REDEEMING THE TIME (Ephesians 5:15-17)

Welcome and Call to Worship

Can y 'all hear me? Good morning, good morning. All right, we're gonna start our service. We just wanna welcome you to 12 .5 and for the members at 12 .5, I just wanna say that you are loved. Thank you so much for being faithful to gathering together with the saints.

We're just simply being obedient to what the writer of Hebrews calls us to do, not to neglect the gathering together of the saints, but we do so to encourage one another as we see the day drawing near.

So we just wanna thank you for your service, bringing your gifts to the table as a covenant member to 12 .5 Church. If you are a guest or a regular attender, you are also loved and we thank you so much for being here.

We'd love for you to fill out one of our connect cards just so we can pray for you. We'd love to get to know you more and more. So if you would, find one of our connect cards so we can reach out to you.

And so my prayer this morning is that we would unify in spirit and in truth. And so we're going to do this as we revere our holy triune God. And before we kick off our service, the first thing that we do is we wanna pray for a local church.

This is a way for us to unify with other evangelical churches proclaiming the right gospel of grace. So this morning, I would like for us to pray for Grace Covenant.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we just wanna thank you so much for allowing us to gather this morning. God, to lift your name on high. You are the creator of the universe and oftentimes we just get to soak in your creation that testifies to your sovereignty and your holiness and your might.

God, I just wanna lift up another sister church, Grace Covenant. Lord, I just pray for the leadership over there that you would bless them. That this morning, the truths of the gospel would be proclaimed.

And God, I just pray that by your Holy Spirit that you would bring great unity, that there would be much love in the midst of that body of believers.

Lord, we love you.

Pray those same things for us this morning as well. Pray this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Psalm 119 and Prayer of Adoration

All right, if you would please stand for our call to worship this morning that comes from Psalm 119 with the opening eight verses. And so this is a time for us to engage back and forth. We don't want this to be dead.

We want this to be a time where we all get to engage and proclaim the word of God together. So Psalm 119, we begin by reading, blessed are those whose ways is blameless. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies.

Seek him with their whole heart. Who also do no wrong. You have commanded your precepts. Diligently. Oh, that my ways may be steadfast. In keeping your statutes. Then I shall not be put to shame. Fixed on all your commandments.

I will praise you with an upright heart. When I learn from your righteous rules. I will keep your statutes. Do not utterly forsake me.

Amen.

Let's continue with a prayer of adoration. This is a time where I want us to try to remove all distractions, not so we look better towards one another, but that we can keep our gaze fixed on King Jesus, amen.

Let's pray.

Holy Father, we do pray for this time to look to you that distractions would flow away from our mind, God, that we would be fixed on the gospel truth, that we are declared right in you, Jesus. You are the one that forgives our sin.

God, your work is perfect. Jesus, you paid all of, you accomplished all that is necessary for redemption. And so God, I pray that that would incite worship in our hearts this morning, that we would sing praise and we wouldn't matter what we look like doing it, God.

Some of us make a joyful noise and it may be a little bit on the quieter side, but God, it's about singing praise directly to you. And so God, I just pray that we would just exuberate high praise with all that we have.

We love you, Jesus. We pray this in your name, amen.

In my heart, we are singing about the one true God, amen.

Confession, Assurance, and Preparation for the Sermon

And he is holy. So I want us to corporately come together before that holy God and as a time to confess corporately together our sins to God, knowing that he is faithful and just to always forgive.

Amen.

Let's go to the Lord.

Through hurts and pains, God, we sin. We sin daily. We are broken people living in a broken and fallen world. And yet there is hope. Jesus, we look to you and your finished work. God, we can face tomorrow.

Your mercies are new every day and we find forgiveness in you, Jesus. We find forgiveness in the midst of the saints. So many times we lack discernment. We get ourselves into trouble and we need that loving rebuke from fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

And that is a way that you bring unity, that you restore. And God, we thank you. We love you. And I just prayed this morning that we would give it all to you. And when we recognize that we are sinners, God, this is corporately none of us are better than one another.

Our only boast is in you, Christ. And so Lord, I pray that you would forgive, that you would restore, and you would allow us to just worship you.

In spirit and truth.

We love you, Jesus. We pray this in your holy name, amen.

This man.

And gather here this morning, Lord, and sing praises and worship to you. Lift your name on high. Ways are truly known to you this morning. You are our God. All of our praise. Savior of this service, Lord, be with pastor named Nathan as he prepares to come and proclaim your gospel, Lord, and preach your word with boldness, Lord.

Lord, I pray that you'd give him the words to speak. Lord, give us the open hearts and ears to take your word in, Lord. Lord, I pray that you'd bless this offering this morning. Father, we love you. Thank you for loving us.

In Jesus' name, and all of God's people said.

Ephesians 5:15-17 and the Call to Redeem the Time

Prepared your hearts to open up God's word and see his truth. So go ahead and open up your copy of God's word to Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter five, we're going to be looking primarily at verses 15 through 17.

As you're turning there, if you were with us last week, we saw how the apostle Paul told us to take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead, in contrast, expose them. Expose them to shed light on the unfruitful works of darkness.

Do not allow them to remain ambiguous within the darkness. And for the purpose of that the elect, that those that God has set his love upon, that they may, as Paul declared that early church hymn near the end of verse 16, when he said, awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.

And now, since you've been raised from the dead, Paul says in verse 15, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise. Making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

This is the reading of God's holy, perfect word. Let's stop for a moment again, and let's pray that God would help us to be true to this word and to understand it and to not be just doers of it, or not just be hearers of it, but doers of that word also.

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, God, I pray that you are honored in our worship today. And God, we ask right now that you would help us. We see your word. We love your word. We know that it's clear.

We know that it's true. We know that it's good and it's right. And we have such a propensity towards reading ourselves into it, or distorting it, or not understanding it the way we ought. Oh God, give us wisdom.

Help us to see the truth. For those that are in this room this morning, God, that do not yet know you, maybe some of the children or even somebody that has come in today that does not know you at the moment, I pray that your word would cut through and awaken them, that the light would be shed on them, that they would awake from that death and Christ would shine upon them.

Lord, give us clarity in Christ's name, amen. Well, during the Great Depression, there was an oil tycoon by the name of J. Paul Getty. And this man was one of the few who was shrewd enough to come out on the other side of this financial catastrophe with even more wealth than he had when it started.

And you see, Mr. Getty did so by conducting business through a simple formula. This was his motto, essentially, for doing business. He says, buy when everyone else is selling and hold on until everyone else is buying.

You see, most people did not attest or live by this conventional wisdom that Mr. Getty himself did. As a matter of fact, they usually did the opposite of that. They were merely reactionary to circumstances that were happening around them.

They would follow the masses and they would buy when everyone else was buying and they would panic and sell when everyone else was selling. Unlike Mr. Getty, most people did not have a strategic game plan.

You see, they simply lived in the moment, day after day, day by day, moment by moment. And responded, usually out of fear, to the onslaught of those ever-changing times. They would respond to whatever they felt or what seemed right in that moment.

Something that they were able to get away with during prosperous, good times, things seemed to work themselves out. Yet during these tumultuous times of this Great Depression, this foolish approach cost them dearly.

And you may be wondering, Pastor, you just read God's word and then you tell us a story of the Great Depression. I did so for a purpose, for a reason, because I share this with us because I believe that many of us, if not all, at different times and at different seasons of our lives, live out the Christian life in this way.

We live it out more like the masses and less like Mr. Getty. And I believe that this is what Paul is warning us against here in this particular text today, as he tells us not to walk as unwise, but as wise.

So there are five things that I want us to see in this text that I want us to focus on today that I believe will help us to better understand what Paul is saying here. And the first one of these five is that God is calling me to be purposeful with my time.

God is calling me to be purposeful with my time. Look at verse 15 with me. He says, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise. You see, this phrase here, look carefully, is a translation of a compound of two Greek words.

The first one, look, blepo in the Greek, it just means to see, to look, to see. And carefully in the Greek, akrabas, it means accuracy. You can hear the word, or we get our word accuracy from that, akrabas.

It just means to see, to look with accuracy, with exactness, with precision, and with purpose. I remember as a young boy roaming through the woods with my papa out at his farm and feeling the exhilaration of total freedom.

Some of you young boys probably remember that or men, as you remember that being a young boy, total freedom, given absolutely no thought to where I'm stepping as I run and as I play to then hear the voice of my papa and his wisdom telling me to watch very carefully where I stepped in the woods.

In my childish foolishness, I had no reference point for danger and no reference point for what could be lurking under the leaves and out in the brush, not knowing that stepping in the wrong place could result in stepping on a copperhead snake.

But he knew, and he told me to watch carefully, to step exactly, to look where I'm going and be intentional with everything. But you see, we are often like children, forgetting about the potential dangers, not knowing of the pitfalls of not being careful, of not being purposeful with our steps through this life.

It is a fool who doesn't look and plan his steps with purpose and a goal. And by the time you step on that copperhead, you're forced to react. And by that time, it's usually too late, isn't it? It's the same way in the Christian life.

It is true that God directs our steps, but notice that man is to plan his way. We are to be watchful, be careful, be exact with our steps. When we're not being purposeful in our walk, you see, we leave ourselves vulnerable, don't we?

We leave ourselves susceptible to what James said in James chapter one. Remember, he says, but each person is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires. We're drawn away by our own desires. When you and I are in a neutral state, simply, let's say, watching TV, or just mindlessly scrolling through social media, not being purposeful with our time, not being purposeful with our life and the moments that God has given us, and then that commercial pops up out of nowhere, you're drawn away by your own desires.

That thing comes across your feed that you didn't expect, and you're drawn away by your own desires. That moment that you are lured away, drawn away, because we're not being purposeful with our time. We're not looking carefully.

We're not looking exactly where we are to step. You see, the unwise are left to be reactive. They're left to have to respond when that thing comes at them. But the wise, they are proactive and purposeful with their time.

Let me ask you this. If you were to take a screenshot of your average day, would it be focused on kingdom purpose? Would it be intentional to guard yourself from being drawn away by your own desires and enticed?

Are you watching where you step? This leads us to the second thing I think we see in this text. And these two are correlated together, very closely together. And that is that God is calling me to be persistent with my time.

God is calling me to be persistent with my time. There in verse 15 again, he tells us, hey, look carefully, see exactly, focus in and look where you're stepping. Look carefully then how you walk. We've seen this analogy of walking a few times over the past couple of chapters through this study.

And we've seen this refers to, essentially to a lifestyle, doesn't it? Where are you going? What direction is your life headed? Your day-to-day direction of travel is what Paul is getting at when he uses this word walk.

You see, many people have purposeful plans. I'm sure there were many during the Great Depression that had planned on investing just like Mr. Getty had planned on investing, but did not have the persistent habits necessary to weather the storm.

They did not have the persistence because they were not walking in that direction. Many people started out the new year this year with great purpose yet lacked the persistence and now their gym membership is worthless, right?

Some of us may feel that a little harder than others. And it's because the daily habits of our lives are not congruent with a lifestyle of healthy living or wise investment. It's not persistent. Proverbs 15, 21 says, "'Folly is a joy to him who lacks sense, "'but a man of understanding walks straight ahead.'".

You must have purpose in our walk. The wise man also has the persistence in his walk. He is continually walking straight ahead. Now praise the Lord that the walk is not contingent on our own persistence.

Don't hear me wrong. I'm not in here telling you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and do better so that God might love you more. By no means. This walk is not contingent on you and I, on our own persistence or even our own purposefulness for Christ is the wise man pictured in Proverbs and you are the fool, right?

It is Christ because Christ has redeemed us and set us on this narrow path. He is working persistence in us. The Holy Spirit is working that out in us, prompting us to persist. But you see, there's a difference between that and I think what Paul is talking about here.

We're talking about is this call that Paul puts on all Christians to walk through diligence, faith, and day-to-day consistency. You see, your salvation did not depend on you. You didn't take the first step and then God took the rest.

God took all the steps. He sought you, he purchased you, he redeemed you, you were neutral in the whole of it, but now there's this thing called sanctification. He's made you a new creation and now he's set us on a trajectory and on a life and on a walk that narrow way that we are to actively participate in because we've been given a new life.

We've come from death to life, right? A dead person can't do anything, right? But now we're alive, we can, and we can walk with persistence. We can have purpose, we can have persistence in our walk. Are you even walking the Christian life?

That's the question I had to ask myself this week as I delve into this text. Are we truly committed to his word? Are you persistent in prayer? Are you fellowshipping with the saints? Are you an active participant within the life of his bride, the church?

All of these common means of grace that God says, hey, I've already given you all the tools so that you can do this. You're just not using the tools. Are we doing this? Because if your purposeful game plan in life, if you have intention, doesn't include this persistence within those things of that common means of grace that God has placed in our lives, then your purposeful plan isn't even the walk that Paul is referring to.

You might not even be on the path because when he sets us on the path, we do have a desire and opportunity to do those things. But if it is, if you are being purposeful with your time and persistent with your time through those things, the reading of scripture, the prayer, the gathering of the saints, all of those, then you are primed for the third thing that we see here.

And that is God is calling me to be, or not to be, to purchase the time. God is calling me to purchase the time. Look at verse 16 with me. It says, making the best use of the time. You see, the word that Paul uses here that we have translated making is the same word that he uses over in Galatians 3.

Over in Galatians 3 .13, he says, for Christ redeemed us. There's that word from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. What did Christ do? Christ redeemed us. This word means ransom. It means purchased.

This is what Christ has done for us, right? Saint, is that what Christ has done for us? Amen, that's right. He has purchased us. We were slaves to sin and he came and bought us by blood ransom, purchasing us for the father.

That's what that passage in Galatians is referring to. And Paul uses this same word here in our text. He's telling us to, like a good merchant, like a good investor, to make a purchase. A purchase of what?

The best use of the time. Purchasing the best use of the time. There are two words for time in the Greek. And we translate them different ways. One is speaking of opportunity, such as in Galatians 6, where he says, so then, as we have, and here's that word, opportunity is how we have it translated.

But it's the same Greek word. The other speaks of time as a moment, like we would understand the word time. Like back in verse eight of chapter five of Ephesians, where he says, for at one time you were darkness.

In this case, here in verse 16 in our text, it's the former. You see, Paul is speaking of purchasing opportunity. He told us not to walk as unwise, but as wise. Now, be wise by looking for opportunity to purchase.

Being active in this. This is precisely how Mr. Getty thrived during the Great Depression, isn't it? He had a plan. He was purposeful. He was persistent in his plan, and he looked for opportunities to purchase.

He was wise enough to be looking for those. If we are being purposeful with our time and persistent with our time, it will show by the fact that we will be purchasing opportunities. The groundwork is laid.

The plan is clear. And the fruit of that will show in what we invest in. It will show in the investment of your life. What opportunities are you purchasing? Are they reactionary, temporal purchases? Or is this a long-term investment?

Or is this a selfish, fearful investment? Panicking in the moment due to circumstances in your life. Now, of course, I'm not talking about money here. Everyone says, oh, well, the pastor's talking about money, all of a sudden he's wanting us to just invest all our money here and not buy things.

I'm not even talking about that. I'm talking about what are you investing in your time, your energy, your actions? What are those investing in? What opportunities? Are you merely waiting for your neighbor to ask you about Jesus?

Are you passively just sitting there going, well, hopefully they'll see that I go to church on Sunday morning and they'll ask me about it. That'll give me opportunity. Are you biding your time wondering if your coworker will want to come to church with you?

That's easy, isn't it? Or are you actively seeking to purchase opportunities to tell them of this glorious Savior that has redeemed you? The one that has purchased you. I'm gonna get a little personal here, guys, with all of you.

I might step on some toes, but these are things that resonated with me as I was thinking through this idea.

Of what are you investing in your life?

Purchasing time, purchasing opportunity. First, I wanna speak to the husbands. The husbands in the room, are you passively allowing your wife to take the lead in your home? I'm just too tired, long day at work.

I really just wanna watch the news or watch the game and shut down. Well, she carries a burden she was never designed to carry. Are you leaving that on her shoulders? Are you leading spiritually? Are you teaching your children the word?

Are you bathing your wife in the word? Or are you just letting her have her own quiet time and go on with your day? Or are you actively looking for opportunities to purchase, carrying that spiritual and physical burden of God-given leadership in your home?

Are you being active? Are you being intentional and purposeful with persistence to purchase that opportunity? Mothers, you're not getting off the hook, right? Mothers, are you passively going through the motions?

Are you derogating your duty of raising up your children in the fear and knowledge of the Lord and caring for your home? Are you seeking opportunities to work outside of the home so others can raise your children while your home is in total disorder?

Or are you actively seeking to purchase opportunities to bless your children through self-sacrifice? To bless your husband by turning his house into a haven of order and cleanliness? To bless your neighbors and your friends with investing into a home of hospitality so that they can see the beauty of the gospel through your day-to-day actions of being intentional?

And seeking to purchase every opportunity that comes along to grab hold of and buy? Young men, are you passively doing as little as possible? Not pursuing education or opportunity to their fullest? And I say, well, I take a class here and there.

Or I've got my job here and it's not really going anywhere. Are your evenings consumed with video games and pornography? The statistics are staggering, guys. Wasting every single moment that you could be purchasing and investing in for that future kingdom purpose.

Or are you actively purchasing that opportunity to better serve King Jesus? Are you looking for great opportunity to do so? Are you seeking out after other godly older men to disciple you? Are you desiring to be a man that can provide for a woman and her children without having to pick up the slack?

It's so easy for you young men today to where you just simply go about going, well, we can live on a two-income household. She shouldn't have to. Your responsibility, figure out how to make it happen.

Purchase the opportunity because that's what's gone on. You may say, well, you're just adding legalism here, Pastor. No, I'm just looking at principles from God himself, right? And saying, this is kingdom purpose.

This is what God has called us to do and to be. Young women, are you passively spending your days in futility knowing that someone else will pick up the mess in the house? Someone else will cook the meals.

Someone else will do the dishes. Remaining a child. Or are you seeking to take the place of a man? I gotta focus on my career, Pastor. I have to be a professional. I mean, after all, the reality is that all those other men out there, they're not capable of providing for me.

They're lazy. They're too busy playing video games and barely scraping by. I must be a breadwinner. Or are you trusting God and actively seeking to purchase the opportunities for that Titus Two relationship?

An older woman pouring into your life, hopefully your mother, right? Teaching you to honor your husband and to care for your home. Are you growing in a love for homemaking and motherhood as God has designed you?

Are you spending time in the Word so that you may teach it to your children? I can't tell you how important it is going to be for you to be able to teach your children the Word. If you can teach your children how to cook and how to clean the house and how to do math and how to read and how to everything else, but you don't teach them diligently the Word of God, you are derogating your duty.

You must be able to raise them up in the Word. Are you preparing for that? And you must be purchasing the opportunities to prepare yourself for that now. Or are you just wasting investment time or kingdom purpose?

All of these things are vital for us to be actively pursuing, making the best use of the time that we have. And why is that? Why must we be so diligent in pursuing, purchasing opportunities? Well, look at the fourth point that we have here that I think we see in the text.

It's because God is calling me to perceive the times. Look at verse 16 again. Making the best use of the time. Because, why is it so easy to default to passivity? Because the days are evil. Because the days are evil.

Turn with me, just the next chapter over in Ephesians chapter six. I want us to look at verses 12 through 14 real quick. In Ephesians chapter six, in verse 12, Paul says, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness.

This is a spiritual battle, right? That's what Paul's saying. We're not battling each other. We're not battling the liberals. We're not battling the other nations. We're battling spiritual battles. That's what the church is for, right?

And because it's cosmic powers that are over, that are reigning over this present age that we are currently in. He goes on, he says, against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly places. Verse 13, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.

This evil day. The days are evil, right? And having done all to stand firm, stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth. This gives us a picture of what we're dealing with here. That we must be purposeful.

We must be persistent. We must purchase the time because we must perceive the times that we are in. We must know, we must be aware of the circumstances in which we are in in this day. This day is evil because we are in this present darkness.

Over in 2 Corinthians 4, Paul called Satan the God of this world, didn't he? Said he is the God of this world. The one that has blinded the minds of the unbelievers. This is a present darkness. We are in a dark time, in a dark age in the moment.

But turn with me to 2 Thessalonians chapter two. I want you to see a couple of verses here in 2 Thessalonians two, verse seven. Paul had been speaking of the man of lawlessness and that he is to be revealed, the son of destruction.

Who's he speaking of, right? Satan. He's speaking of the evil one, the God of this age. And there in 2 Thessalonians chapter two, verse seven, he says, for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.

This means he's actively right now at work, doesn't it? This isn't something in the past. This is right now. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. Meaning God is restraining him, but he is still active.

There was a darkness that we can't comprehend today before Christ came. There was only one people, one nation that had the light of the truth and the law of God. And all of the nations were in total darkness.

Well, now we're still in a dark age, but they are not blinded completely and thoroughly. God has restraint on the evil one who is still the God of this age. Look at verse eight though. And then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

What does that mean? It means that the evil one, the God of this age is going to remain at work in this world until Christ returns again, right? Satan is still active. We are still in a present age of darkness.

Over in Ephesians one, Paul said not only in this age, but also in the one to come. I love that Paul's always reminding us of this current age. And I think he does so because he wants us to be awake and alert.

I think he wants to be purposeful and persistent, actively purchasing opportunities, redeeming the time, bringing everything into submission to King Jesus. I mean, after all, that's who we are, aren't we representatives of that kingdom?

And how are we to do this? If we perceive that the times are evil in this evil age, how are we to do this? This is our fifth and last point. It's that God is calling me to ponder on his wisdom with my time.

You see, all of these principles that we've laid out here, these aren't our principles. These aren't things that we've just come up with. These are truths from God's word. These are his word. In verse 17, we see a definition of what is meant in the second half of verse 15, because remember he said not as unwise, but as wise.

And now in verse 17, he says, therefore, because the days are evil, do not be foolish. Do not be unwise, right? The psalmist says, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. You see, we know that everyone knows that there's a God.

Why would the psalmist say that? Everyone knows through creation, everyone is without excuse that there is a creator God. Why would the psalmist say that? I think it's because the fool, knowing there's a God, lives as if he doesn't exist.

The fool says in his heart, there is no God. I'm gonna live my life as if that God does not exist. I'm going to live as though I'm God. So when Paul says, do not be foolish, I think what he's saying is don't live your life in such a way that you give no or little thought of God as if he doesn't exist.

You see, if God does exist, then you must honor him. You must obey every word. If he doesn't exist, live however you want. You be God in your own life. That's the fool. That's why Paul gives us this contrast of that type of living.

Look at 17 again, therefore do not be foolish. Do not live as though there is no God, but understand what the will of the Lord is. This is walking in wisdom. This is the only wisdom. You and I have done.

We are, as I said, the quintessential fool of Proverbs. You know that, right? You and I are the Israelites quaking in their boots while King David roams out to take care of Goliath. Right, Jesus, Jesus is that, David, right?

We're not David. We're the fools. We're the ones that don't trust. We're the ones that don't believe. We're the ones that don't see it. We're the ones shaking in our boots because we are the fool, but he is the only wisdom there is.

And we are to look to his wisdom to seek to live according to that wisdom. He gets to set the rules. He gets to set the standard. The psalmist in Psalm 119, verse 97, he says, oh, how I love your law.

It is my meditation all the day.

Why?

Because he longs to ponder on the wisdom of the Lord with his time all his day, to think on the things of the Lord, to look into the things of the Lord, to seek after that glorious wisdom of the Almighty.

Do you wanna know what the will of the Lord is? How to wisely purchase opportunity, how to walk in the way? Then use the time you have to ponder on his wisdom. And how do we see God? No one's seen God, have they?