse 16, "'To be wise, you must steer away from defeatism.'"
13:05: Defeatism. I'm probably a political defeatist. Just one vote, not gonna make any difference.
13:15: How can I change things? How can I move to Massachusetts and affect the political culture?
13:23: And sometimes Christians, if they're not careful, say to themselves, "'Yeah, I know, God, I'm supposed to see my life "'as an opportunity to do good for you, "'but the world is so bad.
13:34: "'How can I put a ding in it?' The answer is because we do it for the
13:40: Lord's glory. Look at 5 .16. "'Making the most of your time because the days are evil.'"
13:46: He doesn't say, "'Don't make the most of your time "'because the days are evil. "'Don't bother getting out of bed "'because you can't change society.'"
13:54: He says, "'One of the reasons you should see your life "'as an opportunity to serve God "'is because the days are evil. "'Make a difference.
14:00: "'Don't be a pragmatist. "'This is the reason why we're to do this, "'because the days are evil, morally evil.'"
14:12: One of the things you can do is if you look up a little bit earlier in Ephesians 5, verse 11, "'Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, "'but instead even expose them.'
14:22: "'It is disgraceful even to speak of the things "'which are done by them in secret. "'But all things become visible "'when they are exposed by the light, "'for everything that becomes visible is light.
14:33: "'Since we're living in a culture like this "'and the days are evil, "'be the light of who you are, "'so you expose the sin.'
14:39: So they say, "'Wow, I'm a sinner. "'I need the Lord.'" We're working on our little deck area and turn it into a three -season room.
14:50: And I recruited all kinds of people to help and Brian's been over there and Mike's been over there and Warren's been over there and Guido and a variety of the men have helped me.
15:01: And I can't really do anything manually, no manual labor.
15:07: I have calluses, that's because I lift weights, you know, at least gives me respect. I once was told that you can't trust anybody with soft hands.
15:15: So why wear weight gloves, you know, when you lift? I have to have some kind of semblance of order.
15:23: That's not in the sermon, by the way, cut that out. And so Guido had to leave and I had to finish the job myself and I had to finish drywalling and I had those special kind of drywall brushes that you get rid of all the stuff to make it really smooth before you paint it, so it just looks great.
15:41: So I had worked and worked and Kim was back in California, I'm gonna get this place done. And, you know, by the end of the day, you just look like this ghost because all that white soot is all over your face and the drywalling and I walk outside and try to just wash it off and it looks so fine and it looks so nice.
15:58: Come on home, Kim, we got the lights put up, turn on that light and the ceiling looks horrible.
16:07: Looks great in the dark, look great before the lights were up. So one of the things we do, the days are evil and, you know, people these days, they don't even think they're evil because they're comparing themselves with somebody else and compared to their neighbor, they're pretty good.
16:24: And Paul says in chapter five, verses 11 through 14, you live this bright life, this light that you are, you live it.
16:32: Other people will then say, whoo, I'm not so good and I don't like that person around me even.
16:38: So then they see their sins and then they repent and follow what chapter five, verse 14 says. Wake up from the dead, arise spiritually and Christ will shine on you.
16:48: These days are evil so that should motivate us to be good stewards of our life. It shouldn't make us go camp forever in a monastery.
17:00: How do you be wise? How do you see to it? How do you watch your steps? Number one, see your life as an opportunity to serve the
17:06: Lord. Number two, steer away from defeatism. Number three, let's turn over to James chapter four.
17:11: To be wise, you must remember that God is intimately involved in your life.
17:19: You must recognize the fact that God is intimately involved in your life.
17:24: In other words, I don't want you to be practical atheist. I learn all this stuff at church and then I walk out the door and act like God doesn't exist.
17:32: Would not be good wisdom. James chapter four. This is one of my favorite passages in the
17:38: Bible, because it convicts me. I don't tend to operate my life like this unless I'm thinking according to what the
17:44: Bible says. I tend to just kind of go with the flow path of least resistance. And here this passage really kind of shakes me that I have to remember
17:53: I'm living in the light of God. One man said one of the greatest sins of our modern day is that of simply leaving
18:02: God out of our lives. We talk and plan and act as if our lives were entirely our own affair.
18:09: And there was no great God in the heavens. That's not wise.
18:14: That's not walking wisely. That's foolishness. And James hits that. Look at James 413.
18:20: You know the passage, but it's good to be reminded. James, you can just hear him as a pastor.
18:27: James is probably a sermon. 104 verses, 52 imperatives. It's probably a sermon he was preaching.
18:32: And now he's saying to the congregation. Come now. Come on. Listen up.
18:39: Pay attention. Come now. Just a pastoral heart. You who say you who keep on saying you who always say let me get your attention.
18:49: Come on. This is not isolated instance when you just kind of forget about God, but come on, you who say today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.
19:01: Got it all worked out. Got my five year plan. I got my 10 year plan. I got my flow chart. We're going to move here and we're going to do this.
19:07: We're going to get this education. We're going to have there. We're going to have 3 .2 kids. We're going to do all that. One point, you know, three kids is like the one says to the 0 .3.
19:18: I got it all worked out. Exact. You can almost kind of tell there's a little swagger.
19:24: Got it all worked out. Got it all planned. Minute details.
19:34: Today or tomorrow, there's the travel plans where we shall go. He certainly knows where that is. In this city,
19:40: I'm going to go to this city and you can almost see him taking out his Atlas, his roadmap and saying, we're going to go here for the day, for the year, and we're going to go work there.
19:50: We're going to make a profit. And James is going to say as a pastor, you can't have, you may have separation of church and state in America.
19:59: It's not right, but you may have it. What you don't want is separation of God and us in our daily living.
20:04: It wouldn't be wise. Leaving God out of the picture of our plans, taking
20:11: God for granted. We must mix business with religion. Now, don't get me wrong.
20:20: You can plan and you can have wise business planning, but you have to factor in the
20:26: Lord. Why?
20:31: Because life is unpredictable. Look at verse 14. It's going to catch up with us if we're not careful.
20:39: We may get away with ignoring God very often with his patience and his forbearance. We may be able to say
20:45: I'm a self -made man. It's my money. It's my plans. It's my ingenuity. I do all this stuff. It's my business.
20:52: It's going to catch up to us someday like Napoleon. He's about to invade Russia and a friend tried to say no.
20:58: He could not change his mind and the friend finally said, man proposes, God disposes.
21:07: Napoleon zipped right back with his intellect and said, I dispose as well as propose.
21:16: Napoleon, by the way, was invaded by Russia in the beginning of the fall. James 4 .14.
21:23: Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. Only a fool plans their life like there's no
21:30: God. And only a fool's fool who knows better, me, you, plans their life like there's no
21:36: God. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
21:44: You don't know what your life is going to be like tomorrow. Life's unpredictable.
21:49: It's uncontrollable. We don't even know what's going to happen tomorrow, let alone a year like this guy was planning.
21:59: Proverbs 27 .1. Do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring what? Forth. It's not wise to do that.
22:08: If you look at the passage in verse 14, you're a vapor. You're always a vapor. Your life is going to be a vapor.
22:15: I don't care if you go to Gold's Gym. I don't care if you exercise. I don't care if you take vitamins. I don't care what you do. Your life is going to be a vapor.
22:26: One of the old rabbis said, care not for the morrow for ye know not what a day may bring forth. Perhaps you may not find tomorrow.
22:35: I like what the life insurance salesman said. He's a high pressure guy. If you don't want to buy a policy now, think about it tonight and call me in the morning.
22:44: If you wake up. If you don't think life is short and life is fleeting, then just go to the cemetery sometime.
22:54: We like to do this as kind of a family outing. I know we're strange. Tell me something I don't know. We just drive around.
23:02: And so we try to, you know, we just look and we see whatever the ages are. You say, and I want my kids to realize and every time it helps me too.
23:10: Life is short and I don't know if I'm even going to wake up for wake up tomorrow. And wisdom acknowledges that the psalmist didn't count his years like with birthdays.
23:23: He counted his days. Psalm 90 12. So teach us to number our days that we may present to the heart of wisdom.
23:32: Wisdom counts those days. How should we act instead? Look at verse 15,
23:38: James chapter 4. Instead, instead of all the I'm in charge.
23:46: I plan my life without God who needs him. Instead, you want to say if the
23:51: Lord wills, we shall live and also do this or that. Resumes the thought of verse 13.
23:57: It's what we should say is God willing. If when I was a kid, you probably won't like this because it's the 76ers
24:04: I was rooting for, but I like the 76ers. They had guys like Dr. J and Andrew Tony and Steve Mix and Caldwell Jones and all these guys.
24:14: And they had one man. His name was Lloyd Free. And he could, he could jump up into you, shoot a shot and you get called for the foul and it would go in.
24:23: So he changed his name. He thought he was pretty hot stuff and he changed his name to world be free.
24:32: And he liked to go by the name of world because he was so tough. He was this great basketball player.
24:39: World. Just what's your new name? World. I'm the world.
24:45: You can just get that. And I might have been on the basketball court, but certainly we as Christians, if we don't plan that God is involved in our lives intimately, it's like we're walking around all going world.
25:03: World. I look back as my unbelieving life.
25:09: That's what I did. I'll go to the University of Nebraska. I'll finish in four years. I'm going to move to California. I'm going to go to Cal State Long Beach.
25:15: I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. And all of a sudden it was the arrest of God in my life and understanding that.
25:26: The Greeks used to say if the gods will. Muslims say if Allah wills.
25:33: Look at the passage here. It doesn't even say God. It uses the word for absolute sovereign.
25:39: If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do this or that.
25:45: It's okay to plan, but if it's not in the back of your mind with your five -year business planner, you might just go into the doctor that one day and the man with the white suit puts his arm around you and says
25:55: I've got some bad news for you. If the Lord wills. Maybe the
26:01: Lord is going to come back. Kurios, absolute master with authority and that makes our
26:08: Christian motto for those of us that want to live wisely. If that's our motto.
26:14: If even as a
26:19: Christian, I remember I said to myself, well tomorrow they're going to go in and induce Kim and I know what it's like having as a family having a baby not personally because Kim had the babies, but Haley's been born and we went in.
26:33: We did this for that. So we're going to go in tomorrow. It's Monday. We're going to get induced. They're going to break her water and we're going to have our little baby boy named
26:40: Luke and then I'll teach our Bible study on Tuesday night and just do what we do. I had all my little plans.
26:46: People said we're going to have Bible study. Sure, we'll have Bible study and I wasn't really factoring in who
26:54: God was. And to think that I should have said, well Lord willing we'll have Bible study because when
26:59: Luke came out and was all blue and immediately rushed to the NICU, I hadn't planned on that.
27:08: I hadn't planned on God works all things according to His will, not mine. And it's only wise to say,
27:14: God, you have bought me with a price. You own me. You do with me what you want. Every day is a gift.
27:20: Everything that you've given me, I'm a steward of. I own nothing including my own life and I'm here for you.
27:26: The gospel call is deny yourself and follow Christ and after you're a Christian, the gospel call to follow
27:31: Christ is still deny yourself and follow Him. And living like there's a God. Paul is saying in Ephesians, don't be a practical atheist.
27:38: You know everything about God but you just kind of ignore it. I like what
27:44: Paul did. He preached what he, he lived what he preached. Acts 18 .21, I will return to you again if God wills.
27:52: He sent sail for Ephesus. 1 Corinthians 4, but I will come to you soon if the
27:58: Lord, what? Wills. 1 Corinthians 16, I hope to remain with you for some time if the
28:05: Lord permits. Methodists used to sign their name and at the end of the name they write two little initials.
28:14: D .V. Latin for God willing. You write a little note,
28:19: I hope to come and visit you and see you and all that stuff. D .V. Dio Valente. God willing.
28:30: I like to go to caves sometimes and take tours through caves and you know they turn off the light when you're down.
28:36: There's some cave by Albany and you take an elevator seven feet, seven stories down and you're downstairs and there's a little water thing down there and you can take a boat ride to the bottom of the cave seven stories down and sometimes they'll just turn off the light.
28:51: Before they turn off the light they say, stay close to your guide. That's the same thing here.
28:58: Even though we've been saved and even though God's working out everything for our good, Paul is saying, I want you to stay awake and he's saying through James, I want you to make sure you stay close to your guide and realize that he's part of your life.
29:10: And if you don't, look at verse 16 of James 4. As it is, remember the context of planning your life like there's no
29:16: God, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. It's wicked to do that.
29:24: Don't do that. Be humble and say, God my life is yours and I plan to do this.
29:29: It's good to have wisdom like an ant to plan but I don't know my future. And then one of the most misquoted verses in all the
29:36: Bible. It's used all the time. James 4 .17 Therefore to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
29:45: How many times have you heard that verse? Sins of commission and sins of omission.
29:52: This is a sin of omission. Something that we should do but we don't do. But the context is not anything except living like there's no
30:01: God. That's the context. The context is if you know it's right to direct your steps to the sovereign plan of our good
30:10: God and don't do it to him who knows to do the right thing. What's to do the right thing? To be humble and say,
30:16: God it's the wise thing to say you're involved in my life and I'll plan with you involved.
30:22: But if you don't do that to him it's sin. You know what
30:28: I just love about this? There is liberty in submission. It's nice to know
30:35: I don't have to control my life. Because when I tried to I couldn't anyway. I could not control my life so then it was turning to drugs and turning to alcohol and turning to all these things because I had to mask my mind because my mind wouldn't let me control everything so I have to just pretend like I'm controlling it.
30:55: I love liberty in submission. God, my life is your life and you run my life for your glory.
31:02: You look at your calendar on the refrigerator and you just look at that whole thing. These are my plans and it is good to plan but God you can feel free because you will interrupt my plans at any time with any shape and any form.
31:18: You know what also helps me? I've yet to learn this well in my life but I'm trying to learn it. It's okay now to have an interruption.
31:28: I don't like interruptions. My mom, I have not used it yet so don't hold this against me but my mother gave me one of those time pieces that you set on your desk and it has the grains of sand.
31:41: It's a five minute thing. You know the hourglass? You turn it over. She said, honey this is a gift for you.
31:48: She gave it to me a couple years ago and the next time someone comes in your office and says could I just have five minutes with you pastor?
31:53: You just turn that thing over. Five minutes. Interruptions are difficult for all of us with our jobs and we have things to do.
32:01: We need to get things done. But if my day timer has a big DV at the top,
32:07: God willing, and things come up we'll think about what Christ did. He's on his way to go heal somebody or bring them up from the dead and all of a sudden here comes the woman who's got an issue of blood for 12 years.
32:19: She's just bleeding and bleeding and bleeding and Jesus was not, you know my PDA is ticking and da da da da da.
32:29: I love that. You just leave room for God to step in. You say, God you've given me this interruption in my life and I'll, whether you eat or drink or are involved with interruptions
32:37: I'll do it for your glory. You're just going to have to give me more rest from less sleep.
32:42: You're going to have to just give me more wisdom to do my jobs right. I think
32:50: James is also after the foolish notion that we all do sometimes and it's this.
32:58: God, I've made my decision. Now bless it. God, I've made my decision.
33:05: These are my plans. Now God, I'm just asking you please, pretty please with sugar on, bless my plans.
33:11: Instead of, God, these are my plans according to our finances and according to our job situation, according to the kids and everything else.
33:18: This seems to be the best but you can shut doors and open doors and you can do whatever you want and these plans are laid at your feet and you can either strike them down and give me joy or you can complete them.
33:33: Lord Melbourne said, things have come to a pretty pass when religion is allowed to invade public life.
33:42: That's foolish. That's what we used to think and Ephesians is saying when you want to live your life see to it that you live a wise life.
33:49: A life that says God, my life is an opportunity. God, I want to just say I'm not going to be a defeatist.
33:55: I don't care if I can't make a difference. I'm doing it for you. There will be an eternal difference and thirdly,
34:01: I'm going to live my life in such a way that you're going to be involved. Let me see how many more we can get through.
34:08: Fourthly, for you to be wise and not foolish, don't lead with your emotions.
34:15: Don't operate primarily on your emotions. I've talked about this a lot but I just thought it was important to talk about this today.
34:22: Your emotions are good. I'm glad I have emotions. That would be a horrible life walking around, the non -emotional man, the non -emotional women.
34:31: No, God gave us emotions of joy and anger and there's righteous anger and love and you just think oh,
34:39: I have great emotions. But if you notice Ephesians chapter 5 verse 15 Therefore, see to it literally that you're careful how you walk.
34:52: He's commanding us to do something that might go past our emotions. It's okay to have emotions but they better be the caboose not the engine or you're going to be in a heap of trouble.
35:01: You're going to be like you used to be before you were a Christian. If it feels good, do it. That's how we used to live.
35:07: Feelings, I don't feel like that. Well, lots of times even though you might not feel like a Christian, you're called to do
35:13: Christianly things. Like this time. Like last sermon with exposing sin.
35:18: I don't feel like that. I don't want to do that. Well, what does the word of God say? And if you look at the passage in Ephesians 5 verse 15, that word careful is a wonderful little word.
35:29: It means accurately. It means diligently.
35:35: It means that if you're going to perform microsurgery on somebody's eye that you make sure you don't have a lot of coffee in the morning because you just have to keep your hands so still.
35:46: When I worked in the operating room I was always amazed because I'd have to get so caffeined up to stand there at 5 .30 in the morning to watch these people and then they were just so precise.
35:56: So careful. It's like a man taking a little tiny watch and working on the inside of that watch.
36:03: Paul's saying when you live a Christian life, a wise Christian life, you're going to be precise with it.
36:08: You're going to be accurate. You're going to take care of things very carefully and this has nothing to do with emotions.
36:15: Well, I don't feel like living wise. Well, live wisely and I bet you God will give you the emotions you need.
36:24: I turn to Luke chapter 24 and let me give you an illustration of how important following God's word is even over experiences and emotions.
36:34: I want you to have emotions. I want you to be like Paul fired up for God. I want you to be like Paul angry at sin.
36:40: I want you to live with joy and peace. But what
36:45: I don't want you to do is say, I come to the Bible, I don't feel like doing it, therefore, I can't do it.
36:51: We want to make sure that we're operating primarily on what God calls us to do. I don't know, maybe your kids have said this.
36:58: Maybe they're too little. Would you please clean up your room? I don't feel like doing it. Well, my kids may think that, but they're not quite big enough to say that yet.
37:08: So you know what might happen. But, who wants to clean up your room? Let me ask you this question.
37:14: Who wants to wake up today and say, deny myself, pick up my cross today and follow
37:22: Christ. Self -denial. And tomorrow, there's another cross waiting for you.
37:30: And another day. And another day. Do you feel like doing that? I have to admit, my name is
37:35: Mike Avendron. I do not feel like doing that very often. That's why it's a supernatural thing.
37:41: That's why God says, be careful how you walk. Walk with wisdom. I'm telling this for your mind because religion is a,
37:46: Christianity is a religion of your mind. You might not feel like it, but that's okay. Feelings don't come first for the
37:52: Christian. I sound so weird because that's what the society tells us. Feelings first.
37:57: And we're like the cave dwellers in here that you walk around and say, do what's right first. Now, I can't prove the point in Luke chapter 24, but I find something very interesting here that the writer makes sure we understand at least what is first.
38:12: There's a reason for it. You say, reason for what? Well, let's look at it. Luke 24, 13. Let's just read a few verses.
38:22: And I'll just tell you where we're going ahead of time. Jesus does not reveal himself as Jesus until after they understand the word of God.
38:29: Let's look at it. Luke 24, 13. And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named
38:36: Emmaus. This is after the resurrection, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were conversing with each other about all these things which had taken place.
38:46: It had come about that while they were conversing and discussing, Jesus himself approached and began traveling with them.
38:54: And their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. That's interesting. And he said to them,
39:00: What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking? And they stood still looking sad.
39:07: Jump down to verse 27. And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, a description of the
39:14: Old Testament, he explained to them the things concerning himself and all the scriptures. It's almost like he wants them to think biblically, to think rationally and logically before he gives them the experience of Jesus.
39:27: You've got to think about me properly and then you'll have the experience. Verse 28.
39:33: They approached the village where they were going and he acted as though he would go farther. And they urged him, saying,
39:39: Stay with us, for it is getting towards evening and the day is now nearly over. And he went in to stay with them. They don't know who he is, but he's explaining the
39:45: Bible. Please stay. Verse 30. And it came about that when he had reclined at the table with them, he took bread and blessed it and breaking it, he began giving it to them.
39:56: What do you know? Verse 31. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sights.
40:04: And they said to one another, Were not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking to us on the road, while he was explaining the scriptures to us?
40:14: I love that, that here Jesus purposely gives them the word of God, the rational word of God and says,
40:25: Here's who the Messiah must be. Here's what he must do. And by the way, I am he. Because I'm not sure if he just showed himself to them, they would be so emotionally overcome,
40:35: I'm not sure they would have listened to the rest. Point being, you say to yourself, How am
40:41: I living my Christian life? If it's not according to the word of God first and experiences and emotions second, then we need to switch that around.
40:54: Last one, number five. Quickly. Let your yes be yes and your no be no,
41:01: Pastor. For you to be wise, you must not separate doctrine with living.
41:09: For you to be wise, you must not separate doctrine with living. I preach this all the time and you know this, but this is to reinforce because the culture and evangelical culture tells us to heavily weigh on the practical side of things and let's not talk too much about doctrine.
41:26: Don't separate doctrine and Christian living. That's what we used to do. Let's not do that anymore.
41:33: If you'll notice, what's the first word in verse 15 of Ephesians 5? Therefore, what's the first word of Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1?
41:46: I could ask you, what's the first word of Romans chapter 12? What's the first word of Colossians chapter 3, verse 5?
41:52: We learn a lot of doctrine and now we live it out. When Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1 says, walk in a manner worthy, it's got a little seesaw here.
42:04: I don't know if you've ridden a seesaw lately, but there's the middle point and somebody sits over here and somebody sits over here and the larger person has it go up like this.
42:12: And he has to push up to get the smaller person to go down. A little seesaw. It could be like a little scale. And what
42:18: Paul is saying is this, if you've got doctrine that's bringing down the sea like this, you want to live out what you've learned to kind of balance this out.
42:27: To make the balance beam work. Make it of equal weight. And there's two problems.
42:33: One problem is we're walking around up in the ether knowing doctrine. Got my doctrine right.
42:39: I know all the points of Calvinism. I'm a super -lapsarianism. I'm a...
42:45: all these things. And then they walk around just... dolts. Just walk around not knowing anything because you've got all your doctrine right.
42:54: There's another side. You kind of know how to do everything. But you don't know why you do it.
43:02: There's no pride to be felt in ether. What God says, I've taught you things.
43:08: Now live it out. Here's who you are in Christ. Now be who you are. Since your Father in Heaven is holy, then you be holy as well.
43:16: And so you say, I need doctrine and I need to live it out. Hence, Ephesians chapter 1, 2, and 3.
43:21: Doctrine 4, 5, and 6. What? You say, well, you know,
43:27: I'm having trouble at work. If you come in and ask me questions and I'm in your counseling session with you and you say,
43:35: I've got trouble at work. I guarantee you if I'm doing biblical things I will not help you with 10 easy ways to be a better worker.
43:42: I won't do it. Say, well, you know what? I'm having a hard time raising my children. I don't know what to do.
43:47: I will not say, here's what you should do. This is your schedule. These are the books to read.
43:52: You know what I'll do? What will
44:02: I do? I'll teach you what it means to be in Christ and who you are and what
44:07: God requires. And then I'll teach you about the practical things. So you have to have both.
44:16: The song says, Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.
44:25: I read something horrible this week addressing some Southern Baptist leaders, George Gallup said, quote,
44:31: We find there is very little difference in ethical behavior between churchgoers and those who are not actively religious.
44:38: The levels of lying, cheating, and stealing are remarkable, remarkably similar in both groups.
44:47: Ten Americans consider themselves Christians, Gallup said, yet only about half of them could identify the person who gave the
44:53: Sermon on the Mount, and fewer still could recall five of the Ten Commandments. Only two in ten said they would be willing to suffer for their faith.
45:04: That's bad. Why I love Ephesians is because it holds you face -to -face to the glory of God, and when you go to the mountain, as it were, and you're like Moses and you see the glory of God, you don't come back down the same.
45:18: Moses did not come back down the mountain. The same person he did is when he saw the glory of God. And when you see the glory of God in Ephesians 1,
45:26: God has blessed me with everything I need. He chose me before eternity, not even because I would accept Him, but because He accepted me.
45:32: His Son died for me. His Spirit sealed me to the day of redemption. He's called me a Gentile into His family, and He's working this thing out now called the church for His glory, and I can't believe that He would save me.
45:43: It should change the way we live. How to walk wisely.
45:54: Ephesians 5, verse 15. See to it that you walk wisely, not as unwise men, but as wise.
46:02: I think we as a congregation, I'm ready for some of these kind of conversations. Pastor, we could adopt those two kids.
46:13: We don't know if we can take them or not, but we'll take those two kids, and we're going to live for the glory of God and adopt those two kids.
46:19: We're going for it. My life is an opportunity to serve you. We're going for it, says the Christoforos. Say, well, you know,
46:26: I don't know about school, and I don't know about education, and I don't know about missionary work, and all that stuff, because you know, I'm quite happy with my little things here.
46:33: I'm ready for God to raise up some people in the church, and they say, you know, God, I'm going for it. I'm seeing my life as an opportunity, and I'm going to make the most of my time.
46:41: I'm going to redeem the time because the days are evil. Sign me up. I don't care what it costs. I'm single.
46:47: Nothing's tying me here, and here I am. I'm going to the mission field, and off we go, or something.
46:52: You just say, these are the days, aren't they? You say, Pastor, practice what you preach.
46:59: I am. Somebody's got to come to New England. I'm like, sell everything. Let's go to New England. You say, well, this is home to me.
47:05: I know. It's not home for me. I'm not here for you. I'm not here for my family. I'm here for the glory of God.
47:13: I don't mean that in any disparaging terms. I say, here's my life.
47:19: Here's how I've got it planned. I challenge you this week. I feel like Robert Conrad, the battery guy.
47:24: I dare you. God, I don't care if we have to sell our house. I don't care if we have to move to India.
47:29: I don't care if we have to refinance the house. I don't care. I want to live godly for you. God, if that means we stay put right here,
47:36: I'm going to excel for you. My life is for you. My life is not my work. It's not anything else. God, please, and like William Carey said,
47:44: God, please, expect great things from God. The days are evil.
47:51: I'm ready to just go for it. I'm going to get some card in the mail. Do you want to move to Zimbabwe?
47:57: Do you want to move to India? Do you want to move here or there? And Kim's going to not let me get that envelope. I'm ready.
48:04: I'm not ready to move or to leave you, but I'm ready to say, God, if you will, I'm your man. Our family's yours.
48:11: God, I've lived here in New England since I was two years old. You need to say, God, this is my day timer and this is my house and this is everything else.
48:17: God, if you want to have me here, I'll stay. If you want to have me move, I'm yours. Isn't that so freeing?
48:24: I love that. And it's foolish to live any other way. And it's wise to live that way.